[gopinathann]

There are best freewares available in forum.xda-developers website to track GPS logs.

[mdsaab]

Hey Guys just bought a Nav 300 from Map My India a month ago, as someone asked earlier in the post about this product thought i would give a small review after using it for a month.

First Impressions :-

The Size of the unit is not too big nor very small. It fits into your jeans pocket. Unit seems quite sturdy and well built.

Screen:

The screen size is 3.5", quite easy to read and is clear when viewing in the car. But ofcourse a bigger screen is always welcome. The Tapping to use the keyboard takes some getting used to as sometimes when you click it gets pressed a couple a times and then u have to backspace again. But it just takes a few days to get used to it. Brightness is good and you can change it from the settings if you need to.

Features:

When you power up the unit it takes about 30 sec and then you get eight options, Navi, Music, Movie, Picture, Game, Calc, Demo, Settings

Of these of course the Navi is the main feature and the one you would be using most. The other features such as Movie, Music, and Picture are a bit slow. Especially picture which takes a long time to load and viewing a series of pictures takes quite some time. So I would say here that although you have these features its pretty useless. You can listen to music through your car system so why would you hook this up for music. although it does have a 3.5mm out so it can be connected to your aux in. Useful if you want to listen to the voice guidance through your car speakers to they are loud and clear.

Game funtion is your old time pass game which is ok to tinker with once in a while. We all know Pairs

A much better and more useful feature is the bluetooth for handsfree calling. A paired up my Nokia E51 to this thing and it works well. Allowing me to make and receive calls through the Navigator. For making calls there are 2 options one is a key pad that comes on the Navigator Screen and you can just tap your number. or you can use the Voice function i.e saying the name of the person you want to call. Which worked well with my E51. also you can save phone numbers and access them trough favourites. and when such a known favourite calls you their name appears on the screen of the Navigator, so you can just tap the screen to pick up the phone. So you can keep the phone in your pocket the entire drive and enjoy handsfree. You will need to take it out for SMS though

Navigation :

The first time you power up the unit in a new location it can take some time to find the satellites, some times it takes 10 – 15 mins. And sometimes it may surprise you and fire up in 5 mins. These are for Cold starts. Hot starts are done in under a min. Sometimes in a couple of seconds too. It uses Sirf III chip, so it locks on pretty well. Although sometimes will on a drive with tall buildings around. I have seen that the GPS signal does fluctuate. And in these times if the signal gets blocked you may lose the guidance. But this happens rarely.

I tested it out in Kolkata. And here all the roads seem to be marked out well. Only one ways are an issue and the roads go one way until 1 pm and then change around after 1 pm so it is not really possible to keep up with the one ways in Kolkata. The software that MMI are using is quite user friendly and someone new to GPS like myself will find it quite easy to use. It’s very easy to find the location you want. You can search for a location, latitude and longitude, or for a city you are not familiar with you can select city centre. You can even do a search straight for POI (point of interest) and will guide you straight there. For route you have 3 choices Shortest, Fastest and Optimal.

Now as per my tests the Optimal and Fastest are the same. But shortest does make a difference. Sometimes not much though, a few kilometers here and there. The thing is that Fastest and Optimal will select Major highways instead of smaller ones. You can chose any type you like and then preview the route and check the summary. So you can know the exact difference. I tested it in offline mode, from Pune to Mumbai. And if you select shortest it takes you on the old Highway. And if you select Fastest or Optimal then it takes you on the Expressway. So there is a noted difference.

For Vehicle types there is Passenger, Taxi and Pedestrian. And with a battery back up of around 4 hours (Still testing the battery times) Its not bad using on Pedestrian mode, which you could use while cycling too. Or maybe on a bike.

The Directions are clear and give you enough advance notice. This is calculated as per the speed of your car. So say you are doing 100Km then it will let you know sooner for the next turn, then if you were doing 50Km.

