GPS Devices Life

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CONTENTS OF BOX

Included in the box are the following:

The GPS Device with stylus pen included.

A usb connector for PC to GPS software setup

An earphone plug

A wall charger plug

A carrying case with strap

A car charger connectable to cigarette lighter

3 cd’s containing manuals, maps, and drivers.

A quick start guide on paper.

A car window attachment holder for the GPS Unit.

A 256 MB included SD Memory Card.

BACKGROUND ON THE GPS UNIT ADDITIONAL FUNCTIONS

This unit has Windows CE 2003 installed and it’s shaped like a palm pilot. The addition of the windows operating system allows you to do other things than just use the unit as a GPS.

—Programs included with Windows CE 2003:

Contacts - For storing names and addresses of people. It can be synchronized with Outlook contact info and/or you input new contact info through this program.

Internet Explorer - to surf the web if you have this unit hooked up to a pc via the USB attachment. But, why would you want to do this? It makes no sense viewing internet pages on a 3.5 inch lcd screen which is connected to a pc with internet access. Maybe to update software but Mio’s website is terrible and I have never found a useful update for this product in 3 years of usage.

Play Games - Jawbreaker and Solitaire are included. Both games suck on such a small screen.

Play videos - Tried it once on the Windows Media Player, it works fine but videos look terrible on the small screen

MP3 Player - you can play MP3’s but even at the loudest volume setting, quality is horrible!

Calculator is included - Not very useful, have you ever used a stylus pen on a small screen to do calculations? Slow and Error Prone even with a steady hand.

Pocket Word - A tiny version of MS Word is not useful. Formatting a document with options like bold or centering is not easy. You can’t use Tables in this version of MS Word.

Pocket Excel - A tiny version of MS Excel is also not useful. You can view all of 21 blank cells on screen when starting up. If you add info to those cells, you can view even less than 21 cells.

A voice recorder - Probably one of the more useful software features on this product.

“E-viewer” Picture Viewer - You must navigate to proper folder containing pictures. When the viewer is open half of the screen is a file explorer where you navigate to a folder and the bottom half of the screen is a listing of picture files in selected folder. Upon selecting a picture file name, it will become full screen. You can’t preview it prior to making it full screen.

“Emenu” Program - This is just a program explorer for the GPS which contains icons and is intended to make program selections easier to navigate and start-up.

Etcetera - You can add Windows CE 2003 compatible apps via connecting this unit to the internet or by storing the new app on a SD Memory Card, connecting card to GPS unit, and running the install through the file explorer.

I have done this before and it works well, but I just get bored quickly trying a new game or app on a tiny screen.

RESETTING THE UNIT

You will have to do this many times, so please pay close attention. By resetting the unit, I mean first turning it on and setting up the Windows Mobile Operating system with time, date, and stylus pen touch screen configuration. It is generally a 2 minute process from start to finish.

If your battery runs out you will have to reset…

If your SD card loses it’s memory you will have to reset the unit and also reload all the maps on the card… this happened about 5 times per year for me. It’s a major pain which is very time consuming. I tried using more than one type of SD card just to make sure. I can safely say it’s the unit and not the card.

Resetting the unit:

You will have to go through tapping the screen 5 times where a cross is located and keeps moving.

You will have to go through a few informational screens about how to cut and paste with a stylus pen. This portion require user participation and reading. It consists of 5 screens.

You will have to select your time zone.

Next it will say - “Tap the screen to begin using our device” and you will hear a beep. Now you are at the main operating system screen.

THE MANUAL

You do not get a paper manual with the box! You only get a quick setup guide on paper. The manual is only located on the CD and it is extracted through the setup process. So you can’t view it on the CD! You must install the associated setup files.

The manual is a 59 page adobe acrobat pdf file. It is well documented with pictures and good instructions. It’s just a shame you don’t get a paperback version upon purchase.

A secondary pdf is also installed on your computer, The secondary pdf is for operating the pocket pc programs on this unit. It contains 119 pages and it is also well put together with pictures and good instructions. Again, you do not get a paper copy with purchase!

THE GPS UNIT IN ACTION

Starting up the MIO Map GPS software is slow, give it about a minute. Then give it about another minute to locate you.

Upon starting the software you must hit “I Agree” or “I disagree” to conditions of map use. These conditions are just a safety notice.

Click on “Destinate” to chose your desired map location to travel to. Click “Address” to input an address. You can also chose “History” to find a repeat location.

You will get turn by turn directions from a female voice, there are no other voice options available. Her voice is ok, but may become annoying once you hear it over and over. You can mute her.

She will say things like:

“Turn left in 500 yards” followed by “Turn left in 200 yards” as you approach a turn which is outlined visually in blue on the lcd screen.

You will not hear street names spoken with this GPS! Thumbs Down!

Scrolling of map while you are moving in your car works fine but overall graphics included on map are less than desirable. A curved street will appear visually choppy.

Map viewing options on GPS:

2d, 3d, and Birds Eye

You can combine any of the 3 above choices with “Day Skin” or “Night Skin”.

2d - Flat map view

3d - I’ll best describe as a 20 degree aerial view from above map with better than 2d graphics.

Birds Eye - I’ll best describe as a 45 degree aerial view from above map with better than 2d graphics.

Then chose one of the following:

Day Skin - Bright Background, default choice.

Night Skin - Dark Background

I find 3d with Night Skin to be the best all around viewing option to use.

You can also select which points of interest to show on the map while driving around. Such as: ATM’s, Banks, Bus Stations, Grocery stores, Gas Stations, Hospitals, Restaurants, on and on. There are over 1 million points of interest included on maps.

You can use the Trip Planner option also, to calculate a route if you are curious and want to write it down or just see how far away an address is.

GPS Status menu option - Shows how many of the 12 maximum satellites you are currently connected to.

Alert Settings menu option - Allows you to chose which voice prompts to allow or disallow.

Such as: “Low Signal”, “GPS Not Found”, “Route Recalculation”, and “Over the speed limit”

Map Settings Menu Option - Allows you to use large fonts for street names and text message displayed by the GPS software.

General Settings menu option - Allows you to display Imperial system or Metric system when driving (MPH/KMH). Also allows you to display the following on map: your latitude/longitude, your velocity/altitude, your ETA (estimated time of arrival), and distance.

THE PITFALLS SUMMARIZED

So darn many pitfalls with this GPS!

1) It does not have an internal hard drive or memory unit. You must connect an SD Card to it. Expect that SD Card to lose it’s stored maps frequently for no reason what so ever. I tried using different brands of SD cards and it still keeps losing information. I mean totally blanking out the card. I never dropped this unit!

2) In order to charge the unit via the included wall charger, you must use 3 cables which are included. One is the plug, two is the USB proprietary adapter which connects to the GPS unit, and the third cable is an adapter which allows cable one and cable two to connect to each other. What a waste!

3) There is no USB port on this GPS, so in order to connect a USB cable you must use the provided adapter cable which one side is USB and the other side is proprietary for connecting to the GPS unit.

4) Mio Map software is just plain bad. It gets confused and freezes quit easily at congested on/off ramps on major highways. It will unfreeze once you pass the on/off ramps but it takes a good minute or two while you are driving. I hope you chose the right direction while waiting for the map to respond to unfreeze!

5) In 3 years of use, I never saw one software update to this product! Good job MIO! I stopped using this GPS a year ago so there may be one now.

6) Mio attempted to add many features to a GPS unit. Including Windows CE 2003 was just a plain bad decision. This unit may do many things and have many options but it does none of them any good.

7) The proprietary port connection on this GPS is very sensitive. You must hold it in the exact correct position to get the unit to charge. That goes for the portable car charger also. So if your car hits a bump, your unit may stop charging and you may not realize it unless you look at the orange charging light on the top right of the unit.

Also if you connected the USB cable to the proprietary open port on the GPS you may lose connection (called partnership) to your pc while in the middle of installing software.

There is no volume control located on this unit. You must use the stylus pen to set volume. It’s annoying if you want to change volume while you are driving because you must take your focus off of the road to get to the volume and change it.

OPINION

For the 8 reasons listed above this section and the section title “Resetting the unit” above, I give this GPS 1 star out of a possible 5 stars. It is a headache of a product and it makes me realize that I am too afraid to try anything ever again made by the Mio Corporation.

It got me to my intended destinations many times but it was not worth the many headaches associated with use.

I originally paid $450 for this unit at Circuit City about 4 years ago. I stopped using it about 1 year ago. I now use a LG 470n GPS unit which I seriously wish to do a review on how great it is, but at the current time can’t find this model on Epinions. I will have to get around to submitting it as a new product.

Thanks for reading my review!

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