I'm not going to hijack this thread, so I'll start a new post regarding this in the appropriate section (?) after this. I sent a route via maps.live to my nav. It was a place DEFINATELY not in my map dattabase. Solidad, rivas, El Salvador, Nicuaragua. In about 10 minutes or so, it appeared in my favorites. I entered "Go", and it DID in fact create a complete route to the destination including specific views of the roads involved. In the routing info I didn't note detail, but without Unc's "flyover at 500 mph" in the 310, it's really not practical to simulate the drive, so I don't know how much map detail actually exists. As I said, I'll start a new thread on this once I can clarify some things.
i finally got my ipaq 310. thanks to this forum, unc, infama, tim for helping me make an informed decision. so far, loving every minute of it. i've playing with the setups and everything for at least 7 hours now. so far so good. no freezing. i love all the features. with regards to the tts voice, susan is really garbled but the other tts voices are not as bad.
i finally got my ipaq 310. thanks to this forum, unc, infama, tim for helping me make an informed decision. so far, loving every minute of it. i've playing with the setups and everything for at least 7 hours now. so far so good. no freezing. i love all the features. with regards to the tts voice, susan is really garbled but the other tts voices are not as bad.
Don't lose sleep over the 'freezing'. As I indicated in other posts, a quick reset and you're back exactly where you were before the freeze, within seconds. Surprised to read your comment about Susan-TTS as that's the one that works best for me - while some of the other ones might be a little better on pronunciation, Susan is louder. Any way, enjoy!
any news if hp will come out with e better tts? thanks!
No, not that I know of, but they are WELL aware of the issue with voice volume in general, especially TTS voices. They are also well-aware that some folks were able to tweak their device to bring up the volume up by about 20% (so I'm told). I'm not doing any of that until HP gives us the promised recovery pack - but one would hope that the firmware update would include that tweak or new voices based on better quality sound samplings. When I spoke to HP, that's weeks ago now, I was told that both the firmware update and the device recovery pack would be available towards the end of February, early March. If you try to download CM from ipaq.com now, access is denied ... maybe because they're doing the update. Humm, one can only hope. Let's wait and see.
So far, so good. The 310 has been surprisingly easy to navigate thru. I will say tho that if you have NO previous experience with satnav's, adjusting settings might be a bit daunting. I don't think experienced users would have any difficulty with customization. Oddly, the screen color settings allow no adjustment other than brightness and backlight. Would like to see some way to make color scheme changes, particularly to the night screen, I've no issues with daytime look. I've adjusted quite a few settings (sorry Tim. . . but I did do a full backup first)
and will be anxious to see how it actually works over the next few days. I'll be running this side by side my 760. I've set the routing a bit differently, so for now it won't be possible to check many routes directly against each other. I will switch to fastest on both at some point. Also, because of the number of changes you can make in the look, feel and operation, I find the stylus almost a necessity for all but the most common tasks. The full screen display option is very nice, and the scroll wheel, once I got the hang of it, is a big time saver when zooming or changing volume/backlight. The antenna is not quite as sensitive as the nuvi's, as I can get solid 3-4 bars inside my house at all times on the 760, but tough to get any lock inside on the 310 (at least so far) I did note that HP also uses Instantfix, but perhaps not II?. I'll give it another day or two to see if reception improves (as the 760 did after InstantfixII added). Overall, I have very few issues with the 310 so far. Quite a surprise. By the way, the voice (Susan) is still as bad as reported by earlier users IMHO, even after update, compared to the the 760. Just to let you know, Infama, only ONE soft reset so far. Just gotta be patient before hitting that next function.
Joined: 03 Apr 2008 Posts: 98 Location: 92°20’ W 31°05’N
Good information Thu Apr 03, 2008 4:40 am
Thanks to all for taking time provide so many of us useful information. I've been an avid forum/review reader for some time now - just never posted. I'm like many others seeking to get the best nav/features for the best value. I've pretty much decided on either the Nuvi 760, HK GPS-810, or the iPaq 310. Still researching though. I've gotten plenty of play time courtesy of BB on the 810 and 760, but no one in town has the 310 for me to play with, so I'll be paying close attention to all that you great folks have to say about it. Gator - I'm definitely interested in your comparison between the 760 and 310 and in fact will wait on buying until I read! (Not to add any pressure or anything!)
I certainly welcome any thoughts between the devices I mentioned and I'll go ahead and lay out a couple of things I like about each so ya'll know where I'm coming from.
Nuvi 760: stable platform, good maps, good resolution, POI's straight forward interface. BT works with my Treo 755P (Spnt)
iPAQ 310: Oustanding resolution, hackable , media features (I can't say much on the actual nav piece because I haven't gotten my hands on one yet.)
