handheld gps, nautical-centric?

[boat]

okies, so i got a dash/window mount magellan gps for xmas, and after have seeing and using huh's garmin last year, and my handheld garmin that i got last year, i like the garmin line better...they seems faster and more intuitive and have better travel oriented features, sooo im going to try and exchange this magellan.

its from bj's, and online the comparbly priced garmin's that i have in mind are the streetpilot c330, streetpilot c340 and nuvie 350. huh has the c330, so im familiar with that, and as far as i can tell the c340 is pretty much the same, except it has text-to-speech street names, which means that it speaks locations/turns instead of when to turn, ie, "turn left on main street" as opposed to "turn left in 500 feet". the nuvi on the other hand is like the size of a deck of cards, but has the same screen size and features of the c330/340, but it also has other quirky travel features like mp3/pictures, currency converters, world clock, built in language translator, etc, and it also has hte newer, more sensitive sirf chipset.

the c330 would be cheaper and give me like 70$ back. the c340 would cost me and extra 70$ and the nuvi would cost me an extra 100$ or so. the nuvi seems appealing, but then i start to think if i would really use any of the other features, plus it doesnt look as rugged as the c330/340's. on the other hand, i could look at it as getting a new, small, feature-rich gps for 100$...but in that case, i could also 'make' money buy getting the c330...but then i like the text-to-speech that the c340 has, which is only 30$ cheaper than the nuvi, so why not spend that extra to get the latest unit..?

bah, decisions decisions...im stopping by bj's after work, so we'll know by then i spose

[boat]

well that was easy enough, the store didnt even stock the c330/340, so i nabbed the nuvi 350 (which i was sorta trying to convince myself to get, so it worked to ). its a sweet little unit...its so tiny, about as thick as deck of cards. garmin's are definitely on my favored list, theyre easy to use, and pretty fast. my only qualm with these kind of garmins is that everything is done via the touchscreen, so if it goes flaky, then youre sol. oh, and the text-to-speech is pretty nice too, so if you have a choice where one offers it, get it

[[NME]T-Bone]

hmmm... walmart always has the c330's in stock, or did ya have to get it from bj's? i was lookin at the text to speech, but figured whatcha need to know the street name for as long as it tells ya to turn. anyhoo, enjoy it.

they come in extremely handy too. friday when i was coming back home from picking jason up, there was an accident or sumfin on I-80. traffic was slowed to a crawl for over 20 miles. i expected traffic to clear out, but it didn't. i hit the detour button on the gps and badda-bing, a new route home. i had no idea where i was, but followed the gps directions and voila, back into familiar territory & home.

...and be gald you didn't get an infected tom tom

[boat]

well i was told they got it from bj's, so i just assumed exchange it from there it wasnt that this bj's didnt have any c330/340s in stock, they didnt even stock them at that brick-and-mortar store. actually that text-to-speech is pretty nice...because you dont have to look at the unit to see the street name that youre looking to turn on, so your eyes can spend more time on the road looking for your turn

ouch...do tom-toms run windows too? (the magellan i exchanged had a windows ce sticker on the back )

[[NME]T-Bone]

that text-to-speech is pretty nice...because you dont have to look at the unit to see the street name that youre looking to turn on

why look up? what's the diff if it says "turn left" or "turn left on jefferson ave."? you must still turn left when it says so... unless it's one of those funky intersections that has two lefts.

anyhoo, can't go wrong with most any of the garmin units. only thing that seems to throw them off is new construction. mine shows me driving thru the woods as i'm crossing over a new bridge and walmart is on the wrong end of town. no problem if ya live in this area, but must really mess with people not from around here. gotta wait until they issue the 2007 maps.