OneOfSix

Or just wait a month or two. They will fix the bugs.... The latest WebUpdater update (Nov. 20th 2008) has seemed to take care of all the issues I was aware of, including the power-down while reading cache logs in a certain instance, and the compass display for distance remaining is working now too. They've added a few more features too. I'm still really happy with mine and have used it full-time on a 5,000+ mile cross country driving trip already as well as some geocache use. Here's the official Change History list from Garmin with the latest update: Changes made from version 3.10 to 3.20: * Added scooter mode * Added support for raster maps * Added night-mode elevation colors * Corrected issue with position datum being set incorrectly. Datum will be reset to default (WGS84) Changes made from version 3.00 to 3.10: * Corrected an issue that caused incorrect translations to be used. Changes made from version 2.30 to 3.00: * Once upgraded to this version, software downgrade is not possible. * Allow user selectable datums. * Corrected shutdown issue associated with changing traffic provider. * Allow American English voice to be downloaded via WebUpdater. * Corrected shutdown associated with reading geocache logs. * Improved demo mode initial setup. Changes made from version 2.20 to 2.30: * Added support for MSN Direct using GDB-55. And... REI.com is now advertising the Nuvi 500 on sale for $289.00 until Dec. 1st.

Yeah, just saw that with a "Nuvi 510" google search. I guess it's been out for at least a few weeks too. Interesting though.

That's interesting. I wonder if pulling it from public link was due to mention of a "Nuvi 510" model in the manual. Did you notice that in there, with mention about bluetooth capability?

For those who have been waiting (I know I had), the Nuvi 500 Owners Manual is now available on the Garmin web site: https://buy.garmin.com/shop/store/manual.js...4&pID=13424

From what I have seen of the Nuvi 500 so far, I would say the answer is no. I think you need to go back to the menu, select the wrench, then make the change in the Navigation section (and also(?) in the system usage mode perhaps.) Actually, after initial setup and usage mode preference settings, I don't think it could be much easier. It's four button presses: 1. Menu 2. Select the car icon 3. Select "Walking" 4. Select "OK" And you're in "Walking" mode for geocaching... 1. From the Menu, select the car icon: 2. Select "Walking" and then "OK": 3. You're in "Walking" mode: 4. Selected "View Map" and we have topo view with a few caches:

Get this plugin first: Garmin Communicator Browser Plugin and then when you're on a desired cache page at the main geocaching.com site, select the send to GPS or send to Garmin link.

A correction/addition to my above post. I got an email back from the GeePeeEx author about the file encoding issue. If one exports the favorites from GeePeeEx directly to the 500, they get created with UTF-8 file encoding and show up fine in the favorites list. The issue only occurs when saving a GPX file locally on your computer first (Windows XP in my case) and then copying it to the 500.

