Clyde wrote:
<snip>
> Thanks for the response, Jack.
>
> The Meridian does seem to be what I'm looking for. But in checking
> Magellan's home page, I find that about all they offer now is the
> eXplorist series, and I don't know if they offer the "toggle
> advantage."
The Meridians are discontinued now. And I don't know if the eXplorists
do the toggle thing on not. The eXplorists lost some of the Meridian's
pages and navigation features. Also, I was not going to be able to
continue to use all of the three Magellan optional mapping softwares
packages I had (BlueNav (marine), DirectRoute (street and highway), and
Topo 3D (topo) with an eXplorist. All in all the newer model was going
to be a downgrade from the Meridians for me.
I took a serious look at the hardware and software features between the
Magellan and Garmin lines and moved on to a Garmin GPSMAP 76Cx. I had
to add two software packages (marine and street/highway) to the Garmin
to get back to where I was but I was head and shoulders above the
eXplorists on both hardware and software.
The 76Cx has the SiRF III chip set, a better display, faster processor,
better battery life, uses better batteries, etc. And the software
features were a very good basemap that included full autorouting on all
major national highways, an excellent marine navaid database and tide
tables.
The 76Cx does more routes with more waypoints, better track histories,
and a bunch of other things too. I have no regrets about the shift.
There are still some Meridian features missing from the Garmins but I
attribute that to Garmin's general stupidity at reading what consumers
like and want. I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for the
Meridians. I'm not sure it I'll ever own another Magellan but I buy on
needs and features when I buy and I also tend to keep things for a few
years or more if I can.
Magellan has changed ownership in the last year or so, I'm not confident
that they are going to survive much less get competitive with Garmin.
I'd like to see them do it just to keep some competition around.
> Does Magellan still make the Meridians? I can't find hide nor hair of
> 'em on their website.
Nope, they're done making them. If you look on eBay you'll find them
around used and the prices are pretty attractive. I still have a
Meridian Marine and a Meridian Color and am holding on to them for now.
> It's not for lack of trying: I called Magellan, but I could only talk
> to someone whose expertise seemed limited to the particular eXplorist
> he knew (each eXplorist model seems to have it's own tech group -- so
> you're screwed if you want someone with some general knowledge of
> which features various Magellans have). Plus, the guy I talked to
> didn't quite seem to understand what I was after.
Magellan has moved some or all of it's support operation to India or
Pakistan, did it sound to you like that may have been part of the
problem? I am not a bigot in any sense of the word but I am realistic
about things like tech support that do or do not work as well as they
used to.
> I've tried reading a couple of on-line manuals from Garmin and
> Magellan, but again, no luck.
They have so many products and their pages are not easy to discern
details from. I have spent a lot of time on them and can usually dig
out most of the details or info I want. But I also rely heavily on the
opinions and inputs from owners on alt.satellite.gps.garmin.
> Which is why I decided to ask here -- if anyone out there is really
> into GPS receivers and their features, I figure they probably lurk or
> post here.
I'd continue to read this group and also alt.satellite.gps.garmin and
alt.satellite.gps.Magellan. For good objective (no one is selling
anything) reviews of Garmin and Magellan hardware, here are a couple of
good sites to start with:
http://gpsinformation.net/ http://www.gpsinformation.org/dale/
Jack