Thanks to my brother in law, Raj, and the recommendation of a friend, Jim, who also visits Ottawa for the holidays, I am now the proud owner of a Garmin Global Positioning System (GPS) Receiver. For some reason, I always assumed they were:
- expensive to acquire (based on options at the car dealership)
- entailed subscription fees (?)
- difficult to use (squinting at friend's mobile phones rigged to GPS)
As it turns out, the technology has really matured:
- cheap: $250
- no on-going fees
- easy and fun to use
The model I chose is the Garmin Nuvi 250 which has a detailed database for all of North America including points of interest, restaurants, etc.
We've been using it for a couple of days and I highly recommend this for anyone. Goodbye paper maps!
You can even use it as a photo viewer using the SD memory card slot. What's nice is that even though it recommends a route to your destination, it quickly adjusts when you are "off course" or allows you to insert a "via point" to take you to an intermediate destination first. Most important though is the touchscreen interface and logical menus that allow you to set your destination very quickly.
