It's 10:32pm and it's been raining hard for the last 65 miles. Suddenly, a loud voice from the front dash of the car says "arriving at 1265 Dunns Parkway on left" in a monotone voice. There's a sense of relief to you, your wife and the three kids in the back of the car. You have arrived at your vacation destination safe and without getting lost. The voice in the front of the car that brought you safely to your vacation destination is a GPS unit. A global positioning system you purchased 2 years ago. Good thing you always downloaded the latest updates for your navigator GPS. What have you done to check if your personal navigation device is up to date lately?
I would say that it's a safe bet that 90% of GPS users don't do much of anything to their GPS after their initial purchase. After the purchase, most GPS users will update the software on their unit and check to see if there's an updated map available for free. Is this the way your travel companion should be treated after years of delivering you safely on your journeys?
One of the very essential accessories a GPS owner should purchase preferably at the same time that the GPS unit is purchased is the protective shield for the display. These are nothing more than thin pieces of transparent plastic that can be seen through but provide a much needed service to your GPS. It keeps the display from becoming scratched either while in use or stored. The protective display shields can be purchased in packages of usually three pieces per pack.
This should last the life of your GPS. Along with the original purchase of your GPS regardless of what make, it is highly recommended that a stylus be purchased to use on everyday selection of options displaying on your GPS's screen. This too will keep your display screen from being damaged if for an instant your fingers had a grain of sand on them. The stylus also makes selection and option buttons function better. You will not "fat finger" your selection and pick the wrong option. Some GPS manufacturers include a stylus but most do not. Buy several. They get lost easily.
After you have purchased your GPS, one of the very first things to do is to go to the manufacturer's web site and set up your user account. This will allow you to receive and load on your GPS any firmware or map updates. Most manufacturers allow free map updates for the first six months after you register your GPS. This is very important as Garmin recently had a firmware issue with their 8XX and 7XX series Garmin Nuvi GPS. If you didn't upload the firmware update, there was a good chance that your Garmin Nuvi GPS would not have found the satellites.
From then on as far as the map updates are concerned, you usually have to pay for map updates after the initial six months or so. I really recommend that if your budget allows you purchase a life time map update option. These allow you to update the map on your GPS unit any time there is an update for your model. With all the growth in the country these days, a map update is recommended. There is nothing more frustrating than putting an address in your GPS, and it not being found. These Life Time updates cost anywhere from $100 to $200. That's a far-site better than what some foreign car makers charge for their built in navigation systems. These can cost in the range of what a good GPS unit would cost. A friend of mine paid the dealer $375 for the navigation system map update for his foreign made SUV.
One other use for that USB cable that came with your GPS is to purchase a data base that contains known law enforcement locations in your area. This also makes your GPS a quasi-radar detector a GPS radar detector so to speak. PhantomAlert has a data base you can subscribe to that keeps up to date on known law enforcement locations across the United States and Canada. It's available for Gamin Nuvi GPS and other models as well as TomTom and most Magellan units. You can try it on other makes, but they don't guarantee it. If you purchase one, download it regularly. It changes every day.
Most GPS units come with a SD memory card slot in them, but how many people really use these? They are very convenient for putting your favorite MP3 files in or audio books. This can come in handy when you are out of range of your favorite radio station or you're just tired of listening to the radio. Some units, especially marine GPS or chartplotters, allow you to update your maps via a SD card or allow very specialized maps inserted there.
While on the road, I see countless cars in parking lots of hotels and malls with their GPS units left mounted in the car. These GPS owners are asking for a thief to steal their global positioning systems. With personal navigation devices as popular as they are, thieves have no problem selling their ill gotten hardware. Please, as you travel, remove the GPS from the mount at the least. By removing your GPS navigator, the thieves really don't know if your unit is in the car or not. Better yet is to remove the mount too. Do not allow your GPS to be a target or your vehicle to receive a broken window.
In general with proper care, you will get many good years of service out of your global positioning unit if you care for it properly. Spend a little time doing the things that I have mentioned above and your GPS will take you to a lot of places that you may not have found by yourself.
Richard Alexander is Director of Marketing for Stellar Marketing, LLC which operates BestGPSRadarDetectors.com, a website featuring Global Positioning Systems and Radar Laser Detectors.
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