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Please let us know how it works for you.

Interesting. "In addition to complementing MSN's local search index, MSN Virtual Earth will let users overlay maps and satellite photos in order to create hybrid images that combine the best of both mediums, says Stephen Lawler, general manager of Microsoft's MapPoint unit." Transparent images with a topo map would be useful. I would try it out.

This would be a good place to look at other options. The lowrance Ifinder line. It was between an Magellan Meridian Gold, and Garmin V or the Ifinder for my new unit. I was pretty happy with the Ifinder I finally bought.

Though a windshield mount works fine for my Lowrance Ifinder my old Magellan 4000 really needed an external antenna to work reliably in the car. As long as you have an antenna option and unloadable maps I don’t see why one unit wouldn’t do the duty. I understand that you want compatibility and upgrade options but my 10 year old is blown away by the little Lowrance GO, tiny hi-res screen 32 megs of maps , medium detail with main roads, lakes and rivers CONUS and Hawaii for around $70 – 79 dollars. 16 channels, WAAS and locks fast. Decent water protection lasts up to 72 hours on two AA’s and the find function and POI’s are really slick.

Thanks I had checked out the yahoo forum, a little slow over there but did get some good information prior to buying my Ifinder. Thanks for the link I had not read that thread.

Sorry for hijacking the thread. I was simply suggesting that Lowrance users have the opportunity to put pressure on the company to make it once again the friendliest GPS on the market. Don’t get me wrong, I researched before buying the Ifinder, over all I truly believe it is the most well rounded GPS available on the market. Having said that up until version 6.3 it was also the most friendly GPS package available as well. They want to protect their copyright from web swapping, understandable, we want full function and the convenience to use our multi-card readers thus minimizing the number of devices we have to carry around with us. I could have standardized on one memory card type but I didn’t want to replace my perfectly working devices. My Digital Camera uses CF cards, My digital camcorder uses memory sticks, my Palm and Ifinder use SD. I use one reader for all of these. Just because Lowrance is less of a copyright nazi than Garmin and Magellan does not mean that we just have to accept it and deal. The fact that Garmin and Magellan dominate the market would make it more difficult to pressure them into becoming friendlier. Lowrance could become just as popular if enough users promoted them. As a smaller customer base it is possible to use some leverage to encourage them to loosen up some on this. My primary problem is with the proprietary card reader requirement. This is unnecessary and cumbersome. We don’t have to be sheep. I wonder if anyone is using Ozi Explorer with their Ifinder. The mention Lowrance is supported on their website but I have no idea it is actualy works. I have a ton of DRG's and have seen other programs that state that they can convert these to .usr format.

IVxIV, thanks for the welcome. Perhaps the steps are redundant. I had issues converting directly into a .usr file in GPSbabel no problem witha coma deliminated .txt file. Also in GPM6 or Mapcreate I have the ability to build quickly build a route for my Geocaching day using the waypoints, I can assign custom icons and modify waypoint names. Is there a .usr format option in GPSbabel? I dont see one in my version I wonder if a coma deliminated saved as a .usr would work. Well if it aint broke... Has anyone else sent a kind note to Lowrance letting them know that no future purchases of their Mapcreate software will be made untill they remove the restrictive and customer unfriendly smashing a knat with a sledge hammer copy protection is removed? Also my next GPS will not be a Lowrance if this is not corrected?

A 64 meg medium detail CONUS map with high detail waterwaysand a 16 channel W/WAAS reciver, Itsy bitsy hi resolution screen with debate raging about wether the compter connection port is download only or two way. Its the second best value I've seen in a GPS, the find feature is awsome. I bought the Ifinder instead as it was on clearance for even less and has SD card compatability but only has a 8meg base map. The GO 2 basemap has POI and a ton of other stuff a smaller map just dosnt have room for. You will have to hand input your waypoints... One reason I finally retired my Magellan 4000. Reception on the GO and GO 2 was impressive.

Well I had the same quest when I picked up my Ifinder. It is easy once you get the hang of it. I even built a webpage to walk fellow travelers through it. How the heck to I get my waypoints into my Ifinder?? First post but then I am a beginner at geocaching, only 12 or so far. Edited to add, you can save the file anywhere on your computer. It is not looking for the GPS unit I use save file as then save it to My documents. I then drag and drop to my card reader.