Re: A new kind of "Pocket Watch"

Unless you hack the thing and load different software onto it (which is
possible) , out of the box this device is not what you want to use for "off
road" use. The built in software (called iGo) is oriented toward driving on
known streets. Because GPS is not totally precise (there is a possible
error of several meters) the software assumes that you are on the nearest
street to whatever position it has you in by GPS. That way the display
always shows a cursor of your driving down the road in a certain direction
rather than off to the side which would be confusing to a driver. Once you
turn off the road into a parking lot or unpaved area , it gets confused that
you aren't near any road and more or less gives up. There is an alternate
screen where it displays latitude and longitude out to several decimals, so
that if you had charts with you it could be used for hiking or boating, but
not by itself.



"nathantw" <nathantwong@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1164638391.512391.131700@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
By the way, here are a couple groups you may want to join:

alt.satellite.gps
sci.geo.satellite-nav

A website you might be interested in is http://www.geocaching.com. The
forums are great.



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