Get a TomTom Go, Bestbuy has the refurb Go 730 for $129.99, I am planning to get one and hack it to run the Go 740 engine.
TomTom is very hackable, I have been updating my 2006 TomTom One with the 2009 engine and 2010 maps, I get text to speech, IQ Route, Lane Guidance and all sort of good stuff that only comes with the higher "Go" series.
Garmin has a better interface, and entering address is easier. Some people say that TomTom has a perference to use highway more, and Garmin can vary the routing. I never encounter this problem with my TomTom, the IQ Route feature just steer me away from traffic (Seattle especially), and get me there with little issues.
For those who want a cheap but big screen (4.3in) GPS with voice prompt: I bought a Curtis GPD430 for $89 new at LD. It uses the Sygic map, not the greatest, but with US and Canada map and at this price, I have no complain. I know it is hackable, but have not tried anything yet.
The Curtis is not a bad find, it's a Windows CE device with 500Mhz processor. It will run the Mio Nav or IGO software nicely. It only has 2GB tho, which is very limited. That's why I prefer the TomTom Go series with SD slot. The SD slot will override the built-in memory, so no modifications is needed to the internal software.
All TomTom 10,20,30,40 series are doable, but without SD card is risky because certain upgrades requires an updated "bootloader", and without a SD card, you can't upgrade to certain level because the device won't boot.
GPSUndergound and IPMart has tons of links and resources for maps and modified Navcore.
I was told you can use a micrSD to load a few GPS software to use(it can take a 8G card) and there is a site dedicated to it http://gpd359.wikidot.com/. I have not the guts to do it yet, but will try it if I have the time or when the included maps are too out-dated.
發表於 2010-8-22 16:25
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