Switching over from Delorme to Garmin Mobile PC

Thanks to this wonderful site, I will be switching over from Delorme to Garmin Mobile PC - but did have one concern:

Why is this product so "obscure" ? Makes me wonder if it will be abandoned at some point...

Why doesn't Garmin put this product on store shelves next to their popular Nuvi-style "all-in-one" GPS units? I had studied Garmin's own site several times and never knew this product existed (it's buried under layers of menus).
After your site enlightened me, I found that it was available through Amazon, and apparently Staples, but it's only sold on web site at Staples, not in stores, and Best Buy doesn't carry it...

But everyone sells Delorme Street Atlas and Microsoft Streets & Trips which are both garbage-ware in my opinion. I do Insurance claim inspections and plot out 4 or 5 sites a day, every day. I go to a bad-weather site, get 80 to 100 claims, and try to figure out where they are and "group" them into logical day-routes.

Delorme often cannot find 1/4 of the addresses, or centers me in a zip code as the street isn't found. Yet my Garmin Nuvi will find the same address 99% of the time, and Map-quest will find it. This happens in multiple states I travel to, and I am really fed-up with Delorme.

I know your FAQ's say that no-one knows about future releases... but do you get a warm-fuzzy feeling that it is a good product to have running on a laptop (for the big picture showing several destinations) and perhaps can share info with the "turn-by-turn" Nuvi Garmin unit?
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Edit 2-5-2010: my experience with Delorme runs through many versions, but had only used a very old version of S&T. I should not have classified it as "garbageware" without trying newer version.

Delorme uses there own in-house mapping data which can give mixed results in some areas. Garmin uses Navteq (as does S&T) which is generally more reliable for North America than other map data suppliers.

Garmin makes their big bucks on hardware and got into the computer related mapping arena a little late (except for nRoute). The Mobile PC product is basically a Nuvi on a large screen. A great display and reasonable options. It works effortlessly with MapSource or you can set up multiple stop routes within the program itself. The interface is very similar to the Nuvi and the learning curve from one to the other is zero.

If you buy the version including a GPS (USB 20x or Bluetooth 10x), you are entitled to yearly or lifetime map updates for an extra fee, just like the Nuvi. As to when a new version will be available, no word yet.

Terry

What Terry said.

Mobile PC is barely a niche market compared to their handheld sales so it's no great surprise that they don't spend a lot of time advertising it.

Regarding whether it gets updated or not, it sort of doesn't matter if you think about what Terry just said.

It's so similar to a Nuvi and sufficiently stable that it almost doesn't matter if they don't release a new version. If you could be happy with a Nuvi for features and functions, Mobile PC is there now.

If you buy one of the versions with a GPS receiver, you can continue to update your maps, either when you choose to or by getting the lifetime updates. So, again, you won't really be left behind because you can keep your map data up to date.

It works under Windows 7, so that's not an issue.

Of course I hope they come out with a new version that at least fixes the known and reported problems and we've made a few suggestions for improvements. They keep confirming that they will deliver a new version. But if they didn't, it wouldn't be an issue for a fairly long time.

...ken...

I've used quite a few laptop gps apps in my truck: Streets & Trips, Street Atlas, CoPilot Truck and Mobile PC. Garmin Mobile PC is the hands down winner, at least for my setup. It's VERY easy to use on a 7" touchscreen, except for the "no on-screen keyboard". Driving an 18-wheeler, I get surprisingly good routing that doesn't try to send me down roads that I wouldn't take my S-10 Blazer down, let alone the big truck (like CoPilot Truck does). I wish you could put "times" on the waypoints the same as in Streets & Trips just to get a better idea of the final ETA, as well as a "stop list" that would only display a list of your planned stops with the distance and eta's to them.

If they offer an upgrade, I'll definitely be in line to purchase it immediately.

Wow - thanks to each of you for taking the time to help me.
(1) That is good to know - I "assumed" S&T was using similar database to Delorme. I have many more years suffering with Delorme than S&T, and might even consider checking out newer versions of S&T but am hoping that Garmin Mobile PC will have a more seamless ability to plot out day-trips (like a delivery guy) and export it to a Nuvi. I have the Nuvi for "turn by turn" but like to also have a full laptop on a stand so I can see the big picture. With Garmin Mobile PC I am hoping to use the laptop for a several mile-wide view in addition to the Nuvi.

(2) This site has a wealth of info - and I have just scratched the surface. I am at a storm site right now and short on time... but will research what "MapSource" means & how that might be different than entering a series of stops into Garmin Mobile PC.

Thanks again for each of your time in helping.
Bob H

You probably should download the free trial for Streets & Trips 2010. It will give you an idea of the improvements Microsoft has made lately and can send multiple stop routes to your Nuvi.

Download details: Streets and Trips 2010

Terry

About Mapsource:

Garmin sells a version of their maps on DVD (as well as SD cards or download files). The DVDs come with a program on them called Mapsource. The Mapsource program is installed on your PC when you install the maps on your PC.

Mapsource is sort of like Street Atlas or Streets&Trips without the realtime navigation. It is an excellent trip planning program. It lets you view the maps, zoom and pan, enter waypoints, find stuff (addresses, cities, intersections, points of interest), and plan routes.

