GPS Systems and Reviews

Why a Hand Held GPS Is Right for You

Have you seen someone walking around on the street or on a hiking trail with a contraption in their hand and wondered what they had? It’s possible that they were using a hand held GPS device to navigate to the location they were trying to get to. Mapping and navigation devices have become very popular among those who love to travel in their cars, on their motorcycles, or even on their boats, but they are also very useful to people traveling on foot. So let’s take some time to look at why they are so popular and how they might make a difference in your daily life.

About Hand Held GPS Devices

Before we take on the idea of picking up one of these devices, let’s look at the difference between them and standard portable units. Many people are used to using the ideas interchangeably, but typically the portable unit simply means that you can take your unit in and out of your car and into another and it will still work as effectively. However, the portable units are usually not as useful when you take them on a trail or boat. Instead, they mount to your dashboard and help you navigate roads and highways.

On the other hand, the hand held GPS units are more versatile and allow you to take them off the roads and into areas that may not normally be picked up by these devices. You might be able to pick up remote trails, rivers, valleys and more, so that if you want to go camping, hiking, biking, or boating you can still find your way around effortlessly. Below, we will look at the specifics of some of these units and how you might find a way to make them useful in your life.

Hiking on a Trail

If you love the great outdoors then there are a number of hand held GPS devices that can help you find your way around whether you are in your car or decide to venture outside for a walk. One in particular is the Magellan SportTrack, which was created for those who love to hike, as well as those who enjoy game hunting and fishing. It offers nine large graphic navigation displays that cover a wide variety of areas away from roads and highways and even is WAAS enabled with a quadifiler antenna so that you can pick up information from all 12 satellites orbiting at the same time.

While you are trekking along outdoors, you can store up to 20 different routes you’ve taken so that if you ever come back to the area you don’t have to worry about remembering the trails you took. Also, you can store up to 500 waypoints and 2,000 tracks. If you are outdoors with the intention of hunting or fishing, you can use the unit’s calculator to determine where fish and game are located in the area. And if you are dependent upon light to get the job done, the unit can determine the Sun and Moon positions for you.

Playing Golf

Believe or not, there is a hand held GPS device that helps you improve your golf game. The GPS Golf Pro is a position system with let’s you same time and improve your skill level simultaneously by informing you of how fare you are away from the front and center of green at all times. In addition, you can determine how other golfers are fairing while on the green. It has an electronic scorecard that contains yardage, par, handicap and other scoring information. And it determines the last shot distance as well.

Keeping Track of Your Dog

If you have a hunting dog, or a family pet that you worry might wander off, then the Garmin Astro is a unit you may want to consider taking advantage of. It has a high-sensitivity tracking collar that you simply place on your pet’s neck, as well as a bright color screen that you hold as you track your pet. With this device, you can track his location in no time, even if he has wandered into dense cover that seems untrackable. Even more, the unit lets you know if he is walking, sitting, running, on point, or treeing.

A hand held GPS device has many functions that can be very beneficial to the everyday person. So take time to explore these and other units on the market that might help save you time and effort when spending time doing what you love. You never know, a hand held GPS device might end up being you next best friend.

Tags: Boats, Contraption, Dashboard, Fishing, Game Hunting, Gps Device, Gps Devices, gps navigation systems, gps systems, Great Outdoors, Hand Held GPS, Hand Held Gps Units, Highways, Hiking Trail, Magellan, Motorcycles, Navi, Navigation Devices, portable gps, Rivers, Specifics, Sporttrack, Valleys

Which are the Best Built-In Car GPS Devices?

Are you wondering whether you should spend your money on a car GPS system that is built right into the dashboard of your car instead of a portable device that sticks to you dashboard? Well you’re in the right place to determine not only what the benefits are of purchasing a built-in unit, but also which ones are most popular on the market today.

Built-In vs. Portable

The question many people have when they consider purchasing a car GPS system is whether they should go with built-in or portable. The answer differs depending on the consumer’s needs, so let’s go over some pros and cons that you might want to consider when thinking about purchasing either one.

Portable is … Portable – Many consumers love the idea that they can take their portable units out of their cars and move them to another car if necessary. This is one major selling point for the portable unit. You simply attach it to your dashboard when you’re using it, and remove it when you’re done. The second bonus of a device being portable is that if you want to upload mapping or navigation software, you can do it easily via its USB port.

Portable Units Don’t Offer Large HD Space – One bonus you will find with built-in units that you won’t see in most portable devices is the large hard drive. Some built-in units come with as much hard drive space as a PC, which means you can store a lot of information on your system. If this is important to you then you will want to look past the portable units.

Built-In Units Offer More Extras – One reason that customers enjoy built-in car GPS systems is their features – the main one being a bigger screen. While most portable units have smaller 3.5-inch screens, some built-in units can have screens as large as 7.5 inches allowing you to get a better view of the maps and text directions. In addition, many systems come with a DVD player or other entertainment features that you cannot get with the smaller portable unit.

Built-Ins Make Cars More Vulnerable – In an age where breaking into cars is as easy as breaking into your own bedroom, many consumers are leery about placing permanent systems into their vehicles because burglars can look right in and see what they want. The one plus of the system being built in is that it will be hard for them to take it out without effort, but this means you won’t be able to remove it to secure your device and vehicle if necessary – a luxury you get with the portable device.

The Best Devices

There are a handful of car GPS devices that top the list as those you would want to have placed in your vehicle. Let’s look at them more closely:

Pioneer AVIC-Z2 – This is a system that reviewers love because it is considered to be the ultimate in HDD navigation. It has a huge hard drive – 30 GB – which can easily rival many PCs on the market. But many more features follow this one great asset. For example, its processing speed is astounding, being able to deliver mapping and navigation information to you rapidly. Also, it offers a huge Tele Atlas that has over 12 million points of interest (POI) so that you can find a business or other public location without having to know the address. Some other features of this car GPS system include a huge music library, a large 7-inch screen, DVD playback, 3D landmark icons, point addressing, traffic flow lanes, iPod controls, Bluetooth compatibility, text-to-speech technology, and turn-by-turn voice instruction.

Panasonic Strada CN-NVD905U – Similar to the Pioneer device mentioned above, this one also offers a 7-inch screen and DVD player. In addition, it has an easy-to-understand LCD display as well as touchscreen control with audio. You can enjoy a picture as sharp as your television set so that you can not only see great map images, but also enjoy your movies, making this device one that makes being in your car as comfortable as being in your home.

When you’re ready to get out and buy your built-in car GPS it is important to consider a few more things. One is that many systems are available with the purchase of a new car, so before you spend money buying a new system for your car, consider whether you could save by having one come with a new car you are thinking of purchasing. These car GPS systems are a little bit pricier than most portable units, so you have to make sure that you will get the most out of your purchase.

Tags: Bonus, Car Gps System, Car Gps Systems, Consumers, Dashboard, Drive Space, Dvd Player, Entertainment Features, gps navigation systems, gps systems, Hard Drive, Hd Space, Inch Screens, Love, Many People, Maps, Money System, Navigation Software, Pros And Cons, Purchasing A Car, Space One, Text Directions