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Garmin nüvi 3790T first impressions
May 18th
Having finally had enough of my TomTom 720 not working properly, (No full postcode search, very slow…)I decided to try a Garmin and last week purchased a Garmin Nüvi 3790T.
So why the Garmin, well it is one of the few that allow you to load US maps on a separate card, it has voice commands, it’s very thin. I also had Garmin forerunner 405 which I was very happy with.
So what do I think, well it is excellent. It certainly doesn’t have the same functionality as the TomTom, changing settings, marking map corrections, changing colours, turning off key tones, etc. And after initially being frustrated about not being able to do these things, it actually works really well.
Navigation is clear and precise, although sometimes the traffic avoidance redirections (turn next left, then follow parallel road for 20 yards, and then turn right), can be a little stupid. It does pick up traffic well, and as long as you ignore the minor detour, it works well. Full postcode search works well, and the camera free trial (1 month, I think it’s £30 per year) is good, although it’s not clear which are fixed and which are mobile camera (you have to read the small text) the speed is clearly displayed and if you are over it turned red.
Favourites are easily added, although it’s a little annoying you have to save address, as the road name, then edit this to change name to ‘Diane and Bobs’
Voice control is excellent, and can be very useful when driving. Simple commands with easy to read prompts on the screen make it a doodle to use.
Bluetooth connection to phone is excellent too, and microphone and speaker seem to work well. You can view you last calls, and make and receive calls. Although you can make call by voice command, haven’t been able to answer using voice command yet.
There is an interesting Eco tool, that tracks your mileage and fuel usage, it gives a display on the screen with Red, Orange or Green leaf showing how economically you are driving.
You then click ‘at the pump’ to input the fuel used and cost to keep tabs on your mpg. It seems to work well and does make me think when I am driving to dry more smoothly to keep the leaf green. Have yet to fully see the mpg, but it sounds like a great idea.
Overall I am very impressed, and after 2 weeks, really like it and don’t miss the TomTom at all.
I had heard very bad stories about Garmin support, so I hope I will not need them 
iPad first impressions
Jun 3rd
I now a new wi-fi only iPad, first impressions are very good, it, like all apple products, looks really good and feels good too. Activation in the apple store was easy and when I was back at my laptop it was simple to sync
Although it did sync all the iPhone apps I had automatically, which when you see them running and you then hit the x2 button to zoom in, some of these apps even though they run fine don’t really work well on the iPad so I have now deleted them.
It would be nice in the sync to see which apps where ‘true’ iPad apps
I then searched on the iTunes store for some new iPad apps and there are some good ones, I have used so far:
I am using this now to update my blog from my iPad. You have to enable XML-RPC Remote Publishing on the blog, but so far so good. Comments in iTunes said the app was flawed but I have to say so far so good. A couple of niggles but seems to be working ok.
Would be nice to have a more WYSIWYG editor but it’s great to start things going
I might have a look at Blogpress too, but the wordpress version is open source
Free iPad version of newspaper, unlike £9.99 per month Times!!! it looks great on the iPad only one page, but great content, videos pictures.
Another nice app, News, Pictures, currencies, Markets and Stocks
guardian eyewitness
Looks great on the iPad, I use ever note lots for capturing content reminders and notes, which I then organize using nozbe (iPad out for that soon).
Will let you know more once I have lived with it a few days