It also lets you transfer maps, waypoints and routes to your Nuvi (or other Garmin handhelds) or to Mobile PC.

Mobile PC will not transfer anything to your Nuvi.

The best way to think about Mobile PC is that you stuffed the Nuvi into your PC, except that it needs an external GPS receiver. Otherwise it's virtually the same.

...ken...

Ken,
You could use the current.gpx file from Mobile PC to transfer information to the Nuvi (or vice versa). I assume it contains route information. It is located at C:\Documents and Settings\<your name>\Application Data\GARMIN\GarminMobilePC\gpx. I know this is a rather heavy handed approach but it is possible.

The better method is to use MapSource as you say. When the Nuvi maps are updated, a version of the new data can be installed on the computer for MapSource too. I'm not sure if this update is installed if you don't have MapSource though.

Terry

I get it now. Well explained.
I will definitely get the version with the USB receiver (not just the disks) to get the full benefit of the map updates, etc.

I remember working a hurricane in 1992 and all the street signs were blown away - counting streets south of the freeway to get to a destination.
Delorme was a big improvement - but the Garmin Nuvi blew it away in terms of finding street addresses 99% of the time.
Having a big view laptop + turn-by-turn on the Nuvi is gonna be awesome if they are singing off the same song-sheet, and don't have to enter the addresses twice.

Gotcha - and I see from the photos of your truck that you aren't running S&T (and Malaki isn't running it- prefers Garmin Mobile PC).

I had no idea that S&T could export multiple stops to a Nuvi. When I get caught up next week I will do that download so I am better informed on what is out there.

I have used Garmin products in my vehicles for eons. However, I have set up and printed travel plans from S&T during those years as well. For my area, S&T maps were next to useless after a change of map data provider in 2005 and Garmin was not much better. All that changed in 2009 when Navteq suddenly realized Canada existed outside of the main cities. Now both products are great here but I like the Mobile PC navigation display better. I also have several Nuvis.


Terry

Bob, the GPX file export (and import) is a brand new feature to the 2010 version. You may want to download the trial version, as Terry suggested. S&T does provide good 'big picture'.

Thank you. And I can see from your photos that you are running Garmin Mobile PC with a large display.
Although I do inspections after a bad storm - it seems like my GPS needs are closer to someone who has a constantly changing delivery route.
Do you GPS guru's have insight to what mapping software is used by delivery services? I would think the big ones (Fed-X, UPS) have their own very specialized software.
And the small mom & pop flower delivery stores may use paper-maps and punch the next house address into their small GPS.
My specific issue is being able to see 40 to 100 addresses splattered across a 50 mile region, and being able to visualize the patterns of homes close together in groups of 5 or so to schedule days inspecting about 5 at a time without zig-zagging across town, and coming back tomorrow to one that you were next door to on a previous day.
Delorme used to work OK for me, but as I said there was too many residential addresses that it could not find (but the little Garmin Nuvi would find them and it was right on the money when you ask the homeowner for their cross-streets - it was right there).

Hi Bob,

Streets&Trips has a number of options that might be helpful in what you want. With its "pushpins" you can create groups of waypoints with different names for the groups.

You can get the data into the pushpins a couple of different ways. You can just enter the addresses directly into Streets&Trips or you can enter then into an Excel spreadsheet and use Streets&Trips to import them.

Either way, you now have a pushpin set that will display the locations on a map. You can designate the icon you want to use to display all the addresses in that pushpin set from a large list of different icons. You will then see those icons on the map. You can click on the icons to get the address information, if that's useful.

Once the pushpin set(s) is complete you can use the GPX export option to export the pushpins as waypoints to load onto your Nuvi or connect the Nuvi to the computer and export them directly to the Nuvi.

Once they're on the Nuvi you can create your own route with just a few of them. Or you can make a route in S&T using just some of the pushpins and export just the route to your Nuvi.

For your purposes, Streets&Trips might be more useful for the PC part of your operation than Mobile PC, especially now that S&T knows how to export GPX files and send stuff to Garmin devices.

The only thing to be aware of in deciding the best way to work with these tools is that to send things directly from S&T to a connected Garmin device, you also need an internet connection. S&T does not actually know how to transfer things directly to a Garmin device. That functionality only exists on one of Microsoft's online services so you need the internet connection to make it happen.

That's not necessarily a big deal because you can do it all with GPX files. It's just a little more complicated that way and you need to be aware of it for planning how to do your work.

I hope that helps.

...ken...

Thanks for taking the time to help - really appreciate it.
I have a Garmin nüvi 255W 4.3-Inch circa March 2009.
Up to now, I have simply entered a single destination with occasional single "via".

With the small nüvi 255W 4.3-Inch interface, I did not realize I could enter more than the one single "via" but then I never really tried...

Having lived with Delorme for years (working Katrina claims, etc.) I was used to a visual representation of multiple vias, you can re-arrange, them, etc. And of course the "Laptop-GPS" world you folks live in has that luxury (Garmin mobile-PC, S&T, Delorme, etc.)

I shouldn't waste too much of your time - and when I get caught up (next week...) I will just have to get my toes wet and see how the nüvi 255W tolerates multiple stops charted out in a day. I get the idea that the route needs to be fairly final before exporting it to the Nuvi due to it's limited sequencing (re-arranging) interface.