Laptop GPS World

Does anyone know if the maps that come with Mobile PC are the same as the ones you would purchase for a Garmin handheld?
Can the Mobile PC maps be used on a handheld such as GPSMAP 76 CXS?

Glenn

The maps that come with Mobile PC (CNNA NT 2009) are not transferrable to MapSource Therefore, they can not be used with any other Garmin product.

This map is available as an upgrade for other for other Garmin units. The Garmin site lists the GPSMap 76csx as a data card upgrade.

http://www8.garmin.com/cartography/m...6csx&submit=Go

Terry

Hi glennw,

To answer the first half of your question, Yes, these are the same maps that you would buy for other Garmin nav products such as the GPSMAP line. In the case of the North American version, it's "Garmin City Navigator North America NT2009". So you are getting exactly the data (maps, POIs, address database, routing data, etc.) that you would get with that map product if you bought it seperately.

However, Terry is correct that you cannot use the ones that come with Mobile PC on anything else. They are pre-compiled so you can't use them in Mapsource. Or to put it another way, they are the same sort of compiled mapset that Mapsource produces for use on, say, a Garmin handheld nav device.

Garmin is mostly in the business of selling navigation hardware devices and maps. Most of what they do is designed to sell more maps. One of the ways they do that is to sell unlock codes. They literally give some of the map products away for free (they're unusable without an unlock code) and sell you unlock codes for them. The unlock codes are tied to the serial number of the hardware device (eg. GPSMAP76csx) you will use the maps on.

In the case of the software-only version of Mobile PC, they use the Product Key to unlock the maps.

...ken...

Thanks Ken,

This explains a lot. I've always been a little confused with Garmin's usage policies. They seem to have a variety of them.

Glenn

Hi Glenn,

Yes, their descriptions of the various products make it all seem way more confusing than it needs to be. It's so bad for some things that it even gets their product support people confused. But it turns out to be quite easy. If the Garmin hardware navigation device is capable of having maps loaded, the maps will be unlocked to the serial number of that device and won't be usable by any other device.

The maps may come, precompiled, on a flash data card. In that case, the maps on the card are only usable on that device.

If you buy the standalone version of the maps, the DVD will come with the Mapsource application. In this case, the maps are still unlocked to the serial number of the Garmin hardware navigation device. They can be loaded to that device and only used on that device. But, once unlocked, you can also play with them in Mapsource on your PC.

In the case of Mobile PC, software-only version, you have a hybrid situation that even confuses Garmin's product support people. The maps that ship with it are precompiled, just as if they were on one of the flash data cards. Since you may not have a Garmin hardware navigation device to unlock the maps to (eg. might be using a non-Garmin GPS receiver), they had to come up with some other way of doing it. So they include the Product Key with the software-only version and unlock to that Product Key when you activate the Mobile PC installation on your computer.

Those are all standard and legitimate ways that the Garmin maps are used. In the case where you bought the DVD, installed the maps and Mapsource application, and unlocked the maps to your Garmin hardware navigation device's serial number, there is another navigation scenario that becomes possible. You can download Garmin's nroute navigation program and use either the Garmin GPS receiver that the maps are unlocked to or a non-Garmin GPS receiver in combination with the Franson GPSGate program on a laptop. This last option gives you pretty much the same navigation capabilities as Mobile PC, just not as pretty a display and no touch-screen features.

...ken...

Ken,
The other confusion that has been introduced is with precompiled maps. The mapping software (e.g. CNNA NT 2009) is in several versions; the standard (now downloadable) version will not load until it sees a suitable Garmin product (e.g. Nuvi PND). That version will not recognize Mobile PC or Mobile 10 /XT as suitable products. These devices or software need a different version of the mapping product.

I believe this is a different (and more confusing) procedure than with previous map updates where unlocking was the only thing needed for any Garmin product. I also believe this was introduced by Garmin to overcome the keygen hacks available on the internet.

Terry

I think you're right. The problem with this approach, like with DRM on music and video CDs and DVDs and files, is that they risk losing sales in a big way. In Garmin's case it starts by making their map products so confusing that people simply can't figure out what they need to buy ... so they won't. And if it becomes too complicated and/or expensive to use the maps on multiple devices the same thing applies. People will go to some other vendor.

It's not like Garmin's maps are special. The North America maps are all the same Navteq data and are the same as Street&Trips maps. So far I haven't found any difference at all between Garmin's City Navigator North America maps and MS Streets&Trips USA maps.

I understand what they are trying to do, but they really should pay attention to how the big guns in the entertainment industry are shooting themselves in the feet lest they do the same.

...ken...

The worst part of this - as I was whining about before - is the disconnect from MapSource with this product.

I just spent some time with my son and his SO laying out daily routes for their trip to New Brunswick based on the stops they wanted. It was a treat setting up and modifying these in MapSource and then transferring the routes and waypoints to MPC. I know you can do it in MPC but MapSource is way easier.

People buying MPC as their first Garmin product miss out on this fabulous resource. Shortsighted on Garmin's part in my opinion and I have told them so.

Or is it just my previous experience with MapSource that makes me feel this way!!

Terry

I don't think so. I don't think it's just your Mapsource experience.

The Mobile PC interface is designed primarily for standalone devices with touchscreens. The interface is, by design, self-limiting. It works great for navigation and quicky "find-and-route" use .. just the sorts of things you want to be able to do quickly and easily with a handheld nav device. But not so much for trip planning and creating complex routes, eg. vacation or business routes with multiple forced stops along the way.

That's where Mapsource really shines. It's great to be able to just click on the Route tool and start clicking on the places you want to stop. Or click on the start and end points, then start manually typing in Via points into the list and rearranging them to suit yourself. Mapsource is definitely the superior tool for trip planning and complex routing.

I agree with you completely that not including the ability to use Mapsource with the included detail maps is a shame. But it's not new to Mobile PC. You have the same issues with any of the Garmin products that ship with precompiled maps in memory or on flash data cards. The only reason you really notice the difference with Mobile PC is that a) you understand the potential that having the nav "device" running on the PC could provide and b) you have already been contaminated by Mapsource experience.

As long as my use of my laptop for navigation purposes is trivial (it's so much easier to fit my Garmin iQue 3600 PDA/GPS into the vehicle), I expect that I will depend on Mapsource and nroute because I can use all the maps installed in Mapsource for navigation in nroute. And I don't even have to compile and transfer them. The map display isn't nearly as pretty but the convenience of everything else more than offsets the gorgeous display of Mobile PC. Of course where City Navigator North America NT2009 suits my purposes, I'll probably still use Mobile PC ... purely because of that lovely map display.

...ken...