CTYankee

off to the airport....anyone?

I am a mac user and have not needed to use my DR software in years. I have a folder of all the maps I needed...until now. I'm headed to LA and don't have a map of that area. I have the software disk, so I can install the software (if I can find a PC), but no data disk. If anyone uses this and has or can make a map for LA I would appreciate it. I'm headed there tomorrow with 25 other people (youth group) and having GPS directions will be a HUGE help. We will be in the downtown area (Pico Union) mostly so if size is an issue keep it downtown and coastal. We won't be going far north or south, just to the beach and Dodger stadium. I can set up an FTP account for you to upload to or we can try email. My email allows for big files. Email me at sideoutmtb@mac.com and I can give my FTP info or 'good' email address if you can help. Thanks, Doug

I actually have 1GB of web space, but just didn't have time to upload the pics and do the link thing...not lazy, just still on dial up Will do that tonight since I am getting a lot of replies. Some more info while I'm at it It is the Sportrak Pro, about 18 months old (not used since I got my Meridian last fall), 23MB of map space (9MB included basemap). FYI, I can store a TOPO map of CT, NYC, northern NJ and Mass on it. For the full specs: http://www.magellangps.com/en/products/product.asp?PRODID=11 It does work with Direct Route which is a great program for driving. I've used it in LA, Salt Lake City, New York, Mass, NJ, NC, and has always been accurate and easy. MUCH MUCH MUCH better than mapquest (I HATE mapquest). Never had a problem with Direct Route, Mapquest is wrong about 50% of the time.

SOLD!!!

This summer I flew Delta and had no problem using my GPSr. I have to admit I didn't read the list of approved devices to carefully though. This weekend I flew American. GPS was explicitly listed alongside 2 way radios and cell phones. Oh well. It was good at making sure I was awake/ready for things like the rockies, Grand Canyon, Mississsippi (NY to LA). The hardest part about getting a lock is if you turn it on later in the flight. It will still think you are where you were. Takes a bit longer. I had to re initialize and geustimate where I was. My military friends tell me the same things. They train in US locations and can't figure out why their GPS does not work in Korea.

I have ordered from them twice. They are small so they can get bogged down with email and phone calls. However they will do you right. They PMed some stuff for me below thier cost. I imagine now that Christmas is past they are back to a normal operating pace. Great people to buy from, do it.

With 2% market share, there just aren't as many Mac developers. Not quite correct. There are many more users than buyers. The market share is around 3%, but the intstalled user base (# of all computers regardless of who owns them) is up around 9%. As a result, there also aren't as many Freeware games, office suites, science programs, CAD applications, or photo tools either. True, but how many do you need? Games? Buy a PS2. Office suites? Office 2004, Open Office, Apple Works, Star Office, etc. science programs? OK maybe there are some that are PC only, but there are many that are Mac only (and are VERY powerful and widely used). Photo tools? All the standard pro apps are available for the mac. Considering most every designer, graphics artist, photographer and printer I know uses Macs I'd say they are satisfied with whats out there. and... 1: Not to mention Apple does not leave their OS as open and venerable to attack as MS. 2: It is when the virus takes advantage of features in the email or web client that AUTOMATICALLY open or execute these attachements. Besides, if MS did their job right the first time the virus would not work. 3: Stable yes....just be careful where you surf. There are websites out there what will wipe your HD clean by clicking on a link (a big OOPS MS admitted to with XP, fix was a 120MB download. How nice). Then there are the dozens of other errors you are asking the world to exploit. 4: Stable? Maybe... Safe? Are you kidding? There are 0 viruses that have a serious impact on OSX. There are hundreds for XP. 5: True...just don't expect anything else to be as simple.... As for buying software...who buys in stores these days? On line is sooo much cheaper. Free shipping usually (ala Compusa.com). Sure fewer titles, but not fewer working options. For each task there is a title. Mac titles are usually so strong they don't have much competition (Toast, DVDSP, FCP, Photoshop, etc). Hey, you started it

