dav

spork, I went the way you did, in a way. I got the nüvi 750 first and MP3 capability was a big part of it.

It worked fine for a long time, but it does not work as well as the GPS/Zune combination we now use. Some of our rental vehicles just did not play well with the 750.

I never noticed the boot time increasing. What happens is when you put an SD card in with tons of songs (I only have 3gig) then it has to search and index all of those the first time only. As long as you leave the SD card in it never re-indexes so there is no significant time penalty. Every time you swap the card out it does it again. So if you add or change songs frequently then you would see the behavior you are talking about.

spork

Thanks a bunch dav. I spent a couple hours last night looking at other options like the Sony Walkman MP3 player, Ivo M880, the iTouch, the Zune... You're making me tempted to consider the nuvi 750 again if the boot time isn't a problem. If I understand you correctly, it sounds like I can power it down without seeing the boot problem, as long as I leave the SD card in place(?) That would be quite acceptable.

On the other hand, it sounds like the font for the currently playing song is still quite small? I decided against the iTouch on that basis yesterday (after looking at a friend's iTouch).


Are you saying the Zune can take a GPS input and act as a navigator?

HumVee

Yes, the currently playing song font is very small, but bolded. No, the Zune can't take GPS input. I believe that dav is saying that he uses a GPS unit and a Zune (one for navigation, the other for music).

spork

Thanks. Makes sense.

EdGcom

Good discussion, guys. You miss the point on vision just a bit tho. Wait till you're well past the Medicare point and then you'll realize that your vision is perfect - good as ever - but you shrink a bit and now your arms are too short.

__________________

GPS'ing in Florida with a NUVI 750

HumVee

ROFL, EdGcom! I have not yet reached that stage, though I'm sure I'm on the cusp....

MTalvola

Eh, my arms get shorter and my coke bottle glasses get thicker. Pretty soon, I'll look like Professor Farnsworth on Futurama.

dav

HumVee, thanks for answering correctly for me. I did indeed mean that I have gone to using two units, one for GPS and one for music.

With the zune: we were going on a long road trip last October, so my wife created one 8-hour playlist for each day of the trip, plus one 1-hour playlist for going to sleep by each night.

The size of the font was basically immaterial, since we just selected one (numbered) playlist and stuffed the zune in the glove box while driving all day, with no commercials and no repeats. And no fading under trees or bridges as we suffered when we rented Satellite radio for one trip.

HumVee

That's a great idea, dav! I'm taking the family down to see the redwoods this summer, 7 - 10 days (hitting sites I saw on my motorcycle road trip last summer - including an overnight stop at the Treehouse Resort in southern Oregon). I can have the kids nominate songs they'd like to hear during the trip. It will help build excitement and anticipation for the trip.

spork

Just for the record, I took the advice not to try and use the GPS for MP3's. I really wish I could have it all in one, but I opted for the Sony NWZ-S540 for my MP3's. It's pretty nearly ideal for my purposes. I still use the Garmin 255W for nav.

HumVee

Glad you found a setup that will work for you, spork! I understand your desire for an integrated solution, but right now I don't think there is one that will satisfy your vision requirements....

borat

When I was a teenager I went for an eye test in order to complete a pre-employment medical. The old optometrist instructed me to read the bottom line on the eye chart which was about fifteen feet away.

So, I said "Made in the USA". He looked at me quizzically and said "Where is that written?"

I told him "That's what it says in that tiny little oval, way down at the bottom of the chart."

So he actually goes up to the chart, bends over and finds the oval. "I'll be damned." he murmured.

Still had to go through the vision test though.

I still have pretty good distance vision but have to use reading glasses now.

Regarding the SD card and boot up time issue.

I can't say how it works with the Nuvi but I bought a Sandisk Sansa Fuze MP3 player and run an 8 GB micro SD card in it. Once the card is installed, it takes a couple to three minutes for the device to load up the data on the card. Thereafter, there is no delay. However, every time I take the card out and put it back in, it has to re-load the card data and takes the usual two to three minutes to do it.

spork

You should have memorized the last line of the chart in the next exam room before the doc cam in. I'll bet he'd have been even more impressed with your x-ray vision.