GPS Devices Life

HandHeld Entertainment Mio™ 168RS GPS Receiver Product 168RS Key FeaturesDesignationAutomobileForm FactorHandheld Displa...

Mitac C510 Car GPS Receiver Product MIOC510-MIOMAP Key FeaturesDesignationAutomobileForm FactorFixed ...

Got it as a Christmas present, after jawing about buying a GPS to my wife, and teasing her everytime we went by an electronics store. Nice surprise.

Opening the package, we were off to a pretty good start. Voice prompting was pretty cool, as were the extra bits the Windows 2003 SE came with. I’m an old-time Palm user, so some of the built-in bits were nifty to play with.

I took it on a few trips. It made some interesting choices, for sure, but it was kind of cool to play with as I went to places I knew. One of the things we noticed about the suction cup mount is that the unit vibrates incessently when hanging in mid air. We solved that by wedging a piece of foam from the casing under the unit. It made it much easier to use. The night mode worked really well.

Then the trouble started. I always check out the web site for something I buy. Mio’s web site setup is confusing and daunting to navigate through. Lack of a simple search facility is silly. Obvious from lack of data and comments on this unit that Mio considers it end of life. The fact that they took Destinator 3 and actually took away some functionality was a questionable decision.

The lack of ability to customize the data on the desktop (ie, import export favourites, POI’s, maps, etc) makes it very difficult to make it more useful for you personally.

I live right on the border of the US in Canada, and having to switch back and forth between maps to get to my destination is very frustrating. The inability to cut or merge maps (which apparently used to be there, and may still be there in the European version), is a serious missing item.

You can customize the voice responses that it comes with by default (say, if you want your wife always telling you how to drive - my favourite was changing the “U turn” prompt to my wife’s voice saying “You just missed it” - her favourite expression when we are driving), but I’m sure it’s unsupported.

The POI search is very frustrating in planner mode. No matter what you do, it will only look in the default POI search radius for where you currently are (as near as I can tell). Pretty frustrating when you’re planning a longer distance trip than 80km. The POI search in normal mode is fine, but then you can’t add those bits to your planner waypoints.

The add-on utility dtweak sort of works on the Mio Map version I got, but not all the functionality does.

The other thing that is very frustrating is trying to figure out what other maps you can use with this product. If I go through the Mio web site(s), apparently, there are none, and no updates available for the maps that do come. Pretty silly for a driving tool. Planned obselesence, I guess.

I also travel internationally. It was also disappointing to find out that, apparently, you can not use the European maps on the North American version. What’s up with that, Mio? If anyone has found a way to do that, please let me know. I also need maps for other countries as well, and with the Mio, my selections are grossly limited.

I had to learn to turn off all the activation buttons, because it seemed like every which way I put it away, something would activate. The leather holder doesn’t help much to protect the unit, but I’ve rarely found a nice protective PDA cover. This one really surprised me, because it appears they built the PDA case with a MAGNETIZED LATCH. Now, it’s been a while, but to me, it seems like putting a magnet next to a magnetic storage is kind of, well, insane.

Not too impressed with the Activesync connector they use. Of all the PDA’s I’ve used, the most rugged connector I’ve seen is the mini-USB type used on my blackberry. I don’t think the Mio one will last very long.

I also, for good or bad, use Lotus Notes at work, and thought I would try the usual Intellisync application that I’ve used for years on the Blackberry and my Palm PDAs. Unfortunately, I guess the Windows Mobile 2003 SE is a little premature, because I managed to mangle a whole bunch of data in my email and my journal. Found an alternative at commontime, and that works much better than my old favourite. If that’s not important to you, then don’t let that stop you from using the unit.

I think after several days of playing, and mangling my data, I’ll be returning this unit, after all. I hope you have better luck than I.

MITAC MIO P350 PDA POC PC+ GPS SAT NAV ANTENNA 168 A201 Handheld GPS Receiver Key FeaturesDesignationOutdoorForm FactorHandheld DisplayDisplay Size3.5 in.Resolut...

Mitac C310 Car GPS Receiver Product MIOC310-MIOMAP Key FeaturesDesignationAutomobileForm FactorFixed ...

Mitac Mio™ 269 Handheld GPS Receiver Product MIO269 Key FeaturesDesignationOutdoorForm FactorHandheldMap capabilitiesI...

Mitac H610 Handheld GPS Receiver Product H610 Key FeaturesDesignationOutdoorForm FactorHandheldUser interfaceTouch...

Mitac Mio™ P550 Handheld GPS Receiver Product Mio™ P550 Key FeaturesDesignationOutdoorForm FactorHandheldUser interfa...

Mitac Mio C220 Car GPS Receiver Key FeaturesDesignationAutomobileForm FactorFixedMap capabilitiesMap cartridges / Data card...

Mitac C720T Car GPS Receiver

Mitac Mio™ C320 Car GPS Receiver