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+ diff --git a/_posts/2008-12-21-garmin-mobile-pc-on-eee-pc-7.md b/_posts/2008-12-21-garmin-mobile-pc-on-eee-pc-7.md index f50495b..1bad686 100644 --- a/_posts/2008-12-21-garmin-mobile-pc-on-eee-pc-7.md +++ b/_posts/2008-12-21-garmin-mobile-pc-on-eee-pc-7.md @@ -2,56 +2,27 @@ layout: post title: Garmin Mobile PC on Eee PC 7" created: 1229797328 -disqus_url: /node/114 categories: - mobile pc - gps - garmin - eee pc --- -

After using Treo 650/700p as GPS navigation system for a quite while; this time will be different. -Cleaning up dust on my little Eee PC 702, getting Garmin Mobile PC in and now we are ready to go for bigger screen & better performance, but usability?

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- Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC -
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+After using Treo 650/700p as GPS navigation system for a quite while; this time will be different. +Cleaning up dust on my little Eee PC 702, getting Garmin Mobile PC in and now we are ready to go for bigger screen & better performance, but usability?
- Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC -
- Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC -
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- Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC -
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+Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC
Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC
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- Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC -
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Well, look like Eee PC + Mobile PC will be perfect companion for our trip, huh? Touch screen also is such a big plus with Garmin finger-friendly UI.

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Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC
Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC
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- Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC --  Trip info -
- Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC -- Trip info -
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Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC
Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC
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Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC
Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC
+ +Well, look like Eee PC + Mobile PC will be perfect companion for our trip, huh? Touch screen also is such a big plus with Garmin finger-friendly UI. -

I will be on the road for about 2 weeks, trip down to Florida. Will see how Garmin Mobile PC performs! The only question is how I will mount this? Seems like I need someone to hold this all along this time LOL

Check it out

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Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC --  Trip info
Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC -- Trip info
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Discuss here

+I will be on the road for about 2 weeks, trip down to Florida. Will see how Garmin Mobile PC performs! The only question is how I will mount this? Seems like I need someone to hold this all along this time LOL Check it out [our full review](/node/116) diff --git a/_posts/2009-01-23-garmin-mobile-pc-on-eee-702-experience.md b/_posts/2009-01-23-garmin-mobile-pc-on-eee-702-experience.md index d098d4b..8673e81 100644 --- a/_posts/2009-01-23-garmin-mobile-pc-on-eee-702-experience.md +++ b/_posts/2009-01-23-garmin-mobile-pc-on-eee-702-experience.md @@ -1,14 +1,15 @@ ---- -layout: post -title: Garmin Mobile PC on Eee 702 experience -created: 1232661926 -categories: -- gadgets -- mobile pc -- gps -- garmin -- eee pc ---- +--- +layout: post +title: Garmin Mobile PC on Eee 702 experience +created: 1232661926 +disqus_url: /th/node/114 +categories: +- gadgets +- mobile pc +- gps +- garmin +- eee pc +---

2 weeks trip passed; back to the real world with tons of work needed to be done. Anyway, I really want to tell how I feel when using Garmin Mobile PC with as GPS navigation system and just so you know only navigation system I really use is TomTom 5 and 6 on Palm devices: Treo 650/700p and Tapwave Zodiac. Thus, that would be like the reference for this review.

First thing first, installation process both Mobile PC and map were easy as it should be. What I expected to get from Garmin Mobile PC is definitely large screen estates. Speed and extra features are what I think it should be improved also. Garmin, comparing to Tomtom, is far superior in term of GUI, Graphic User Interface. I don’t think anyone would argue about this. Cuter road and all icons sometimes don’t say that functionality will be better though. You’ll see how it is momentarily.

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Before anything, I need to go through main interface. I honestly don’t remember what Tomtom was like; it’s like Garmin is a brainwasher with 2 simple icons: ‘Where to’ and ‘Map’ along with few buttons on the bottom. I couldn’t tell whether this is the better way to do so. Somehow I feel it’s more natural to show map with GPS location at the first page like Tomtom, but it’s just a click away, so I don’t mind that. I forget to mention that Mobile PC interface is about the size of Eee PC screen. That’s the minimum Mobile PC could work on—probably the size Garmin designs to work on. Nevertheless, Mobile PC can work on larger/higher resolution without any problem.

