Good day, all. Brand new member here - first post. This Forum was recommended by folks on the poifactory.com when I posted a question there no one could answer

I am interested in the Garmin Mobile PC with GPS 10x, North America.

At this point, I have one and only one question: does the Garmin Mobile PC display, across the top of the screen, the names of the next upcoming street?

My Nuvi 650 dos this; friends with newer Garmin units have been deeply disappointed to find this feature missing from their units.

To clarify: when I set up my 650 to take me to a destination, the names of the upcoming streets do NOT display across the top of the screen. No problem; not really needed under these circumstances.

When, however, I turn on my 650 and use it solely as an illuminated road map, which I very frequently do, the names of the upcoming streets DO display across the top of the screen. I like this very much. So much so that a lack of that feature in the Garmin Mobile PC would be an absolute deal breaker for me.

Anyone here know the answer to this one???

Hi Speed3,

Welcome to Laptop GPS World.

Yes, Garmin Mobile PC does show both, 1. the name of the next turn (if you are navigating to a destination set in the program), and also 2. the name of the next upcoming street (if you don't have a destination set).

Thank you very much!

That definitely puts the Garmin unit in the list of possibles.

Two follow-up questions if I may:

I have a Samsung NC10 Netbook which I intend to use with whatever unit I buy and as folks probably know, these don't come with optical drives. Is there any workaround for installing the Garmin maps and software on a Netbook running Windows XP w/o buying an external CD/DVD unit?

I do have an external HD which I can connect to the Netbook and another computer, an iMac. Is it possible to put the Garmin DVD in the Mac's optical drive, make some sort of image that I could transfer to the exterhal HD, connect the HD to the Nebtook and install the Garmin software on the Netbook?

And the other question: is there any equipment other than the Garmin Mobile PC and its bluetooth GPS unit I should consider?

I'm sure you can build an ISO image of the installation DVD then run a virtual drive to install it. I do that with 99% of my software on my system.

Thanks very much, malaki86. I was hoping that would be the case.

Speed3,

The easiest thing would be to create a folder on the hard drive and just drag the entire contents of the DVD into that folder, move the hard drive to the netbook and launch (double-click) the SETUP.EXE program in that folder. That should get it done.

Second easiest is if you have a wireless network at home and could share the DVD drive on your Mac over the network. Stick the Mobile PC DVD into the Mac's DVD drive and run the SETUP program from the netbook.

If you can't do either of those, the ISO route will work. I use MagicISO on my netbook. It does a whole bunch of stuff but I mostly just use it as a virtual CD/DVD drive for running ISO files. Use whatever software you need to create the .ISO image on the Mac, copy it to the removable hard drive or over the network to the netbook and use MagicISO or some other virtual CD/DVD drive program on the netbook.

...ken...

My 2 cents;
I tend not to agree with the so called easiest approaches to loading software from DVDs unless the netbook will have limited usage. One of the quickest ways to get bored with a new toy is if it won't do what you want without a lot of hassle.

For that reason, if you can't easily share a DVD drive from a networked computer, buy a standalone DVD unit. They are not too pricey these days and even come in USB powered versions.

Terry

Yes, I missed that point, and it's a good one.

The only reason I don't have one is that it's really easy for me to share a DVD drive over the network here at home and I never install software when I'm on the road, so it's never been an issue for me.

And the USB combo CD/DVD drives are really getting cheap these days.

...ken...

Preparing to purchase the Garmin Mobile PC, the thought struck me: When does Garmin issue its yearly update of it mapping software/maps? I don't want to get the 2009 version only see the 2010 version come out a few months later and have to shell out again to update a brand new, for me, system.

Thanks.

The 2010 version is already out. Now would be as good a time as any to get it. The hardware version comes with a free download for the latest maps anyway.

Terry