Review: Garmin Mobile PC

Not sure about addresses, but I do see street names there: http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&hl=en...,0.028667&z=15

I looked up an address in Fernie, 1239 5 Ave. and it showed in Google Earth except it said Sparwood. No addresses on numbered streets in MG CAN v4, CNNA NT 2009 or Google Earth.
Definitely could be Navteq. Maybe they use DMTI data.
Terry

...or perhaps Navteq has just improved its Canada map data for smaller towns.

Marvin,
I agree, but where did they get their data? It matches DMTI (no address on numbered streets) in this particular case. Of course, Fernie may not have addresses on numbered streets but that is highly unlikely.

I have some checks to make in Ladysmith for improvements I see from MG CAN v4 to CNNA NT 2009 which I will check in Google Earth later.

Terry

Ok, I give up. The problems I saw were only manifested on the PDA.
I am just happy that I can now live in the real world with the rest of you regardless of where the data came from.

Terry

Marvin,

I checked on Google maps. The copyright for that area is 2008 Navteq. It looks as good as what Terry showed us from CNNA 2009 on his laptop. I also did some comparisons to Metroguide Canada v4. There are enough differences between MG Canada and Google Maps, and enough similarities between Google Maps and CNNA 2009 that I'm betting the data for Fernie in CNNA 2009 is Navteq.

The river is still missing entirely from Terry's picture, and that's usually a pretty good sign it's Navteq data. They really do a bad job on even obvious and simple geographic stuff like rivers and lakes and golf courses. That's not an issue for Google because they just use the satellite images for the geographic stuff.

...ken...

Terry,

The street grid is a little misleading on the map because the streets and avenues look square in the main town grid. The blocks are actually longer on the avenues than the streets. Most of the main part of Fernie has no properties fronting on the numbered streets, thus no civic addresses needed. There are a few numbered streets with properties fronting on them and they do have the civic addresses in MG Canada v4.

Search for 149 or 153 1 St,
or 815, 821 or 827 4 St
or 1368, 1370 or 1372 15 St in MG Canada v4 for examples.

I looked up 149 1 St and 815 4 ST and 1372 15 St on Google maps and the Address box properly shows Fernie, BC.

I also looked up 1234 and 1239 5 Ave and both show Fernie, BC in the Address box.

I'm still betting it's Navteq data in CNNA 2009.

...ken...

Just to put the issue of street grids and addresses on the maps into its proper perspective, Metroguide Canada proves that the data was all available for many places back in 2002. The fact that it was missing from many smaller places in City Select, City Navigator and Streets&Trips until City Navigator 2009 simply means that it took Navteq that long to bother to go get it from wherever DMTI got it.

Just to show how far behind Navteq is in Canada, my City Select NA v5 has pretty much just blank space across almost all of southern BC. In CSNA v5 there isn't even a street grid for Regina!! It's nothing but a point on the TransCanada hiway. It was released at the same time as MG Canada v4 which has the complete street grid, addresses, parks, green spaces, golf courses, the whole enchilada.

It just takes a lot longer for Navteq to bother with Canada.

...ken...

Its a little difficult looking up addresses on the Mobile PC and I haven't figured out how to use this map data in MapSource.
Looking at Fernie with the river and Golf course (and railway) in MG CAN v4 makes me suspect you are right though.

BTW, I hate all the location indicator icons. They are too large, even on the laptop. I guess I need to find out how to design them.

Terry

139 1st St

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I just figured out what difference British English Text made. Note the spelling of Colour.

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S&T had the data but dropped it when they went to a routing product
Terry

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I can't read that. Its Regina in S&T Version 11 from 2003
Terry

Sorry,
I meant to say GPS-aware product. I maintain it on one computer as it is still the best, fastest address lookup and routing program for Canada (and it sorts stops too).

Terry

Terry, can you elaborate on that a little bit - or give some sample addresses. I haven't come across an issue, yet. So far so good on my end. Actually I'm loving this software (and hardware) so far .

I just added the following to the Garmin Mobile PC review on page 1: