GPS

[jclaudii]

I've been keeping my eye on ebay and other user forums that may sell the software cheaply. I've seen the top sell for around $50 bucks on ebay and around $80 on other sites "classifieds". The city nav usually goes used for around $80 on ebay.

I appreciate the knowledge of how the topo program works. I was hoping it would autoroute when it could "see" that there was a road/trail there, but I guess it's not programmed to do that. Thanks for the clarification.

[okieboater]

jclaudii and others.

I am a newby to the GPS user group and have been doing quite a bit of surfing around the internet looking for information on my Garmin GPSMap 76Csx.

Quite a few posts out there on buying especially Garmin PC software that has some sort of "protection" built in that limits it's use to just one GPS.

Like I said, I am not an experienced GPS software person, just warning that be careful on software purchases made from EBay

[David Mac]

jclaudii and others.
Quite a few posts out there on buying especially Garmin PC software that has some sort of "protection" built in that limits it's use to just one GPSr.

This is true. With the exception of a few very old versions of mapsource, they are "locked" to the first GPS unit they are used with. Definately something to consider before buying used mapping software off e-bay.

There is a way to load non-Garmin maps to the units, but it is difficult at best and takes some serious tweaking to get all the data that the GPSr needs for auto routing and stitching the maps together when it displays them on it's screen.

Personally I use an ancient version of mapsource topo that doesn't have the locking issue. It's 1:100k, has no trails, and none of the bells and whistles (auto-routing, etc) that the new stuff does, but I can't see spending the $$$ to upgrade since the topography of the land hasn't changed. My streetmaps are just as old and I occasionally get annoyed with them leading me to a street that has been under a lake for 10 years, or not having a street at all where a whole subdivision is at, but I still haven't gotten around to upgrading that either.

David

[stormcrow]

Forgot to add a question. Has anybody had experence with the GPS downloads for I-phones? Do they use antennas or satellites or both to get a location?

Check out RiverGuide for iphone. I believe it's $3.99 and shows water levels for the entire US. It constantly updates and you can make a favorites list which updates you when the water is rising. Very cool. I have the weather, google earth and a few other things that are useful for the outdoors but as everyone's mentioned it won't do the job of GPS.