GPS for the lazy Navigator
Posted by Jeff December 01, 2006
We did the 8 hour drive to Virginia from Boston over Thanksgiving. I did most of the driving, and Elana most of the navigating. As always, we used MapPoint 2004 with a RoyalTek Saphire USB GPS velcro’d to the dash.
Occasionally I did some navigating, and that’s when I realized how different our styles are. Elana views the screen the whole time and is good about announcing upcoming turns. I, alternately, leverage the EVDO connection to surf away. This leaves me behind the curve of upcoming turns.
To relax and surf, I need alerting of upcoming turns via visuals/voice synthesis. The Add-On Advanced GPS looks good for this, and it’s a good deal at only $10. The new (to me) MapPoint 2006 also has the navigation features built in:
- New Advanced GPS Features - The new GPS task pane takes information about your current location as determined from your connected, compatible GPS device and displays your current location and the speed at which you are traveling.
- Voice and Text Directions for Windows XP Users - New Driving Guidance takes your location from a connected GPS device and combines it with a route you have created to give you voice-prompted driving directions.
The day after Thanksgiving we went geocaching with E’s geo-virgin cousins. Geocaching approaches satire with the arm-busting Z60M.
