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Magellan Triton series


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Will it autoroute?

 

I haven't seen anything in print that says they will. However the fact that they are planning a vehicle mount as an accessory might lead one to believe that they will.

I just got off the phone with Magellan Support. The backlight in my Meridian Platnium has quit working (otherwise the unit works fine, just in daylight). Of course I got the "we no longer service that model" and their offer to upgrade me to a referbished Explorist 600 for $210.

 

I asked about the Triton as a ugrage. They do not have that option "yet". I also asked about autoroute for street maping and they said the Tritons do have the autoroute function. I did not think to ask what software it used for autorouting however.

 

I will keep my Platinim for now and see about an Triton upgrade later or just buy one outright if they prove to be good units

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Anybody in the SF Bay Area want to take a look at the Tritons next Wednesday, Sept. 12? Magellan is hosting a media only preview at Fort Mason from 4-6 pm. That's three hours from me and I've got a new baby in the house, so I can't make it. If someone is willing to write up their impressions to post here and on GPS Tracklog, I think I can get you in the door.

 

Sideband me at rich at makeyourownmaps dot com if you can attend.

Edited by Redwoods Mtn Biker
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Hopefully this will not be considered a double post I started another thread on the topic but Is their an official date when these are going to be released.. I am in need of a new GPS before the end of the month for some hiking trips and I am on the fence right now almost pulled the trigger on a pn-20 but read too many bad reviews and really want something that can do raster graphics

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Hopefully this will not be considered a double post I started another thread on the topic but Is their an official date when these are going to be released.. I am in need of a new GPS before the end of the month for some hiking trips and I am on the fence right now almost pulled the trigger on a pn-20 but read too many bad reviews and really want something that can do raster graphics

 

Sorry, but TigerGPS is saying mid-October, and Magellan is telling me they won't have review units till early-mid October.

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Hopefully this will not be considered a double post I started another thread on the topic but Is their an official date when these are going to be released.. I am in need of a new GPS before the end of the month for some hiking trips and I am on the fence right now almost pulled the trigger on a pn-20 but read too many bad reviews and really want something that can do raster graphics

 

Sorry, but TigerGPS is saying mid-October, and Magellan is telling me they won't have review units till early-mid October.

 

Thanks for the info

Oh well I guess I will pick up a 60csx in the meantime and sell it when the tritons come out that is if they are as good as they look like they are going to be.

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Anybody in the SF Bay Area want to take a look at the Tritons next Wednesday, Sept. 12? Magellan is hosting a media only preview at Fort Mason from 4-6 pm. That's three hours from me and I've got a new baby in the house, so I can't make it. If someone is willing to write up their impressions to post here and on GPS Tracklog, I think I can get you in the door.

 

Sideband me at rich at makeyourownmaps dot com if you can attend.

Dang, I would actually pay good money to get in there and snap pics for the folks here. Unfortunately, I am on the road (KY and SD) for the next two weeks. But hey, at least I'll grab another couple of states on my geocaching USA tour... :)

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Anybody in the SF Bay Area want to take a look at the Tritons next Wednesday, Sept. 12? Magellan is hosting a media only preview at Fort Mason from 4-6 pm.

Ouch. I wish vendors would notice that getting from most of the Bay Area to Fort Mason in SF is as much fun as going to a dentist for a root canal. :)

 

Oh well, I am sure someone will summarize the event here.

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Anybody in the SF Bay Area want to take a look at the Tritons next Wednesday, Sept. 12? Magellan is hosting a media only preview at Fort Mason from 4-6 pm. That's three hours from me and I've got a new baby in the house, so I can't make it. If someone is willing to write up their impressions to post here and on GPS Tracklog, I think I can get you in the door.

 

Sideband me at rich at makeyourownmaps dot com if you can attend.

 

email sent.

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Anybody in the SF Bay Area want to take a look at the Tritons next Wednesday, Sept. 12? Magellan is hosting a media only preview at Fort Mason from 4-6 pm. That's three hours from me and I've got a new baby in the house, so I can't make it. If someone is willing to write up their impressions to post here and on GPS Tracklog, I think I can get you in the door.

