Re: [gentoo-user] New GPS & Gentoo?

[Iain Buchanan]

On Wed, 2010-05-19 at 22:16 +0000, James wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Time for  a new GPS. Any cool models out there
> that work well with a Gentoo laptop?

That's like saying "Time for a new car.  Any cool models out there that
work well with petrol?"

There are a plethora of GPSs!  Do you want the typical in car voice
navigation to take you to the restaurant; or off road waypoint and path
tracking, route logging, or something else?

> Being unaware of the latest with GPS (features)
> I'd be most keen to hear what works well and
> what is cool for driving around with a GPS....

some features you might consider:
      * bluetooth for handsfree answering and dialling your mobile phone
        (if it's legal in your area)
      * map upgrades - make sure you can do it for a number of years and
        you're not stuck with this years maps forever
      * text to speech - for reading out street names ("turn left at
        Smith St" vs "turn left in 100m")
      * tunnel mode (some use accelerometers and such to keep your
        position accurate in tunnels or city centres)
      * Online searching (watch out for data fees) useful for finding
        the nearest petrol station
      * Camera with geotagging
      * expandable memory
      * mp3 / video playing capability to use up that expandable memory
      * on road / off road modes and route logging (not that you have to
        go off road, but if you want to upload your tracks to a free
        mapping service, then it needs to be royalty free, which means
        you need to turn off the "snap to nearest road" function)
      * digital compass, odometer, log book facility
      * lane guidance and 3d features (I personally don't care for them,
        but some do)
      * etc

> Maybe searching out free wireless connections for
> bandwidth?

not sure how many plain GPSs have wifi.

hth,
-- 
Iain Buchanan <iaindb at netspace dot net dot au>

One person's error is another person's data.