GP yeS! (and sometimes No)
Corinna Proctor / Consumer Products / TransportationGotta love it. A GPS system. The prices tanked. Every car on the highway has one. And I climbed right onto the GPS bandwagon, too, about 2 years ago. I have to say this device is one of my favorite gadgets of the decade. Imagine my sheer joy at feeling confident that I know my way around - even though at best, I can’t even fake a good sense of direction. I’m terrible. I have to memorize my way around town because I truly don’t know where I am in relation to things. It’s a fault. But I choose to say that I save my brain power for more important things. Well now, watch out, world. I’m going to get where I need to go without having to make that embarrassing call to a friend or my husband to be my trip advisor. I don’t need to think. I just listen and do what the unit tells me to do. It’s like being reborn with a sense that you were always missing.
source: flickr.com/photos/w00kie
So in the past 2 years, I’ve come to love and to hate my GPS unit.
Let’s start with my love affair:
- Fast, pain-free address entry
- Fantastic Points of Interest navigation with all sorts of entries. Millions, I suppose.
- Clutter-free display with large and clear button labels
- Time to arrival feature – I think this feature is the best and I find myself always trying to decrease the time. Its like a new driving game.
- View of my next upcoming turn allows me to peek into the future
- Fast zoom controls allow me to refresh the map in a flash
And here are the main drawbacks:
I can use it while driving – which I love (but shouldn’t):
It’s awfully tempting to interact with the device while I’m driving. I have to say that in our profession, this is a no-no, but its large, inviting buttons are simplistic user interface make it oh-so tempting to reach out and use. So be it.
Serious lag when calculating a route:
A potentially fatal flaw is in the reception and the unit’s ability to calculate a route before you start on your way. My device has an uncanny knack for – at times – taking a long time to connect and calculate a route. By the time my route is calculated, I’m usually about a minute into my journey and very likely driving in the completely opposite direction that I should be.
No Pause button:
I need a pause button. Sometimes I want to de-rail the route guidance for a stop-over and I don’t want the voice telling me that it is recalculating or doing anything else to my plans. All I want is a simple button on the main screen for putting the route on pause. Just to make the woman quiet for a minute while I do my thing. Is that too much to ask for? They call this a WAYPOINT, but who in the world knows (in advance) when exactly they want to stop and feels like telling their GPS system of their plans? Not me. Just give me a Pause button.
If I ever need to update my maps…
Some people get really into this but I have yet to experience it where a place I’m going isn’t on a map. Maybe it will happen to me soon. Who knows. But all I do know is that I have no idea how to update my maps, should I ever need to do so.
Flat- out just the wrong route.
How does this happen? I use it all the time driving on roadways that I know – on routes that I’ve driven for 10 years – and somehow, some way, the route that I know is better, isn’t the one that is offered to me. Go figure – they aren’t perfect, and they will get you there, but it might take a few more minutes or you will have to drive down the busiest road in the universe to get there.
Faulty suction cup:
Ok so I don’t think of these things (as you might gather) but apparently it is not a good idea to store the unit on the windshield because, as I clearly discovered, the suction cup gives –way and the whole unit will have crashed onto the floorboard or console. The first time this happened, I didn’t know where it was and thought it had been stolen. Then, lo and behold, there’s my unit, face down in the passenger floorboard, still connected to the suction cup, but looking all pitiful and defeated. They need to fix this.
No dedicated volume knob:
I’m a big fan of dedicated, unencumbered volume knobs that can be found within a few hundred milliseconds. I hate that these controls are famously buried more than even 1 touch away from where I am in the UI. No thanks. Please, spend the extra 10 cents and give me a volume control that I can reach up and grab when I want to increase or decrease the volume. I find myself adjusting it way too often.
Ok, ok, so I have a huge list of complaints. Sorry. But back to the original optimism – the feeling of freedom far outweighs the negatives. So for now, its GP (ye)S for me.
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