I Bought a GPS System!
August 27, 2007 by Erin Blaskie
Filed under The Cross-USA Trip
On Friday of this past week, my husband and I went to FutureShop to purchase a GPS system. We didn’t know what to expect so we browsed around the GPS section playing with the various GPSes (is that a word?!) until help finally arrived to take us out of our navigational misery!
After much discussion, we finally settled on one - the TomTom One XL. It’s normally $499 but we got it on sale for $399 - a cool hundred bucks off. Here is a description of the system from the TomTom website:
The TomTom ONE XL has everything you need to make your trip safer, more relaxed and more fun.
At its heart lies TomTom’s award-winning plug-and-go navigation software, but the new 4.3” wide high-quality touchscreen makes navigating even easier.
Your ONE XL has a pre-installed database of safety camera locations in the UK. This database is fully integrated in your ONE XL navigation software and alerts to warn you when there is a fixed safety camera on your route.
There’s a large choice of route options and to make your trip complete, thousands of useful and fun Points of Interest pre-installed for on the way.
In other words, the TomTom ONE XL makes getting there better than ever.
We tested it out this weekend by going to Algonquin Park (middle of nowhere) and Kingston (on the highway) and it worked great in both areas! It only miscalculated where we were by a couple of meters once on our way out to Algonquin Park. It knew which road we were on but couldn’t really tell precisely where we were due to us being in the middle of the mountains.
I also downloaded a bunch of different voices from the internet but we settled on the voice of Lori, an American girl. So, we’ve been calling our TomTom Lori. We thank Lori for giving us directions when we are lost and Stevie blows kisses to her because she’s taken him from directionally challenged to navigationally perfect.
Can’t wait to see what she’ll help us with across the USA in April. We can hardly wait for our trip… The next piece of technology we need to get is a wireless internet card that will work across Canada and the US… hopefully from the car!
Technorati Tags: GPS, GPS unit, GPS navigational system, GPS system, TomTom, TomTom One XL
Congratulations on your new navigational partner, Lori. We bought a new Honda this year and it came with this wonderful product. I just LOVE it because I can get lost going to the store. Yes, I’m also directionally challenged and it has helped me find my way home. I used to drive around in circles when I visited unfamiliar places looking for the road home but now the GPS just tells me where to go. I recently learned that I can purchase a newer CD with more recent mapping on it. I have to look into that because the silly product doesn’t recognize that there’s a subdivision where I live. Sure … I do live in the middle of nowhere. But you would think it could at least recognize the gravel road that takes me there.
I’m impressed with Tom-Tom over other GPSs. We do have a portable unit in my husband’s car. He ISN’T directionally challenged but uses it sometimes to locate landowners in his work buying right-of-way.
How cool that your “Lori” identifies camera locations! That could save you the price of the GPS right there.
Happy traveling next year, Erin. My home in the country is open whenever you come this way. It is a place of peace and serenity so you can recharge your batteries.
Warmly,
LindaP