GarminXT

July 3rd, 2009 nk

In recent days I got the opportunity to test the latest edition of Garmin XT for Windows Mobile.

I installed the program on a HTC Smartphone with a 200Mhz ARM processor, 21Mb of free memory and Windows Mobile 6.1

The installation, using ActiveSync, was easy. The program installed quickly and painlessly.

I was surprised that GarminXT was incapable of finding the internal GPS chip. I had to enter the port and baud rate in a configuration file. After that it found the satellites fairly quickly. Another disappointment was performance: when simulating a drive along a route the program was painfully slow. The display was jerky with very slow screen redraws.

I will grant that the phone I was using is not the mightiest in processing power, but both iGO8 and Destinator work on it without any difficulties.

GarminXT seems to use similar routing algorithms to the other Garmin units. They are not bad and most of the time the routing is reasonable. The program desn’t have Text To Speech, so all the spoken directions are generic, like: “Turn left in 800 feet”. It is not bad, but Destinator 8 has an advantage there.

In terms of route planning the program is somewhat clunky. It’s difficult to check the differences between the fastest and the shortest routs.

There are few optimization options.

In summary: if you have a choice between the GarminXT, Destinator 8 or iGO8 chose one of the latter two. GarminXT is definitely outclassed by either program.

Posted in GPS | No Comments »

New iGO U.S. and Canada maps (2008 Q4)

June 24th, 2009 nk

I just got a sample of the 2008 Q4 iGO 8.3 and Amigo maps.

It seems that the geographical data (streets and buildings) is mostly unchanged. At least a short look didn’t disclose any obvious changes.

The only change seems to be the addition of lane information. Now lanes are displayed all over the place. Most intersections get lane information pop up with fairly clear (depending on the skin you have installed) instructions on which lane to stay in. Also, depending on the skin, you get optional audible warning when lane information pops up.

I found the audible warning somewhat distracting as made a noise at almost every intersection. The feature itself can be very useful in an unfamiliar environment, especially if you are driving on a wide road with many lanes. It will help you to get into the correct lane ahead of time. The turn indicator doesn’t obviate the need for lane info. You ma know that you need to turn right in a mile, but it is also useful to know not to get into the right lane yet, as it ends soon.

Kudos to iGO for this update.

Posted in GPS | No Comments »

Mio Moov 310 – Chapter 3

June 24th, 2009 nk

Well, the test of the map update was very short. I didn’t check all the maps of the U.S. but the Pacific region maps are OLD. Streets that have been there for more then a two years are not on this “new” map. These same streets are up to date on the Quarter 2 2008 iGO maps from Navteq and TeleAtlas. The “new” Mio maps look like Navteq Quarter 2 2007 maps. The rest of the bugs are still there: the text to speech (TTS) says only highway exits (no street names) and some addresses in gated communities are inaccessible.

In other words: Mio Map 2008 is still a piece of garbage compared with iGO or Destinator. Destinator’s latest maps are of the same generation as the Mio’s but at least its TTS works and it lets you go where you want.

After all this my recommendation is: if you want a 4.3″ GPS buy something inexpensive. The only requirements I would look for: Win CE 4.2 or higher (Win CE5 preferred) and at least 64MB of memory. Mio is still good as a hardware platform at a reasonable price, so if you find one at a good price buy it and use it with an unlock and another, better navigation software. By the way, the TMC receiver in the Moov 310 is accessible only to the MioMap software. iGO can’t see it, so you may as well save your money and buy a model without TMC.

If you want the latest maps and a real good navigation program buy iGO 8.3 – it comes on a memory card and can be used on any Win CE machine. Of course there are a number of unlocks for the Mio family of devices but there are some universal ones as well. I am using Simple Unlock which is compact, fast and easy to customize.

Mio really screwed up with this one.

Posted in GPS | No Comments »

Mio Moov 310 – Chapter 2

June 24th, 2009 nk

Like I promised in the previous Mio Moov post here is an update on the update.

I got an email from Mio telling me that updated maps and possibly (it wasn’t clear) firmware were available. The email included detailed instructions on how to get the update and how to install it. It also included a license key for the update.

I followed the instructions and the update failed – it couldn’t verify the license. After many repeat attempts within 3 days I finally wrote an email to Mio support. Two days later I received a response. The advise was to wait a couple of days and try again as their “servers are busy”. I did that and tried again in a couple of days. Same error message.

Finally, after having tried for 5 days to get the update, I called Mio support. You have to be REALLY patient to get through to them. It took me four attempts and more than two hours to finally get to talk to a live person. The woman that spoke to me was nice and very patient. She promised to get back to me in, at most, four working days with responses to two questions:

1. How to get the update

2. How to get the Text To Speech to actually pronounce street names and not just exit numbers on the freeway.

It has been close to two weeks now and I had no response (she took down both my email address and phone number). So much for the quality of Mio’s technical support.

