Garmin MapSource City Navigator, North America DVD-ROM for Garmin StreetPilot GPS Units by Garmin
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Digital camera reviews of Garmin MapSource City Navigator, North America DVD-ROM for Garmin StreetPilot GPS Units
Digital camera Review: City Navigator unlock codes
Summary: 1 Stars
So without any notice... or any additional information on the product until we went to unlock the new 2008 maps. Previous years you could unlock the maps for 2 devices (we have a pair of GPSmap 60CS units). As of 2008, apparently you can only use the map unlock code with a single unit and MUST PURCHASE a second unlock code for your second device.
The Garmin website is a mess and any additional information about unlock codes is missing from their website. Some of their own links end in broken links that turn up no information.
When I bought these units, they were pretty much the only game in town as far as a good screen and a portable unit. Now there are a ton of other options. If you're looking to buy a new unit... I would look elsewhere. Garmin is downright hostile to the enduser. Maybe all of the GPS companies are... but I intend on finding out now and will not buy anything else from Garmin again. There have been complaints by others for years about how hard and complex the unlock code process is... I agree. I've been able to get through it once a year. Insult to injury, now it's going to cost me even more (on top of the mental anguish) if I want to use this update on both of my Garmin GPS's. Buyer beware.
Digital camera Review: City Navigator vs City Select
Summary: 4 Stars
For those of you who are deciding between City Navigator and City Select, buy Navigator. Here are reasons I find over various forum and news groups when I was making my buying decision.
Garmin has about 8 different levels of street classifications, all the way from pedestrian and animal pathways to multilane controlled access highways. For each roadway, there can be up to 60 invisible attributes, indicating the number of lanes, number of stop signs or traffic lights per mile, speed limits, presence of medians, time of day restrictions, heavy vehicle, pedestrian and bicycle restrictions, and so forth. Whether these 60 pieces of data are included in the software or used by the GPS for its calculations is part of the feature set of the 3 map packages offered by Garmin.
The basic level (Metroguide) does not support automatic route generation. (Note: Metroguide 4.01 and below use data from TeleAtlas. So Metroguide 4.01 is the best version you can find that won't need an unlock code to use the routing function on your Garmin)
The intermediate level (City Select) supports automatic route generation, but does not contain certain 'high end' road attributes such as truck restrictions, time of day restrictions, stop signs per mile, mid-road barrier awareness, and various other road attributes.
The highest level (City Navigator) contains all those things, and is targeted for Garmin's higher end GPS's. This can explain the why Navigator's map data are much larger than Select. I bought the Navigator for my 60Cx and within the same order I also bought a 1GB microSD memory chip. The Navigator has about 1.6 GB map data. With 1GB microSD, I can hold the map about half of the US (from west of IL all the way to the east coast)
As far as the quality of map detail, I'd say it's about the same as MS Streets & Trips 2006, which I use a lot on my PC. I haven't found any errors yet. None of them has the railroads of Chicago CTA train, which, interestingly, are in Garmin's US Topo map. All have Metra railroads though.
For the actually performance and accuracy of the map, you could refer to the reviews of other Garmin's models that are dedicatedly made for in-car use and preloaded with City Navigator NT, such as StreetPilot i5, c340, and Nuvi 350, etc. Navigator NT uses the same data and only differs in compression techniques. From what I read, it seems about 80% of the people are happy with the routing result. To my experiences, by only giving start and end waypoints, I couldn't get my preferable route for most of the time. I have to specify several additional waypoints to "manipulate" how the route is calculated. (All software and online maps are like this so I have no complaint here). I am not planning to heavily rely on the turn-by-turn routing feature.
This review is for version 7, BTW
Digital camera Review: City Navigator?? City Select?? MetroSelect????????
Summary: 1 Stars
What a nightmare picking the right product. Many incompatibilties and locking procedures! What other Schemes is Garmin going to come up with next?Digital camera Review: Cumbersome To Learn and Use
Summary: 4 Stars
The interface is a bit cumbersome to use and find out where things are at, but the connectivity with my Garmin 60csx worked without an issue. I would recommend it.Digital camera Review: Decent but way overpriced
Summary: 3 Stars
To begin with, I own several mapping software products including Microsoft Street and Trips, Delorme Street Atlas as well as a number of Garmin products. In typical Garmin fashion they are charging their customers 3 times more than these similar products which retail for about $39.95. However, since Garmin intentionally designed their GPS units to only work with proprietary software they are essentially holding their customers hostage. Their mapping is accurate but no more so than the other products. Also, Garmin is not very quick with updates. A major highway bypass near me was finished almost a year ago and is still not updated.
I'm the type of consumer that believes that if I'm forced to pay a premium price I should receive premium service. Unfortunately, no one taught Garmin that marketing lesson. As Garmin continues to see their market share erode due to the onset of competitors and the proliferation of GPS equipped cell phones, maybe they'll stop gouging their loyal customers.