Dr_Dajom

No it is not, it is right there for you to read, how is it dishonest So, your point is As far as a huge discount, there is very little profit in electronics. The profit margin on a $200.00 GPS may only be about $40.00, and that is before expenses such as employee saleries, shipping, rent, just to name a few. No, it is called a free market economy, a retailer is alway going the charge as much as they think they can get. Magellan is not charging anything, you can not buy a GPS from Magellan. From the Magellan website We're Sorry THis is the real world of GPS To provide you with better options and service in the future, we are making upgrades to our ecommerce infrastructure and cannot process purchases at this time. Please use our dealer locator to find Magellan products at a store near you, or we will be happy to process your purchase request on August 15th, when our upgrades are complete. When you see the retail price crossed out, that is the MAP retail price. what a company calls the Minimum Advertised Price or MAP. When a dealer sets up an account with a manufacture they sign an contract not to advertise and item below MAP, unless the item is discontinued. This is a policy of Magellan and Garmin as well as many outher companies in the outdoor recreation industry. For some reason an online dealer can have someone click to get the below Minimum advertised price, but if a brick and morter store should list the same price there account will be closed by the manufacture. I few years ago I got into a beef with Garmin regarding there policy when I was a buyer for a large GPS retailer. Garmin told me to bad. A brick and mortar store can have the lower price displayed in the store but not in an addvertisement. That is why when you look at an online price ther is the Map and the real price. In the European Union it's illegal for manufacturers to decide which prices a reseller can and can't have. You decide what your price is to the reseller and if the reseller want's to lose money and give them away it's his choice. It's called a free market.

Too late. Thales doesn't exist anymore. Well..... Thales has about 60 000 employees, so they very much exists. They sold the Thales Navigation part (Magellan consumer and Thales pro equipment).

Be careful....not only does Magellan have a similar set-up, they actually tie your gps unit and software to a single computer, so if your computer dies and you replace it, guess what.....you're going to need to buy another unlock code. That is a flat out lie! Magellan does not lock your units, SD-cards, maps or any other software to a single computer. Or maybe I missed that during my 5 years as a Magellan technichan (among other brands).

This is either due to a bad USB-connection (disturbed by either a program or other USB units) or a failure to type in the correct serialnumber of your gpsr. The electronic serial is the one to use, not the one on the sticker.

This is VERY interesting news. Hopefully it's got the 1.55 XL enhancements when it arrives. Don't worry it does. And it's working fine, so it should be up soon. //Beta tester

Sounds like they need to quit using thier own equipment. Maybe the news has had a profound effect on the accuracy of the equipment? Yes, if 6-8 mm is not close enough maybe they should.

If they bought it they will invest, so that has to be a good thing.

You should not have to, but a firmware upgrade won't hurt you!

You probably entered the wrong serial number and therefore the program made a map in img format (SporTrak and Meridian). Or you have the old version of WWBM that can't create eXplorist maps.

A version of MapSend Lite that can show detailed eXplorist maps delivered on SD-cards (or downloaded to SD-Cards) will be available for download from www.magellangps.com or so I've heard.

You wanted a picture and you got one (better late than never).

Would it be possible for you to post a picture of it? I hate to purchase something without seeing it. Thanks in advance!! It's a piece of plastic that fit's three aaa batteries inside (much like the "slide" for a SporTrak). I'll take a picture on monday (I left my digi cam at work).

I have the AAA battery clip. It's an internal clip (you can close the original hatch over it). I have not yet tried the battery time. It must have been out in the US for a while, I bought mine in Europe. There you go, it really excists.

It does???!?? The way I see it it's less accurate but tracks a satellite or two more.

Short answer: No freakin' way! Long answer: Since Magellan is owned by Thales (65 000 employees) and Thales makes chips waaaaaaay better than SIRFs I doubt it.

You probably put the cable upside down. It should be running down the back of the unit.

This was a design mistake on the early models. It should be corrected. Ask them to exchange the housing for a new one.