Just before starting on this entry I decided to try the update again. This time it seems to be working. There is one strangeness though: the old maps are removed from the Mio and you can install the new ones. Except that the space freed in the Mio’s internal memory is not enough for all the new maps. My solution was to start the install minus the Central Time region. This reduces the space necessary. I canceled the install after a few seconds. The program (Mio Desktop) then goes ahead and deletes all the files it already installed. This left me with enough space to install all the new maps. Obviously a bug.

I will report on the results after I test it for a while.

Posted in GPS | No Comments »

Destinator 8

June 18th, 2009 nk

Recently I tested a copy of Destinator 8. I was impressed by some aspects of the program and disappointed by others.

First the good:

Destinator installed easily on both my dedicated GPS (a Mio) and on my Win 6.1 phone. The map display is nice and clear and it navigates fairly well. I was very impressed by the programs ability to use TTS (pronounce the names of streets) when run on my phone. The phone has limited memory and iGO TTS fails because of lack of memory. Destinator works fine and pronounces everything, though with a somewhat strange accent – at least in English.

Now to the bad:

The Points Of Interest (POI) database is on the small side, but maybe acceptable taking into account the very small (relatively) size of the map files.

There are some other inconveniences: the program can’t find the GPS port automatically. It has to be entered manually in one of the .ini files. It also doesn’t automatically switch to a nigh or day display – this has to be done manually.

The menus are also somewhat awkward. To change the rout calculation method from Fast to Short (only these two options are available) you have to go through several menu layers.

Another thing that bothered me was Destinator’s limited ability to accommodate setting a destination by pointing on the map.

In summary: Destinator 8 is a fairly good navigation program and I will use it on my phone, though I am not going to uninstall iGO just yet. The TTS is, to me, worth the other inconveniences.

Posted in GPS | No Comments »

iGO Amigo

June 10th, 2009 nk

I got my hands on version 8.4.2.85182 of iGO Amigo. Like the version number implies it is supposed to be version 8.4… of iGO. The program is different from version 8.3 of iGO. It uses the same maps, points of interest and the other data, but everything else is different.

The first thing I learned was that Amigo needs to be installed in a new empty directory. Any residual files from an iGO 8.3 installation may disrupt it. The same goes for the Sys.ini file. Amigo will read the iGO file and get confused.

After installing everything and copying the maps and other stuff I decided to test the TTS – I had it installed for iGO and used a modified Susan voice. I also modified the lexicon files to correct some funny stuff like “St Rose” being pronounced “Street Rose”. At this point I discovered that Amigo didn’t like my modified lexicon file. It was running very very slowly – like it was processing something and too busy to find the satellites or respond to commands. Reverting to the original lexicon file resolved that problem. Eventually I added my name modifications to the original file and that worked.

Looks:

The interface (skin) is very nice. I liked both the day and night default colors. The default skin is OK, though I am using one of the several available replacements. The general looks remind me of the MioMap 2008 and Mio Mireo. I like it.

Functionality:

Amigo has a couple of features that most current iGO skins lack. The most important one is the ability to change a rout’s preferences (Fast, Short, etc..) and see the result immediately on the map. There are a couple of iGO skins that do this but none as easy and aesthetically pleasing as the Amigo.

Amigo also lacks a number of features that iGO has. The most annoying is the lack of ability to define excluded roads. The setup menus are much simplified in comparison to iGO and thus have less features.

I also discovered a curious thing: Amigo is sensitive to what city is defined when you search for a street. For example: if I look for a street in the city of North Las Vegas while I am in the city of Las Vegas Amigo may not find the street while iGO has no such problem.

On the MIO Moov 310 I also get only an ABC keyboard – the QWERTY version is absent. This may be a case of using a different data.gro (the equivalent of data.zip used by iGO). I modified the data.gro to display a QWERTY keyboard but a simple substitution of ABC for QWE is not ideal. I got a QWERTY keyboard but with less letters per line and more lines than a standard one – which is kind of confusing, but I find it easier to use than the ABC keyboard.

I will keep using this program for a while to see what else I can learn.

In summary: it seems to be a dumbed down version of iGO with a very nice interface. I would prefer using iGO if somebody made a skin that looks like Amigo.

Posted in GPS | No Comments »

A Business Idea for Casinos

May 29th, 2009 nk

The other day we went to the new M Resort and Casino in Henderson, NV. It is a nice place with a couple of innovations and is reviewed in more detail here.

Since their buffet was so nice it gave me an idea:

Most people overeat at a buffet. You pay to enter and you can eat all you want as long as you don’t leave. No doubt, reasonably priced buffets attract customers to casinos but I doubt that they keep them there. As soon as you exit the buffet you decide what to do and it may be gambling or just sightseeing (if it’s your first visit to the place) or just leave.