 

Sideband me at rich at makeyourownmaps dot com if you can attend.

 

email sent.

 

Have replied. Hope it works out.

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Here's a little more info and a nice close up pic.

http://www.electronista.com/articles/07/08...iton.handhelds/

 

so much for Magellan getting out of the handheld business.... Looks promising, now if they'll only support them!

 

I here you ont he support issue. I gave up on Magellan long ago because of the worst customer service I have experienced anywhere, ever!!!

 

I went online to get an update for an old Meridian Gold the other day and it took 30 mins to find it and I had to create user accounts etc just to get to it and a copy of the manual. Dreadful, dreadful support.

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Anybody in the SF Bay Area want to take a look at the Tritons next Wednesday, Sept. 12? Magellan is hosting a media only preview at Fort Mason from 4-6 pm. That's three hours from me and I've got a new baby in the house, so I can't make it. If someone is willing to write up their impressions to post here and on GPS Tracklog, I think I can get you in the door.

 

Sideband me at rich at makeyourownmaps dot com if you can attend.

 

email sent.

Anything yet? [are we there yet] :P

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Anybody in the SF Bay Area want to take a look at the Tritons next Wednesday, Sept. 12? Magellan is hosting a media only preview at Fort Mason from 4-6 pm. That's three hours from me and I've got a new baby in the house, so I can't make it. If someone is willing to write up their impressions to post here and on GPS Tracklog, I think I can get you in the door.

 

Sideband me at rich at makeyourownmaps dot com if you can attend.

 

email sent.

Anything yet? [are we there yet] :)

 

Marky was going to go; we had it all set up. Then I got an email from him last night saying the "event was cancelled due to the firmware not being ready." Boo-hoo. :P

 

From what he said, they may not reschedule it either. Too bad. I know we're all chomping at the bit to see if these units are as good as they sound.

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Anybody in the SF Bay Area want to take a look at the Tritons next Wednesday, Sept. 12? Magellan is hosting a media only preview at Fort Mason from 4-6 pm. That's three hours from me and I've got a new baby in the house, so I can't make it. If someone is willing to write up their impressions to post here and on GPS Tracklog, I think I can get you in the door.

 

Sideband me at rich at makeyourownmaps dot com if you can attend.

 

email sent.

Anything yet? [are we there yet] :)

 

"event was cancelled due to the firmware not being ready."

aren't we one month from release to the public? or, maybe not.

 

typical magellan... :P:D:)

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Anybody in the SF Bay Area want to take a look at the Tritons next Wednesday, Sept. 12? Magellan is hosting a media only preview at Fort Mason from 4-6 pm. That's three hours from me and I've got a new baby in the house, so I can't make it. If someone is willing to write up their impressions to post here and on GPS Tracklog, I think I can get you in the door.

 

Sideband me at rich at makeyourownmaps dot com if you can attend.

 

email sent.

Anything yet? [are we there yet] :)

 

"event was cancelled due to the firmware not being ready."

aren't we one month from release to the public? or, maybe not.

 

typical magellan... :P:D:)

Somewhere, a week before the units ship, a Magellan developer will be checking in his code modules into a repository, after fixing the latest bugs on the punch list that QA compiled.

 

Anyone wanna bet the release date gets pushed out to mid-November?

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My explorist 210 jumped off my suburban back in may and I replaced it with a 500LE ($150.00) which I totally love. I am impressed with the out-of-the-gate pricing on the new Tritons. With all the features that are available even on the basic model, based on the history of both Garmin and Magellan, I am impressed with the suggested retail price.

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My explorist 210 jumped off my suburban back in may and I replaced it with a 500LE ($150.00) which I totally love. I am impressed with the out-of-the-gate pricing on the new Tritons. With all the features that are available even on the basic model, based on the history of both Garmin and Magellan, I am impressed with the suggested retail price.

true, they do have good units - I own a eX600 and a meriplat that I use constantly. You just have to enter the purchase with the full knowledge that:

 

1. they update their firmware RARELY - i.e. My eXplorist was updated once, since it was released over 2 years ago.

