Mobile devices Toolkit

Story: Garmin iQue 3600

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I recently moved to Houston TX and got one of these gadgets to explore the area by myself and not have to worry about reading a map while driving.

It's great, well almost perfect. I'll talk about the only negative points I have found using it.

1. Driving along the interstate in the slow lane and suddenly it thinks you're not on the interstate anymore, it decides that you are on the frontage road - "Off route, recalculating..." it says. That is annoying.

2. It sometimes decides on routes which take longer and involve more turns than required. (But i guess if you know a better way then go for it, it soon realises that you are off route and recalculates accordingly)

3. I was trying to find the nearest Outback Steakhouse from my location and the nearest one it found was 12 miles away, which is completely wrong as there is one less than 5 miles away. I suppose it can't know everything.

4. I was stopped by the police for doing 69 in a 65 zone and the police woman spotted the Ique on my dash while writing me a warning for my speed, she asked what it was. After I told her she said that it was illegal as of September 2003 (in the state of Texas) to mount any device on the dashboard which blocks any part of the drivers field of view. She wrote me another warning for that. So now the Ique sits on the arm rest in next to the drivers seat, but the signal is not half as good there and it often loses a satellite reception.

All that said though, I still reccomend it to anyone who hates maps or who has a spouse who's terrible at map reading. Once you get the hang of it, you won't be able to drive without it.

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