Can Anyone Recommend a Good GPS?

[RobertInOntario]

Rob,

I broke down recently and replaced two low-end cellphones with an iPhone on Virgin Mobile. Built in maps function is great, and you can add a free Google Earth app. Neat thing about that is once you find a destination on the map, you can get the street view by tapping the right icon on the map. Street view is obviously limited to urban areas, but it was very helpful in London, UK!

Drawback to the cell-based maps is that you have to have cellular coverage to get the maps and your location.

A friend who is into jeeping (cross country driving) has had a series of Garmin GPS units, each more sophisticated than the last. The one he showed me last weekend has the ability to georeference custom maps so that you can use those to navigate. For example - we had a pdf Ministry of Natural Resources map that he converted and uploaded (simple, according to him) and then our position was plotted on the custom map instead of the built-in set.

A lot of the set-up is done on his Windows-based machine, and is relatively simple according to him. In the field, the interface was pretty straightforward and easy to use. The screen was a little small for my liking, but other than that, no complaints.

Good luck!

Andrew

Thanks, Andrew. My wife and I recently bought ourselves two iPod Touches, so I don't think we can afford to go the iPhone route! Our iPod Touches have a good Map Ap but their downside (of the iPod Touches) is that they're not connected to a cell phone network -- you can only use them when your logged into a WiFi connection.

I've heard from others that Garmin GPS units are good. This is coming back to me now as I do recognize this name now, so I might head off to Future Shop or Best Buy to see what they have.

Cheers,
Rob