2. Hope nothing goes wrong with your unit. The customer service ranges mostly around atrocious to non-existant.

3. don't except regular updates to the software (maps, windows apps, drivers (no Vista or Mac support))

4. magellan likes wonky (proprietary) hardware that requires you buy only magellan accessories, and they tend to change with each new model, to force you to buy all new accessories.

5. while most of their software works, it's kind of like Korean knockoff merchandise - somehow its 'just not quite right'

 

that's enough for now.

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Yes, I was pretty disappointed that the event got canceled. One interesting thing on the canceled itinerary was a geocaching activity around the area where the presentation was to be held. That tells me that maybe there are some interesting geocaching features they were trying to highlight. If I hear anything else, I will post it here. :sad:

 

If nothing else, I'll give my reviews when I buy the 2000. :)

 

--Marky

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Looks like Magellan is running late in putting out their new units, this was the month they were supposed to be on the market. No one has even gotten a pre-release test model, there isn't any data on accessories or cables, nor a real owners manual online.

 

Are they going to make the horrible mistake that Delorme made by announcing their handheld was coming out, with it taking two years for it to happen.

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My explorist 210 jumped off my suburban back in may and I replaced it with a 500LE ($150.00) which I totally love. I am impressed with the out-of-the-gate pricing on the new Tritons. With all the features that are available even on the basic model, based on the history of both Garmin and Magellan, I am impressed with the suggested retail price.

 

I have/had a explorist 500LE. A month or so ago I shattered the LCD screen on it (my fault). So I call Magellan support and arrange to send it in. I was told "it would take about a week to get it fixed". At this point, I was headed out on vacation in about 2 1/2 weeks, so I figured "good, if It gets back". About 2 weeks before my trip I call to check status to make sure they got it.. yep, they got it, and "will be repaired in a couple of days, call us back then for a tracking number". I call back a few days later, and then they tell me "it's been repaired and should be on it's way back to you but we don't have a tracking number yet, call back tomorrow". I instead wait 2-3 more days and call.. no tracking number. They say "it's on it's way, but we don't have the tracking number yet, call back in 2-3 days (sound familiar?)." At this point, I really just need to make a decision as to whether or not I need to buy a new GPS for the trip, so I call back the next day and say " I just need to know if it has shipped yet, and if so I really need the number to figure out what to do". After talking to a couple of different people on different calls, I finally get told the real story.. that it's been repaired, but has been given to the testing people to verify proper operation and to ship, and that it probably hasn't shipped yet.

 

Now let me put this into context... I was reasonably happy with the 500LE. The things I weren't happy with (limited number of waypoints being the primary one) are supposedly fixed in the triton series. My intention was to just use the 500LE until the Triton came out and then upgrade to it assuming it lived up to it's hype. If Magellan would have treated me ok, I would have probably just gone and found either another 500LE or one of the lower end units to get me by. But this whole "it's shipped, wait a couple of days and call back" line from a person who doesn't speak reasonable english made me decide to just go ahead and purchase a 60CSX. Let me also say that I used to be a Garmin Snob, and the 500LE made me think that Magellan wasn't that bad... I actually was excited to get my hands on the Triton, but the whole experience pushed me over the edge.

 

So, I got a 60CSX overnighted to me with both the City Navigator and Topo products. Spent a couple of hours getting the maps I needed downloaded to a SD card. I also used the Custom POI loader, and I have over 10,000 caches from GSAK in the device.

 

I can tell you that there is absolutely no comparison between a 500LE (arguably Magellan's current top of the line unit, other than the Compass/Barometer which I don't use in the 60CSX anyways) and the 60CSX. The 60CSX is faster, nicer, holds more usable POI's, etc.

 

And the best part of the 60CSX? I was able to call Garmin before the purchase and say "Can you tell me what is in the Auto Navigation Kit?" and actually be able to converse with the native english speaker on the other end... And I called once for tech support just to ask a quick question (I want to do x, but I don't see how, is this possible?) and loved talking to someone in the US.

 

I'm sorry, but I'm glad to be a Garmin snob once again. Triton is going to have to be much much much better than the 500LE to even make me think about purchasing it.