Harmon Kardon 810: Love the map interface the map browser is super slick and the zoom functions as smooth as zooming in and out on a digital camera, it also has 12m POI's, a fast processor (I was pretty impressed in the route creation time.) plus features are the wireless remote control, and lastly media features. Also it connected to my Treo in a snap, and although it wouldn't transfer my address book, it does read my call history. I realize there are some issues with this, but that's usually the case with someone breaking into a relatively new market as PND's are for Harmon Kardon. Sort of waiting to see if their firmware update that's long overdue will resolve its issues.
I hope I'm not posting in the wrong place for my first post here, but I considered the topic of 310 functionality to be the right place as I am strongly considering the 310.
Thanks again to everyone who posts - when I buy whatever I buy for my birfday YAY!! I will certainly give some feedback on my experience.
The antenna is not quite as sensitive as the nuvi's, as I can get solid 3-4 bars inside my house at all times on the 760, but tough to get any lock inside on the 310 (at least so far) ...
Weird ... must have something to do with your location because I've been getting 4 bars every time I use it from home, from my basement office! I will occasionally lose the connection, but it kicks back in wihtin a few seconds.
Quite possibly getting acclimated to different satellite positions. This morning it locked outside within a few seconds of the nuvi. I'll know better over the next day or so.
The antenna is not quite as sensitive as the nuvi's, as I can get solid 3-4 bars inside my house at all times on the 760, but tough to get any lock inside on the 310 (at least so far) ...
Weird ... must have something to do with your location because I've been getting 4 bars every time I use it from home, from my basement office! I will occasionally lose the connection, but it kicks back in wihtin a few seconds.
Cheers!
Not so weird, really. I think Gator just got the machine, so it would have been cold for a while. Once he uses it for a few days and get the GPS Autonomy back online (yes, its equivalent to SIF2), he will be firing on all (satellite) cylinders!
Quite possibly getting acclimated to different satellite positions. This morning it locked outside within a few seconds of the nuvi. I'll know better over the next day or so.
Could we have your first impressions? I mean upon using it, even before navigating.
I agree too that the stylus is useful when setting up the device or simply doing hacks.
The new map colours are an improvement, but not sure of the stability yet. I did a line by line comparison of the hacked code with the original and it seems only the numbers corresponding to map colours were changed, so the Dec. update did not seem to introduce any changes in those files compared to the original October release. I have my data.zip backup to resort to, so its no big deal.
Finally, I have had few hangups in normal use, but as I have been hacking or connecting to the PC, a reset is a must everytime. I must say that the stability is better than the early days I read about online!
I had hoped to use the HP more today than I did (about an hour or so), but was exceptionally busy. A few things I have noted so far.
1. I LOVE the way poi's are handled. Not only do you have the choice of turning on/off on-screen poi display, you can choose just one category or even just one nameplate within a category. You can then also choose how far from the poi you wish for it to appear on the map. Let's say you carry an Amoco gas card as well as a Shell card. I don't care about seeing any other gas company poi on screen. With the HP, I can do just that, perhaps setting them to appear only with 500 meters of my route (I haven't figured out yet why in meters rather than feet or miles. Yes I have feet/miles set as preference). They also have "transparency" and don't clutter the screen as TomTom tends to do with entire categories displaying.
2. Having a different map than my 760 (navteq) has it's advantages. There are roads shown on the HP (teleatlas) that aren't in my nuvi, tho my road is shown on my Garmin but not on the HP. Neither map seems to be more complete than the other so far, but each does have some detail the other doesn't. I will say that the ACCURACY of the road placement seems better with Navteq. On two different occassions today the HP showed me on the other side of the intersection while stopped at a redlight. Likely just a bit of sloppiness when drawing the road. Just as a personal preference, I so far prefer the look of the Navteq maps to the Teleatlas. As a side note, the TA map does show one road with an imaginary name that is actually a long driveway into an asphalt business. (MacAsphalt Drive. I asked my mailman today about it and he confirmed that it is not a road, it's a driveway. The business has an address on 42nd St.)
3. Snap to road is a bit more aggressive on the HP than the 760. My office is in an industrial area off a main highway with no mapped road within the complex. My nuvi will show that I've left the mapped highway about 20-30 feet after I have done so. The HP hung tenaciously to the road until I was easily 50 feet or more off it.
4. Because of all the feature buttons, I found the stylus not only pretty darn useful but many times absolutely necessary. Perhaps after using the device for a few days, I'll get a better feel for screen taps.
5. I find the night screen to be pretty bland and harder to read than the nuvi. With all the possible customization that can be done, I'm surprised that I'm stuck with the HP Blue scheme. Hacks shouldn't be necessary for this type of change. Had HP designed the screen more effectively to begin with, this might likely be no problem. The nuvi, for instance, has a delightfully easy to see night screen, so I haven't found the lack of color options for the display to be a detriment.