As one who routinely does rebates and has never lost out on one (over $1000 worth this year alone) here are a few tips: Mail everything ASAP!!! I can't tell you how many times people forget and the deadline passes. Make copies of EVERYTHING!!! UPC, reciept, rebate form. Nice clear copies (scans are best imo) Record when you mailed things. Better yet, send them USPS delivery confirmed. Keep accurate records of what you are waiting for and how long they tell you to wait. If they say 8 weeks and after 8 weeks you have nothing. Call them and start a 'file'. You have to stay on them sometimes. If after more time still nothing. Call them again. Tell them you want to resubmit the forms and fax them to them this time. Same goes if you were rejected. Tell them you have everything and fax it in. Then call every 1-2 weeks. If all else fails and you still have no rebate, call the company you bought it from. They are LEGALLY obligated to make sure you get your money (IF they advertised the rebate). Small on line shops will not be as good about this, but the large Circuit City's, Best Buys and the like know this. I know one guy who has called and threatened legal action (simple small claims court case) and they mailed him a check that week. He eventually got the rebate check from the fullfillment center as well. So don't give up, keep accurate records and 99% of the time you will get your money. I have only had to make calls on 2 rebates. One I had to fax a form, and another they just were slow with. Yes, rebate centers do try and pay out as little as possible. When selling themselves vs the competition they keep records of rebates submitted vs rebates awarded. They pride themselves in finding that loophole to deny you. However as long as you do what you are supposed to they can't deny you. They are out to make a profit, but not at the risk of getting shut down for illegal business practices. I've noticed that Best Buy and now CC require you to sign the form. Its mentioned just briefly and I imagine its something they were told to to to add another thing for the consumer to miss. Oh, and I just got my magellan rebate. Submitted it in July!!

I have a Magellan Sporttrack Pro and a Meridian Color. I have used VPC with direct route and TOPO. Generating maps in DR is a long process, PC or VPC, but takes much longer in VPC. Then uploading them to the GPSr is as fast as on a PC (or faster depending on the adapter). I have not tried loading any routes. Waypoints and tracks upload/download without a hitch. I probably won't have to use DR much for a while. What I did was install it on a PC and then made maps of every area I might go in the next year or so (National parks, cities where friends live, places I go for business). I then did the 'send to SD card' trick. You disconnect the GPSr and after starting the process. It will gererate the map, but it won't find your GPS and it will quit. But the map is saved in the export folder. So I just moved it and gave it a name (rather than just 'map'). I did this for every map I wanted and now I have them on my mac and on CD. If I ever need them I just upload them to my SD card using a card reader. No need for DR at this point. I also use Magmyway for waypoint management. Works in OSX and is very simple and fast. I have not managed to get a firmware update to work using VPC, others have, so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. It was a downloaded version so maybe the Mac unzip process did something. I use a USB/serial adapter that I got at CompUSA. Its sold as a PDA adapter so look for it in PDA accessories. You'll want to download the PC drivers...I forget the website but its not the brand name. You have to look at the manufacturer on the back...Akers or something like that. INstall the PC drivers in VPC and it will work. I use it at 57000 baud. I have since installed the OSX drivers to work with Magmyway. I'm not sure if it will work in VPC now. SOme people can't use their adapter in OSX and VPC because if they load the OSX drivers OSX won't let VPC see the prot its on. Let me know if there are ny more questions.

WOW! Maybe I'll have to send it it (read on the yahoo site that its hard to get the screen aligned when you put it back together). I'll call and see what another person has to say.

When I spoke with Mag. they said return it, not to send it back for repair. I'll whip out the old screwdriver and see what I can do. What kind of nice gifts? Just curious...

Just got my Mag. Mer color. It has a spec of dust/paper on the bottom of the screen. Does not block the view, just really annoying. IS there a way to open it up and get to this? Its just under the first layer, not directly on the LCD (I can see its reflection down there). I called Magellan and they said I'm not supposed to open it and told me to send it back to the place I bought it. Not anoying enough to go through that hassle. So if I can just pop the case open and get to it I'll do that. BUt wanted to ask first in case there is something in there that clues them into the fact that I was poking around and voiding my warantee.