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FYI - I stopped by Ham Radio Outlet here in San Diego to pick up a new mic for an iCom radio I use. I got to talking with the owner who was super cool and very knowledgable about all the different brands of GPS units, as they sell a lot of aviation communications and navigation equipment as well.

 

He said they used to carry several brands of GPS, but cancelled their distributorship with Magellan due to, and I quote, "HORRIFIC service". He said that every aspect of that company was hard to deal with. That as a dealer, he was able to contact folks that the layman couldn't call, and that it didn't matter because everyone there was difficult. Even as a dealer, he could not return a faulty unit for replacement, but that it would have to be repaired and returned. For his customers, he would swap a new unit out of inventory, but eventually had so many units he had to sell as refurbished, people quit buying them. He absolutely nothing good to say about them.

 

He also then told me that of all the units he has used personally, the 60CSx is the shining star of the bunch for the money.

 

I was ready to pre-purchase a Triton 2000. I am going to order a 60CSx today.

 

Anyone know who has the best price as of today?

 

Matt

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My explorist 210 jumped off my suburban back in may and I replaced it with a 500LE ($150.00) which I totally love. I am impressed with the out-of-the-gate pricing on the new Tritons. With all the features that are available even on the basic model, based on the history of both Garmin and Magellan, I am impressed with the suggested retail price.

 

I'm sorry, but I'm glad to be a Garmin snob once again. Triton is going to have to be much much much better than the 500LE to even make me think about purchasing it.

And there is the whole problem I have with this new line. Sketchy photos (I think they are artist renditions and not actual units), limited information with plenty of promises, and customer service that should not be called 'service' but "welcome to hell, we'll be with you shortly".

 

I love my platinum and my eX600. I am one of the lucky few that has never had to call for help or support. Both units still work anad I can still find the caches. Unfortunately, I see myself moving to Garmin in the future. Magellan just can't turn this ship around with one new product line, if their 'service' and support areas are still miserable. Oh, sure, they will suck in a few misinformed sheep with all of their flashy bells and promised glory, but then the threads will start again about how the unit is broken, the call center is unresponsive, and updates to the software/firmware take 1-2 years to arrive. Oh, and when was the last time your maps were updated, hmmm??? thought so.

 

waiting for the next best thing from Garmin.

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Same here, I was going to get a Triton 2000, but got a Map60CSx back on the 2nd of September, but what happened there was that I replaced my older Map60Cx that I damaged on the bicycle, and then shattered the housing of the 60Cx when I attemted to open it up to fix the battery contacts.

 

Still have my eXplorist XL, since it has a big screen, but it's tracklogging is horrible. If I have a dozen tracks on the memory card the GPS keeps rebooting if I go into the tracklog folder on the SD card. Also the Tracklogs don't show up on the screen very well, when I display a track on the map screen.

 

Map60CSx the way to go.

 

Edit:(added)

The Map60CS came out in early 2004, and then the Map60CSx came out in early 2006, so an update is probably in the works for early 2008. When I got my brand new Map60CSx back on the 2nd of this month, most of the bugs been worked out of it, like the power and reciever issues, that seem to kill batteries too fast, and the new one has no power issues, and the batteries keep going, and going, like the previously deffective batteries in the old map60Cx seem to keep going in the new 60CSx.

Edited by GOT GPS?
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Yeah I don't know, lots of people seem to have had trouble with Magellan. Plus from their web page they make no reference to being able to do autorouting. I found this really surprising. I want to hear what people think when it finally comes out though.

 

I have a 76CSX, we use it on our kayaks in addition to caching. I think I like the shape better than a 60CSx. And it floating is a nice thing for it being in our kayaks when we are out on the water. Would hate to lose it.

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I considered the 76CSx, but the screen size turned me off. I use my GPS when driving my Polaris Ranger off road and I need a big enough display to read while bouncing around. Plus, it looks to be set up exactly like the GPS III+ that I have, which will reduce the learning curve big time. For the rare few times I take it near water, I can always hook it to something that floats.

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Another nugget to add to the pile. I found this listed on the REI website for the Triton 2000.

