On a recent trip to Dallas, I asked for a GPS unit when I picked up my rental car, and though it was my first attempt to use one, I became a convert immediately. When you're in a strange town, especially one with a huge and confusing freeway system, the GPS can be a godsend for getting around on your own. Dallas, as many cities, likes to celebrate its local heroes by naming highways after them, and I got the impression there may have been more than one famous name on the same Interstate, but at different spots throughout the metropolitan area. My trusty little Garmin GPS, however, saw through all the complexities and corrected me ("wrong direction!") when construction forced me to go against its wishes once.
Garmin and its competitor, Magellan, seem to have the most offerings to travelers, but I since I am an average user rather than a tech expert, I can just give you my impressions, those of a newcomer and happy user. A third firm, TomTom, has its admirers, too. Units are now available for as little as $170 (the Magellan Maestro 3200) The Maestro has maps of the continental US, Hawaii and Puerto Rico installed.
In addition to devices intended for use in an automobile, there are those for hikers, a few for walkers in cities, fish seekers and of course, now you can have navigational information programmed into your cell phone, if you have one that's capable of such functions.
A Bit of Background
Until I studied up a bit on the Internet, I had no idea there were so many Navstar satellites up there, 24 of them in fact (with three in reserve), circling the earth twice a day at an altitude of about 12,000 miles. The idea is to have four of them "visible" in the sky at any time you ask your GPS to locate where you are, so that the device can triangulate from three of the four. Developed for the US military, the satellites have been in use since 1978, but began to be made available to the public after President Reagan noted the shooting down of Korean Air Lines flight 007 by the Russians back in 1983 might have been prevented if the passenger plane or the Soviet Air Force had known precisely where they were at the time.
The system is operated by the 50th Space Wing of the United States Air Force, based near Colorado Springs. By the way, GPS stands for Global Positioning System, by the way, so those units up in the sky are GPS satellites, or Navstars.
Garbage In, Garbage Out
The GPS devices need maps, of course, and what kind of maps are programmed in leads to the kind of maps you get out. I haven't found a device which has every map in the world, yet, though there are maps showing broad swaths of countries. Certainly you want a unit that has the maps you will need, as directions for touring the Riviera won't help you on a backwoods hike in Wyoming, obviously.
Looking at the Garmin website, it appears that you can buy maps for Europe at $174.98 (in the US), or equally moderate prices for city maps in North America, the Mideast, Brazil, Singapore & Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, and Mexico. The devices themselves are also modestly priced, a Street Pilot from Garmin $159.99, for instance. A "Worldmap" runs as low as $75 on some websites in the US. Naturally, most devices you buy come already loaded with certain maps, so you may never have to buy additional ones.
The Magellan site also has a long list of maps available, including the same as Garmin's list plus New Zealand and South Africa.
Words to the Wise
You might wish to practice using a GPS before hitting the road, as it is difficult to focus on the device and on the street, even if the unit is stuck to the windshield directly above the steering wheel. It's much better to have a GPS that gives you voice instructions simultaneously and clearly, of course, and most do. You may also have to deal with a unit that comes unstuck from its inner windshield position, in which case you have to pull over and reseal it with its suction cup. (No, you don't have to lick the cup to get suction.) If you have never used one before and plan to while driving a rental car, ask the clerk to let you practice for ten minutes around the rental location, preferably with clerk or mechanic in the car. (I didn't, but I was pressed for time thanks to a late arrival, or would have.)
Reviews
There are several places where you can look at reviews of different GPS units. In my opinion, one of the best is www.consumersearch.com, owned since May 2007 by www.about.com, itself a part of The New York Times Company. It's full of expert information (after careful research, apparently) about the relative merits of units, which they think is the best, and why, all in careful language that is intelligent and yet easy to understand.
A second site, equally expert and intelligent, is reviews.cnet.com, which says it is devoted to showing "the exciting possibilities of how technology can enhance and enrich your life." I was intrigued by a fine review of pocket-sized GPS devices for city walks by one of their writers last March. In it, Bonnie Cha, a Senior Associate Editor, recommends four different small units, pointing out that they can also be used either as multi-media devices or as PDAs as well. There are about 35 editors of the many different reviews, supported by the CNET Labs staff, some in the San Francisco headquarters, some in New York.
Another, in which everyone can have a say, not just experts, is www.epinions.com, where they even had a contest in February paying you to cough up your comments, at $1 each, minimum of ten. The same site also has opinions from consumers (allegedly) on cars, books, movies, music, computers and software, electronics, gifts, home & garden, kids & family, office supply, sports and more. It's a service of www.shopping.com, which in turn is an eBay company. They are located in Brisbane CA, tel. 650/616-6500.
Contacts
Garmin can be reached at www.garmin.com.
Magellan's website is www.magellangps.com.
TomTom is reachable at www.tomtom.com.
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