snagged

http://www.lowrance.com/Automotive/Products/iWAY350C.asp SEMA 2005 Awards the iWay 350c TM "Best New Mobile Electronics Entertainment Product for 2006"

"At Macworld, Garmin International put Mac OS X Tiger on the map. Their product map, that is. Announcing that “it will immediately begin to make its line of GPS and mobile electronics devices compatible with Mac OS X version 10.4 Tiger,” Garmin plans to offer Mac versions of both Training Center software, used with the company’s Forerunner and Edge series of fitness products, this spring, and theMotionBased interface used widely by endurance and outdoor athletes". Got this newsflash from my brother although I didn't see anything on the Garmin website about this announcement.

From Lowrance New, good quality, and real value. iway 350 http://www.lowrance.com/Automotive/Products/iWAY350C.asp

"Yea these here puter thingies are really sumthin. A feller can do darn near anything wit em". Why has GPS not hit the mainstream? Because it is a technology that is not intuitive and those who know how to use it relish their geeky superiority over others.

I simply bought a detailed topographical map of basically my provience of Ontario. It came with street names, detail down to streams, businesses. I put the chip in and that is all I have ever had to do. I'm sure you can do some cool stuff on the computer but I basically just want to know how to get to a street and detailed maps for hiking and fishing.

I am very loyal to mac also. I bought a Lowarance ifinder specifically because I wouldn't have to use any windows based applications. I simply put the 256 meg card of my provience into the ifinder and I have all the detail that I will ever need for 99% of my trips. It's like a mac in that regard, just put the map in and it works.

Hey I bought an ifinder pro too!! No complaints except the power saver option is not on my 1.5 software version. They have been prompt with e-mail replies at Lowrance and that should be corrected on the next update. I bought an ifinder basically because with the detailed 256 map chip of my region, I could turn on the power and start using an excellent gps out of the box. I am a mac user for the same reason. I hate windoz. Price wasn't a major issue. I would have spent more. I just have a feeling that they are going to come out with way more detailed maps, so you might as well get something cheaper that will be out of date then something expensive.

I bought a Lowrance infinder pro with a 256 chip which contains a very detailed map of my provience. I bought it because I can use it without connecting the thing to a computer to have a highly functional gps. I took it right out of the box, put the chip in and away I went. I have had it for a week and it is pretty easy to use.

I would like to buy a new gps unit. I do like the ifinder from Lowrance but have discovered that they use mostly chips to store maps and other information. They don't even mention on their manual or website how much internal memory their units have. Garmin on the other hand uses internal memory to store information and does use not chips. Chips can hold 512 megs of memory while the best Garmin holds less then 1/2 of that capacity. In my mind, this is a major structural difference. Any opinions out there as to which method is better...now... and in the future?