How about a different model: sell the customer a timed pass for the buffet. Say a 4 hour pass that allows them to come and go as they please eating whatever they please. If the buffet is good and has a good selection and variety the result may be that customers will come, sample some dishes and go back to the casino knowing that they can give the food a rest for a while. They will come later and sample some more. This way they are likely to stay in the casino longer and since there is not much to do there but play (gamble) that’s what they are likely to do.

Net result: a win-win situation: the customer doesn’t have to sample the whole selection at once and get sick (like I sometimes do) and the casino has them there for a while, probably spending some money. I don’t believe that people will eat substantially more than in a single session – 4 hours is not long enough to get really hungry

If any of the casinos decide to adopt this business idea, I fully expect to profit from it and hereby claim copyright and authorship.

An update from June 3, 2009: the other day there was an ad in our local newspaper. It was for a 24 hour buffet at the Excalibur. I am glad that the general idea is catching on, but the execution, in this case, leaves something to be desired. The Excalibur buffet is nothing special and their advertised 24 hour price was $25.00. If you take into account that competitors with similar or better buffets charge between $13 to about $18 (the M charges $13.00) you can see that the deal is a bit questionable. If you like a lot of plain food this is definitely a reasonable deal. I hope that other casinos will follow. Be careful though: some airlines are charging obese people for two seats and if you take too many buffet deals you will have to pay the additional fee.

Posted in Economy | No Comments »

Mio Moov 310

April 27th, 2009 nk

Those that read this blog will notice that this post is a departure from my usual political rantings. I decided to rant on a different issue. I may or may not continue this in the future – depends on popular response.

Anyway, here goes.

A while ago I bought a Mio Moov 310. I decided to replace my old Garmin StreetPilot 2610 and the Mio looked like a very good alternative:

• It was advertised as having Text To Speech – which means that it is supposed to pronounce the name of the next street you need to turn on, not just say “Turn Left” or “Turn Right”.
• The traffic radio and ability to steer around traffic jams seemed like a good thing.
• The maps were new. The Garmin had old maps and buying a new set would cost almost as much as the Mio.
• The display is nice: 4.3″ TFT display.
• The GPS chip is SIRf III – much more advanced than my old Garmin.

My first drive with the Mio 310 was a mixed bag: The display is indeed nice and the software’s color scheme is beautiful, but it was washed out by the bright Las Vegas sun. The unit needs a recessed display (like the Garmin 2610) to be seen in the sun. Alternatively you can mount it where the sun is blocked. I mounted mine in the instrument panel nacelle. On my car it sits in front of and obscures part of the tachometer. Not overly bothersome and it is clearly visible under most circumstances.

I was disappointed by the Text To Speech. The TTS ability of the Moov 310 is limited to saying the exit number on a freeway. Not really very useful, especially in a city where development is rapid and exit numbers tend to change frequently.

I was also somewhat disappointed by the meager Points Of Interest database. It had our local Best Buy (though on the wrong side of the street) but didn’t have some of the more famous restaurants and such.

The big disappointment came a couple of days later when I tried to navigate to an address inside a gated community (which are very common in Las Vegas). The Mio told me that it cannot navigate to this address. I assumed that it had a setting to exclude roads that need permits and looked for a way to change the setting. It’s impossible. I can navigate to the gate of that community and then navigate from the gate to the address I need, but not create one contiguous route. I emailed Mio and asked for help. The response: “This is a known bug and we have no solution at this time.” So this GPS is useless in Las Vegas or any other place where there are a lot of gated communities. This behavior is not consistent: most communities I tried are accessible but some are not.

My other disappointment was traffic-related route recalculation. I tested it on a freeway. The result was ridiculous. The road was clear with hardly any traffic at all – this was before rush hour. The Mio told me that I am approaching a traffic jam and re-routed. I kept going on the freeway and it kept telling me to get off it for the next 20 miles. I don’t necessarily blame the Mio – it is entirely possible that the traffic broadcasts are useless. Whatever the reason, I found the feature useless most of the time.

The solution to all this nonsense: I installed MioPocket which provides an interface allowing the Mio to run any Windows CE program. I then used iGO 8, which is is available for purchase on a SD card that can be inserted into the Mio. iGO works like a charm, has no problems with gated communities (you can select to route on roads that require permits) and has excellent TTS that clearly pronounces the name of the next street you need to turn on (at least most of the time). It does benefit from some tweaking; that information is available online to anybody that will bother to look.

Conclusion: The Mio Moov is not a bad GPS, especially for the price: it acquires the satellites quickly, has a large display and could be a good navigator if it wasn’t for some bugs. Hopefully these will be corrected in the next update, supposedly coming in May 2009. I will report on this update after I get and test it.

