OK first few days check in here.
I will give a full report later but here are my first impressions.
What I like so far:
1. It's freaking sweet, does everything advertised and them some
2. Has some cool things like:
-update facebook status or send tweets from the device via spot
-comes with $40 worth of free sat imagery downloads. (facebook and twitter accounts must be linked ahead of time.)
3. The GPS unit user interface is simple. If you have ever used a GPS you will pick it up fast.
4. Delorme Topo V9 software is way different, and takes some time to get used to. It's like going from Mac to a really complicated PC program. You know you should be able to do everything but it takes forrrrrrever to figure out how to do it.
5. GPX file friendly. Old routes, waypoints, tracks, its all good.
6. Has 16g internal memory, and can accept up to a 32G SD card. Right now I have the entire state of New Mexico topo maps uploaded as well as a 250 mile off road route with over 1,000 waypoints as well as the sat images for the whole route and I have used less than half of the internal memory!
7. The spot unit is simple and small. It only has two buttons, on/off, and SOS. Everything else is done through the Delorme device.
OK Now the bad (so far)
1. After 1 hour on the phone with spot they said they could not transfer my existing spot account to the new device. Really !!!!! After talking to a manger I had to settle for a full refund on my old spot and then go and totally recreate a new account with the new spot.....very inefficient. Their response "we are not able to transfer accounts with old devices to the new devices, we hope to be able to sometime in the next year.":Wow1:
2. It cost $.50 a text to send texts if you pay as you go. They have some package deals which brings the per text cost down to $.30 a text if you pay a yearly fee, the lowest yearly fee package is $29. No a big deal but they don't do a good job of telling you that. I plan on just paying $.50 per text. I doubt I will send 20 or so a year.
3. Also kinda hidden is the fact that you may only send texts to mobile
phones that have been pre set up in you spot account. You cannot enter in a number through the device. It must be set up ahead of time just like the spot unit that sends check in messages.
4. Maybe I am a moron but it took forever to set everything up. By the time I installed everything on my computer, set up the device, got the spot set up and tested it must have been 3 hours (not counting the hour on the phone with spot) But I did spend a lot of time trying to figuring out how to get around in Delorme topo and do simple tasks like import old waypoints etc...
I plan to get lots of user time in the next few weeks and I will post a full report after taking it for a test drive. So far I really like it think it was a good purchase.:victory:
