4 ms·
I recently got me a second hand Garmin GPS, decade old. Oh, the software issues that detract from an utmost quality that is well within the reach of the hardwar
by kazinator 2y ago
I recently got me a second hand Garmin GPS, decade old. Oh, the software issues that detract from an utmost quality that is well within the reach of the hardware!
- Latest map from 2024 wants to send me the wrong way down a one way street, which has been that way for something like a decade now.
- When I delete the one-way street segment, giving a start and end point, in the disallowed direction, it deletes both directions of the segment. Like, have a checkbox for that: [ ] delete both directions? Or something.
- Only two voices available for English, only one of which says street names. A 2004 Magellan Roadmate I once had featured more voices.
- The pronunciations are horrible. It wants to say "Pinetree" as "PEE-nuh-tree", would you believe it. Just about every other street name of Anglo-Saxon origin is mispronounced, sometimes even when it is a single dictionary word.
- When it can't find satellites (e.g. inside concrete parkade) it puts up a pointless dialog box about whether to continue searching. If you stupidly take the bait and click "no", it disables satellite searching, switching to some GPS emulation mode for indoor use. You are not told about this until after saying "No", but at least you are told. What you're not told is how to enable it again. You have to go several levels into the right config menu to uncheck this. Jaw-droppingly moronic dark UI pattern.
- Search is bjorked, When you select a subcategory like shopping, there is a multi-second lag between the characters of your search term, though there is no progressive search going on; no results are being refined on the screen as you type: you will not see a result until you submit the search term. If you don't select a category and just search globally, there is no lag. They messed up the priority between the UI and background activity. The number one priority is appearing responsive to the user, even if it takes cycles away from the background activity---which it actually won't, or not significantly!
- Doesn't speak the acuteness of turns: like "slight right turn" or "hard left turn". The much older Magellan unit I had did this. And it had a dedicated button for repeating the last instruction.
- Volume control onscreen only, buried in menus, making it unsafe to just fiddle with the volume while driving. Old Magellan had buttons for this.
- I hate the tone-deaf CLAW-midder pronunciation of kilometer; why don't these things have an option to say KEE-low-meeder? You know, like kilogram, kilobyte, kilopascal, kilohertz, kilovolt ... which are never CLAW-grum, CLAW-bite, CLAW-pascull, CLAW-hurts and CLAW-vuhlt!!! You can escape from this grating assault on the ears by switching to Japanese.
This stuff happens because a product is good enough. People accept it, it sells, and so it's BGAF: beyond giving a F.
On the positive: the build quality of the thing is good: it's a solid piece of hardware. The suction cup is tenacious, and arm assembly is solid. The thing doesn't shake whatsoever, even if hovering off the dashboard, yet the ball joint is easy to detach. Screen is large, decently bright and sharp with good resolution. Using a USB-based cable is a boon. Instead of the car adapter cable provided with the unit, I use its alternative USB cable used for upgrades, plugged into the Type A jack of generic USB charger. That charger has two more Type C ports for charging phones. Yay! The unit's built-in battery means it never reboots for engine starts. It has a 15 second auto shut-down for when the power is cut to the USB port. All good.