 

Specification Description

Position accuracy WAAS-enabled 3 meters

Routes 50

Waypoints (total) 1,000

Memory 20 MB

PC Compatible Yes

Compass Yes

Altimeter Yes

Color screen Yes

Quad helix antenna No

Compact antenna Yes

Display size 2.7 inches

Screen Pixels 320 x 240

Battery type 2 AA

Battery life at 70 degrees 10 hours

Dimensions 5.75 x 2.61 x 1.17 inches

Weight 7.2 ounces

 

Of course, magellan wouldn't want to put the specs on their own device on their own website! So, since it isn't 'official', I will take it with a grain of salt. The interesting items that jump out at me are:

 

Position accuracy WAAS-enabled 3 meters [eXplorist 600 was listed as 7 meters]

Routes 50 [eXplorist allowed you to store 5 track files with 2000 points each]

Waypoints (total) 1,000 [we all know about the current 200 limit, so this is definitely better] woo hoo

Memory 20 MB [eX had 16MB user available] not sure what this means... I think they are more focused on the SD expansion aspect versus hard stored on the units main memory site. Basemap + personal POI's? Robert? embra?? anyone with a little more technical knowhow than yours truely?

 

Oh, and 10 hour battery at 70 degrees does not impress. I'm sure all of the AA AAA battery folks are happy, but I loved my LioN's AND the ability to carry a AAA clip for emergency use.

 

edit to add: The REI Linky, if you're interested.

Edited by Jhwk
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The Explorist 600 is listed as "3 to 5 meters (10 - 16 feet) - WAAS/EGNOS, < 7 meters (15 feet) - GPS only" which sounds consistent with above.

 

Tracks aren't routes. The number of routes on Explorist was either 20 or 50.

 

The "memory" thing is too vague to be very interesting. It's not clear if that's flash or RAM and what it's used for. The trend in units - especially those with map data and even more so for those that allow arbitrary programs and music - is toward moving that to consumer-upgradeable flash memory.

 

Ten hours? I wonder how much better the units with fewwer features will do.

 

It's about the weight of a 76C.

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Like most, I have no use for a camera or MP3 player on my GPS, but would like the barometer and electronic compass. Unfortunately, there is no simple choice for us in the Triton line--I can get the bigger touch screen I want in the 1500, but no compass or baro, or compass and baro but just a 2.2" (non-touch) screen in the 500.

 

For the whole deal I have to pay the premium for a 2000.

 

I'm debating whether the bigger touch screen or the compass and baro are the more important options, if it comes right down to it. What do you think?

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I'm debating whether the bigger touch screen or the compass and baro are the more important options, if it comes right down to it. What do you think?

My experience was that I loved having the compass on my Meridian Platinum, but I rarely used the barometer. And when I upgraded to an Explorist 500, I didn't really miss the compass that much. I would pay $30 or so extra for an electronic compass, but when the price difference gets that much more it's hard in my mind to justify.

 

Touch screens and screen size complicate the decision. Personally, I'd go for the 1500. But that's just an opinion.

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Waypoints (total) 1,000 [we all know about the current 200 limit, so this is definitely better] woo hoo

I'm not sure this is better. It says 1,000 total. I have more than 1,000 caches on my explorist right now, just divided into files of 200. Are they dumping the file system? I would rather see the file system stay, but maybe increase each file to 500 caches.

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The current eXplorist system allows it to have active at one time, one geocache file of 200 and one POI/waypoints file of 500. You can have unlimited number of files of each, but only one of each active -- which means that they show on the screen.

 

You can use the POI/waypoint file of 500 for geocaches. You can access and search all of the other files saved in memory. So, the complaint is that many want to make a true geocache file of more than 200 caches, probably would prefer 500 or 1,000.

 

The previous post brought up a good question: what kind of file system will it have?

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Just an additional datapoint for those considering purchasing a Magellan. A couple of weeks ago I gave you my experience with Magellan on a repair. At the time I had posted that message it had been nearly a month since I had sent my Explorist 500 in for repair, and I relayed the status as:

 

After talking to a couple of different people on different calls, I finally get told the real story.. that it's been repaired, but has been given to the testing people to verify proper operation and to ship, and that it probably hasn't shipped yet.

