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Since you are just "up the road" from my location, you should know how things are changing in Georgia. Seems like a new road every week, and Points of Interest (POI) that change constantly. Magnify this by 50 states and Canada, and the $75.00 is a very small price to pay for updating the device. When you buy the device, you get one free upgrade, so you have over a year to save your pennies for the next upgrade.

Joel

Also, the update is not mandatory. If the next update doesn't include any changes that will help you in your location, wait for the following release.

Joel and CBX,

Thank you for your insight and clarifying how this technology works. My apologies if I came across a bit skeptical. I see the software side of this to be as important as the hardware. Without the database the hardware becomes dysfunctional.

Regards,

Terry

Dysfunctional might be too strong a word. Outdated might be better. In Warner Robins (know where I am? - just South of Macon) a road was extended from town to I-75 in late 2005. Version 7 of the software showed the road as ending in town. So, every time I drove that road, the device showed me travelling through a "field". Version 8 shows the road completed to I-75. Now, is that important? It is if I'm trying to find an artery that intersects that road in order to find an address on the artery. The updates are a very small price to pay to keep the device up to date, and I believe that Garmin updates ($75.00) are one of the cheapest in the industry. My brother-in-law has a Magellan, and his update was $150.

Joel

Joel,

Yes I know where you are located. I've managed to get lost trying to find my way through Macon and the suburbs. Now with my Nuvi 350 due to be delivered today, I should no longer have the problem.

Your point is well taken about software upgrade costs. Of course it is all relative. As commented earlier, I am new to GPS and attempting to learn the rules of road.

Noticed your call sign. Do you know "HamwithCam" KE4ENI located in Decatur? He is a friend and several years ago used GPS in his car that transmitted by short wave a digital signal to a radio receiver for mapping on the Internet where the car was physically located. I don't believe he uses it today.

You are correct that you will find about anything in Macon with your Nuvi. You should be good in Atlanta also. I had to drive to Piedmont hospital (and didn't know where it was). Plugged it into the Nuvi, and drove right to the front door.

I'm rather curious where you got my "call sign", as I don't have one. I've been around HAMs all my life, but have never been one. I'm fascinated with your friends device for tracking his vehicle.....

Cheers......... Joel

Sorry I confused you with Joe Mehaffey W2JO. Joe and Joel are close. Check in with them about the ATL Ham project to track participant movemnet using GPS.

I just bought a nuvi 360 last night and honestly I'm a bit disappointed. Here are the two problems I'm having.............

1. It pairs fine with my Samsung a900 phone but when I try to dial POI, it dials +1 and then the phone number. When I look up the phone number when my phone isn't paired with it, it shows the correct number. Is there a fix for this?

2. Another thing I don't like is it displays county road numbers instead of the street name. I've lived in Illinois for 2 years and I never knew that some of the more common streets had country road names. That's a problem too. Is there a way to change this?

I purchased Nuvi 300 3 days ago. And I have more questions (Mods: do they all really need to be in one thread?):

1) This page by Garmin says that it can contain a maximum of 500 waypoints. Is that the same thing as the Favorites, or can my Nuvi contain more than 500 Favorites?

2) I have connected my Nuvi to my PC and I see a folder "gpx" with a file "current.gpx" on the Nuvi drive;

2.1 - I managed to open that file in Notepad and I see that these are my Favorites; is there a way to edit them on my PC?

2.2 - If I backup that file on my PC, can I restore it into another Garmin (assuming that mine is lost or stolen, for instance)?

Garmin always sucks as many bucks as they can get.

If an SD works in a digital camera it should work in your Garmin unit.
Nothing "Garmin-special" about SD cards.
I don't have any info about a memory card size limitation.
I use a one gigabyte and it works okay.

A SanDisk 2 gig SD card works just fine in my Nuvi 350. I have heard that 2 gig is the max size SD card that can be used in the 350

I recall hearing that there was a limit but don't recall the size.
I don't know what the max available size of an SD card is.

Not really. The database for those roads probably only contains the road numbers rather than by their street names. I have a similar problem here with the box giving state highway numbers instead of street names. Just think of it as the box giving you a local cartographic history lesson.

I understand that the SD card size limit in the 350/360 is 2 gig. The largest available SD card is 8 gig (which is borderline esoterica right now).

Yesterday I connected a magnetic mount antenna to my Nuvi 350 and it made a WORLD of difference. I just stuck the antenna to the roof of my truck and plugged it into the Nuvi. Instead of taking a minute or so to acquire satellites, it takes just a few seconds. I climb into my truck, turn on the unit, and by the time I start the truck and enter the destination, the Nuvi has acquired satellites and is ready to rock.

I had a external antenna that I used with my Garmin eMap. When I got the 350 I used that same antenna. Then I discovered that the 350
was so sensitive that I could pick up a two or three satellites while sitting at my computer in the basement of our single story home.
If I go upstairs I get even more. Sitting in the garage with the 350 on it's suction cup mount on the windshield I got 11 out of possible 12 satellites.
No external antenna needed. I like that!

just picked up a 350. Was surprised that there were no set up instructions included in the box. It appeared to all be intact???
Was looking to see how you pick up satelite signal strength, remaining battery life and a few other set up items. Was something missing that I should call Garmin for?

The only instructions included in the box are a quick setup quide; and yes, all of the accessories were just tossed into the bottom of the box.

http://www.garmin.com/products/manual.j ... 0-00455-00

As far as I know there is no "remaining battery life" indicator.

Press for several seconds on the upper left and right corners of the display and it will go into a diagnostic mode with lots of esoteric info available.

Battery life indicator is on the top right hand side of the screen. As far as directions, go to Garmin.com, select the Nuvi 350, and on the left hand side of the screen, download the user manual. Satellite signal strength is on the top right hand side of the screen. If you touch it, you'll go to the satellite screen to see which satellites the unit is receiving data from.

Joel

Sorry....... Signal strength is on the top LEFT hand side of the screen..

thanks, will take a look. also having trouble trying to cancel out a destination if you change your mind about which way to go once you are in route. It keeps trying to get you back to the original route and final destination. Maybe the online manual will clarify some of these things.

Mike

Yes - download the manual - very helpful. The answer to your question, however, is that you press menu - then stop. This will terminate your current route.

Joel

are there supplemental topo maps available for the 350?

Check with Garmin (garmin.com), but I believe that the answer is no.....