Garmin iQue 3600?

[+EthicalEgoist]

I just discovered that the New York Times had mentioned a newer product from Garmin called the iQue 3600... and, seeing as how I want to get a GPS and replace my old Palm m100, this seems to be the most ideal unit for me.

 

Has anyone purchased it, or does anyone have any practical advice or information on the unit? I think I want to sort of "treat" myself to it in a couple of weeks once I start getting bigger paychecks. Any feedback on the unit would be appreciated!

[+Renegade Knight]

You have the advantage of having used a Palm so you know what you need in the PDA dept.

 

That's a step up. There is another thread that points to the manuals used for the PDA. You can read that and see if the GPS part works for you as well.

 

Nice as it is, I'm not sure I'd trust it to hold up to the rigors of non-urban caches and the associated hikes and terrain.

[+Cadence]

MrKablooey has one. Maybe we can hope he visits this topic.

 

I gather that there is no cool graphical arrow pointing the way on a compass background. You can still mark waypoints, but downloading them looks to be different than other Garmin models.

 

It would work, just wish they'd have kept a similar interface to the eTrex Vista or Rino.

 

I know, I know, wish in one hand...

 

T.

 

Cadence

(OddTodd and CheleBell)

FRS2,12GMRS22(WPXD965)

[+EthicalEgoist]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Renegade Knight:

You have the advantage of having used a Palm so you know what you need in the PDA dept.

 

That's a step up. There is another thread that points to the manuals used for the PDA. You can read that and see if the GPS part works for you as well.

 

Nice as it is, I'm not sure I'd trust it to hold up to the rigors of non-urban caches and the associated hikes and terrain.

---

I can understand that trepidation--I think, though, that I tend to treat my electronics fairly well (I've heard of geocachers and non-geocachers alike throwing their GPS's and the like--I wouldn't dream of doing that), so I think it's a winner in my book.

 

Thanks for mentioning the manual. I will check that out.

 

It sure does beat the alternative, though, which is lugging around an Apple laptop and attached GPS pod. Yikes!

[+robert]

you rang, cadence?

 

the iQue is a nice piece of equipment BUT I wouldn't use it for Geocaching. I'd maybe carry it for Pocket Queries (if I didn't have an older Palm unit for that) and use an eTrex or Sportrak. If you drop it, there goes $500+. It's not rugged, it's not waterproof/water-resistant. If you want one, and can find one, get it to help you get to the park where the cache is located, but once you get to the lot, leave it in the car.

 

Another reason is battery life. You kinda need the backlight on to really see the screen clearly, and without the GPS turned on, you can expect 2-3 hours if it's on non-stop. Turn the GPS on and there goes your battery ...

 

HTH.

 

~robert

[+robert]

quote:

---

Originally posted by BayRidgeRyan:

It sure does beat the alternative, though, which is lugging around an Apple laptop and attached GPS pod. Yikes!

---

 

By stating you have an Apple laptop, I've got a few things for you:

 

1) You rock.

 

2) The iQue is NOT compatible with Apples right now. It comes with a customized version of Palm Desktop which is Windows only. I don't know if there will be another version out. So, basically you're out of luck with hot-syncing data, waypoints, etc if your only access to a computer is an Apple. I have a PC at work so I use that. OR for data I sync my Handspring and beam an item over to it if necessary.

 

HTH.

 

~robert

[+EthicalEgoist]

quote:

---

Originally posted by mrkablooey:

the iQue is a nice piece of equipment BUT I wouldn't use it for Geocaching. I'd maybe carry it for Pocket Queries (if I didn't have an older Palm unit for that) and use an eTrex or Sportrak. If you drop it, there goes $500+. It's not rugged, it's not waterproof/water-resistant. If you want one, and can find one, get it to help you get to the park where the cache is located, but once you get to the lot, leave it in the car.

 

Another reason is battery life. You kinda need the backlight on to really see the screen clearly, and without the GPS turned on, you can expect 2-3 hours if it's on non-stop. Turn the GPS on and there goes your battery ...

---

The battery life sounds significantly better than that of a typical Palm anyway... but if I spent $600 on it, you can bet that it isn't going to stay in the car. ;-)

 

I'm more than a little surprised that Garmin hasn't devised some sort of case for it that would make it at least a little more water resistant. I'm not talking about something that would let you drop it into a river and retrieve it unscathed, but something to keep it safe if it rains.

[+EthicalEgoist]

quote:

---

Originally posted by mrkablooey:

By stating you have an Apple laptop, I've got a few things for you:

 

1) You rock.

 

2) The iQue is NOT compatible with Apples right now. It comes with a customized version of Palm Desktop which is Windows only. I don't know if there will be another version out. So, basically you're out of luck with hot-syncing data, waypoints, etc if your only access to a computer is an Apple. I have a PC at work so I use that. OR for data I sync my Handspring and beam an item over to it if necessary.

---

When I said Apple laptop, I meant an OLD PowerBook that my other half had lying around--the attached GPS was his idea. While I have a Mac (a gaudy "Flower Power" iMac, no less), I also have an IBM ThinkPad that is, for all intents and purposes, my primary machine, at least for the moment.

[+robert]

By stating that you have a gaudy "Flower Power" iMac, I've got a few things for you:

 

1) WHAT were you thinking?

2) The iQue still isn't really a caching machine. I'd go with a GPS-V for the combo.

 

Maybe I'll take mine out this weekend to see how it does and report more back then.

 

~robert

Driver carries less than $20 cache.

[Llyweilun]

i send an email to garmin a few days ago and unfortunately the GPS-data will not be available as a NMEA stream on the internal serial port... too bad, otherwise you could have used other GPS-applications like Geoniche, GPS-Master or whatever.

 

Jens