Also while you are on a trip, you can press the record button, which records your whole trip, like the route taken, the speed, with avg speed and top speed, altitude and stuff like that. Then you can view this on the navigator there are green arrows which show your route and when you click an arrow it will show you, your speed, and the time when you were at that particular location. Then you can also convert this file in the navigator itself to .kml format for viewing directly in google earth. Although one feature which is suppose to work but have not got it working on my device is the geopix option. This option allows you to navigate to a particular place by selecting a geo tagged photo, which has the location coordinates in the image. So the features are pretty good. Ofcourse you have to pay a little extra for it. But overall it’s a good product which is reliable and has quite a few good features.

Overall I have been happy with the product and enjoying it. I am using India map version 3.0 which is the latest. And they are said to be coming out with version 4.0 in September. When you compare it with the website details, As per my comparison they are pretty much the same, with maybe just a little bit of difference. Just waiting now for version 4.0 which is definitely going to be better.

Hope this review helps

Mash

[gopinathann]

You have sum up it well.

Sometimes it does not provide the correct directions, it takes a longer route though setting is optimal. If you record a route you are not able to use that route as a driving directions, each time it calculates it own directions. However the maps are accurate and I beleive this is the best navigation software till now for India.

[mdsaab]

Originally Posted by gopinathann

You have sum up it well.

Sometimes it does not provide the correct directions, it takes a longer route though setting is optimal. If you record a route you are not able to use that route as a driving directions, each time it calculates it own directions. However the maps are accurate and I beleive this is the best navigation software till now for India.

Absoulutely it is the best navigation software for India. But Optimal will take the longer road as compared to shortest. You can save a particular trip and then use it again next time. The best thing to do is to select waypoints if you want to take a particular route. then once you finish and are satisfied with the route. go to the save this route option and save it. then you can use this route again next time.

I have one Question for you, since you are also using MMI. In menu do you have the option Geopix images under GPS Logs. Cause i should be having this option but it is not there. Let me know. Thanks.

[dilipkumar7278]

Originally Posted by mdsaab

Hey Guys just bought a Nav 300 from Map My India a month ago, as someone asked earlier in the post about this product thought i would give a small review after using it for a month.

First Impressions :-

The Size of the unit is not too big nor very small. It fits into your jeans pocket. Unit seems quite sturdy and well built.

Screen:

The screen size is 3.5", quite easy to read and is clear when viewing in the car. But ofcourse a bigger screen is always welcome. The Tapping to use the keyboard takes some getting used to as sometimes when you click it gets pressed a couple a times and then u have to backspace again. But it just takes a few days to get used to it. Brightness is good and you can change it from the settings if you need to.

Features:

When you power up the unit it takes about 30 sec and then you get eight options, Navi, Music, Movie, Picture, Game, Calc, Demo, Settings

Of these of course the Navi is the main feature and the one you would be using most. The other features such as Movie, Music, and Picture are a bit slow. Especially picture which takes a long time to load and viewing a series of pictures takes quite some time. So I would say here that although you have these features its pretty useless. You can listen to music through your car system so why would you hook this up for music. although it does have a 3.5mm out so it can be connected to your aux in. Useful if you want to listen to the voice guidance through your car speakers to they are loud and clear.

Game funtion is your old time pass game which is ok to tinker with once in a while. We all know Pairs

A much better and more useful feature is the bluetooth for handsfree calling. A paired up my Nokia E51 to this thing and it works well. Allowing me to make and receive calls through the Navigator. For making calls there are 2 options one is a key pad that comes on the Navigator Screen and you can just tap your number. or you can use the Voice function i.e saying the name of the person you want to call. Which worked well with my E51. also you can save phone numbers and access them trough favourites. and when such a known favourite calls you their name appears on the screen of the Navigator, so you can just tap the screen to pick up the phone. So you can keep the phone in your pocket the entire drive and enjoy handsfree. You will need to take it out for SMS though

Navigation :

The first time you power up the unit in a new location it can take some time to find the satellites, some times it takes 10 – 15 mins. And sometimes it may surprise you and fire up in 5 mins. These are for Cold starts. Hot starts are done in under a min. Sometimes in a couple of seconds too. It uses Sirf III chip, so it locks on pretty well. Although sometimes will on a drive with tall buildings around. I have seen that the GPS signal does fluctuate. And in these times if the signal gets blocked you may lose the guidance. But this happens rarely.

