Giving Up On Magellan

[flir67]

with all the talk about the bugs in the explorist line of products and it looks like no update is going to be available, has anyone giving up yet on magellan.

 

I have the explorist 600 and thinking of switching to the new garmin 530 coming out in september.it has nice features but from experience garmn seems to have better support and keeping there products up to date.

 

I just can't believe magellan made a buy it and forget about it product. because with all the talk everyone is mention , the techs on the magellan phone support have no update available.

 

anybody else going for the jump.

 

good luck..

 

[+embra]

I don't want to play the apologist for Magellan, because I think they *should* have at least an interim firmware update out by now to address the USB transfer freezes. But there *have* been reports that a firmware update is expected around the beginning of the year. That's too long IMO, but if and when it comes it is far from abandonment.

 

Also, I'd have to admit that while there are some firmware changes I want to see, the hardware side of my 500 has been quite satisfactory, and there are a number of things I appreciate and recommend over the Meridian I had.

 

I do confess despairing (at least for now) over DirectRoute improvements. With the drop in the Quest, I bought one for vehicle use. The Garmin autorouting does virtually everything I wish DirectRoute would--my only complaint relates to the lack of waypoint manageability I enjoy with SD card capabilities.

 

When you mention the 530, are you referring to the new Rino model? Looks nice for what it does, but it strikes me as quite different from the 600 in essential ways. I am attached to SD card features, for example, so I am intrigued by the rumor of a Garmin model with such capacities in the near future. But be aware that with any new model, you get the "pleasure" of discovering unforseen problems and waiting out the solutions. It does appear that Garmin is quicker to provide remedies.

 

So...I have indeed relegated my 500 to hiking duties, for which I find it serves well. If DirectRoute 3.0 approaches the functionality of the Quest's autorouting, I'll put the Quest on the auction block. Gotta wait and see on this one.

 

Also, it's worth remembering that the online discussions tend to be very problem-oriented. The 600 in particular, and Explorists in general have some problems that need to be addressed. But I think there are a number of people who feel at least reasonably satisfied with their experience. My point is that it's hard from a sampling of comments here to know how prevalent reported problems are. I have to assume that if *I* experience a particular problem and several other people confirm that they've seen the same thing, that it's probably wide-spread...else I'd win more of those lottery drawings than I do.

[+embra]

BTW. I'm getting a chance to test out Garmins customer support today (I need them to give me an unlock code for what should be a free City Select upgrade). I just got a busy signal with 15 minutes of re-dials, so now I have an email in.

[robertlipe]

As a developer, I'll say that Magellan is _way_ easier to work with than Garmin. They've been very good to me during GPSBabel and magxfer development.

 

As a long-time customer (my first GPS was a Map330 in '01) I've been baffled by the trends at Magellan in recent years. I'll admit to being disappointed that many of my beefs with Merdian weren't addressed in the new Explorists. I'm saddened that they're still acting suprised when the users are reporting such consistent remarks on them. I'm hopeful they can fix them in time to avoid damaging the reputation of this line.

 

OTOH, I have five Garmins, too, and they're not always a bowl of cherries to work with, either. But they do get a lot of things Really Right in their newer products.

 

In short, I think each company could learn some things from other. Each has strengths and weaknesses.

 

"The grass on the other side of the fence is merely a different color of brown." --robertl, 1989.

Edited August 23, 2005 by robertlipe

[+Sputnik 57]

I have the explorist 600 and thinking of switching to the new garmin 530 coming out in september.it has nice features but from experience garmn seems to have better support and keeping there products up to date.

Garmin 530:

 

Whopping 5 watts of transmit power (GMRS) means you can now call for help from 12 miles away (transmit power limited to 2 watts in Canada with a range up to 8 miles)

 

Bold color TFT display makes it easy to see and navigate to family or friends with Rinos at an amusement park, lake, or other outdoor group activity

 

Automatic route generation, off-route recalculation, turn-by-turn directions with alert tones, and icon-driven menus for finding points of interest (when combined with Garmin’s optional MapSource® City Select® software) navigate you safely to your next outdoor adventure

 

Mini USB and 56 megabytes of internal memory for rapid download and lots of map storage of Garmin’s entire line of outdoor cartography

 

Rechargeable internal lithium-ion battery for up to 16 hours of outdoor use

 

Barometric altimeter provides extremely accurate elevation for hikers and climbers

 

Electronic compass so you can get a heading when standing still

 

NOAA weather capability to keep you informed of changes in weather

 

It looks like a cross between a Rino 130 and a 60CS. Interesting, but the Li battery makes me nervous.