For the “directionally challenged” like myself, technology has made our lives easier. While there have always been maps, lazy people like me have never wanted to look at a map and actually analyze it. We have always wanted to know how to get from point A to point B with specific directions, turn by turn.
In the mid-nineties, Mapquest fulfilled our dreams — well, sort of. Mapquest was not always 100 percent accurate as I learned when going to a job interview in Costa Mesa while living in downtown Los Angeles. The directions, which I printed out and dangerously looked at while driving, brought me into Costa Mesa safely. However, I ended up stalling at a dead end street. Oops!
The days of printing out directions and bringing them with you soon ended in the middle of this decade with the arrival of affordable GPS navigation software for laptops or PDAs. While these systems would get you to your location most of the time, they did so by sending you in weird routes. But I also became convinced that the makers of GPS systems were possibly conspiring with the health care industry to kill us before we start draining the system.
In 2004, I bought my first GPS Navigator, the Garmin IQue 3600 Pocket PC for $500. It looked really nice, but it would have been nicer if it had actually worked. It often took ten minutes to find satellites and when it did, the machine behaved as if it was conspiring to get me lost. In Newport Beach, California, the robot-like female voice wanted me to drive in the ocean when going to a liquor store. In Anaheim, it sent me in the opposite direction of my important job interview and when I went the right way, it kept telling me, “Make a U-turn in 30 seconds.”
In 2005, I heard of a software company called TomTom, which made GPS systems for PDAs. I paid $250 for software and a Bluetooth GPS receiver that was just as small as a bar of hotel soap. It seemed to be my dream come true by showing 3D maps wherever I was driving and giving me a choice of what voice to tell me when to turn right or left. After the initial lust wore off with this product, I realized that TomTom was conspiring to kill me as well. Sometimes, I would get in my car and have peace of mind knowing that TomTom would lead me in the right place.
However, just as I got on a highway or just as I was about to make a major turn, the software would freeze even though I had a lot of RAM available on my Ipaq Pocket PC. I thought that getting a new Pocket PC Smartphone would change my luck. However, TomTom had a policy in which you can only activate a registration number ONCE on each device. Calling their customer service number was a nightmare and I was left without a system for a month until I finally heard back from them. Unfortunately, I experienced the same freezing problems I had with the Pocket PC as I did with my new Windows Mobile Smartphone. For the most part, the TomTom navigation software became useless.
I didn’t want to spend more than $150 on another GPS solution, so I thought that the $110 Microsoft Streets & Trips, along with a USB GPS attachment, would do the trick. But Microsoft had it out for me too, even worse than the others. Not only did the GPS, when attached to my laptop, suddenly drop the signal at important times, but it would often take me to certain streets that haven’t existed in years. One has to keep in mind that this happened even though I was using the 2006 edition of the software. Besides, using your laptop in your car is a dangerous thing and if you don’t believe me, ask the two children I almost ran over while using this.
In early 2007, my cousin lent me his TomTom One Portable GPS. This was a standalone system, not the junky software made for a Pocket PC. It was something that was very easy to install especially since I just velcroed it to my dashboard. After using this, I realized how irrelevant GPS add-on systems for PDAs or laptops were. There was no software to install since all the maps from the west coast to the east coast were loaded. The speaker was loud enough to talk over the music I was playing. The TomTom One got me where I needed to go just when I needed to in southern California. Only in Henderson, Nevada did I experience some mistakes. I became very attached to my TomTom One, but our affair soon ended when my cousin asked for it back.
About a month ago, I was driving all the way from Los Angeles to New Jersey. I couldn’t afford a new GPS unit because I needed to save all the money I could. I was able to obtain Iguidance GPS software that I could use on my laptop and my PDA phone. I read a couple of online reviews which were pretty decent. Now, it was time to try it myself.
Driving on major highways from Los Angeles to New Jersey is pretty basic, so Iguidance couldn’t screw that up. I even thought I could trust Iguidance to navigate me, my niece, nephew, sister-in-law, and her cousin to Newark International Airport and back. It ended up taking us longer than expected because Iguidance guided us down a lot of unnecessary side streets. I could forgive that. But on our way back from Newark to Ridgewood, it brought us into the side streets of wonderful Paterson, New Jersey. But that’s not the worst of it. We were soon guided to enter a highway and my eyes followed the 3-D path on my velcroed PDA as closely as possible. The only problem was that we were driving on the wrong side of the road as we entered the highway. As I saw the red Mustang approach us, my life flashed before my eyes. My sister-in-law gave a blood-curdling scream as I and the woman driving the Mustang slammed on our brakes. It was quite humiliating having everybody in the car tell me what an idiot I was while having drivers stick their middle fingers up at me. “Turn this damn thing off!” my usually calm sister-in-law screamed. I did.