I tested it out in Kolkata. And here all the roads seem to be marked out well. Only one ways are an issue and the roads go one way until 1 pm and then change around after 1 pm so it is not really possible to keep up with the one ways in Kolkata. The software that MMI are using is quite user friendly and someone new to GPS like myself will find it quite easy to use. It’s very easy to find the location you want. You can search for a location, latitude and longitude, or for a city you are not familiar with you can select city centre. You can even do a search straight for POI (point of interest) and will guide you straight there. For route you have 3 choices Shortest, Fastest and Optimal.

Now as per my tests the Optimal and Fastest are the same. But shortest does make a difference. Sometimes not much though, a few kilometers here and there. The thing is that Fastest and Optimal will select Major highways instead of smaller ones. You can chose any type you like and then preview the route and check the summary. So you can know the exact difference. I tested it in offline mode, from Pune to Mumbai. And if you select shortest it takes you on the old Highway. And if you select Fastest or Optimal then it takes you on the Expressway. So there is a noted difference.

For Vehicle types there is Passenger, Taxi and Pedestrian. And with a battery back up of around 4 hours (Still testing the battery times) Its not bad using on Pedestrian mode, which you could use while cycling too. Or maybe on a bike.

The Directions are clear and give you enough advance notice. This is calculated as per the speed of your car. So say you are doing 100Km then it will let you know sooner for the next turn, then if you were doing 50Km.

Also while you are on a trip, you can press the record button, which records your whole trip, like the route taken, the speed, with avg speed and top speed, altitude and stuff like that. Then you can view this on the navigator there are green arrows which show your route and when you click an arrow it will show you, your speed, and the time when you were at that particular location. Then you can also convert this file in the navigator itself to .kml format for viewing directly in google earth. Although one feature which is suppose to work but have not got it working on my device is the geopix option. This option allows you to navigate to a particular place by selecting a geo tagged photo, which has the location coordinates in the image. So the features are pretty good. Ofcourse you have to pay a little extra for it. But overall it’s a good product which is reliable and has quite a few good features.

Overall I have been happy with the product and enjoying it. I am using India map version 3.0 which is the latest. And they are said to be coming out with version 4.0 in September. When you compare it with the website details, As per my comparison they are pretty much the same, with maybe just a little bit of difference. Just waiting now for version 4.0 which is definitely going to be better.

Hope this review helps

Mash

+1 to that. Iam also using the MMI nav 200 since one year. Just last week I have upgraded to Map ver.3. Its definitely an improvement over the previous version I used...
Dilip Kumar

[trrk]

Hi,

Originally Posted by mdsaab

I have one Question for you, since you are also using MMI. In menu do you have the option Geopix images under GPS Logs. Cause i should be having this option but it is not there. Let me know. Thanks.

This is what I see:




Does this answer your doubt?

[mdsaab]

Originally Posted by trrk

Hi,



This is what I see:

Attachment 164546
Attachment 164547

Does this answer your doubt?

Yes! you see you have Geopix under Gps logs. This option is not there in my Navigator. When i called up MMI they told me to send the SD card back to them and they will fix it. Will take 7 days though. What am i suppose to do or 7 days then. So i am hoping when i get version 4 they will send me a new SD card, which should fix the problem. So waiting. By the way which navigator are you using? Cause the screen is in potrait mode.

[trrk]

Hi,

Originally Posted by mdsaab

By the way which navigator are you using? Cause the screen is in potrait mode.

