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Posts: 28 | Thanked: 10 times | Joined on May 2007
#11
Can you say something about the usability in bright sunlight?

I ask because I currently use TomTom Navigator 5 on a Treo 650 and recently got an N800. I was going to upgrade to TomTom 6 but I thought I might prefer a GPS on the superior screen of the N800. Plus, I'm more likely to replace the 650 (to get HSDPA) sooner than I'll replace the N800.

The problem was that I happened to take out the N800 while I was in the car, navigating with the Treo 650. I was shocked to see how hard it was to read the N800 display. Since I was stopped at the time, I could just use my free hand to shade the display, but that is not an option while driving.

I need a GPS that I can reliably glance at for a very brief moment to get the needed info. I can't always control the amount of sunlight in a driving situation. I'm really disappointed by the poor readability of the N800 in direct sunlight.
 
sondjata's Avatar
Posts: 1,076 | Thanked: 176 times | Joined on Mar 2007
#12
Same problem here.
 
SkwrHdz's Avatar
Posts: 57 | Thanked: 4 times | Joined on Feb 2006 @ Canada
#13
Yep, you're right, it's "US Navicore on the N800"!

It is not available on the Canadian Nokia site, and the US Nokia site will only ship to a US address charged to a US credit card.

I 'phoned Nokia Canada's "Customer Service" and was told it isn't available and they almost said as much as they can't be bothered answering enquiries from Canadian customers about it!

Doing a quick check with Google it doesn't seem to be available from any Canadian retailers yet.

Oh, well, I'll just wait and see.
.
 
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Posts: 2,869 | Thanked: 1,784 times | Joined on Feb 2007 @ Po' Bo'. PA
#14
Originally Posted by fldude99 View Post
What kind of GPS equipment is included? Is it SirfIII? I'm not sure if it's better to just order the software from Navicore directly-a little cheaper if one already has a holder and a GPS module
Nokia's not to specific about it >> http://www.nokiausa.com/accessories/...:LD-3W,00.html


From the spec sheet I'd say Sirf III:

Product Code LD-3W
Dimensions 3.1 x 1.8 x 0.6 inches
Weight 2.3 ounces (including battery)
Color Black and gray
Power Battery BL-5C Li-ion
Minimum operation time 15 hours - Depends on application used and external conditions
Standby time Up to 7 days - Depends on application used and external conditions
Operating distance between Bluetooth devices Up to 30 feet
GPS receiver 20 parallel channels
GPS antenna Internal
Accuracy Typical ±15-30 feet, maximum ±75 feet (95% open-sky)
Update rate 1 s
Acquisition times Approximately 45s/2s (cold/hot start)
Position format WGS84
Operating temperature -14°F to 104°F
Interface Bluetooth 2.0 specification (enhanced data rate), Serial Port Profile, NMEA 0183 v. 3.01 (with proprietary extension sentences)
MTK chip sets would claim 32 channels vs. this^ ones 20...
Sirf II would be 12 if I remember right.





(More screenshots have been added to the first page of this thread.)



fldude99, I can't say enough how pleased I am with the mounts fit and finish. It is something I would expect to pay (and would pay) at least $40 for. It is quite the engineering feat, almost art like. They did not scrimp on the material costs either. (I'll have crappy cell phone pics up later if I can't find anything better on someones image server. )

With that said and a BT GPS going for about $80 shipped. Add another $20~30 for a 2 gig card and the software alone would have to sell for under $100 for me to buy it ala carte.

zorg, sunlight is not much of a problem. I have used it now for two sunny days with out much difficulty. But again that is the beauty of the mount. It moves the unit in a few inches under the vehicles roof line

The offset arm is banana shaped and about that long. It has a mechanically activated, 3" diameter suction cup on the windshield end and a horizontal swivel on the business end. There is a vertical swivel on the device clip. The swivels are secured with knurled knobs threaded into metal that is molded into the ABS plastic. Much like what you would find on a professional recording microphone. Not the threaded plastic you find on lesser quality products that strips out after a few uses.

The device clip is pliable ABS and not brittle plastic. Only the external MMC card is blocked because of the kick stand. Everything else is accessible while in the clip... even the stylus.

Last edited by YoDude; 2007-05-17 at 01:05.
 
YoDude's Avatar
Posts: 2,869 | Thanked: 1,784 times | Joined on Feb 2007 @ Po' Bo'. PA
#15
Did I say banana?


... more like a cow horn.





... I also said crappy cell phone cam didn't I? My apologies.

Last edited by YoDude; 2007-05-17 at 01:02.
 
Posts: 197 | Thanked: 4 times | Joined on Jan 2007
#16
Thanks for the review. What is the coiled cable visible in your photos? I'm guessing it's a power cord?
Neil
 
YoDude's Avatar
Posts: 2,869 | Thanked: 1,784 times | Joined on Feb 2007 @ Po' Bo'. PA
#17
Originally Posted by nspeer View Post
Thanks for the review. What is the coiled cable visible in your photos? I'm guessing it's a power cord?
Neil
Yup... a $.99, Comp USA, going out of business, bargain bin power cord to be exact.
 
