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What The Heck Are They Smoking At Garmin?


Crusso

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If u like Mapsource, DO NOT upgrade to the latest BETA (6.6.2) firmware as u lose real time tracking! For some reason Garmin is pushing nRoute, which while being a nice program (voice prompts) does not allow for upload/download of info from the GPS. B)

 

You have to go to Mapsource, up or dowload ure GPS, save the file and then go back to nRoute and IMPORT the file u just created. :)

Much easier to just do real time tracking in Mapsource if u don't need the voice prompts. B)

 

For now it's only being removed in Beta but how long before they remove it from the regular update?

 

Yes, nRoute is free (nice) but I paid for Mapsource. So now Garmin is taking something away from a program that I paid for!! B)

 

From Garmin's page:

"Removed real-time tracking from MapSource. Use nRoute for PC real-time tracking applications. "

Edited by Crusso
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I would have paid top dollar to be present at the planning meeting they must have had a few months ago:

 

VP: So, we are seriously threatened by PDA software, and WindowsCE-based embedded systems. Do we have any ideas for new products to fight back?

Engineer: Let's add some SD slots to all our GPSes, everyone else is doing it...

Marketing: Instead, just put in some more hardwired memory. We should charge 5x as much for the memory as what an SD would cost. A Quest with 1 gig of memory at a $200 premium would be a good start.

Sales: We could increase the prices on all the popular models, I'm sure nobody would notice. Let's start with he 60 series. Those geocachers are whiny lot anyways. Who cares what they think?

VP: These are all terrific ideas... Seeing how we don't have any ideas for new features, could we build on our existing feature set somehow?

Engineer: Let's make a killer handheld with voice navigation, 3d compass and lots of memory.

Marketing: Even better, let's design some new mid-end models by just combining all the features we can possibly have in all combinations.

VP: can we do anything to compete on the PDA market?

Engineer: Let's add wifi and a high-rez screen to iQue M5, and drop the price to closer to what a PDA and a GPS would cost. We could also add an altimeter and a compass and be the first on the market to have a full-featured PDA navigator. Users would be motivated to use our maps and software to take advantage of these special peripherals.

Marketing: Even better, let's compete with the NavMan PIN on an even ground - remove all the features M5 has, and put in even less memory than NavMan has to save 5 pennies. And to really humiliate them, let's sell it for for way more $$$ than they do.

Sales: We could make $40 more by putting screws on the battery slot so the users will need to have us replace the unit in a year or just buy a new one.

VP: how about our PC utilities? How are we doing on that front?

Engineer: We have added real-time tracking and navigation capabilities, we are probably in the market lead.

Marketing: That laptop software will steal market share from dedicated units. We cannot afford to threaten our lead segment. You need to remove those features immediately.

VP: how about the high-end and marine GPS market?

Engineer: This is obvious - add weather info and an SD slot to the 276C.

Sales: We need to keep earning money on those wonderful custom Garmin flash cards. Don't even dream about SD...

Marketing: Please make sure not to bundle any actual maps. Afterall, if someone can shell out a thousand big ones for a GPS, they can sure afford to buy the maps for a few hundred dollars more.

Engineer: ??? Where is that letter of resignation ???

VP, Marketing, Sales: sissy engineers, they always try to blow our hard-earned money on product development. But finally we got rid of the last one...

Edited by kerecsen
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Garmin annoys me as much as (and probably more than) the rest of you[1], but of all the reasons I can think of to hurl a brickbat in the general direction of Olathe, this isn't one of them.

 

They moved some functionality from one program (that you paid for) to another that's free. Submit your feedback to the beta alias. Even if they don't change it, what does it really cost you? A few seconds to move the .gpx file from one module to the other?

 

[1] Ask me what I think of how they treat developers that actually try to support their random protocol combinations. Go ahead - Ask me...

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[1] Ask me what I think of how they treat developers that actually try to support their random protocol combinations.  Go ahead -  Ask me...

Actually you should have seen how creative they got with their map format when the first 3rd party maps appeared :)

Edited by kerecsen
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Yes, nRoute is free (nice) but I paid for Mapsource. So now Garmin is taking something away from a program that I paid for!! :)

 

Actually, you paid for maps. They gave you Mapsource as a way to view the maps. If you purhcase a 60cs it comes with "Trip and Waypoint Manager" which is basically Mapsource with no maps, just a basemap.

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They moved some functionality from one program (that you paid for) to another that's free. Submit your feedback to the beta alias. Even if they don't change it, what does it really cost you? A few seconds to move the .gpx file from one module to the other?

 

Actually, it's not just a few seconds, it's a whole lot of data manipulation and requires opening 2 different programs. If you open Mapsource first and then go to nRoute (or is it vice versa, not sure right now) then one program doesn't recognize the GPS because the other program grabbed the port. Then you have to go into windows, find the port, close it, reinitialize the program, locate the GPS with a port search, etc, etc. Not an easy task when one is on the road and it basically just irks me to have to go through it. It sometimes takes up to 10 minutes between the time I turn on the laptop until I can get my data file into nRoute and get the GPS initialized to it. :)

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I upgraded MapSource and Nroute and now Nroute refuses to activate a route (greyed out) and the driving dirctions wont appear under the F5 tab. Seems like I am hosed. Thanks Garmin.

