Magellan RoadMate 3050T 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator Review

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(More customer reviews)See update at end..
I purchased this unit, the Magellan RoadMate 3050T, which is the 3000T, but with the receiver for Traffic-enabled info. For what I paid for this unit and the features it has, I believe it to be a very good deal.
The windshield suction cup mount works ok, but I wish it was a little stiffer. On bumpy roads the GPS can bounce up and down a little. With the unit mounted, the first time I tried to power it up I thought I got a bum unit. You have to hold the power on button for up to 15 seconds the first time, about 3 seconds after the first to have it spring to life. I think Magellan should state this right on the plastic protection sheet they have on the face of the unit. It would have saved me some startup anxiety.
Once I got it working it zeroed in on the satellites very quickly. In the windshield mount, the gps maintains an excellent signal. In fact, much better then my Garmin Maps 76S. Even with heavy over cast and in tree cover I have full signal bars on the upper right of the display.
Speaking display, this unit is very bright, even in full sun. In fact, at night, with the brightness turned all the way down, it is a little brighter then I really like.
The display makes use of a lot of icons. I had to breakout the manual to figure what some of them meant.
I am a stickler for wanting to know what direction I'm traveling. I planned to purchase the Garmin Streetpilot C550. I changed my mind after finding the Garmin does not display the normal compass heading on the main map display. The Magellan 3000T displays the heading full time in the map mode in the lower left corner. It uses the N, NE, E, SE, SW, W, NW headings.
A very good sounding lady gives voice directions. It is very clear, and volume level is also very good. This unit does not have the "text to speech". However, after using the Magellan 3000T, I really don't care that it doesn't speak the road name. What it will do is tell you when a turn is coming up and which direction you will need to turn and on the display it gives you the name of the street. The directions are clear and understandable leaving no doubt what you need to do. The maps are from Navteq. I feel Navteq is the best out there.
Update speed of this unit is very good. The display refreshes quickly and I never feel it is lagging behind. The route calculator waste no time as well. Most route calculations take less then 5 seconds to complete.
With the TrafficKit, this gps can find you a way around most traffic flow issues like slowdowns, accidents, construction, and other reasons. Around the metro Detroit area it seems to work pretty well. However, on a trip up north, it didn't work as well. I believe this to be more of an issue with the service provider then a problem with the gps. I'm sure with time this will improve. One detour it took me on saved us over an hour in stop and go traffic with just a few miles added to the distance. For one year of service it cost about $60. I don't like how the TrafficKit attaches to the gps. The cables end up going all over the place and the antenna for the receiver is long. Seems they could have come up with a better design. I ended up leave the antenna lying on the dash. It just looks messy.
The software that comes with the unit seems a little lame to me. You really can't do much with it. I wanted to be able to download the trip computer to my laptop. I have not found a way to do this. I'll be calling tech support to see if I'm missing something.
I have not tried the mp3 player or picture functions as I really don't care to have pictures on the unit. I'll try the mp3 in the near future.
For me, this unit is a keeper.
Pros: Easy to see, easy to use once I learned the system, pleasant command voice, easy to remove and install into its mount,you have a choice of using the touch screen or navigation buttons.
Cons: Power-on confusing the first time I used it, trafic receiver attachment messy, I had to upgrade the firmware to bring it up to date (no big deal though)
Update as of 12-20-06
Cons and Pro addition to date: Can't use the MP3 player at the same time as navigating. POI database is wrong for southern Florida areas. Items in the database not where the gps shows they are in the state of Florida. POI very good for Michigan. All in all I still like this unit and find it as good or better then other brands in the same price range on the market.
The traffic alert system works fine when it has a signal, but the info being fed to it is out of date/time and not many areas have reporting. This is a disappointment. I will not renew the subscription until I hear they have improved the service.

