Garmin Nuvi 350 Nice

[sonic2000]

Wife suprised me with a Nuvi. I had been looking at GPS units for a while, but couldn't decide on which one. She made the decision for me. I have been amazed at how simple it is to use, just tap menu on the screen select "Where to" and select go. Accuracy is not bad usually off a little bit in tight subdivisions and business parks. It has built in Lithium ion battery for approximately 6 hours use per charge its made it easy to move from car to car without remembering cables and mounts (I've just lay it in the center console on my other car). Size about 5" wide, 4" tall, 1/2" thick and weighs about 5 ounces. Will update as I become more familar and use more (only had two days).

 

[Shawn95GT]

Here is where you can sign up to be notified of software updates:

http://announcements.garmin.com/mailman/listinfo/nuvi350-updates

This is the download page if you want to check manually:

http://www.garmin.com/support/collection.jsp?product=010-00455-00

I love my Nuvi. It'd be perfect if they'd have it display lat/long.

 

[Shawn95GT]

FYI, Garmin just updated the firmware again (now 3.10). It now shows lat / long in the 'GPS' menu as well as a slew of other tweaks.

This firmware update wiped out all of my stored waypoints

 

[na7a]

nuvi 350

Hi Shawn, thanks for the update on the firmware, cant wait to install.

Question, do you know if the Nuvi 350 will allow you to plot a course (gps turned off, antenna down) in simulation mode from other then your home location to another location and then have it simulate a drive to?

We are planning a trip out of town and I wanted to simulate the course first to see what streets and area the gps would take us. I know the Nuvi will do this from your home or current location but it would be nice to simulate a path before you get there to see area your driving in and to get somewhat familar with the streets.

Bud

 

[Shawn95GT]

I'm 99% sure you can.

I think if you have the antenna down and do the 'where to' then view map you can set that as your current locaton. I'll try it tonight.

I'm stoked about the lat/long. I can start geo-caching again.

Shawn

 

[Shawn95GT]

I found what I thought was it.... and it'll work but it's probably more of a pain than it's worth.

If you view the map, tap the screen and it'll go 'north up' and you can drag the map wherever you like. from this point you can tap a point and set that at your location.

You can plan from there.

Yeah, I know it kinda sucks - lol. I'll keep playing with it.

Shawn

 

[gizzer777]

Been looking at these to

I found what I thought was it.... and it'll work but it's probably more of a pain than it's worth.

If you view the map, tap the screen and it'll go 'north up' and you can drag the map wherever you like. from this point you can tap a point and set that at your location.

You can plan from there.

Yeah, I know it kinda sucks - lol. I'll keep playing with it.

Shawn

I have been looking at the Nuvi as well....Currently I use my HP PDA with the Tom Tom software and antenna (Ipaq) It also works well but will kust say (trun right in 500 ft. This can be an issue if you come upon a street with a few right turns near each other. Of course the display will SHOW you, but the voice prompts are much safer.

Is the Nuvi FAST if it has to update a route?
The Tom Tom is very quick on the Ipaq!

 

[Shawn95GT]

Is the Nuvi FAST if it has to update a route?
The Tom Tom is very quick on the Ipaq!

Yes, most definately. As soon as you get off route you'll hear 'recalculating' and a couple seconds later you'll get new directions.

This is what sold my sister on the unit. She had originally bought one of the Cobra ones mostly because it had a big screen. It took forever to start up and figure routes. It took so long to re-route she'd miss turns before it would tell her about them.

I showed her my Nuvi and she fell in love with it .

I read that TomTom has a new one coming out to better compete with the Nuvi and that it will be significantly cheaper.

That's my only complaint about the Nuvi. It's pretty expensive as a GPS goes.

Shawn

 

[philhu]

I have the Garmin 2730

It does routing and uses XM weather, navtraffic, etc. So, you get realtime traffic alerts and weather. It will even reroute around traffic if you want, and even severe weather

It also plays xm in the car. It plays through the little speaker they give you or fm transmitter. The fm part leaves a bit to be desired. Currently cannot set 87.9 as a channel, where NOTHING ever broadcasts, so it would be perfect. Thats where I have all my other devices transmit (like ipod itrip, etc). The 2730 starts the channels to transmit to at 88.1. And the fm transmitter is a bit weak, so their is a bit of bkgrnd static (my car has a rear-mounted antenna). Garmin says the power cord is the fm antenna, and sure enough, if I spread it out, it gets better, but my car then looks like a christmas tree with wires all over

I put in a bug report that the voice prompts and xm/mp3 player should be allowed to be sent to different devices, ie, voice prompts to speaker, xm/mp3 to fm. Right now, they all go to only one place. Otherwise, if you turn on xm to your radio, you MUST listen to only xm to get the voice prompts, since they both go on the same channel.

 

[na7a]

Hey Shawn, thanks for trying to figure it out. I think I may have stumbled onto it but only by cities and not by a address, at least for both ends.

With antenna down, go to WHERE TO GO and then NEAR and select A DIFFERENT CITY. Then enter a city and hit OK. It then puts you back to the main selections (address, my locations, etc). Now, the device thinks you are in that city. Now you can look for fuel, food, and all the other things just like your in that city. Next, go to BROWSE MAP and select SET LOC. Now BACK out and select CITIES and then go to it by selecting YES for SIMULATE DRIVING.

Now if I can just figure out how to do this by an address that would really be cool.

Any ideas? Anyone?

Thanks in advance guys.

Bud