 

Since that time I have talked to them twice. Once It sounded like I got another excuse why it had not been shipped (couldn't tell for sure due to the crappy english skills of the overseas technical support), and today I'm getting the same thing from them. Regardless *STILL* no returned GPS.

 

Like I said in my original post, I'm now the proud owner of a 60csx, instead of the Triton 2000 I had my eyes on. With support this good from Magellan, why would anyone even consider purchasing a Triton.... Just hope that you never have a problem.

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I have a fear that these things - esp. the four digit models - run Windows Mobile. I'm not saying that it's impossible to deliver a responsive user interface with WM, but of the four products that I have that use it, the 90 second boot times and tens of seconds to change between features drives me batty. So I'm really hopeful the MP3/Camera/Mapping thing isn't a rebadged glorified PDA, but the mention of being able to add your own programs gives me pause.

Wow, check out this pic shown on the GPSPassion forum.

 

Certainly looks like some flavor of Windows running on the thing, based on the error message box.

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I have a fear that these things - esp. the four digit models - run Windows Mobile. I'm not saying that it's impossible to deliver a responsive user interface with WM, but of the four products that I have that use it, the 90 second boot times and tens of seconds to change between features drives me batty. So I'm really hopeful the MP3/Camera/Mapping thing isn't a rebadged glorified PDA, but the mention of being able to add your own programs gives me pause.

Wow, check out this pic shown on the GPSPassion forum.

 

Certainly looks like some flavor of Windows running on the thing, based on the error message box.

 

Well, you are correct. The forum says the operating system is windows CE. The fatal exception listed is a simple access violation, and could be anything. Seeing as the unit being talked about was a Alpha or possibly Beta release, errors such as these may be expected. However, if the majority of the code uses xml (which reviewing the error shows that inappropriately closed tags can cause this error) then fixes could be released easily and updates would not be hard to produce. That would be nice (and there would be a possiblility of modifying the xml for the hacker).

 

Then again, I am still hedging my bet, and going to wait until they have been out a month or so before deciding on getting the 400 or a garmin. :laughing:

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Looks like Magellan is running late in putting out their new units, this was the month they were supposed to be on the market. No one has even gotten a pre-release test model, there isn't any data on accessories or cables, nor a real owners manual online.

 

Are they going to make the horrible mistake that Delorme made by announcing their handheld was coming out, with it taking two years for it to happen.

Deja vu all over again. I remember a few years ago when they came out with the Meriplat or Meridien or was it something else maybe everything else, I forget which one(s). It took them about 6 months of extensions and then they had bugs after release anyway. Probably the same thing again holding up release. I'd let someone else buy it and work through the bugs first.

Edited by Alan2
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Take this for whatever it's worth--in the issue of "Costco Connection" (a mailer/catalog sent to members, I think) that I received today, they list the Triton 500 for $149.99 after $50 instant coupon savings. The price is supposedly good 11/16/07 - 11/26/07, #240160 (a search of the web site doesn't show anything as of now).

 

Costco is one of those places with generous return policies...although they aren't as generous as they used to be. I hear they were getting too many large-screen tv returns after the superbowl was over.

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Take this for whatever it's worth--in the issue of "Costco Connection" (a mailer/catalog sent to members, I think) that I received today, they list the Triton 500 for $149.99 after $50 instant coupon savings. The price is supposedly good 11/16/07 - 11/26/07, #240160 (a search of the web site doesn't show anything as of now).

 

Costco is one of those places with generous return policies...although they aren't as generous as they used to be. I hear they were getting too many large-screen tv returns after the superbowl was over.

 

I was looking at the online edition, but I didn't see it what page was it on?

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Given that the Triton hasn't been released yet, how do you'all think it will stack up against the Garmin Vista HCx?

Take the 2000 - It will take a picture of your waypoint, you will record a brief summary of the waypoint, and while you fumble around with the HCx, the 2000 will let you read a book in the dark. It has a bigger screen. No contest - be gone HCx. :D

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