Touch-screen Garmin 5000 Series? I’ll be…
Well, I’ll be damned. Apparently Garmin is also introducing a touch-screen version of the 4000 Series, already hot stuff on several counts. At METS I think I mumbled something about how the new large-label interface would work nicely with touch, but no one even hinted that it was imminent. In fact, there’s nothing on Garmin’s site about 5xxx, but a Google search on “Garmin 5212” finds a number of stores taking preorders, including Tiger GPS above (which also has a useful run down on all the new models). Garmin is clearly not messing around in 2007. (Big thanks to Eric for this tip.)
Garmin promised Mac OS X support a year ago at MacWorld. Yet still no Mac OS X support yet for Mapsource.
http://www.garmin.com/pressroom/corporate/011006.html
Not that Mapsource is anything to write home about. Garmin Training Center will soon be available..
http://www.garmin.com/pressroom/corporate/122906.html
Actually, Garmin’s support for PCs isn’t what it used to be, since you can’t buy G2 charts on a CD or view them on a computer. Maybe they have something in mind, like upgrading MapSource so it can read the G2 Vision SD cards and/or using the Ethernet connection for similar purpose?
Yes in a strange twist Garmin removed real-time position plotting from Mapsource a few releases back. Maybe they realized that Mapsource just wasn’t a subsitute for a real marine navigation application.
It used to be on a Garmin handheld you could just press “Goto” and select a waypoint. Now one has to navigate through several menus before a waypoint can be made active.
I also have very mixed feelings about Garmin. I’ve owned probably 30-40 Garmin units in the last 15 years, I currently own 4. I generally like the ease of use and features. And while I like the fact that they provide regular updates, I’m somewhat disturbed by their willingness to ship with a considerable number of bugs in the firmware as witnessed by the fixes (not enhancements) that come out very regularly for new units in the first six months after they ship.
Their software is just bad. Typically very buggy and poorly supported (it’s a h/w company!).
I’m sure Garmin will have the most whizzy hardware, but I’m not sure I want to rely upon it offshore where I won’t always be able to connect to get the patches. That said, I’ve got a Garmin 76CSx (and before that a 76 and 76CS) as a backup to my Northstar 952, though I’ve never had to use it. Mixed feelings!