Navman smartST and JAM

[Guest bretto]

I just bit the bullet and have been lured over to the dark side.

I now am armed with a globalsat BT-338 bluetooth GPS and SmartST door to door software from Navman and Im loving it. On the jam with limited memory it runs beautifully.

After long and painful searches of the net and sifting thru countless forums I decided to go with SmartST.

There were three reasons for this choice.

1) Software that has maps of Australia.

2) Software that has good maps of Australia.

3) Price of the software available with maps of Australia.

I went with the Globalsat BT-338 because its reviews and user feedback were excellent and it boasts the latest SIRF III chipset and 20 channel satelite pickup. I think I could surgically implant the GPS inside the liver of a camel and still get a perfect signal.

The software is great. The 3d view is brilliant and the voice instructions clear and simple with enough lead time that even my ex-wife, sporting a broom stick even Harry Potter would find fast, couldnt find a reason to complain.

The cost of being able to have a female voice nag me to my destination. $424 AUD

Ebay certainly was my friend.

Globalsat BT-338 - $174 AUD

Navman SmartSt - $250 AUD

Compared to the closest counterpart $604 for copilot+bt GPS I think Im in front.

The maps are from sensis which appear to be surprisingly up to date.

Since I keep hearing tomtom drums everywhere I would be interested to know what users think of their door to door navigation software and hardware. Pros and cons.

[Guest fraser]

I used to hate TomTom because of it's user interface, but the new version is now way better and it's what I use. The biggest downside is that it's quite a bloated app....takes ages to start up, connect to GPS, aquire etc. Not really any use for "where's the pub we're supposed to be meeting at?" queries, but for driving it's really good.

Maps...well I'm not all that impressed. In the Glasgow West End where I live, numerous one-way streets are not marked down that way, and many roads blocked off 2+ years ago are marked as available. Made me late one day when I thought I'd be clever and use it to get me through heavy traffic.

[Guest bretto]

A couple of things with the Navman software.

You need to make sure the bt connection is up before starting the app or it bogs down badly for a very long time. Then it finally gives up trying and your back in business. The latest update helps with this.

One way streets can be a problem too. I managed to get it to route down a one way street thats been there for at least 5 years but that was in a small town so I forgave it.

I can do the pub one ;) With Navman you simply look for the pub as a poi.

I would like them to add the ability to set the distance my car can travel on a tank of fuel and display that as part of the route. Since Australia is so big you can easily find yourself in the middle of nowhere willing your car to the next service station.