My "compass" seems to work OK in walking mode, but is really more of a display of current heading and desired heading instead of really compass functionality. BUT... the distance display does not seem to show anything on the compass screen for me (at least at close walking distances). I really like my unit, have now had it for a few weeks, have been geocaching with it, loaded lots of caches and POI files onto it, and have been playing with GPX file functionality too. In a previous post above, I mentioned an apparent bug. Garmin wrote back to me saying that it IS a bug and is on their fix list. For me, sending one of the "free" geocaches from the site here to my MicroSD card is where the problem manifests itself. Sending one of the full "subscription" geocaches to the unit does not cause the problem. The free files are an abbreviated GPX file and don't contain a "logs" element in the XML. When viewing a cache entry on the 500 for one of those, if you select the View Logs menu item, the 500 immediately powers down. The full geocache GPX files do have a "logs" element in the XML and the 500 seems to handle these OK. Here are several other observations, mainly dealing with the handling of GPX and POI files. If anyone has any corrections to any of this, please post them. These are my observations through some initial testing. Some of these items may be common to other Nuvis, but I don't have experience with other models. And since there's no manual available from Garmin yet, hopefully this will help answer some questions or at least get discussion going... The popular free GeePeeEx editor when running in "Plain Vanilla" mode (and maybe other modes) creates GPX files with a file encoding value of "Windows-1252" in the XML header. Other GPX files I've seen get created with an encoding of "UTF-8". Having an encoding value of "Windows-1252" in a GPX file seems to prevent anything in that file from displaying in the Favorites list on the 500. The 500's own "Current.gpx" file is encoded as "UTF-8". The <cmt></cmt> comment elements in a GPX file don't seem to display on the 500 anywhere. Editing the "Current.gpx" file in the Nuvi 500 does not seem to change anything after editing is done and the unit powered up again. Deleting the whole "Current.gpx" file does not even seem to do anything, so it must all get copied to internal memory somewhere. It seems like the only way to edit a waypoint via a file change is to delete it from the Nuvi directly with onscreen controls and then upload any new changes as an updated Current.gpx file or new separate GPX files. Files can be copied to the GPX folder on either the unit or the memory card. They're then auto-imported into the main "Current.gpx" file on the unit. Adding a new waypoint GPX file to the memory card's or the unit's garmin/gpx folder causes that new waypoint to be automatically (no prompting) imported into Current.gpx on the 500. If a waypoint GPX file is on the memory card or in the unit (garmin/gpx folder) and you delete it from the Nuvi 500 edit screen, it remains on the memory card but won't display in the Nuvi any more (at least not until the file is updated with new date/time apparently) Editing a GPX file and renaming a waypoint name seems to add a new/additional waypoint, and leave the original named one on the Nuvi (still in the current.gpx file) Adding a new waypoint GPX file to the memory card will not cause the prompt at power up asking if you want to update the main unit with the new stuff from the memory card, like what happens with new POI data on the memory card. Although you can't enter parenthesis "( )" for a phone number while editing it on the 500, they seem to display just fine if they exist in an imported GPX file. This is not an MP3 playing unit and as such, does not currently seem to play MP3's or WAV files that are included along with custom POI files (apparently WAV files can be used on the 200 series Nuvis with some tweaks to POI loader, but the tweaks don't seem to work on the 500). The 500 does not seem to be a text to speach (TTS) unit, so the included voice files can't be modified with the method like those Nuvis that are TTS capable (though apparently there is software to modify the voices, just not through text edits). There are also less voices than some other Nuvis (and there's no Australian English voices, which I thought might be neat to try). "Tour Guide" style proximity alerts don't seem to work (a proximity set in a GPX file waypoint) -- probably because the 500 is not MP3-capable — maybe no Tour Guide features work (at least I've not figured out how yet, though I've not tried creating a GPX file with TourGuide in the GPX file name (some sites say this only matters for associated MP3 files)). In fact, GPX files copied to the 500 with proximity elements get auto-imported into Current.gpx but the proximity element gets completely stripped off. Putting a waypoint with the proximity element directly into Current.gpx seems to do nothing. Again, just my current observations without a manual or any other online technical info about the 500.

Mine seemed this way on the drive home from picking it up at the store, but I didn't note the distances or timing specifically. When I got home I hooked it up to the computer to register it, and I believe it upgraded the system and software, and seems like I saw a couple of "unlock" messages during the update/registration too. I noticed two things after the update: The spoken directions work like a charm now, giving usually about 1 mile and then .2 mile and a turn right/left prompt after that, just before the turns. Seems like plenty of advanced notice. The other thing was a menu change. When I first powered it up before the register/update process and initialized it for my state (CA), I could not select another state to navigate to on the "Where To...Address...Select City In" screen. The button at the bottom of that screen only had "Change Country" I believe. After the registration and update, the same button now shows "Change State/Country" and I can select any place in the U.S. I'm a Nuvi newbie, upgrading from first a Garmin GPS III for several years and then a GPS V for a few, but this 500 is really impressive. I took it out to a Geocache the other evening too and the switch over to walking mode and topo is pretty cool. The only thing that I'm having issue with is what appears to be a bug, but I've not had time to mess with it much or research more... My Geocaches are stored on a 4gb Micro SD (I've only got about 5 or 6 caches on there currently). When one views the cache details, there's a "View Logs" button. When I select that for any of the stored caches, the Nuvi powers down immediately. Funky, but certainly not a show-stopper at this point. It's a great little unit.

I had one on Pre-Order from Amazon.com. They estimated availability on Aug. 10th with delivery today (Aug. 12th). This morning they sent out an email saying the revised arrival was between Sep. 5th and Sep. 23rd. I found our local REI store had 4 in stock since late last week and picked up one there today after canceling my Amazon order. Looks great so far (during my 2 mile drive back from the store). Thanks reimero for saying you found it locally too, else I would still be waiting.