Garmin n?vi 370 GPS

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test. I have used Magellans in rent cars and found them also to be more accurate and far more intuitive.

Garmin n?vi 370 GPS

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ahead. Make a customizable setting how long before to make the pre-announcement.

(2) giving confusing directions at complicated lane guidence situation

Time and time again, I missed the right exit on the highway. The map is absolutely no help. The multiple lanes look all overlapped!!! Red lines are cofusing as hell. Annoucement is in this fashion: "Keep to right and then keep to left." What is that supposed to mean and which lane are you supposed to be in? In a fast highway situation, this is incredibly dangerous. I almost got into accidents at many interchanges as I was trying to look both the road signs and my navigation and could not make any sense. SUGGESTION: the map needs major improvement on interchanges -- show us the way!!! Also get rid of "keep to right and then keep to left" style BS for a clearer direction.

(3) taking too long to find satellite initially

If you park your car outside, that would be fine but if you park it in a garage, woe to you. It will take at least 20 blocks to find the satellite and you will be either parking your car on the roadside waiting for godot or meandering down the street without knowing where you are going for very very long time. This is not acceptable. I used other product (magellan) before, and it found the satellite so much quicker. SUGGESTION: technological improvement or better processor.

[ADDED TO THIS AFTER I BOUGHT TOMTOM GO930 AND TESTING IT FOR A WEEK]

After my much frustration with Garmin NUVI 370, I purchased a Tomtom GO930 from local Best Buy. (The price of TomTom 930 at Best Buy was the same as the price at Amazon at USD 450, although I had to pay the tax.)

Wow, what a difference. That's all I can say. TomTom 930 is a bit more expensive than the street price of Garmin NUVI 370, but is so much better that the price difference is immaterial.

(1) prepare... prepare...

TomTom announces well before each turn and actually tells you on which side of the lane you should be in for the next turn. Incredibly friendly announcements. The arrow direction on the map display shows whether you should be making left or right turn as well. I never missed a single turn thanks to the ample announcements.

(2) guiding complicated lane situation with ease

the roads never appear overlapped like the NUVI 370. If there are five diverging roads, all are clearly shown, with the clear indication where you are and where you should go. Mind you, I haven't seen that many Advanced Lane Guidance screen yet as TomTom advertised (I hear that they don't have this on every intersection yet) but even without this, lane guidance is incredibly clear and easy (they show both on the map and on the status bar with muted arrows and one clear arrow). What a refreshing change from Garmin NUVI 370. The voice direction is a lot more clear and easier to understand as well -- it is as if somebody is actually speaking fine English to me. I never missed the right exit.

(3) lightening fast in finding satellites

It actually finds satellites when I am in my room with 4-5 bars. Need I say more?

(4) extras... extras...

TomTom has voice address input feature that is very useful. There are many situations that you hate to put in long characters (In California there are so many cities starting with San...). Simply pronounce it and the machine finds it for you, including the streets. I find this to be working well about 95% of the time. Also it gives you a few choices so that what you pronounced is almost always among the choices. SUGGESTION: This voice feature is not available for Place Name under Point of Interst (available only for the actual address).

Point of Interest feature in TomTom is incredibly extensive. I tested many restaurants listed in Zagat survey and found out that almost all (even obscure ones under "Best Value") restaurants have been registered in TomTom by names and phone numbers. I did not find that to be the case with Garmin NUVI 370 (I actually had to type in the exact address under my favorites). This makes inputing job so much easier. I typed in "Marshalls" under Point of Interest in Sunnyvale, and TomTom returned 7 results, some of them are as far away as San Jose, Mipitas, etc. Again, not so with Garmin.

Downloading updates and changes through computer seems painless and efficient as well. Works perfectly and took about 3 minutes to get the latest updates. Again, Garmin NUVI 370 does not have this feature. I don't know how actually useful the updates would be, but it is assuring that I am using the latest whatever.

Time estimation in TomTom is so much more accurate than Garmin. I found Garmin to be always a bit on the optimistic side (ie I never actually arrived as Garmin estimated especially in a city traffic). I don't know if it is because of the IQ Routes feature of TomTom but the timing estimate seems to be right on and there is little need for any traffic subscription service.

CONCLUSION: I will be updating this review to find any shortcoming of TomTom 930 (and I am sure there will be many) but so far it seems that TomTom is a very clear winner and fully justifies the extra USD 100. If you are looking for a navigation that includes both American and European maps, I guess your choices will be cleary limited: you would have to go for either the Garmin NUVI 370 or the TomTom GO 930, and my recommendation would be the latter -- not for the extra features but mainly for the basic abilities that I listed earlier in this review.

Garmin n?vi 370 GPS

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and using, Microsoft Streets and Garmin's own Map Source, MetroGuide U.S.A. In fact, I found Map Source the most expensive, the most incomplete, the most bug ridden, the most inaccurate, and the least user friendly. In fairness to Microsoft and Garmin the editions I used were late 1990's or early 21st century editions.Perhaps they've improve in later editions. I wouldn't know. Happy with Street Atlas I've purchased updates three times.

I also was a long-time user, fan, and loyal supporter of Macintosh personal computers until Apple nearly went belly-up. Lack of third-party support for critical, work-related mathematical software, and pressured by my employer I switched, reluctantly, to Windows driven computers for both work and, ultimately, home use.

Now I'm retired, Apple is back in the personal computer business, and my newest computer is a Macbook. I should be a happy-camper, right?

Well, for the most part I am, but...

After an exhaustive search of the Web, condescending, inaccurate answers from Garmin techs to my queries, and conversations with friends who are ultra-literate computer gurus, I've had to accept my shiny, new Garmin Nuvi 370 will not replace my eMap, at least not in the near future, and perhaps never.

The upcoming England vacation include a week traveling a few of the country's canals on a narrowboat--think RV that floats, 6.5 ft. wide--I had hoped to put together Google Earth, and the Nuvi 370 and track our progress along G. Earth's satellite photo's, on my computer's screen. (I've done this with eMap and Google Earth both with Windows and Macintosh OS X Leapord.) However, Google Earth's GPS subroutine can't find the Nuvi, neither on the USB nor the Bluetooth connection. I've tried every piece of Mac compatible freeware, and shareware I've found on the web that claims it can connect a broad spectrum of GPS units to the computer and Google Earth. They've all worked with eMap. None have worked with the Nuvi. Garmin technical support told me I had to download and install Garmin Communicator--a browser plug-in--in order to operate the 370 with websites that are conditioned to support Garmin PVT format. I did, but had no success with Google Earth.

In other respects Nuvi 370 is an adequate, dumb GPS, certainly dumber than my eMap. I'll keep it because it has Europe maps pre-loaded. However, I am very disappointed, and had I been fully informed beforehand would have purchased another manufacturer's unit. Not having the ability to plan routes on my computer and upload them to the Nuvi 370 is a huge "thumbs down" for meeting my needs. Route planning on the Nuvi 370 is limited, and cumbersome.

N.B. I've also tried to connect the Nuvi 370 to Google Earth on my wife's Windows Vista driven laptop (not exhaustively as I did my MacBook). I could not effect a connection.