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For a remarkable, intelligently-designed multipurpose GPS navigation system that packs everything but the kitchen sink into a portable device, you can't go wrong with the Magellan RoadMate 3050T for North America. Equipped with preloaded software for use in the United States, including Puerto Rico, and Canada, the 3050T delivers comprehensive navigational coverage in an easy-to-use package to give you the best driving routes. The 3050T also provides a number of viewing and entertainment features to make your driving experiences the best they can be.
Made to be user-friendly, the Magellan 3050T has a 3.5-inch touch sensitive screen that displays vibrant colors and sharp images. Simple menus and smart keys provide quick access to the 3050T's features, which include preloaded detailed maps, bird's eye 3D viewing to give you a clear sense of your surroundings, and over six million points of interest such as gas stations, restaurants, ATMs, airports, parks, historic sites, museums, and much more. The 3050T lets you select up to 20 destinations and optimize the most direct route between them, as well as store your favorite locations for the trips you take frequently. You can also customize mapping selection with the 3050T, which lets you select routes based on driving time, distance, and traffic congestion, or exclude routes you prefer to avoid, such as toll roads.The 3050T fits easily into any vehicle without the need for special installation and works at any hour of the day. The auto night view feature adjusts brightness and contrast for easy viewing at night, and the voice guidance option provides friendly turn-by-turn instructions to get you to your destination. With SmartVolume adjusting the sound level of your system when you speed up or slow down, the 3050T makes sure that the directions you get are clear and easy to understand. And for the first three months after your purchase of the RoadMate 3050T, you'll have a free subscription to Magellan's LIVE traffic reports. With detailed, up-to-date traffic incident reports at your fingertips, you'll be able to find alternate routes and avoid traffic congestion created by accidents, road construction, special events, and more.In addition to having the features that make it a first-class navigation system, the 3050T is also a music player and a picture viewer. Through the integrated speaker, the 3050T plays MP3 and WMA music files for your entertainment. And if you're outside your vehicle, you can also plug in a set of earphones to listen. (For safety reasons, please remember never to use earphones while driving.) The picture viewer is ideal for road trips with friends or family as well as for gatherings such as parties and picnics. Upload the pictures you've taken with your digital camera and you'll be able to share a slideshow with everyone right away.Housed in a high-impact plastic case and able to operate in a temperature range of 32 to 113 degrees Fahrenheit (O to 45 degrees Celsius), the 3050T is versatile and durable enough to go where you want to go. At 8.64 ounces and measuring 4.8 x 3.8 x 1.4 inches, the navigation system is extremely portable. The powerful 2100 mA rechargeable lithium ion battery provides up to six hours of continuous use. Multilingual options make the 3050T perfect for speakers of English, French, German, Spanish and Italian.

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Rand McNally 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator Review

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(More customer reviews)From the moment I saw the packaging, I knew I had "Navigation For Dummies," which made me relieved and eager to dive right in. I have found the Rand McNally device to be superior to others in that it provides ample warning time prior to making turns, allows me to preview streets off the freeway for alternative routes, and thereby resetting itself, and offers a soothing voice that is far from robotic. It comes with a sleek stylus, but also responds to direct touch. Finally, the maps are colorful and easy to read. This is a great system for those needing some extra help in orientation.

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The Rand McNally GPS Navigator is the first portable navigation device from the provider of America’s most trusted maps and directions. Rand McNally has combined its leadership and experience in maps and navigation with its extensive understanding of consumer travel and navigation needs and the latest technology to create an intuitive GPS navigation system that is simple enough for everyone to use. The Rand McNally GPS Navigator provides a rich feature set at an affordable price. In addition to features drivers would expect in a leading GPS device such as an easy-to-read 3.5-inch color touch screen, clear and accurate voice-prompted directions, and automatic rerouting for missed turns. Rand McNally has included travel tools drivers won’t find anywhere else. The Rand McNally GPS Navigator comes with a specially designed, companion printed road atlas and trip planner to help overcome the limits of any small device screen in providing "big-picture” perspective consumers want. To further help travelers decide where to go and what to do along the way, the travel experts at Rand McNally loaded the GPS Navigator with 26 Rand McNally award-winning Best of the Road trips. Each Best of the Road trip provides a specially selected driving itinerary complete with attractions, restaurants and shops, all created by Rand McNally’s award-winning editorial staff. Travelers who prefer to pack light need not worry, the Rand McNally GPS Navigator has a slim, lightweight design that is an inch thinner than many GPS devices in its class. As a result, it occupies less space on the dashboard and easily fits in a briefcase or purse.

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Harman Kardon GPS-510 4-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator and Media Player Review

