i swear, technology has not come far enough when it comes to GPS devices. i want the nerdiest of the nerdy. not to be a machead, but if apple made a GPS device, that bad boy would have internet, the ability to download music, audio, and probably tv shows, sync to your address book, sync to your cellphone and call said contacts.. it would be badass.
my current GPS is a tomtom go 510. it’s pretty good, but not the best. i was able to hack it and give it my own voice which is hilarious. i should call the voice “bostonian road-rage”. you can also hack it and give it a new screensaver and all those fun things. tomtom is REALLY good about customization which is why i love them. also, you can use it with your bluetooth phone and talk hands-free and even text with it. it’s seriously badass with load time, both starting up and rerouting too. it even does a pretty good job in the numerous boston tunnels which i hear many GPS’ are bad at.
my only issue is that i got a refurbished one and the dinghole gives me “unable to route” issues when i type in an address. not frequently, but frequent enough. oh and the POI’s kind of suck, though they’re getting better.
so anyhow, i’m thinking about a new gps, only because i really want one that does audiobooks and has better POI’s.
you’d think that DASH would be the ultimate nerdy solution, but it’s not. the reviews are not so great as far as navigation, traffic, and well everything else. i love the the fact that it has yahoo reviews and POI’s as well as the ability to look for the lowest gas prices… but it has no bluetooth functionality.. or basically any other functions. i really need a little more nerd for my taste.
however, i think the new TomTom Go 730 might be my best bet. Why? MapShare baby. It’s like that crappy DASH internet connectivity, except that it’s community based. So when someone using TomTom adds a POI, says that there’s a detour, anything like that.. I get updates on my device. I need to plug it in first to download the updates, but I can live with that.
Also… I’m reading now.. hands free: tell it where you want to go and you’re off. fm transmitter: hear your instructions through your speakers. iq routes: takes input from tomtom users and gives you the best route depending on the time of day based on historial data. advanced lane guidance: now this is badass and one of the reasons i wanted the Navigon before i read it’s bad reviews. it’s cool because of the sweet in-depth view-age when you get into complex intersections.
and hello, i just saw that there’s no need to hack, you can record your own voice on the unit right from the unit interface. sweet. oh and you can customize your car icon.
i think the TomTom 730 is the nerdiest of the GPS’s in the $400 pricerange (spending more is just silly, i mean come on). let me know if you know of something nerdier.