New Chinese GPS units - CE 6.0, iGO, Bluetooth, FM

[FiReSTaRT]

I see those advertised on DX, ebay and other places, so I wanted to see if anyone had any experiences with'em.. Wanna use one mostly in the cage, for navigation, music and if I need to take a quick call on bt. Some of those units have up to 128MB of RAM so they can multitask and reroute without running out of mem. Wanted to see if anyone here (lookin' at you Vlad ) had any experience with'em and:

-Can they navigate and play music at the same time? How's it done?
-What if a call comes in while that's happening, does it take #1 priority?

Thanks in advance guys.

[Jlin]

don't do it, i got one for about 450 shipped to my door and it broke after 6 months, sound quality is horrible. mic is as sensitive as hugh heff's cock (not very sensitive for those who don't get it) and the touch screen broke on me. Had to constantly reset the unit cause of audio cutting out. for the money, you can get a pioneer that does all of the things u mentioned above and then some

[FiReSTaRT]

don't do it, i got one for about 450 shipped to my door and it broke after 6 months, sound quality is horrible. mic is as sensitive as hugh heff's cock (not very sensitive for those who don't get it) and the touch screen broke on me. Had to constantly reset the unit cause of audio cutting out. for the money, you can get a pioneer that does all of the things u mentioned above and then some

450?! You must have got an in-dash unit or something... The sub-$100 portable units have been getting good reviews, with the only major complaint being the battery life (about 1hr if you don't keep it plugged in). I ended up getting one as I got confirmation that it will do nav/music at the same time and bt will take over if there's a call coming in (not that I plan to do a lot of talking while cagin' it - handsfree or not handsfree it's bad policy).

[mmmnaked]

450 on a no-name gps lol

[Splash]

don't do it, i got one for about 450 shipped to my door

you sent $450 at DX???? why?




OP:... I'm running iGO on my little Curtis WinCE 5.0 and love it. Way better then Garmin's UI. As for the rest of the stuff.... sorry, I have no idea.

[FiReSTaRT]

you sent $450 at DX???? why? OP:... I'm running iGO on my little Curtis WinCE 5.0 and love it. Way better then Garmin's UI. As for the rest of the stuff.... sorry, I have no idea.

I'm doing the same but it doesn't have bt.. I was looking at some bt units, but nothing sub-$50 struck my fancy and if I'm gonna blow that much on the device, I might as well get GPS and music while I'm at it Ended up pulling the trigger on this unit http://www.ebay.com/itm/170829737277 Got all the features I need and 128MB of RAM so I can do a few re-routes while playing music, without running out of memory.

[sportbiker_kev]

Did you get maps for Canada AND US, or just Canada?

[rmemedic]

Is there anything motorcycle mounted That is a gps with bt and fm radio?
I'm looking at the sena smh5 unit, and would like to get fm, so to bt it from a fm equipped gps would be great.
Can you typically pair to more than one device at the same time? So say I want to have my gps playing music and if I got a call I could answer it? Or switch to the music on my iPhone?

[killerkeith]

Is there anything motorcycle mounted That is a gps with bt and fm radio?
I'm looking at the sena smh5 unit, and would like to get fm, so to bt it from a fm equipped gps would be great.
Can you typically pair to more than one device at the same time? So say I want to have my gps playing music and if I got a call I could answer it? Or switch to the music on my iPhone?

If you just want the FM radio, you try the new nano ipod with a bluetooth adapter


The FM receiver might need you to plug in a set of headphones as an antenna even though you'll be hearing the radio on Bluetooth. I have not tried this but I don't see why it wouldn't work.

[FiReSTaRT]

Did you get maps for Canada AND US, or just Canada?

I already have the freshest US/Canada maps for Igo since I'm running it on my Curtis GPS.

