My speeds with Comcast are rock-steady and very, very fast. I thought the first day that I had done the speed test might be a fluke, and the speeds would drop back down. Well, after a few weeks with the PowerBoost addition, I'm still testing incredibly fast speeds:
Also, I decided to get one of the new Garmin Nuvi 680 GPS units to replace a cranky, under-updated, under-appreciated built-in GPS system in our van. The built-in is an Alpine, which worked well enough, but Alpine never ever published a single updated mapset since we bought the unit more than four years ago. They have produced updates for the OEM versions (i.e., the Alpine nav system sold with Hondas and Acuras), but have left us full-price-paying standalone nav system owners in the cold. I think that's pretty rotten of Alpine, and I will now make sure to tell people to steer clear.
The Nuvi is very nice indeed, and is capable of pulling in weather, movies, traffic and gas price data from MSN Direct. So far, the unit seems to be receiving the data slowly as I drive, but it usually shows "No Coverage" in many areas that MSN claims are covered. I suspect this is actually a user interface issue, showing no coverage when in fact the unit is receiving MSN data, because it does seem to get traffic alerts in a timely fashion even when the GUI displays "no signal". I'll investigate more as I play with the unit.
However -- the screen is large, colorful, and the unit is as fast as my older 2720 (also Garmin). And, I've already gotten a map update (the 2008 City Navigator maps), that's one more than I've gotten in FOUR YEARS with the Alpine!
One gotcha: Garmin's "official" policy about providing updated maps for those who have recently purchased a Nuvi which may have shipped with outdated maps is that they must pay for the update -- which is a pretty raw deal, if you ask me. Garmin used to give 30-60 day grace periods for people who were unlucky enough to get a new unit with older maps.
To be fair, I called and complained and they are sending me the map update, free of charge. Otherwise, I would have returned the unit to Amazon and possibly checked out the competition.. but Garmin did right by me, so I'm keeping (and enjoying) my Nuvi.
Also, I decided to get one of the new Garmin Nuvi 680 GPS units to replace a cranky, under-updated, under-appreciated built-in GPS system in our van. The built-in is an Alpine, which worked well enough, but Alpine never ever published a single updated mapset since we bought the unit more than four years ago. They have produced updates for the OEM versions (i.e., the Alpine nav system sold with Hondas and Acuras), but have left us full-price-paying standalone nav system owners in the cold. I think that's pretty rotten of Alpine, and I will now make sure to tell people to steer clear.
The Nuvi is very nice indeed, and is capable of pulling in weather, movies, traffic and gas price data from MSN Direct. So far, the unit seems to be receiving the data slowly as I drive, but it usually shows "No Coverage" in many areas that MSN claims are covered. I suspect this is actually a user interface issue, showing no coverage when in fact the unit is receiving MSN data, because it does seem to get traffic alerts in a timely fashion even when the GUI displays "no signal". I'll investigate more as I play with the unit.
However -- the screen is large, colorful, and the unit is as fast as my older 2720 (also Garmin). And, I've already gotten a map update (the 2008 City Navigator maps), that's one more than I've gotten in FOUR YEARS with the Alpine!
One gotcha: Garmin's "official" policy about providing updated maps for those who have recently purchased a Nuvi which may have shipped with outdated maps is that they must pay for the update -- which is a pretty raw deal, if you ask me. Garmin used to give 30-60 day grace periods for people who were unlucky enough to get a new unit with older maps.
To be fair, I called and complained and they are sending me the map update, free of charge. Otherwise, I would have returned the unit to Amazon and possibly checked out the competition.. but Garmin did right by me, so I'm keeping (and enjoying) my Nuvi.
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