Posts: 101 | Thanked: 14 times | Joined on Jan 2007
#18
Here's a thought: friend of mine has a N95-does anyone think it's possible to download the maps from the CD to a microSD so as to work in the N95? We could then share the cost of this kit
 
Posts: 130 | Thanked: 13 times | Joined on Nov 2005
#19
i received the navigation kit yesterday and am somewhat disappointed, but have an over-all positive feeling about it, so far. hopefully there will be some updates to both the navicor software and the teleatlas maps.

here's some quick impressions:
we live in the capital of vermont; a relatively rural state. i found the bluetooth connection between the satellite receiver and the n800 to be quick and easy. gps finds satellites quite quickly and accurately located its position on the ground. the car bracket is kind of big, but also very adaptable. i mounted mine in the corner of the driver's door window, near the outside mirror. (no worry here about rolling the window down for tollbooths). screen was easy to read, though still not sure about sunny days as yesterday was clouded over and rainy. listened to both sara and christopher and both voices were loud enough to be heard over the radio.
have so far found several mapping problems. could not find a tavern in it's real location; put it somewhere west of it's real location. also said the location of another restaurant in the downtown hotel was a mile further west than it's real location. (amusingly, it showed a free wifi location at the cemetery two miles outside the city.) applied the name of a town 5 miles away to the intersection of the correctly named two main streets of the city. i followed its lead and drove the back roads over to a location 6 miles east of our house. though it had basically found the shortest route it did try to lead me up a dead end street in the city. during the trip it displayed a road that was not there, then a mile later did not show a road that was there. it found only one address on a short road with three houses, but located it at the furthest end of the road, but not near any of the three homes. though it correctly showed the majority of the back roads it did not have a name label for many of them. the voice does not 'name' the streets it tells you to turn on to. though the software seems to usually be able to very quickly figure out and display a new route if you miss a turn, it may 'show' the new turn but not 'tell' you to take it. and sometimes, if you drive past a turn it does not 'display' or 'tell' you to turn around or make a series of turns to reverse direction, though the green 'trail' turns off.

if you don't remember the actual name or address of say a restaurant 40 miles away you have to plan a route to a street in that area, then go back and ask it to find all restaurants along the route. does not appear poi are listed in an alpha list.

so, a little disappointed. software interface is pretty quick and easy, but not actually intuitive. the voice does not name the streets to turn on to, has some problems with where things actually are. does not show rivers or lakes. i'll keep it a few more days anyway, see if we get used to each other.

one more thing. oddly, the ad on the nokia site says the car charger can power both the gps receiver and the n800, it can actually only charge one or the other.

john

Last edited by jdr93; 2007-05-17 at 16:31.
 
Posts: 48 | Thanked: 2 times | Joined on Jan 2007
#20
Beware of ordering from NokiaUSA.com

I just had a NIGHTMARE of an experience...

1) It will not register my email address properly. At registration (and login) it stripped the word "frame" from my address at form submit and registered me as "rate@gmail.com" (verified twice). This means someone @ rate@gmail.com recieved my order confirmation with all my personal information.

2) The above took 3 phone calls to resolve and register a different email and a 4th to find someone who claimed to be able to report this bug to someone in the web department. I asked for response on the bug report and didn't receive one, and my order forever said "rate@gmail.com".

3) I paid extra for overnight shipping so I could get it before the weekend and set it up for my trip on Monday. From Wed->Thurs it said "in progress". 2:45pm EST today (Thursday) I got a phone call from a nice woman claiming identity verification. She asked me some personal questions (Since price is above 200 dollars) and then told me the item would be shipped out today. She said one page said out of stock, so she put me on hold and verified that they had them. She then assured me that the item would be shipped today. I told her "thank you" and hung up happy.

10 minutes later my order status online was updated to "back-ordered".

I called in and found another guy (most of the people through these 5+ phone calls really didn't care about me as a customer which really turned me off to the whole idea) who told me that while I was on the phone with verification, apparently their last 5 units the woman saw were sold. Even though I ordered mine the day before, I am now on back-order. He told me they *could* get more within 2-3 business days. I told him I paid 20 dollars extra for overnight shipping, so I wasn't very happy.

I just canceled my order.

- Security flaws in website (try entering a bogus email address on their "Track my shipment page" and guess a order #. If you enter a valid order # with a bogus email, you don't even need the password to see the customer's info!

- Bad customer service (I wouldn't say overly bad, but they sure as hell didn't care whether or not I was happy and/or kept my order)

- Can't ship products successfully due to their own verification techniques? I'm sure theres more going on here but please! I ordered 24+ hours ago and you just now verify my order over the phone which caused me not to get it? What if I wasn't by the phone?

Advice? Avoid NokiaUSA.com like the plague. Does anyone know if this item can be purchased elsewhere? Somewhere who wants my money and cares about me as a customer?

Last edited by framerate; 2007-05-17 at 19:02.
 
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