Quote from: Renegade on November 18, 2010, 06:26 AM

Where did you read that?

Amazon

Be aware, he is in the US of A and as such the licensing arrangements may be more anal than Australia.
(see attachment in previous post)
Also, you could just disable the Traffic Alerts or move to another country

Well, given that if you want to travel by air in the US, you may very well end up being sexually assaulted:

http://www.google.com/search?q=tsa+enhanced+pat+down&tbs=nws:1
http://www.walb.com/Global/story.asp?S=13533166
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40193344

And very soon if you have a garden in the backyard, you could go to prison:

http://www.naturalnews.com/030418_Food_Safety_Modernization_Act_seeds.html

And... Well... I think that's enough. Fly with vegetables that you grow and you'll be sexually assaulted then thrown in prison.

Maybe moving to another country isn't a bad idea~!

Indeed this is true. As I already mentioned on a previous post, for Nokia phones (Symbian OS) there are 2 alternatives I know of (that offer offline maps):
- Garmin app and maps (at a cost and I think the product has been discontinued)
- Ovi Maps, which are free and are excellent (the same maps as here: http://maps.ovi.com/)

Here is a recent story that may help in a purchasing decision

I just bought my first dedicated GPS on Monday the 15th, received it on the 17th.  I have always used my Windows Mobile PPC for GPS, but I am tired of dealing with PPC phones and thought that by purchasing a dedicated GPS I can just get a regular cellphone (that I can tether) next time.  The phone worked great as a GPS, but this way I can also use it as a wireless router in the minivan and a music player.

I purchased the Magellan 1424 because it is inexpensive, does what I am looking for, and the reviews on customer service were amazingly good.

When it got here, I took it out for a spin, saved my home and work addresses, and it was PERFECT.  Even in the flea bitten black hole of technology (daughter's term, not mine) that we live in, it knew right where I was, could find anything(Even back roads addresses).  When you purchase this GPS there is one free map update included within 30 days, so I hooked it up to my PC, v4.01 software update went off without a hitch and added a ton of new features to the interface.  I then proceeded to do the map update.

It failed.

The map update appeared to complete normally, but upon restarting the GPS, there was nothing local.  I could zoom WAY out and see highways (base map), but if I tried to tap on 'address' or 'poi' the GPS would crash (navigator.exe exception) and reboot.  If I tried to tap the 'home' button, it told me the destination was incorrect or not reachable by roads. I mean, I knew I lived in the sticks, but, really?

I called customer service.  NO WAIT TIME.  Someone answered the line within 30 seconds after getting out of the automated menu.  I COULD UNDERSTAND HIM.  The young man that answered the phone had a thick Latino accent, but I could clearly understand what he said!  HE ACTUALLY KNEW WHAT HE WAS DOING.  He did not read from a script.  He knew the GPS unit.  When he had reached his limit, he was also intelligent enough to ask for help.  The call took 45 minutes including the 1.04GB map download.  The map updates are normally $80, but he let me download the update for free again.  It turns out the installer file from the map vendor (not Magellan) was missing some files.

The unit is now unusable, so it is RMA time.  He walks me through the process, free return shipping!  Then the kicker.  HE REPLACED IT WITH THE MAGELLAN 3045.  He also added free overnight shipping.  However, it was after 5pm PST so it would not ship until Friday(today).  No Saturday delivery, so I will receive it on Monday most likely. 

The folks I talked to there were polite, knowledgeable, personal (talked to me instead of at me, laughed with me) and seemed to really care about fixing the issue and about my problem. This is probably the best customer service experience I have had to date.

Hopefully this helps, but YMMV.
 

There's also OpenStreetMap with software for various platforms.

Wow. Impressive.

Check these:

http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=-37.86021&lon=145.00792&zoom=15&layers=M
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=-37.851442,145.012536&spn=0.010979,0.014548&z=16

Which has more detail? Surprising...

Well, Google outlines buildings, but that's not really important anyways.

Well, you knew it was coming:

Would it be possible to take netbook, netvertible, tablet, or similar device, load OpenStreetMap (or some other pc-loadable map+software) onto it, put it in your car, and use that?  The benefits would be the ability to use decent processors and the ability to tweak things just like you like.  Good?  Possible?  I did some initial research and didn't see much out there.

OK!  Her we go!
There's an app called Mapdroyd:
http://www.mapdroyd.com/
This can be installed on an OFFLINE Android device by downloading some files on your computer and transferring to the android device.  This means, obviously, no data plan necessary.  Yes!
OK, now what map software can it use?  Well, it can use OpenStreetMap, and if you pay for it, you can also use whatever Navteq and Tele Atlas are, which sounds like they are the maps used in Garmins and stuff.
Now, I need to find an android device with like a 7" screen.

OK, how about this?
A Samsung Galaxy Tab (samsung's ipad competitor), which runs Android.  I'll get it without a data plan, put mapdroyd on it with some OSM maps, and I think that could make a kick-ass gps unit.  No?

Yeah, that ought to work. It's a bit big (but not for a tablet), and more expensive than a moderately priced GPS (no contract price $600), but then you can do a whole lot more with it too. All the sales I'm seeing, besides the "international version" on Amazon (more expensive), are tied to a carrier though, even without contract. So I'm not sure if you'd need to sign up "with" a carrier then just not continue service, or what. I haven't looked into it much though. Just make sure you get the 16GB version instead of the 2GB. You'll need the storage space for maps!

- Oshyan

Good call.  yes, I do want the 16gb space for all those maps.  I'll look into the contract stuff and report back here.  Yes, anyone, please let me know if I am overlooking something about this.  I don't want to spend $600 to find out some little restriction that will make this all impossible.  There's always some little thing about this bullshit contract/hardware/mobile industry that makes things darn near impossible.

The good thing is that I've heard that the Samsung tablet has a pretty great UI and is a well built tablet.

I need to find the best forum for the offline GPS devices.  I'd like to see or hear about the response times, the features, the capabilities of what I'll be able to do.  Could I attach an external antenna to make it lock into the satellite faster?  I know that the lock-in time is going to be one of the "it" factors for me.  I don't want it to take more than a minute to lock in.  I also don't want slow refresh speeds on the screen as I'm driving.  I want it smooth and fast.  And I have reason to believe it can be.  The tablet is more than powerful enough to handle that kind of processing, and having the maps locally stored on the device should make the map movements as snappy as can be expected.  My suspicion is that I'm going to run into issues with the satellite lock-in times.

Thanks Oshyan.  It looks like it's going to be tricky trying to buy a Samsung tablet without the carrier contract.  But I'm not sure on that.  I'll go into the store tomorrow and see.  Such bullshit.  Man, I hate that so much.

I'm really glad to hear your Epic has decent GPS ability.  Could you possibly try it by turning off all the wifi and/or data connections, and tell me if you notice any weirdness?  That would be a really big help for me.  The Epic should be behave essentially the same as the tablet, it's just a matter of screen size, right?