alosix
Expedition Leader
Cool,
Though we might be arguing apples and oranges a bit here. I've never had an issue with the on GPS stuff. Its the mapsource that I normally seem to fight with. Granted that was back with my GPS V.
Delorme's Earthmate PN-60w gets Spot compatibility, can beam your tweets into space
- Thread starter OS-Aussie
- Start date
Cool,
Though we might be arguing apples and oranges a bit here. I've never had an issue with the on GPS stuff. Its the mapsource that I normally seem to fight with. Granted that was back with my GPS V.
Driver-Navigator
Explorer
There's definitely some personal preference involved. I do very well with MapSource but know some people that really dislike it. Maybe a Myers-Briggs thing.
It's improved since the GPS V days, that's for sure, although it still has some pitfalls. You're local so if you want a quick demo of it sometime let me know.
soonenough
Explorer
See my post here if you want to see some side-by-side comparisons of the Garmin Mapsource vs. the DeLorme Topo.
Abel Villesca
Explorer
Thanks!
Driver-Navigator
Explorer
I attended a presentation on the PN-60W & SPOT combo at REI Saratoga last week. There were several people from DeLorme (including Chip and their CEO) and SPOT on hand, and they brought a pre-production SPOT unit and a few PN-60s.
Some highlights, in no particular order:
1. This combo has great potential. I'm not at all sure that anyone has really come to grips with all the things you could do with these.
2. The presentation focused a lot on the geocaching aspect since the audience were mostly geocachers. The PN-60W will allow remote logging and will sync pocket queries, and has a lot of improvements for the geocachers in general.
3. They are now aiming for an early June launch, although it sounds like the wireless "teaming" functionality won't come until August.
4. The PN-60 has a new power management controller, which they are hoping will increase battery life (target = 17hrs in standard mode) as well as cure power/battery issues and lockups. Both issues plagued the PN-40.
5. PN-60 will have an overrideable ambient light sensor which will control the screen backlighting. The keypad can be locked. You can copy a GPX file to it (Mac or Windows) and the unit can parse the file correctly. Tracks, waypoints, and maps will be limited only by memory card capacity.
6. Along with the PN-60 & SPOT, there will be a new rev. of DeLorme's Topo USA, version 9. It will be renamed to Topo North America as it will now include Canadian topo data as well as road data for Mexico. This version will work with the PN-40 as well, but not the PN-20.
7. One thing I suggested which was well-received was the idea that you could pre-program messages to be sent off when you were at/near a given set of coordinates, e.g. "send message 'arrived safely at first campsite' when at coordinates x". Hopefully this will make it into the production units, but I suspect that a lot of features will come after the initial product release.
8. The messages sent from the SPOT communicator will be 40 or so characters long, brief even if you're use to Twitter. You'll be able to pre-configure messages, or type them in as needed. There will be 10 or so pre-set people or groups you can send to, in addition to Facebook & Twitter integration. There was some sort of Fire Eagle integration.
That's most of the data points I got from the presentation. The DeLorme folks are obviously working very hard to get this all right. It could be an exceptionally useful tool if they do. I'm also hoping to be included in their beta testing program, although it may already be full, we'll see.
- Dave
Some highlights, in no particular order:
1. This combo has great potential. I'm not at all sure that anyone has really come to grips with all the things you could do with these.
2. The presentation focused a lot on the geocaching aspect since the audience were mostly geocachers. The PN-60W will allow remote logging and will sync pocket queries, and has a lot of improvements for the geocachers in general.
3. They are now aiming for an early June launch, although it sounds like the wireless "teaming" functionality won't come until August.
4. The PN-60 has a new power management controller, which they are hoping will increase battery life (target = 17hrs in standard mode) as well as cure power/battery issues and lockups. Both issues plagued the PN-40.
5. PN-60 will have an overrideable ambient light sensor which will control the screen backlighting. The keypad can be locked. You can copy a GPX file to it (Mac or Windows) and the unit can parse the file correctly. Tracks, waypoints, and maps will be limited only by memory card capacity.
6. Along with the PN-60 & SPOT, there will be a new rev. of DeLorme's Topo USA, version 9. It will be renamed to Topo North America as it will now include Canadian topo data as well as road data for Mexico. This version will work with the PN-40 as well, but not the PN-20.
7. One thing I suggested which was well-received was the idea that you could pre-program messages to be sent off when you were at/near a given set of coordinates, e.g. "send message 'arrived safely at first campsite' when at coordinates x". Hopefully this will make it into the production units, but I suspect that a lot of features will come after the initial product release.
8. The messages sent from the SPOT communicator will be 40 or so characters long, brief even if you're use to Twitter. You'll be able to pre-configure messages, or type them in as needed. There will be 10 or so pre-set people or groups you can send to, in addition to Facebook & Twitter integration. There was some sort of Fire Eagle integration.
That's most of the data points I got from the presentation. The DeLorme folks are obviously working very hard to get this all right. It could be an exceptionally useful tool if they do. I'm also hoping to be included in their beta testing program, although it may already be full, we'll see.
- Dave
Attachments
SirCampalot
Adventurer
Does the PN60 support the Mac OS? If so, I'll order one.
Driver-Navigator
Explorer
It depends on what you mean by that. You can mount the PN-60 as a drive and copy files to/from it on MacOS. I think their Cache Machine software (or whatever it is called) has a MacOS version, but I'm not sure. I believe that their Topo North America software will continue to be a Windows-only deal, which is disappointing to the Mac users, myself included. That's my understanding, but like my notes above it's possible that I'm wrong.
I'm told that their beta program is full and it seems to have been made up of existing DeLorme and/or SPOT customers, so I don't anticipate the opportunity to do any real testing of the system prior to its release.
I'm told that their beta program is full and it seems to have been made up of existing DeLorme and/or SPOT customers, so I don't anticipate the opportunity to do any real testing of the system prior to its release.
I'm about to order one, other than the obvious benefits over other handhel units I am sold with the feature that you can pair it with others and see them on your screen. Very useful and a nice safety feature I think. More than once this would have saved us alot of time when groups get seperated, etc