If you had read my entire post you would have realize I already knew that and was asking if the Magellan one was worth it (for $90) or if I were better off getting one from a third party manufacturer (i.e. the Titian III or Mighty Mouse II for $45-60). The 'magellan doesn't advertise' comments was in reference to the Colors ability to use an external antenna, not the antenna itself if that is the cause of your confusion.

Uhhhhhh, what information? All I see are specs about the unit...well all except for the external antenna that it can use which is why I am posting here and not reading there. I did some searching and foud the Titan III for $45. Will probably go that route unless anyone has any other opinions.

I plan to use this for biking and making GPS maps. I used to use a Sportrak Pro (which worked OK, just wanted color, more memory and Direct Route so I got the MC traveler). The ST would lose signal in some of the heavier tree cover. Most of the time this was because the GPSr was tucked away in a pocket or someplace else that limited reception. SInce the Color can use an external antena (which they don't advertise oddly enough) I want to know if the Magellan one is worth it, or if as is usually the case another brand makes a better one for less. thanks!

I can't wait to try this out. I have been making maps from TOPO and Direct route all day here on my PC. (so I can burn them to CD and not have to use Virtaul PC to make the maps...slow!!!). With your program and the meridians memory card I should be Virtual PC free now. Features I would like to see (no idea if it does it already since I have not used it): -management of waypoints -UL/DL tracks -make routes (I do a lot of biking and if I could just make a route based on a map of trails that would be very cool) OK, not much point to this post other than...great idea and can't wait to try it!

Read the news much? Just to clue you in, the USSR fell a while back. Maybe you remember a bunch of people tearing down a wall? No, not the Pink Floyd video, dude. It was, like, on CNN and stuff. Well, most of the old USSR states, (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldava, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan), went and formed something called The Commonwealth of Independent States. (Oddly enough, it was on this very day, December 8th, that it was formed, back in 1991.) Too Funny! The Dec 8th irony is just too much!

I bought this unil back in July and have used it in my car for driving directions 99% of the time. I have taken it on two day hikes and one bike ride. The unit works perfectly and is in pristine condition. There is some slight discoloration on the power button from use (will post pics on my website tonight hopefully) but nothing out of the norm. I am selling because I need more memory for all the maps I upload (New York and Boston area). It comes with the original package, PC cable, software, Topo software for street level maps (same as the streets and destinations, but with outdoors type points of interest: waterfall, marsh, cave, etc), and the car power adapter. $220 shipped. I have feedback on E-Bay as sideoutmtb. I have also done many other non E-Bay transactions and can provide references for those as well. Doug

I've tried updatint to 5.0 on my ST Pro. I use VPC with mac just fine for everything else. When I try to get the firware to upload I get an initial error message of "unknown version: proceed anyway" then when it connects to the GPS it tells me there is something wrong with the upload file. Could it be the way Stuffit (the mac equivalent of winzip) un zips the downloaded zip file?

Thanks a bunch! You nailed it. I had the OSX driver installed. I didn't have the Win98 driver. I installed the Win version and trashed the OSX driver and it works perfectly. Though generating the maps takes forever on my Pismo. My DP867 has VPS too, but for some reason I get Kernel Panics when running VPC (probably because rather than re-install it I just copied it from the pismo). For others still trying to get things to work, I did have to adjust my baud rate. I have it at 19200 now and it works. I will try and speed it up to see if that works too. I am using an iConcepts PDA adapter sold at CompUSA for $30. (Windows sees it as a 'prolific usb adadpter'). This is a big relief. Now I don't have to use my extra work laptop for my GPS. Now as soon as I can get it on my desktop I'll be set. And now I don't have to say I can do almost everything on my Mac that I do on my PC...this makes me 100% PC free.

What GPSr are you using? I have a Magellan Sprotrack Pro and am using a USB adapter I got at CompUSA (concepts?? Don't remember the name). I can't get VPS and the GPSr to talk. I am using VPC 5 though, anyone have any luck with V5? Also, any settings I need to adjust? Right now I do not have any of the com ports assigned. Since it is connected via USB and VPC automatically shares USB devices I should be set...right? Or do I need to configure a COM port?