[daught]

I received two of those as a sample a few years ago. The GPS nav software was crap the unit wasn't impressive either. I think they are windows ce based. I remember the SD card had a launcher file that pointed to the software executable. I got garmin and sygic for windows mobile to run on them by placing the executable name in that file. I liked garmin on my phone more so I never used them. I lost the SD card that had all the stuff for them on it. If you want my two units they are yours.

rmemedic Nokia phones can run Garmin, have a built-in FM tuner and bluetooth.

[Jlin]

450?! You must have got an in-dash unit or something... The sub-$100 portable units have been getting good reviews, with the only major complaint being the battery life (about 1hr if you don't keep it plugged in). I ended up getting one as I got confirmation that it will do nav/music at the same time and bt will take over if there's a call coming in (not that I plan to do a lot of talking while cagin' it - handsfree or not handsfree it's bad policy).

sorry, I confused the unit you're interested in with the one I bought, yes it was indash. Stay away from the indash ones. I've heard good reviews on the portable ones also. sorry about the confusion

[FiReSTaRT]

I received two of those as a sample a few years ago. The GPS nav software was crap the unit wasn't impressive either. I think they are windows ce based. I remember the SD card had a launcher file that pointed to the software executable. I got garmin and sygic for windows mobile to run on them by placing the executable name in that file. I liked garmin on my phone more so I never used them. I lost the SD card that had all the stuff for them on it. If you want my two units they are yours.

rmemedic Nokia phones can run Garmin, have a built-in FM tuner and bluetooth.

Thanks for the offer, but I already ordered this one. In any case if it was a few years ago, I doubt that they had a big feature for me - 128MB of RAM. If it's open to other GTAM members, I'm sure there will be takers. I'd be happy to share the maps

sorry, I confused the unit you're interested in with the one I bought, yes it was indash. Stay away from the indash ones. I've heard good reviews on the portable ones also. sorry about the confusion

No worries and your input is much appreciated as the indash ones were under consideration (but I'm selling the car, so I didn't wanna bother).

[rmemedic]

If you just want the FM radio, you try the new nano ipod with a bluetooth adapter


The FM receiver might need you to plug in a set of headphones as an antenna even though you'll be hearing the radio on Bluetooth. I have not tried this but I don't see why it wouldn't work.

Awesome! I need a new nano anyways, didn't know it does FM! Gotta pick one up!

[nobbie48]

Nothing like your GPS crapping out as you're going through an under construction American ghetto on your bike. The three most important features are reliability, reliability and reliability.

[revrandy]

I use a Nokia E7(but this applies to all Nokia smartphones).

They have built-in GPS that never needs a subscription to update; it is done free through their software. You load the maps you want (provinces, states and most countries in the world) - again all free.

It has a built-in FM radio and also bluetooth. For $20 I bought a motorcycle mount for the unit, added a 12v plug and I can now find my way back to the road when I get lost.

[FiReSTaRT]

Nothing like your GPS crapping out as you're going through an under construction American ghetto on your bike. The three most important features are reliability, reliability and reliability.

My phone makes a good backup (Nexus One) but in any case I didn't buy this GPS for motorcycle use and don't expect to go south of the border without a good reason (business related, no other choice). Those GPS units aren't getting any reports of not being reliable, and they're using the same components as Garmin, TomTom and Magellan, just in a configuration that the consumers want as opposed to what their commercials tell me that I want (which is what the brand names are doing).

[woobie]

There was/is a thread on one of the VFR sites on these Chinese ebay GPS's. Cheap and half decent was the consensus IIRC. For anyone that get's one of these for the bike how's the screen visibility on the bike? My magellan is a POS and the screen is unreadable in sunlight.

[FiReSTaRT]

There was/is a thread on one of the VFR sites on these Chinese ebay GPS's. Cheap and half decent was the consensus IIRC. For anyone that get's one of these for the bike how's the screen visibility on the bike? My magellan is a POS and the screen is unreadable in sunlight.

There have been reports of visibility issues in direct sunlight. Also, I wouldn't really trust their waterproofing.