Design: Like any other Garmin devices, the Garmin Nuvi 255W measures 4.8 inches wide by 2.9 inches tall by 0.8 inch deep and uses a large 4.3 inch color touch screen. The screen displays images at a resolution of 480×272 pixels. The power/lock slider is located on the top edge while the left edge offers and SD card slot. The back panel houses the speaker and mini-USB charging/connecting port. Weighing in at 6.1 ounces the GPS is indeed, very portable.
Specifications: The Garmin Nuvi 255W offers text-to-speech along with audible navigation instructions and street names. With its “Where am I?” option, the GPS makes things easy with its large controls and icons. The GPS comes preloaded with City Navigator NT map data. It also comes bundled with a 12-volt power cable, a suction cup windshield mount (plus cradle), adhesive disk and a quick start manual.
Features & Performance: The Garmin Nuvi 255W offers large “Where to?” and “View map” options with smaller icons along the bottom edge for volume, tools, and a stop or detour route if you’ve already chosen the destination. With the ability to store favorites and various other custom points of interest the GPS is easy to use and understand. The GPS even has a speed limit icon to serve as a reminder for drivers whoa re approaching or about to exceed the speed limit. The “Where am I?” function was particularly useful as it shows your current coordinates/elevation and the nearest intersection making it easy to get assistance.
Start-up time was noticeably quicker than its predecessor, with a much faster satellite-lock time. The GPS works quickly with routing and re-routing while on the move (it was much faster than many of its competitors). All in all, the Garmin Nuvi 255W is a fast, simple and easy-to-use GPS, making it ideal for the less technically inclined. With an intuitive interface and a big, bright 4.3 inch touch-screen the GPS is a great performer for those who don’t need an extensive feature set.
By: Tim Pecunia
Posts Tagged ‘Speed Limit’
3 GPS Kid and Teen Tracking Systems
March 5th, 2010
Here are two very good GPS child tracking systems and an additional child monitoring tool to help keep your kids safe. You can think of this as your introduction to tracking kids with GPS and continue to do additional research from here. You should make sure that you know what you need before purchasing any GPS kids tracking system.
T-Trac XS – This GPS device was created specifically with teens in mind. It is geared towards older teens as it is an automobile GPS tracking device. This will help you to know exactly where your teens are when they take the car for the night, or any time for that matter. If there’s trouble you’ll be able to get there much faster, or see that help can get there, because you’ll know where your children are at all times. Besides that it also helps keep track of your teens with a couple other special features.
If you only need tracking during certain times of the day you can set this GPS device to do that and conserve the battery life. Maybe your teen only takes the car for school and you want to make sure they come right home, so you can use this to track only during the school hours and immediately before and after. There’s also a geo-fence option on this tracker that lets you specify a certain range for the GPS device. If the car goes outside that range an alert will be sent to you.
Another feature of the T-Trac XS is the ability to set the GPS unit to alert you if the car it’s installed in exceeds a certain speed limit. No more need to worry about speeding teens since you’ll know if they exceed the speed limit you’ve set for them.
Whereifone GPS Locator Phone – This is a good alternative for younger teens; a cell phone with GPS built in. It’s small, cool and fairly cheap so you won’t have to break the bank to get a GPS kids tracking unit. It also comes in a variety of colors so you can get the one that your child likes to help keep them happy. The unit is quite accurate and can locate a person within several yards, even if they are in a highly populated location. As far as cell phone GPS units go this is a great choice.
Cell Phone SIM Card Spy – This is not a GPS unit, but is a complimentary device used to track your child or teens cell phone use. It basically makes available to you all the information stored on the cell phones SIM card including text messages, incoming and outgoing calls. In these dangerous times we sometimes need to keep an eye on the things that our children may not consider as dangerous because they don’t have enough experience to know about them. I don’t advocate spying on your children, but in some circumstances it may be necessary to keep them safe.
Cell phone monitoring and especially GPS tracking are both great ways to ensure the safety of our children. It can keep them from trouble and harm while giving you the peace of mind to be able to relax when they are out of your sight.
By: Steven Walters
GPS Vehicle Tracking Can Tell You How You Drive
February 7th, 2010
Anyone out there who loves gadgets and really wants to know about their own driving style should install a GPS vehicle tracking device in to their car or truck. By doing this you will be able to collect data on what you really do when you are driving around.
The GPS tracker system will record your every move as you navigate the streets and accelerate, slow down or brake. Your speed, direction of travel and even altitude as you drive up and down hills can be stored for later analysis.
You may also have the benefit of a reduced insurance premium if you install a tracking device in your vehicle, but check with your insurance company first as they may require you to install a particular make or standard of device or system.
Another benefit will be available to you when it comes around to that wonderful time of the year when you have to do your tax returns. Your GPS device will record the exact mileage that you have covered so that you never have to take down readings from the odometer ever again.
Using the web based interface supplied with the system, which you will be able to access over the internet via your personal computer or laptop, you will be able to see all the data that has been recorded for all the journeys that you made with the GPS tracking device installed in the vehicle and switched on.
You will also get detailed reports that analyze the recorded data and display summary information in a format which is easy to understand and which will show you exactly how you have driven the vehicle.
Your particular driving style will be there in black and white for you to study. You might be quite surprised at what you find. You may think you never break the speed limit but the results might just prove otherwise.
Everything you do when driving will be documented in detail including instances of hard braking and extreme acceleration which might suggest to you that you are not such a smooth driver as you might have thought. You will also get to find out your maximum speeds and average speed figures for different journeys.
Whether all this makes a difference to your driving style after seeing the results will depend on you alone, but hopefully if you are doing things that you think you shouldn’t be then it will an eye opener that could trigger you into taking action.
Whatever happens and whatever results you see in the reports you will become more aware of your own driving and this is definitely a good thing for us al. Also if your driving is somewhat on the bad side then there is at least some hope that you might slow down which can’t be a bad thing.
The web based monitoring means you will be able to access your reports whenever you want and wherever you happen to be so long as you have a connection to the internet from a computer.
A GPS vehicle tracking system can therefore have many additional benefits other than the vehicle location and tracking functionality for which it was originally designed.
As a bonus you can also lower your insurance premiums and get to see how good a driver you really are.
By: Dave Joa