As my wife is waiting for me RIGHT NOW (she says), I'll see if I can post more about this a bit later. So far tho, I really like most of the HP experience.
Just a couple of other points not related to navigation. The day screen is absolutely beautiful. Bright, very clear, really smooth scrolling. I can't think of any improvement I would make to it. Looking forward to going to Tampa within the next few days as I really want to get a look at 3D building display.
The windshield mount could use improvement. The angle and sweep of the mount is regulated by screw-type knobs. They are not as convenient as the ball and socket mount of the Garmin. The left/right sweep is definately more restricted on the HP, so more attention is needed to where the mount is placed. Once on the windshield, it seems to be rock-solid with no vibration. I'd like to see an active-mount offered. The cord really needs to be clipped in it's holder behind the clip-in lock on the mount. Found it's simpler just to remove the entire mount, 310, cord and all, when not in the truck. It takes a bit to reconnect everything if you don't. Tomorrow I hope to get some navigation time on it. I do have to say that so far I really do like the 310. I wouldn't recommend it to a newbie. Many of the features would be very confusing to most new owners. If set wrong, I could see routing becoming frustrating. For instance, last night I changed the default time for smart-zoom. I used one minute instead of the Tim-set 10 seconds. Mistake. Shoulda left it at 10 seconds. As a matter of fact there are 4 different option for zoom alone. POI display would be easy to mess up. I'm still not totally clear on overview mode turn and zoom levels. (Uncle Ben, you could probably help me out with that.) You have options for displaying alternate road names, surrounding street labels, 5 different vehicle-types including taxi, truck and even bicycle. I think most new users would give up on the 310 and be thinking that simple to use Garmin looks real nice. For an experienced user this could be one great device, with a few changes in design and a couple more options.
Quick note on satellites. The nuvi and 310 booted in roughly the same time tonight. Satellite screen on HP shows lock on 7 birds (3/6/14/16/20/23/31). Nuvi 760 is locking 10 (3/6/14/16/20/23/25/29/31/32). I do like that HP shows ALL the satellite numbers , with the exception of 32 for some reason. The nuvi is showing only those with some signal, even if not strong enough for nav purposes. "Accuracy" showed as 72 ft on the HP and 16 on the nuvi, not that it it may really mean anything. I'll give it another day to gather all satellite data before actually stating anything with regard to signal lock between the two.
CORRECTION: Dang night screen! you are correct on the accuracy report. I just checked it in the DAYTIME. Only thing I can figure is I mistook elevation.
Finally, I have had few hangups in normal use, but as I have been hacking or connecting to the PC, a reset is a must everytime. I must say that the stability is better than the early days I read about online!
Strange, because when I connect and disconnect from my desktop, I don't have to reset. Perhaps this has to do with the manner in which you end the link. I turn off the 310 first, then disconnect the USB cable ... never had a problem with resets when disconnecting from the desktop.
When connected to the PC, the HP is just a mass storage device. Thus, you need to press the icon at the bottom right side of the PC dock to eject the unit. When it says its safe to do so, you can then discnnect the USB. At that point the device will spontaneously do a fast reset. I made the mistake of disconnecting today without ejecting and in the reboot, it flashed a fatal error message and I had to do a manual reset afterwards and it too a long time to reset.
When connected to the PC, the HP is just a mass storage device. Thus, you need to press the icon at the bottom right side of the PC dock to eject the unit. When it says its safe to do so, you can then discnnect the USB. At that point the device will spontaneously do a fast reset. I made the mistake of disconnecting today without ejecting and in the reboot, it flashed a fatal error message and I had to do a manual reset afterwards and it too a long time to reset.
Oh, I know how to handle USB devices on my desktop. All I'm saying is this - if I turn OFF the 310 first, I DO NOT have to reset. You had a fatal error because you disconnected the cable prior to turning the 310 off. If you turn OFF the 310, you know longer have a USB device connected to that port because it is OFF, hence eliminating the need to perform the EJECT. All I can say is that it works for me - just turn it off and disconnect - bingo, no resets.
Well, once you have your route mapped out, suppose you're OK with A to B, but not B to C, and you're OK with C to D. To simplify the example, let's call B-C Main St. - that's the street you want to avoid.
You go into map view, zoom in on Main Street, tap the screen anywhere on Main Street, press the jog wheel, select Avoid ... from there you're given a choice to avoid Main Street in increments of 1/1/5/10 or 30 km.
There are other ways to do it from the itinerary ... but to me, this is the best way to do it on the 310, as it allows you to see the effect of your change immediately - as soon as you invoice that avoidance, the 310 recalculates the route. If at that point you don't like the choice it makes, then you have to give it a way point to detour where you want it to go.