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- Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC --  Trip info -
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Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC --  Trip info
Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC -- Main Page

Next, menu, Garmin takes a different step by putting ‘setting’ at the first level – easy to access anytime – while Tomtom put similar menu at the 2nd level. Tomtom just prefer to put all routing features and favorite (POI) manager in the first level. With very different approach, it’s kind of awkward when I first had Garmin. It was like I got lost in Garmin menu maze. It might not be a fair game here since I was long time Tomtom user, but I think Tomtom does better job here.

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The most important page for GPS navigation system is map. All modern GPS this day has 3D view and some has 3D building shown on the moving map too. I am not sure how different between Garmin GPS device like StreetPilot or nuvi and Mobile PC, but for map detail Garmin Mobile PC has a lot of feature to tweak; probably too many for GPS which you know? people just want it to work. No need to tweak that much. As my experience, I change almost every categories to normal or small. Then all road name, which closes to us, will be shown on the map which is the most important thing to me while driving. Well I don’t have to do a thing in Tomtom. Options are good, but there is only one optimal point anyway. The real advantage of Mobile PC is screen size & very clear, processor speed and beautiful user interface. You just couldn’t expected anything more than map showing up in a flash, finger dragging naturally, and such a big screen size comparing to all GPS devices or PDA/PDA phone. Thus, this round, Garmin Mobile PC win absolutely. TomTom 1 Garmin 1

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Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC --  Trip info
Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC -- Moving map
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Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC --  Trip info
Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC -- Browse Map

This is what you will see on 7” screen; however, if you have larger screen or screen resolution, it will be much bigger than this. I have tried on X61T on the way back after unfortunate incident—Eee PC was dead; SSD just died; stuck at boot POST. I had to format and reinstalled everything to get in work again. I couldn’t find what caused this though. For your information, if you are using Eee PC 7” like me, you probably turn off page file. In this case you have to turn it back on or map won’t be loaded properly or in appropriate time.

Navigation:

I could say that I'm not impressed, how come?

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  1. In this trip, I have no car mount. As a result I need my GF to look and tell me when we were approaching any junction. Is there anything worse than always-lost-girl as a navigator? Just kidding; it’s just like you didn’t see in person, so you couldn’t be sure of where to go.
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  3. Garmin Mobile PC (I’m not sure if it’s the same as other types) tells us so little when approach the turn. It’s like only 2 times regularly: first when it’s about 0.3 mile away and 0 mile away from turn while Tomtom says this like a million times. Actually it says like 3 times 500 yards, then around 100-200 yards before turn and at turning point which are pretty good. I didn’t have to glance at the screen at all this way and I hope Garmin would offer the same as Tomtom.  That would be great. Even ‘Hertz Never lost'’ system reminds me zillion times before arrive the turn—it’s sometimes annoying, but better than leave driver confused. Oh one more thing, I am not sure why but sometimes I heard Garmin used “yard” and sometimes “0.x mile.” That bugs me really.
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  5. Altering route is such a pain. I will talk about that later.
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+ +* In this trip, I have no car mount. As a result I need my GF to look and tell me when we were approaching any junction. Is there anything worse than always-lost-girl as a navigator? Just kidding; it’s just like you didn’t see in person, so you couldn’t be sure of where to go. +* Garmin Mobile PC (I’m not sure if it’s the same as other types) tells us so little when approach the turn. It’s like only 2 times regularly: first when it’s about 0.3 mile away and 0 mile away from turn while Tomtom says this like a million times. Actually it says like 3 times 500 yards, then around 100-200 yards before turn and at turning point which are pretty good. I didn’t have to glance at the screen at all this way and I hope Garmin would offer the same as Tomtom.  That would be great. Even ‘Hertz Never lost'’ system reminds me zillion times before arrive the turn—it’s sometimes annoying, but better than leave driver confused. Oh one more thing, I am not sure why but sometimes I heard Garmin used “yard” and sometimes “0.x mile.” That bugs me really. +* Altering route is such a pain. I will talk about that later.

From above complaint, I didn’t say that Garmin has pretty bad navigation. It’s quite good, but I just expect to have better than this—more intuitive basically. No one likes to have learning curve for using GPS indeed. If they want to have that, they would use ‘map’ instead. Don’t you think so?

Basically, we just start with ‘Where to?’