Nerys>> So basically what you are saying is you bought the wrong unit. That's just it, Magellan did not sell the wrong unit, you bought the wrong one. They sold a GPSr that they think is worth $400. Meridian Gold is not a color display GPSr. """Someone who buys a GPS for hiking is NOT freakin likely to by a heavy bulky 3.5" screen $400 unit. you point is irrelevant""" Sure they can, if they want a unit that they can use on their boat and in their car. And Snowmobile riders would definetly. """I did not ask for nor expect Topo maps nor do I want them. although if this unit was MARKETED for hicking YES I would damned well expect it to come with topo maps. so this point is irrelevant.""" You did not ask for Topo maps, someone else might. I've realised that you think the world evolves around your needs, but that's not the case sir. """Its not a marine unit nor was it advertised as such though that was part of my purchasing decision (its capable of some marine action) (I in fact DID read up quite a bit on this unit before I decided on it) it was NOT overtly clear that it would come with NO maps in fact the opposite it says it comes with a ROBUST set of maps for the US. it did not. and this point is irrelevant as well""" So now you've decided that it's not a marine unit? Well, actually your right. It's not a marine unit, it's a combo unit... marine, road and hiking. If you would have bothered to finish that sentance you would have read: "Built-in mapping Robust built-in North American or European basemap makes it easy to navigate major roads, parks, waterways and find airports and other points of interest." And on every page on magellangps.com that I can find info about the XL they clearly state that the MapSend maps are optional. It's so very said that you clame to have educated yourself before you bought the unit and yet did not even bother to read the first couple of sentances on the manufacturers web page.

oops I did not see the second page and that the thread had taken a new turn. Sorry.

Sure you can build the route in your XL. Thats another thing you would have noticed if you read s*** before acting. The XL seems like an expensive gps puck. Try the Globalsat ones and then return your XL!

Yeah, that is basically the same thing..... Stop blaming a manufacturer for something that you neglected/didn't bother to check. You can't compare a suckie 8 year old PC-GPS with the latest state of the art handheld unit. It's not even remotely the same thing. It's like comparing a car from the 50's with a brand new one (8 years is about half of the consumer markets age). In fact it's like saying: "I only payed $10 000 for my Saturn 15 years ago, now I bought a Porsche for $150 000 and I didn't even get a back seat." Well if you checked out the Porsche before you bought it you would have noticed that there were no back seat. *If someone only uses his GPSr for hiking or for his snowmobile, should they have to pay for the streetmaps? *If someone only uses his GPSr for inCar navigation, should they have to pay for the topo maps? *If someone is afraid of water or live in Kansas, should they have to bay for the Sea charts? You talk alot but you make absolutely no sense!

Don't put that much trust in the EPE number. EPE is just what it sounds like, Estimated Positional Error. At work We have an exact position (1cm). We have tested both the eXplorist 600 and the 76CS for accuracy (on several occasions). Sometimes the EPE is correct. Most of the time the EPE says that the units are off by say 50 feet but in fact they show a position between 5 and 15 feet. Anything closer than 10 feet (actual position) is "coincidental". WAAS and EGNOS isn't more accurate than that. At least not 2DRMS.

Can someone explain the SIRF III hype? Why? It's good but it's far from a revolution. I read about some serious downsides as well (I think it was here on the forum but the search function is disabled)....

From www.trimble.com: 1984 Introduces world's first commercial GPS time and frequency receiver Introduces first commercial GPS positioning product And from www.thalesnavigation.com: Technology Firsts First European GPS receiver (1985) First U.S. commercial handheld GPS receiver for positioning and navigation (1989) First European integrated differential GPS receiver (1989) First commercial 3DF-ADU, Attitude Determination Unit (1990) First GPS-based vehicle navigation system in the U.S. (1995) First commercial GPS+GLONASS receiver (1996) First consumer GPS product priced under $100 (1997) First professional Long-Range Kinematic (LRKTM) GPS receiver (1997) First high-volume, high-precision GPS OEM board-level product priced under $100 (1997) First GPS+GLONASS RTK (Real-Time Kinematic) system (1997) First handheld satellite communications device (1998) First GPS handheld offering industry standard Secure Digital Memory Card (SDMC) capability (2000) So there you have it....=)

Sure you did, as if the system was even ready for military use in 1980.