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(More customer reviews)Nice looking device, fits perfectly in hand. Touch screen is slick and very responsive... menus are easy to navigate and a home key is always present to take you back to beginning.
Charged it up and took it outside... was surprised when it locked on the instant i powered up... it had our spot on the map where it should be, so we started walking to end of street and the 510 tracked almost instantly when we were walking, as well as when we turned direction and headed back other way. Spent the next few days having it on in car and GPS function worked extremely well... never had any mistakes or weird routes (keep in mind only tested over a few days)... said names of streets clearly. Seemed to perform very well as GPS device.
Now for media player review:
OK, first of all -- the screen on it is very sharp and crisp... demo movies, and movies i loaded on to it, display very nicely. converted some dvd's to .avi or .xvid (cant remember which right now) and it played with no problems.
Anyway the biggest disappointment in the media department is that there are virtually no basic options/controls for mp3 or video playback. On videos there is absolutely no options to select from (zoom, full, etc.)... but they played well, so not a big deal.
MP3, however, is a different story. There is no "now playing" feature, nor the ability to create playlists from the player. (and of course no equalizer options or anything else.) So say you have a bunch of pop songs on the player and a bunch of classical and/or comedy tracks -- if you are in your car and you want it to shuffle through all of your pop songs there is no way to do that unless you have made a playlist on your pc comprised of only pop songs and have downloaded that playlist to the player. VERY restrictive. You can sort by artist/track/album in the player.... but you can't choose it to select more than one specific artist/track/album at a time. So if you want to listen on shuffle -- it's either shuffle through EVERY song on the player, or shuffle through one artists tracks. you can't specify more than one of any category to play through the player. Big bummer.
Add into all of that the fact that you are restricted to a max of 4GB of storage on an SD card -- so a couple of movies and you are going to have to buy another card if you want to carry around a lot of songs at the same time. Oh and no ability to view pictures either in case you wondered.
Summary: If you are looking at this as the perfect device to include mp3,video, gps -- i would pass. Personally the restrictions of the audio playback, along with no pics and 4 gb max just wouldn't cut it for me. I use my mp3 player (creative vision w) all the time in car, in house, etc. and need those basic mp3 controls. The extra price of the 510 for the media capabilities isn't justified IMO. For the same price of the unit ($400ish) i can get a nice gps only device and a solid media player (creative w for instance) with 30 - 60 gb of onboard storage.
Now if you aren't a big mp3/video user, then perhaps you would be satisfied with the limited media options as a trade off for the convenience of having it all in one package instead of having to carry around 2 units.
Hope this helps someone.

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GPS-510 Harman Kardon Portable Navigation+Traffic+Audio+Video device offers a highly intuitive user interface making it an easy to use navigation device. It features Text-to-Speech in English. It also offers full playback capability of digital music and video files. All access and control is via a high resolution 4" WQVGA touchscreen.In navigation mode, it offers easy-to-understand spoken instructions and visuals in 17 different languages. Turn-by-turn graphics with all vital information is displayed in 2-D or 3-D and Maps of U.S. and Canada are built-in along with a 12 million point of interest database. Real-time-traffic information to reroute around traffic delays and antenna is included along with a 90 day free trial period.The fullblown MP3 player offers browsing by Artist, Album, Genre, Song or Playlist. It will display ID3 tags for artist, title and album along with album artwork. MP3/AAC/WMA audio formats are supported along with Windows Media DRM 10 for compatibility with music and video download services. In video player mode the 4" high resolution WQGVA widescreen plays back hours of video and supports MPEG-4 and WMV9 video formats.All digital media is accessed via SD Card slot (SD card not included) and will accept SD and SDHC cards.

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Harman Kardon GPS-310 4-Inch Portable GPS Navigator Review

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(More customer reviews)The unit gets amazingly quick GPS locks. Typically less than 15 seconds, and often just a few. The UI is extermely easy to use. Very snappy graphics and operation. No owner's manual is necessary. Has all the features you would expect from a unit this price. Even has 12M POI which is 2x to 9x the number that other units have. I played with the unit a little at BestBuy before buying it. What sold me is the TTS feature that announces street names in the directions (Turn on Lincoln Ave instead of just Turn Left). It was the cheapest one there that had this feature. When I compared the TTS quality with that of the more expensive units, the h/k GPS-310 won hands down. The others sounded like robots. This unit sounds much more natural. Easy decision. Great product. Fantastic price.

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GPS-310 Harman Kardon Portable Navigation+Audio device offers a highly intuitive user interface making it an easy to use portable navigation device.It features Text-to-Speech in English. It also offers full playback of digital music files. All access and control is via a high resolution 4" WQVGA touchscreen. In navigation mode it offers easy-to-understand instructions and visuals in 17 languages. Turn-by-turn graphics with all vital information is displayed in 2-D or 3-D and Maps of the U.S. and Canada are built-in along with a 12 million point of interest database. The full blown MP3 player offers browsing by Artist, Album, Genere, Song or Playlist. It will display ID3 tags for artist, title, and album along with album artwork.All digital media is accessed via SD Card slot (SD card not included) and will accept SD and SDHC cards.

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Soundstream VIR7870NRB 7-Inch Flip Up TFT-LCD Receiver (Black) Review

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(More customer reviews)I'm in love with this multimedia headunit! I can do everything on this thing! GPS, Live TV, Bluetooth, Media Streaming via Bluetooth, Play DVD,s-etc! One thing I find great is you can set a background on the display. Has so many inputs and outputs. I have my whole system amplified via Front, Rear, and Sub amps, so I can't say how the sound quality through the built-in amp is. I may add a video review later, because there are SO many things this head unit does! I HIGHLY recommend this unit!