You can also avoid a segment of route on the fly when you're driving - probably safer to stop somewhere if you have a chance. You do the same thing, job wheel, avoid (that would be understood as the road you're are on at the time you invoke that command), and then you select how much of that road you want to detour.
I admire your perspicacity. I didn't think anyone was that interested in reading my posts, let alone picking up on something like this.
Cheers!
Happy Trails! Drive Safe!
How are you doing it in offline (GPS receiver is out of sat. coverage, somwhere in the office)? I have succeded to change route live in the car, but when planning a route I can't do that.
Well, once you have your route mapped out, suppose you're OK with A to B, but not B to C, and you're OK with C to D. To simplify the example, let's call B-C Main St. - that's the street you want to avoid.
You go into map view, zoom in on Main Street, tap the screen anywhere on Main Street, press the jog wheel, select Avoid ... from there you're given a choice to avoid Main Street in increments of 1/1/5/10 or 30 km.
There are other ways to do it from the itinerary ... but to me, this is the best way to do it on the 310, as it allows you to see the effect of your change immediately - as soon as you invoice that avoidance, the 310 recalculates the route. If at that point you don't like the choice it makes, then you have to give it a way point to detour where you want it to go.
You can also avoid a segment of route on the fly when you're driving - probably safer to stop somewhere if you have a chance. You do the same thing, job wheel, avoid (that would be understood as the road you're are on at the time you invoke that command), and then you select how much of that road you want to detour.
I admire your perspicacity. I didn't think anyone was that interested in reading my posts, let alone picking up on something like this.
Cheers!
Happy Trails! Drive Safe!
How are you doing it in offline (GPS receiver is out of sat. coverage, somwhere in the office)? I have succeded to change route live in the car, but when planning a route I can't do that.
Sure you can. Admittedly, when I've done at the planning stage from my basement office, the GPS was still on line with high accuracy. But you can still do it when it's off line (I think). What you have to do is place a dot on the map and make it your starting point; then pick your destination. Then display the route, zoom in pan the map to that one segment that you don't want, put a dot on anywhere on that segment, and then use the Avoid functionality for the desired distance. The 310 will automatically recalculate the route. At that point, if you don't like what you get, you may have to place a waypoint on the specific route that you want to force it to use.
Uncle Ben, few minutes ago I have tested changing a route with GPS online and offline. And here is the result: You can only change a route in online mode (doesn't matter for loaded route or for the route where your pisition is a start point). In offline mode it is impossible. Very strange, but it works so.
By the way, don't you know what is the TRIP PLANNER menu and what is it for? It's greyed out now, how can it be activated?
Uncle Ben, few minutes ago I have tested changing a route with GPS online and offline. And here is the result: You can only change a route in online mode (doesn't matter for loaded route or for the route where your pisition is a start point). In offline mode it is impossible. Very strange, but it works so.
By the way, don't you know what is the TRIP PLANNER menu and what is it for? It's greyed out now, how can it be activated?
I believe you. Too bad there isn't a way to force off-line mode. For some strange reason, HP omitted that functionality on the 310. It's available on the RX59xx series but not on the 300's. The GPS, unless there is no connection, is always tracking in the background. Cheers!
Uncle Ben, few minutes ago I have tested changing a route with GPS online and offline. And here is the result: You can only change a route in online mode (doesn't matter for loaded route or for the route where your pisition is a start point). In offline mode it is impossible. Very strange, but it works so.
By the way, don't you know what is the TRIP PLANNER menu and what is it for? It's greyed out now, how can it be activated?
Trip planner menu must be for the ipaq.com/navigate route planning feature.
I loaded a trip planned to Atlanta last night. Very nice implementation. Loaded fine, appears in routes. Now I just have to figure out the "flyover" view, as I want to preview the route as driven.
Maybe the problem about greyed out trip planner is because it is set off in the european firmware. Have somebody from Europe tried it out?
Infama, have you?
Trip planner is NOT greyed out on mine. Shows my set trip to Atlanta, via Savannah.
Differnces between our units. Mine is not in the proper map geographical region and I have never loaded a trip. One or both of those should explain it!
I plan to go to Western Europe (Germany) after two or three weeks by car.
But on my 316 I have only Eastern Europe maps. Is there any way to add Western Europe maps to this device?
My understanding is that maps, as stand-alone products, will be made available for purchase on the HP web site eventually, but HP Support could not tell me when.
I plan to go to Western Europe (Germany) after two or three weeks by car.
But on my 316 I have only Eastern Europe maps. Is there any way to add Western Europe maps to this device?
My understanding is that they will be ready in about 2 weeks.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
, media features (I can't say much on the actual nav piece because I haven't gotten my hands on one yet.)