For ease of posting, I used my HTC P3400i phone to check the menus and took screenshots. Hence the portrait mode view.

[sriturl]

Apologies first. This question may have been asked many times, but this thread being so long, I might have missed a few things. I tried to read through, but just couldnt understand many things.

Here are a few questions from my side.

1. I am planning to buy a GPS tracking device, and one of the options is to buy it from US, through a friend. Will that work here? I am guessing it should be fine, unless there are a few satellites, which the device is locked into, and doesn't work in India !

2. Is there a significant cost saving in doing so? Ultimately if I decide to get something from US, are there any option to buy something without maps, and just a device and get the maps in India.

thanks in advance.

[NetfreakBombay]

Originally Posted by sriturl

Ultimately if I decide to get something from US, are there any option to buy something without maps, and just a device and get the maps in India.

Easiest route would be to buy Garmin unit from US and then buy maps in India.

That is because Gamin is the only mapset that is available without unit here.

Or you can buy from Chine (while in US) and bring it here.

That would be cheapest (~100 USD).

[fordperfect]

Originally Posted by spadival

NH17 breaks up into 2 when it reaches Bhatkal. Not that there are any real highway road surface over the area. I checked the same area in Google mapmaker and it seems fine.

Spadival, the mapmaker data will eventually get into google maps (after it is reviewed). You can contribute to mapmaker too.

[sudev]

Originally Posted by sriturl

I am planning to buy a GPS tracking device, and one of the options is to buy it from US, through a friend. Will that work here?

GPS tracking is different from GPS handheld or onboard unit. The latter shows maps and other information on the screen of the device (depending on what maps have been loaded the intensity of information varies) and is primarily used for navigating yourself.

The former are just GPS device (that are usually hidden) which send information to a server. You can access the location and information about remote vehicle(s) by accessing the service providers site. These sites usually use data from mapping service like google-maps or yahoo or mapmyindia etc. PM me if you want such a device/service in India.

Few of the newer phones provide with follow me function that is like tracking for one device.

A tracking screen looks like this:

[shankar.balan]

suggest simply buy an indian sat nav system - mapmyindia and others are very good.

Originally Posted by sriturl

Apologies first. This question may have been asked many times, but this thread being so long, I might have missed a few things. I tried to read through, but just couldnt understand many things.

Here are a few questions from my side.

1. I am planning to buy a GPS tracking device, and one of the options is to buy it from US, through a friend. Will that work here? I am guessing it should be fine, unless there are a few satellites, which the device is locked into, and doesn't work in India !

2. Is there a significant cost saving in doing so? Ultimately if I decide to get something from US, are there any option to buy something without maps, and just a device and get the maps in India.

thanks in advance.

[sriturl]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

suggest simply buy an indian sat nav system - mapmyindia and others are very good.

Originally Posted by sudev

GPS tracking is different from GPS handheld or onboard unit. The latter shows maps and other information on the screen of the device (depending on what maps have been loaded the intensity of information varies) and is primarily used for navigating yourself.

I am looking for a GPS for car to guide me, and not to track. So, I should not be looking for a tracking device, I understood it right. That was good information. Otherwise I might end up buying wrong things with improper search strings :(

Originally Posted by NetfreakBombay

Easiest route would be to buy Garmin unit from US and then buy maps in India.

That is because Gamin is the only mapset that is available without unit here.

Or you can buy from Chine (while in US) and bring it here.

That would be cheapest (~100 USD).

Thanks. I will do more research, and possibly narrow down on few options, and come back with more specific questions.

[shyamhegde]

Originally Posted by gopinathann

You have sum up it well.

Sometimes it does not provide the correct directions, it takes a longer route though setting is optimal. If you record a route you are not able to use that route as a driving directions, each time it calculates it own directions. However the maps are accurate and I beleive this is the best navigation software till now for India.

Is there any self learning/fuzzy (new routes) option on MMI ? I remember seeing such option on a mapking software (some older edition, do not remember exactly).