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Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC --  Where to?
Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC -- Where to?
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Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC --  Where to?
Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC -- Where to?

It would have been nice if there is one more thing extra—point on the map!! Why in the world doesn’t Garmin include that in Mobile PC which is supposed to have the best map due to performance & screen size. For your information, Tomtom added this since version 6 which was about 2 years ago already. If you left this point out, it will do the job as well as you expected.

- Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC -- Setting | Route -
- Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC -- Setting | Route -
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+Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC -- Setting | Route +
+Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC -- Setting | Route +
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What I missed really pop-up question like ‘Do you want to avoid toll road?' or something since Garmin won’t ask or have any option to have this anytime you create the route. You have to dig down in Settings | Routing | Avoidance Setup (which is the last option) It’s just too deep down.

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- Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC -- Setting | Routing | Avoidance Setup -
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+Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC -- Setting | Routing | Avoidance Setup +
+Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC -- Setting | Routing | Avoidance Setup +
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- Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC -- Setting | Routing | Avoidance Setup -
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+Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC -- Setting | Routing | Avoidance Setup +
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Although it is so hard to reach, it in fact does have something interesting such as avoid area or avoid road, totally customizable, and after changing something in this, it is kind enough if you want to recalculate the route. At least, it asks finally. This feature works as advertised.

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Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC -- Routing w/o avoidance area
Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC -- Routing w/o avoidance area
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Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC -- Routing w/o avoidance area
Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC -- Routing w/ avoidance area

On the left is what normally happens—go by car with the fastest route, but if there is an avoid area, then it will find the fastest way but not go through avoid areas/roads. However, altering route by edit shape (forcing a route to go) or add more destination could override avoid area.

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Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC -- Routing
Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC -- Routing
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Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC -- Routing
Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC -- Routing
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Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC -- Routing
Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC -- Routing
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Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC -- Routing
Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC -- Routing

Above is an example of screenshot while driving. I would love to have options for changing travelling and arrival time on 2 right boxes to something like estimated mileage for whole trip or even speed odometer. It could be good with one bad thing. Auto zoom might not as good as it should be sometimes when you are on the road with strange turn or something. As I show below:-

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Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC -- Zoom Level
Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC -- Zoom Level
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Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC -- Zoom Level
Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC -- Zoom Level

Zoom level does help distinguish the roads, but don’t expect auto-zoom will be automatically all the times. On the left, by looking at the screen, you have no idea where you are really—look like plain 2-lane road. One on the right, at the right zoom level, you can see clearly which road you are on (or suppose to be on, according to navigation software.) For navigation, both have weaknesses and strength, but by the fact that Tomtom does a bit better about signaling to turn, that’s just what I prefer. Tomtom 2 Garmin 1

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Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC -- Odometer
Garmin Mobile PC with Eee PC -- Odometer

Tracking feature is another feature I like on Garmin unit. Practically it just is a dot line tracking your location at all time. It’s very useful, when you are in unfamiliar place. You can take a glance and know how you get there or where you haven’t gone. Also the odometer with trip information: highest speed, mileage, drive time, or stoppage time. With all these features, I would give them +1; I do like to look all those info. Tomtom 2 Garmin 2

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- Garmin should have better (suitable) interface for PC
- SSD reliability for Eee PC is still questionable.
- Zoom in/out button is too close to the edge which my touch screen starts unable to register correctly, Ouch!
- I still couldn’t find the right Eee PC car mount; I don’t like cup holder and seat bolt one.

Note: you guys may like to see how it is when it's working on Thinkpad X61 tablet -- 12" 1024px*768px. Most of them are in portrait mode, so you get an idea if you have very tall screen. It works very well, but it's just too big for the job in my opinion.

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Garmin Mobile PC on Thinkpad X61 Tablet
Garmin Mobile PC on Thinkpad X61 Tablet
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Garmin Mobile PC on Thinkpad X61 Tablet
Garmin Mobile PC on Thinkpad X61 Tablet
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Garmin Mobile PC on Thinkpad X61 Tablet
Garmin Mobile PC on Thinkpad X61 Tablet
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Garmin Mobile PC on Thinkpad X61 Tablet
Garmin Mobile PC on Thinkpad X61 Tablet
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Garmin Mobile PC on Thinkpad X61 Tablet
Garmin Mobile PC on Thinkpad X61 Tablet
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>> Discuss here <<