 

If anybody can tell me what I am doing wrong I would appreciate it.

 

My GPS is an Etrex Legend.

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Ok, this really sucks... :lol: I just updated my Mapsource and see now (after the fact) that they removed real time tracking of my gps on the mapsource maps... So now I have to download another program from garmin to do real time tracking? Nroute. What a joke! I get to fill up the hard drive of my laptop with more crap so I can do what I used to do with the previous program that I paid for!

Not to mention the cumbersomeness now of routing to a waypoint. I can't download any way points into nroute directly from the gps. I have to download them to mapsource then save the file, then close mapsource, open nroute, import the file and then I can see my waypoints that already existed in my now defunct mapsource program. Shees! Duplication! gotta love the corporate minds. :lol::lol::lol:

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Ask me what I think of how they treat developers that actually try to support their random protocol combinations.  Go ahead -  Ask me...

What do you think of how they treat developers that actually try to support their random protocol combinations?

 

OH! NOW! you've done it!

 

Do you REALLY want to know?

 

Go for it ROBER!

 

cc\

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Here is another opinion.................

 

I had not even tried this NRoute program until I read this thread. I have tried in the past to use Mapsource on my Laptop PC to Navigate, but I cannot place the Laptop in a position where I can see it and also drive. So that does not work for me.

 

So I fired up NRoute and connected my running 60CS. NRoute immediately uploaded the waypoints and routes I had in my GPSr, and a voice came out of my computer that said "ready to Navigate". The screen looked just like Mapsource.

 

I now have voice prompted navigation with my 60CS when connected to a PC running NRoute, and a great handheld GPSr when I leave the Jeep to go caching. Both are sync'ed with the same information.

 

I might have to try the laptop while driving again.

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For those of you complaining about "closing one application, then opening another"...

 

Take a look at Franson GPSGate. Works great. Not too expensive either.

 

I finally got it so I could use my 60CS with Delorme StreetAtlas (USB support, my bottom. Thanks a TON Delorme. Grr..)

 

Nifty feature in this case: Share the GPS with N applications. Mapsource, Delorme, Nroute all at once? Ok, no problem.

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For those of you complaining about "closing one application, then opening another"...

 

Take a look at Franson GPSGate. Works great. Not too expensive either.

 

Point is we already paid for Mapsource and now we need 2 programs to do what one used to! :laughing:

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That's not true. The real-time tracking capability, which Mapsource used to support, was not nearly as advanced as what you get from nRoute now. So you paid for one program, and now you've got a significant addition in capability, for no other cost than that you have to run a separate program to access it.

 

Small penalty for a full-featured auto-routing voice-guidance program.

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For those of you complaining about "closing one application, then opening another"...

 

Take a look at Franson GPSGate. Works great. Not too expensive either.

 

Point is we already paid for Mapsource and now we need 2 programs to do what one used to! :rolleyes:

Ok, I'll grant you that. It was included, now it's not, but it's still free.

 

I posted about Franson GPSGate because it's handy for feeding GPS info to multiple applications at once. I offered it up for those in situations similiar to my own.. or who wanted to use both Mapsource and nRoute at the same time.

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well one good thing (and maybe what Garming was thinking) is that instead of one big program, they have two smaller programs. This has the advantage of being less resource intensive for smaller and/or cheaper computers that you might keep in the car/boat whatever. The might even be looking at porting it to PDA's, I don't know.

 

I bought a cheap used laptop to use with my GPS in the car. Nroute works great on it. It recalculates routes very fast, if I miss my turn off. I find I don't download too many waypoints while I am driving anyways. Your usage may very. Now unless they can get my GPS to download waypoints over the Satalite signal; like some kind of ultimate mobile internet uplink, I won't be complaining too much about having to close one program and open another.

 

oh, and did someone mention that it's free... :lol::unsure::unsure:

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Can anyone steer me towards a link that has old versions of MapSource?

http://www.gpsinformation.org/perry/agree.html has an archive of versions of Garmin firmware for their receivers and software for MapSource ("msource").

looks like link is dead for older versions of mapsource. i really would like to update from 6.3 to 6.5 but can't find anywhere. anyone know of any other source for older mapsource updates?

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looks like link is dead for older versions of mapsource. i really would like to update from 6.3 to 6.5 but can't find anywhere. anyone know of any other source for older mapsource updates?

Looks fine to me and includes both the 6.3 and 6.5 versions (MapSource_65.exe) plus many older ones.

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looks like link is dead for older versions of mapsource. i really would like to update from 6.3 to 6.5 but can't find anywhere. anyone know of any other source for older mapsource updates?

If you're having a problem with that link, I can email the file to you. Just send me an email and include your email address.

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