I stayed away from a GPS for a full week. I couldn’t believe that my obsession with trying to find the right GPS system almost killed eight other people. I started to use Mapquest again to get me from one place to another and was soon reminded how much I hated this. On a casual visit to Circuit City, I noticed a portable Mio C220 Portable GPS Navigator for $179. I looked at it, read some of the decent reviews online, and decided to try it out.
Even though this system hasn’t been perfect, my choice has definitely paid off. I have driven with the Mio throughout New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. It has been accurate 99% of the time. The voice directions become overwhelming at times (I don’t need to be told I need to turn right every five seconds), but those can always be turned off. The only major downside to this GPS is that the visual turns are sometimes a couple meters off from the actual turns. For example, the path on the Mio will show a right turn on Maple Street even though I’m still a couple meters away from making the actual turn. Unlike the other GPS systems I have tried, the Points of Interest feature (which lists different stores, restaurants, gas stations, etc.) is completely accurate. Keep in mind, this is just about half the price of the other GPS systems.
Before you pluck down cash for the Mio (the best performance for the money) or the TomTom Go (the best GPS I’ve tested), there are some suggestions I have. I don’t want you to be killed in the same way I almost was.
1. Don’t try to operate your GPS while you are driving.
How can you pay attention to the road when you are trying to type in an address or change a setting? Wouldn’t it be so much easier for you to pull over to the side of the road to do this? In the afterlife, imagine what happens when you get into your spiritual discussion groups and people tell how they died. Jan will say she drowned while Eric will say he was shot. Victor might say he died of a heart attack. Imagine the laughs you’ll get when you say, “Um, I died because I was trying to operate my GPS system while driving on the road and didn’t notice the red light in front of me."
2. Use common sense! Your GPS is not a substitute for your brain.
We all know that computer-operated devices aren’t perfect. Don’t pretend they are! Just because you think you have a GPS that will verbally and visually tell you where to go doesn’t give you the excuse not to think. If your device tells you to turn right on a one-way street with oncoming traffic, don’t do it! If the GPS tells you to “keep going for 2 miles” and you end up driving towards a river, don’t drive into it! If you had a gun that spoke to you and it said, “Aim towards yourself and pull the trigger,” would you?
3. Programming your “favorites” should be one of the first things you do.
Most, if not all, GPS systems allow you to program several of the locations that you often drive to. Take advantage of storing these places before you use your GPS. It will save you a lot of time and heartache. Instead of having to type out the name of a state, city, and street address every time you need to go somewhere, all you’ll have to do is touch the screen once or twice and you’ll be on your way.
4. Make sure your GPS battery is fully charged. If not, always have the AC adaptor handy.
Most portable GPS systems can operate without a charger, but not for very long. I would say that, on an average, most will operate about two hours. It is easy to forget that the GPS needs charging, even though most allow you to see how much battery power is left. You probably don’t want your GPS turning off in the middle of an important trip. You should keep your charger in a place where you can easily reach it. Better yet, why don’t you leave the charger attached to your GPS and your cigarette lighter in all the time?
5. Use a navigation voice that will not annoy you. Perhaps, just turn off the voices feature.
I’ve heard some really annoying voice prompts with different GPS systems. Most give you a choice of at least three different voices. If the sexy, female robotic voice distracts you too much, don’t use it! If the monotone, male robotic voice annoys you, turn it off! Some people find any voice prompts on a GPS annoying. It’s like having a person in the passenger seat constantly say, “Turn right in twenty meters, turn right in ten meters.” Sometimes, you want to slap that person and say, “I know I need to turn here; there’s no other place to turn!” You don’t need to slap your GPS because not only did you spend good money on it, but you can turn off the voices feature and just follow the visual prompts.
6. Attach GPS in a position that is easily readable.
Most GPS systems come with a suction cup attachment that allows you to attach your GPS to a position on the lower side of your front window or dashboard. Use it! What is the point of putting your GPS on the driver’s seat? What is the point of putting it in the cup holder? Ideally, you should have it in a position where you barely have to turn your eyes from traffic.
A GPS navigation system should, ideally, save you the heartache of driving somewhere you are not familiar with. However, it can only be helpful if you use it correctly while employing common sense. When one buys a GPS navigation system, they certainly don’t want it to lead them to a morgue.
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