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Single Din A/V Source Unit w/ 7" Flip-Up TFT-LCD Touch Screen and Bluetooth Connection. Bluetooth & Navigation Input (requires NAVIBOX-1)

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PAC NU-GM29 Navigation Unlock Interface Review

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(More customer reviews)I purchased the PAC NU-GM29 Navigation Unlock device a few months ago for my 2009 GMC Sierra Denali with factory NAV. This was to replace a GMX-322 Lockpick device. This offer far more features, but ultimately died just as the warranty was up. Even when it worked, it wasn't super responsive, often requiring multiple presses to active. Apparently that is quite common with those. I've always heard good things about PAC, so I decided to give this one a try.
Installation was nearly identical to the Lockpick by Costaletech. Getting the front bezel off on this truck is the hard part. After that, everything else is very straight forward. Just use the pig-tail cable to go in-between the factory cables and the head-unit. Plug everything in, and most importantly, test it before putting it back together! I thought I had tested this, but later found that the factory back-up camera would randomly not active or stay turned on all of the time. Which was odd since I didn't even connect the extra wire that allows to you activate the camera with the NU-GM29.
Note: Only the newer firmware supports this feature, check PAC's website.
After a call to tech support, they recommended resetting the device. So I reluctantly took everything apart, disconnected the main power/data cable to the device, reconnected it, and tested it out. And now it's working just fine. When compared to the Lockpick, the menu and controls are much more responsive and easier to use as the status and confirmation screens will appear on your DIC. I've enabled and disabled the NAV unlock several times and it seems to work every time.
In case you were wondering how these work, they basically disable the VSS (Vehicle Speed Sensor) so the NAV no longer knows how fast you are driving. So it thinks you are sitting still. Unfortunately the GM NAV uses both GPS and your vehicles speed to determine where you are on the map. So if you keep this turned off, it will be very confused. So just turn it off to enter the address (or scroll through POI's), then back on when you are done. It'll take a minute or two, but it will figure out where you are fairly soon.
Back to the device! Let's talk about issues. It did add a slight delay to when the backup camera turns on/off as you shift to and from Reverse; but according to PAC - this is normal. Not a big deal and it's something I've gotten used to. We're talking maybe 1-2 seconds here. Whether or not that's an issue, is up to you.
So far, the only other issue I've had is that over the past 6 months or so, it has messed up 3 times. All within about a 2 month period. I will turn on the vehicle, and the radio does not. Screen is blank. If I turn off the vehicle, open the door (so the radio is off), restart the vehicle, it works just fine. So far, it's been about 2 months and it hasn't done that again. Maybe the PAC and NAV have worked out their differences? In either case, I've just left it installed, as is, for now. If the issue returns, it'll probably have to go. PAC didn't have much to say about that, except reset it again. Maybe I should have installed this thing in the cup holder. :-/
Unfortunately, PAC and Lockpick are the only 2 out there that unlock your GM NAV so your PASSENGER can input an address while you are driving. Which BTW, is extremely helpful when taking trips and is why I've been willing to live with a few bugs. Although so far it has been much better than the alternative. However, because of these issues, I can only give it 3 stars. Or an "Acceptable" rating.
Note: If I have to take this thing out because the other issues return, I'll update this review along with a star rating "update." But so far, so good.

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The Navigation Unlock integration interface allows the factory Navigation, Bluetooth and Satellite Radio features of your 29-bit GM LAN radio to be used by the passenger at anytime.

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Scosche CR1289B 2005-Up Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep Nav Stereo Replacement Kit Review

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(More customer reviews)I purchased this specific kit because it was listed as fitting my 05 grand Cherokee w/nav. My laredo did not come with the navigation, just the stock cd player model. I did not want the kit that goes with with it, since that kit leaves two half circles on the sides where the stock radio dials were located, so I went and purchased the nav bezel to replace the whole thing. I purchased the correct bezel, that goes with an 05 grand Cherokee. I went to install the scosche nav kit and there is a 1/8-1/4" gap all around the sides. I contacted scosche directly, emailed them pix of the install, and now they are supposedly sending me a different piece for it. When I compair pictures of the scosche kit with the Metra kit listed for the Grand Cherokee w/nav the outer trim ring looks wider on the Metra kit. Since then I have talked to people with the Metra kit and they say it fits no problem. So not sure if I happened to get the wrong trim piece in the package, or they are all the wrong size. Trying to see if anyone else has had this problem.

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Scosche CR1289B 2005-Up Chrysler / Dodge / Jeep Nav Stereo Replacement Kit

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