Paul_Aris

I have seen this question asked many many times and have yet to see an answer. Does it stand to reason that Garmin does not offer/own any other topo maps for the U.S. other than Mapsource topo US, Mapsource Topo 2008 and the National Park Topo ones? If so I would rather own the DVD so I can use on the PC as well as load it on my 300 Than to have a preloaded set on my 400T. I really don't think memory would be that big of an issue for me. 384MB is huge compared to my Legend which I believe has 8MB.

So how does it look on the Mac? Do you actually run Mapsource like on the PC?

Taking a reporter that conatacted me through this site Gecaching tonight so he can right a story. Should be pretty cool. Get some good exposure.

It's things like this that make people buy PC's. If your one who doesn't mind a few things not being compatable just to be able to use a far superior computer and OS thats the price you pay I guess. Apple appears to be growing right now and tiger is only helping. If more of the population migrates over to Macs maybe our support will get better.

I use VPC7 and a Garmin etrex Legend. I have the mapsource US topo maps. My GPS is a serail unit so I have a usb/serail adaptor by iogear. On my Powerbook 1.5 I can do anything with the gps and mapsource as I can with a PC but faster. I have 1.25GB or ram. I am runnin OS 10.3.9. Unlike Pablo I don't mine using a few microsoft products. I use office and VPC. Office is a must if you run a business and have to trade files with other businesses who use PC's. I don't know any way around this. I do have a PC laptop and it makes trading files much nicer. I prefer the mac over the PC anyday but some of us need to use both. I only use the Mac for my business and at home. But my other profession I am given a PC.

That isn't nothing. We ran a graphic design business on a 266 G3 desktop with a 20" monitor and 416mb or ram up until 2 weeks ago. Now we have a 20" G5 iMac with 1.25 GB of memory and a 12" powerbook 1.5 G4 with 1.25GB of memory. World of difference, but the G3 did the job and made us a ton of cash. If that would have been a PC it would have been unuseable years ago.

I got my iogear usb/serail adaptor today. First I open up VP7 and installed the installation cd for the drivers. Everything worked well for downloading maps, waypoints and tracks. Ok cool, I shut down VP7 and went back to Mac OS 10.3.7 Installed the mac drivers. Plugged in the GPS and downloaded a .loc file from geocaching.com and selected that file for infput and slected GPS for output and hit the upload button. I get an error message. It appears that i can't find the device (gps). I restarted still nothing. I even tried to reinstall the software. Any ideas?

That would be sweet. However, I only have a Legend with 8Mb or memory. It will basically hold Mapsource Topo maps of Half the state of michigan. Takes about 15 minutes with serial adapter. Is a USB cable even available for an older legend?

Just an update after using VPC 7 on my 12" powerbook G4 1.5 with 1.25GB or ram and my iMac G5 with Mapsource. Mapsource seems to run faster on these macs than it does my dell laptop. Granted my dell doesn't have as much ram but more zooming and panning the Mac running VPC and windows XP is quicker. I have not tried to upload or download to my GPS yet because I am waiting to get the USB/serial adapter I ordered. It is a iogear.

That's great. I for one read everypost on this thread and a few others about the mac and Garmen. However, I already have the Mapsource Topo Disks that I use with my etrex legend. The topo maps have been great for not getting lost while on my snowmobile and hunting. I just thought it would be nice to be able to do everthing on my powerbook instead of my Dell laptop that is PC that my company gave me. No sense dragging that home on the weekends and nights if I don't have too. I did get mapsource loaded in Virtual PC and it runs great. However, I have not tried to upload or download from the etrex. I am sure this is where the problem would be. At least I have topo maps on my computer now for reference. Mine is the one that has the serial cable so if I get a USB to serial adapter I will try again and then explore some of the other mac options.

I have a iMac G5 OSX 10.3.7 and Virtual PC 7. I can't even load Mapsource. It gets about 20% and kind find the TOPO100DBE.TBD file. There is a file like that there but I think mac naming convention shows it a little different. Anybody else have this problem and how do I fix it?

I have been extremely happy with my Legend. After having it for about a year if and learning how to use everything well I feel now if I were to buy one I would go with the 60c. This is just because I have been bit by the bug to have a more deluxe model with color screen. The first one was to familiarize myself with it and use it the a few times a year for my hunting, boating a snowmobiling activities. I find I use it just as much or more for geocacheing. So knowing I do use the unit quite a bit I would not feel bad spending more next time. But for now the Legend is all I need and I will not replace it anytime soon.

Well seeing how you will have a ton of features with the 60c I would keep the Legend for times where you need something very small and portable.

How about simply adding a reradiating antenna to the Legend. I still say the Legend is a great GPSr for the Price.

Have you looked at this software yet. http://www.macgpspro.com/? You can't run mapsource with it but I don't know about the others. I would think Virtual PC running windows would work fine. It seems a lot of gps sites recommends the Keyspan usb adapter.

You have to ask yourself do I want one now or do I keep waiting for new releases. I bought a etrex legend last June when Garmin was offering a $50 rebate on them. The rebate expired at the end of june 2003 and I see they still sell them. Even if they did discontinue it does it make it any less of a GPS. NO. I think it is a great unit for the price. I paid 149.95 after rebate.

It depends what you want to use the GPS for. Originally I wanted to use mine for hunting and snowmobiling so I wanted a small very portable unit that would fit in my pocket. I ended up buying an etrex Legend because it was small but still included mapping. I ended up using it for Geocaching, using it for maps on trips, boating, and the above mentioned things. Well I am very pleased with this unit. It is very user friendly. I was told by users before I bought a unit that the Garmins have a nicer and easier user interface. Well I had almost all the functions mastered the first couple of days of playing with it. Its like running windows but easier like a Mac. I bought the Mapsource U.S. Topo maps. For my needs the topo maps gave the greatest details. I wanted to make sure my hunting 2 tracks and snowmobile trails (seasonal roads) showed up on the map. The topo maps had more of these details on them than the others. I can upload about 1/2 of the entire state of Michigan on my Legends 8 mb of memory which still leaves a basic map for the rest of the world. I would say the Legend is a great choice for its price.

http://www.macgpspro.com, Read this site. Come to find out you could be using a serial based GPS with you Mac. They have a Serial to USB patch cord. I've heard this is the best Mac GPS software out. I am a Mac fanatic. I have to have them in my home because my wife is a graphic designer. I have not used the Macgps software yet because the place I work gave me a Dell Lattitude D600 laptop, so I just use that. I also have the Mapsource topo CD I use with it. Mapsource can only be used with the PC as far as I know.

i've turned mine on and held it by the window with the topo map installed and I could see what towns we were about to fly over. Kind of cool to know where you are at.

I have an etrex legend and love it. I wanted a GPS that I could just throw in my pocket. I love the mapping feature. I have the U.S. Mapsource Topo maps and it shows great detail of all the seasonal roads and trials. I also think Garmins have a nicer user interface.

Anybody use the Rayovac rechargeable Alkalines?