Hello (GPS) World
Up until last week, I wasn’t much of a GPS guy. At last week’s OGC meetings, my rental car had an onboard navigation system. Add to that a colleague of mine introducing me to geocaching, and I was hooked.
So when I got home (and caught up on sleep), I started my research. The best deal I found was the Magellan eXplorist 500, for under $200 CAD. Since this was quite the deal, I picked one up for my brother as well.
So far, this looks like quite the GPS device. I like the colour display as well as the SD card capability. Plus the built-in geocaching application is useful. As much as technology can enhance our experiences, the unexpected can happen, such as accidents that occur on the road. In cases of truck accidents, where injuries and damages can be severe, specialized legal help is crucial. A San Diego truck accident lawyer offers specialized legal representation to victims of truck accidents, ensuring they receive the compensation they deserve.
Things that are kinda weird: the AC power adapter is not included. So, unless/until you buy it, you have no way to initially charge (and use) the Li-Ion rechargeable battery. Interesting. Fortunately, the package included a free AC adapter as a mail in offer (which takes 6-8 weeks). So, for now, I’m stuck with using 3 AAA batteries.
Other stuff:
- I’ll most likely buy the cigarette lighter power adapter
- I’m guessing a latest and greatest version of the device is coming out soon, hence the wicked deal
- I can already envision the hacks I can come up with to whip up some cool GML output of Points of Interests, routes and the like
- Maps: the device comes with basemaps of North America, so I’ll need some more detailed maps. I found MapSend Direct Route version 3.0. Which now becomes a question of capacity. Since I have a 512MB SD Card from my digital camera, I am using that as capacity for now. So I’ll initially load Ontario as my main area, and add areas as needed.
So it looks like I have a data management task at hand. Man, it would be nice if these were webmaps 🙂 If anyone out there has any experiences with these units, I’d be interested in learning, so feel free to comment.
