Normally, I’ve got quite a good sense of direction but living in Cardiff this ability has changed into the ability to get lost quickly. Must be that rift in the bay playing havoc with my internal compass. So, I need a satnav unit to get around as the A-Z is relatively useless thanks to the appalling road system here. Me being me, I don’t want just a satnav unit. I want one built into my phone because I don’t want to carry around multiple gadgets, which at one point, was two mobile phones and my Tapwave Zodiac.
Sadly the Tapwave has fallen into the gadget drawer which is a shame as it is an excellent emulator of bygone computers especially the ZX Spectrum. I still had the rubber key version (since 1983!) until a year ago when I had to junk it as it grown mould living in the cavern of the forgotten: the garage. Fortunately I sold all my games a few years back on ebay along with all the other bits of hardware that were still in their original boxes. Not sure if I want to sell the Tapwave as no other PDA has a joystick controller and I don’t want a PSP but as I’m on the bus nowadays, I might use it a bit more during lunchtime.
Back to sat nav. Had to go to Swindon with a work collegue and as we had never been there before, this time I asked him to bring his sat nav even though google maps showed it was quite simple. Cardiff to Swindon is a 65 mile or so trip straight along the motorway. Good run out for the Focus but not exactly ideal for the Tom Tom to demonstrate it’s abilities but it did give me an opportunity to evaluate one (again!) before deciding to buy.
First, not so keen on the 3rd person view – I get that looking straight ahead out the windscreen – the 2D view is my preference as I get to see the road up ahead rather than a 3D one. I found the directions a little bit strange on roundabouts (hence the title). Coming back from Swindon, I had to miss the first exit and take the third one but trusting the sat nav, it told me to stay left which to me means be in the left lane. Unfortunately, by the time I realised it I needed to be in the middle lane at the approach and had no choice but to take the second exit as I couldn’t move lanes and then turn around a short distance later.
Going to try out google maps next once I get a new phone with built in GPS. I currently use google maps to find the exact postcode and print out the surround location whilst planning the rest by map. Works very well for my purposes at the moment but will update my experiences once I get the new phone. The Nokia E71 is my current favourite at the moment but as I don’t want to pay for it, I’m waiting for O2 to release it. Which apparently was going to be the 15th September but has now slipped to October and not a firm date. Ah, a quick search reveals there is a speccie emulator for Symbian.
