RusSEAL

Now that they're owned by the French- their customer service [in this case specifically over the internet/e-mail] is decidedly "flipant". I Love "The French"- so 'Nothing against The French, indeed. I hate the Paris-ners though- skulls and daggers to the Paris-ners... I own the more-or-less base unit the eXplorist 210 and I'm very happy with it! [Not that I wouldn't go for something with the usual culprits of a tech geek ] But when I initially looked for help creating a link to my Mac their reply was simply "buy a PC or purchase a $300+ software emulator for Windows". Oooookay.... Break out the assassins. I wound up geting a PC emulator off of Ebay- and my problems have since been solved- but if I'm going to find support for the unit, it'll be from the 'net and familiar sources- not Thales. Now- as GeoNerd has noted- if indeed they move operations/support back to the States, I'd be more than willing to rescind my incredulousness to teh brand- but as with all things that change, I usually wind up with a wait-n-see attitude!

Funny thing- I also got a X-210 for Father's Day! I've enjoyed it imensely already and it is true that you'll primarily get about a "state's worth" of data into it- so if you're using it for vacation purposes you'd be stuck bringing a laptop [loaded with logs/files from here unless you're wi-fi] or primarily the state you'd be vacationing in! I find it to be very effective, but it has a "close-in" radius of about a 100 feet, so pinpointing any one particular cache has been tough for me while I'm still getting used to it! I simply love it! For price/performance you're hard placed to find a better deal especially as a first timer like me! My only fault with it or any other brand has been the decidedly "Mac un-friendly" software issues- I had to cough up for Virtual PC; but I enjoy this hobby so much and with the difficulty of finding a Mac friendly solution solved, it's just too fun! I'm looking one day to get the Garmin [model name escapes me at the moment] that my brother-in-law has, it is soooo nice! But he's Fire/Rescue in Vermont, so having the uber model Garmin is both a need and a necessity for the type of work he has to do [including finding those caches! ]

Much to my amazement as well- the short answer is definitely as Skeets put it... "Nope". Everything seems to be rather proprietory! So much for having an "all enclusive" Linux-like environment when it comes to GPS...

Wow- I guess the "Linux Revolution" never reached the GPS market huh? Your information definitely explains things for me- my extreme thanks to you [robert, chips/dip & Embra] At least the choices have dwindled to just a couple- still, to autoroute or not to autoroute... You definitely make a compelling case for AR! I really appreciate the help- thank you ever so much!

Ever so sorry to hear about your loss! I just had my jeep rifled through about a week ago- the only thing taken was pocket change [most likely one of the neighborhood idiot kids] but it was only consequential enough to remind me to lock the doors at night Still this; in an incredibly rural part of town in a dead-end culdesac subdivision of $300,000+ houses... Just goes to show a person that it doesn't matter where you work, live or thrive to survive, there's always someone who sees you as having more than they do- and are more than willing to take it away from you if given an opportunity. My condolensces- I hope you're able to get the majority of your stolen items back- and more importantly, I hope you're able to recover your serenity- the hardest of all things to replace when such an event occurs!

Good point! Since I'm kind of bound by what the software requires, and there are programs I've been offered that are Windows based- I've already chosen the VPc route. Thankfully, in this instance, I have enough "tech geek" under my belt to be able to run Virtual Pc- and I lucked out and managed to buy a copy of VPc/Mac off Ebay just last night for a legitimate price [Virtual Pc for Mac w/ XP Pro for $130- I'm guessing that's good.. ] As far as maps go- I have a Mapsend DVD that was included in the bundle I recieved- is MapSend specific to Magellans or is there a preferable map program that everyone seems to like better than another? Since this is an X210, is there a map DVD/program of choice you'd highly reccommend? Case in point is Microsoft's "Streets-n-roads" [i don't remember the actual name] was mentioned as an alternative. Loading maps into Monsoure X210 still has me confused though- one must purchase the maps, but you go online for a key that unlocks the maps? Is that correct? And you really can't load the whole thing into the GPS [the US alone is like 1.x gigs worth of info- so that'd make sense...] Aye, yi yi... ToPo, 3D ToPo, so many different choices- I love it, but still it's confusing! Still a bit of learning left for me to do- and I want to be ready to go to the Space Coast this Friday [gonna see the shuttle go back up! ] so I gotta get this learning curve sharpened! Thanks ever so much for the intitial help- please take me jsut a step further with my inane questions!

Ummmm- woops! Actually, I was sorta half-wrong/half-right since it would'a been "half burried" Oh yeah- great save there! Very good point and thanks for the "Howdy"!

I am such a base level geo-tadpole it's probably embarassing... I'm running an Explorist 210 [Magellan] and I'm trying to outfit my Apple G4 Mac to be able to do all the things I've been reading about... Software wise, I'm probably looking at GPSBabel, but by itself that'll only get me so far since I'll want to install something other than the base map currently in the X210... Is this one of those instances, where I may as well "suck it up" and get Virtual Pc so I can run GSAK and the standard litany of software for this- I'm rather dismayed by teh lack of OS support for the Mac- but then, I suppose I should have expected it... Please instruct me in the best course of action- here's what I intend unless others think there's a better avenue to my software and cache-tracking woes... 1- GPSBabel- hoping this will "do what I need done" without having to add other programs... 2- GSAK [healthy donation if it's as good as so many of you say it is!] 3- virtual PC if all else fails... While I'm still in a n00b state of mind- better defined maps? Is this something one must be ready to purchase at such places as MapSend- or is Google as ligitimate a source? For me, the days of compasses and counting beads are just about over, but the "new fangled" stuff has me [i hope] slightly confused and I need some mental bearings to get off on the right track! Everyone's input/suggestions/help is greatly appreciated!

I was going to mention that as well... I'm new to the community, but I've got two caches to my credit thanks in no small part to my Brother-in-Law from Vermont who got me hooked when he came down back in May! I was so stoked from the first adventure that my wife sprung for a Magellan eXplorist 210 [YAY Momma Bear!] I just gotta figure out how best to link it up to a Mac... Gosh darn it, I didn't think it would be so hard to use a Mac along with a GPS system... My question is- with rusting aside- is the venerable GI ammo can the better choice overall or would using the stovepipe style "map" canisters half buried- perhaps disguised as a bollard or fence post? I'd love to plant a cache of my own in the near future- but there does seem to be some quandry as to what's most user friendly.