Car GPS - The Great, The Average and the Junk - By: Amene Katanda

Not all car GPS are born equal. The GPS principle and purpose remained the same since the first models came out a few years ago. Now, from being highly specialized devices, GPS's have left the realm of the military to reach into almost any car that is driving on our roads these days.

You now have GPS for cars, hikers, bikers, boats etc. But the most common models are car models.

What will you seek on a car GPS?

Maps and updates are the heart of a good GPS. In some countries, places and road names change every time a new regime comes to power. You don't want to set foot in those places without and up-to-date map.

Have you got good eyes? If you not, I advise you to stay away from mobile phone GPS models. These often run on ridiculously small displays. And in any case most of these gadgets don't even come with a mounting arm for your car.

Points of interest have become a standard feature on most new GPS models. What are they? Well they are what they claim to be: points of interest. That is anything that may be of interest to you in your journey: museums, cinemas, theatres etc.

I've always been sceptical about the other gimmicks that you find on most new GPS models: a slide show view etc. These are stuff you never get to use. Not only are they present on most of your other gadgets but they look more like a marketing overkill than anything else.

I mean, I have a better slideshow viewer on both my mobile and my digital camera. It's called, they say, convergence: that is when your cellular phone is a digital camera, is a GPS, is a computer. But your still need to own a computer, a digital camera and a GPS.

I am not going to finish this without mentioning one important aspect. In fact the most important feature: the possibility of downloading updated maps. Don't take that for granted: not all manufacturers make free downloads available. On some models, get ready to pay every time an update come out.

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