A word of wisdom: don’t waste your money on the traffic radio feature. This is truly useless.

One last remark: the Moov is the first Mio that doesn’t use the iGO navigation program. Mio acquired Navman and the Moov is the first product after this acquisition, though the navigation program came, supposedly, from Mireo.

Posted in GPS | 1 Comment »

Should we or shouldn’t we – breathe that is

March 30th, 2009 nk

The EPA recommended to the White House to classify CO2 as a poison. If the recommendation is accepted, it will make CO2, automatically, a controlled substance. The release of the “harmful substance” will be regulated, taxed, limited and, in some cases, prohibited.
I was always wondering how far a government’s power grab can go. Apparently there are no limits – even in the U.S.

Classifying CO2 “a harmful substance” is a classical example of how a government lays the foundations of dictatorship. The CO2 ban looks extremely stupid. At least at first glance. How can you ban or control emissions of a gas that most living things on this planet exhale and most plants use to generate energy? It makes no sense. But it actually does if the purpose of the ban is not solving a “greenhouse gas” problem but exerting control.

Imagine a situation a number of years down this road where the government decides that it wants to limit the growth of certain populations. I can imagine a situation where a future Administration will analyze the National Health Care system’s expenses and decide that the poor are consuming an inordinate amount of resources. Well, the solution is simple: impose a CO2 license on everyone that wants a child. After all this makes sense: new children generate CO2, which is a poison. To allow the GOVERNMENT the necessary funds to solve the problem it makes sense to make future parents pay for those expense by way of a license. Voila! The birth rates among those who can’t afford the fee will go down. And if they still get pregnant without a license the Government can sterilize them – for the common good, to prevent the uncontrolled release of a poison.

This is just one possible scenario. There are others. But let’s look at the next logical step: water vapor is a much more potent greenhouse gas than CO2. You see where I am going and where this legislation is going?
Through control of CO2 and water licensing our benevolent Government will be able to control every aspect of our lives: the use of fossil fuel, consumption of food (animals breathe right?), birth rates and everything else.

I am not sure that the current Administration consciously plans for a dictatorship in the future. Its actions are based on the Socialist (and/or Fascist – pick your choice) governing approach of “we know what is best for you”. The current President also believes that Government is the solution to all problems – like in the Soviet Union. The EPA’s actions are part of this approach and are a way to increase the Government’s ability to act arbitrarily with no clear rules restraining it. After all if CO2 is a poison and there are no rules or clear law what to do about it, the Government will do what it deems necessary at any given time. My opinion is reinforced by the Treasury Secretary’s request for unlimited power to interfere and take control of any business that he deems to be unstable and endangering the general economy with no clear guidelines for such action. It is another step in the same direction: the Government will decide what is good for you – you are too stupid to know that anyway.

Such a regime can exist for a very long time before it collapses on its own. Even the Soviet Union existed for about 70 years before it collapsed under U.S. pressure. The misery it will bring will be unmeasurable.

So open your eyes and look ahead to the road we are taking.

Posted in Freedom, politics | 1 Comment »

Radical Islam. Really?

February 12th, 2009 nk

Quite often we hear the phrase “radical Islam” used in connection with terrorists. It seems that the media, politicians, and pundits think that a small, fringe group of Muslims is responsible for the violence.

What is this “radical” Islam they are talking about?

Mainstream Islam calls for the imposition of Sharia law over the whole world, by violence if necessary. The struggle to achieve dominance is called Jihad. This is NOT radical Islam. This is the mainstream – the directives are very clearly spelled out in the Koran.

How is “radical” Islam different from the mainstream? A devout Muslim supports and observes the mainstream Islamic principles. That is, they accept violence by and for Islam.

My conclusion is that there is no difference between the “radical” and mainstream Muslims except, maybe, in details and the willingness to implement the Koran directives personally NOW.

It is true that not all Muslims are violent Jihadists striving to convert the world to Islam. As with every religion, some members are less observant and some are more. Not all Christians go to church every Sunday and not all Jews observe the dietary laws. The difference is that neither Judaism or Christianity (or Buddhism or Shinto) call on the devout to kill for the religion or spread it by force.

There have been aberrations in our history: Christians tried to convert people by force and killed those who refused. But this was not an act integral to their religion. There is nothing in the Bible that calls on believers to go out and convert the world by force.

The only major religion that does require its followers to kill on its behalf is Islam.

This explains why “mainstream” Muslim leaders don’t loudly condemn acts of terror.

In the fist centuries of it existence Islam failed to achieve its goal of conquering the world. It is now trying again. Calling this “radical” only clouds the issue and makes the fight that much more slanted towards a Muslim victory.

Posted in Foreign Affairs, Freedom, politics | No Comments »