Accessories

My First GPS
After researching for a few months, this is the GPS that I chose and I'm so happy with it. It's simple to use right out of the box. This Garmin is intuitive and the directions are simple and to the point. Some of my friends have GPS devices that repeat the directions and tend to be distracting. The size of the screen is great and the maps are displayed with real life perspective, making them easier to interpret.Another plus, the price couldn't be beat.

Nice unit that needs intelligent improvements
This review was submitted to Garmin on December 22, 2008. No response has been received as of the posting date.
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Amazon's shipping was excellent. The unit arrived in perfect condition and worked well.
However, there are several points prospective purchasers should know that are not covered well in other reviews.

First, the two calls to technical support were answered quickly and the persons I talked with were knowledgeable, spoke native English and seemed interested in answering my questions. They made absolutely no inquiry about who I was, where I had purchased my nuvi 260, the unit's serial number or my mother's maiden name. They just seemed to want to help. Their support rivals that of Canon which I consider to be the benchmark.

Second, some of the software lacks sufficient user consideration.
For example:

1. There are two ways of saving destinations, "Favorites" and "Recently Found". Individual "Favorites" can be easily deleted. "Recently Found" can't. To make selective deletions the entries in "Recently Found" must be moved to Favorites and then deleted. This is a somewhat thoughtless bit of non-programming.

2. The "World Clock" is not. With children in Berlin, Sydney and Detroit, only Detroit can be shown in the "World Clock". Amazingly, neither Tokyo nor London, both preprogrammed into the unit, can be recalled once deleted. However, Rio de Janeiro can be found! Is there a job opening for QC in the software department of Garmin?

3. The keyboard (A-Z and a-z) begs the question: Why upper and lower case? Shifting from upper to lower case requires a small mental exercise along with a visually smaller character set. Why not make the character set a user option?

4. The driving simulator works in real time which makes it virtually useless. The programmers should code a way to allow rapid simulation. Perhaps 10X with 100X on long stretches or increment with a +/- as is done with the maps.

5. It would be helpful if the device were able to compute both the fastest route and shortest route automatically and display the differences in time and distance facilitating an informed decision.

6. Most aggravating is someone's unthinking decision to hide the 4 digit security PIN number. When using this device the chance of someone trying to steal your PIN is about equal to zero. Garmin, please think! Some of us are old, our eyes are not excellent and our fingers are getting stiff. Is helpful feedback that hard to do?

On the software of the nuvi 260:
The unit should be updated from Garmin's web site upon receipt. They use specialized software (WebUpdater) that makes the task easier. However, again, seemingly thoughtlessly, they do not provide any explanation of the individual update files to enable the user to understand their function and decide intelligently which should be downloaded. For example, "Localization Data, XML file" or "Text, nuvi 2 series, All languages" are obscure identifiers to me.

The web site contains many FAQ's. I could not detect any organization to the FAQ's. When browsing the FAQ site it failed at random times, perhaps reflecting user load. Again, QC in the software department is lacking.

Other Comments:
Garmin does not tell the customer that the unit's battery can be charged with some cell phone A/C chargers. If the cell phone has a mini-usb connector and the output voltage of the charger is 5v DC, the cell phone charger will work.

The supplied manual is very limited. The downloaded pdf manual is 50 pages and not formatted for economical printing. The download manual, like most manuals, is not written with the "How do I do ....?" approach. Were Garmin to carefully watch new users learn to use the nuvi, they would be able to create appreciably better instruction manuals. The manuals are clearly written by people who are very familiar with the device but do not understand the educational process.

The 260 seems to be unable to find addresses on rural gravel roads. Apparently, there is problem with the naming of north and south portions of roads. (This seems a problem with Google Maps and MapQuest also.)

When I set my home location the nuvi supplied address associated with the location was in error giving a house number of 2598 rather than 2692. Inexplicably, there is no way to change the address to match the actual number. Thus the user is forced to use an erroneous house number or an erroneous location.

The Points of Interest failed to show my City Hall (pop. 50,000+) although it showed city halls in very small neighboring communities. It also failed to show the volunteer fire department that protects my home while showing other volunteer departments much further away. The city fire department location shown is on the east side of town while the west side is not shown.

The list of commercial places for my town is strange. There are many omissions and inclusion of obscure and closed stores. Of the 4 stores listed on first screen of "All Shopping", 2 are NOT listed in the most current telephone book. The nuvi 260 found three of seven Subway stores and one of three McDonalds stores in town.

Given the above list of shortcomings there is considerable reason to wonder if the reliability and extent of the knowledge base of the nuvi 260 will be sufficient to make it useful when traveling to unknown places. Is there a system on the back of a napkin outlining how gps owners will be able to download updated and complete information for planned trips and not try to store the entire northern hemisphere in less than 2Gb? Garmin, Google...are you listening?

Exactly what you want for the average guy/girl
There is no need to type an essay about pros and cons. It does what it is supposed to do. It doesn't cost $8000, so it's not going to cook you breakfast for you. Great product, I've had it a few days and have no complaints. I see people up here complaining about things that aren't included...they tell you exactly what's in the box. There should be no surprises. BOTTOM LINE: GREAT GPS!

Great navigator and works for Geocaching
As it's been said, this is a great car navigator. However, the first question my wife asked was 'Can I use it for Geocaching?'.

The good news is: yes. While certainly not optimized for Geocaching, it can and does work, here's how:

1) Like most other Garmin units, you can download GPS coordinates directly from your web browser from the Geocaching.com (and from some points on Google Maps). This is nice time-saver as direct-downloading isn't an option for other brands.
2) By default, the Nuvi is configured for automobile mode & street navigation which isn't too helpful while stomping though bushes. Fortunately, it has an 'off-road' mode that works acceptably well for Geocaching. Not optimal, but it does the job.

My only complaint is that the touch-screen keyboard is not QWERTY. Minor but annoying.

Bottom line, you *can* have a great car navigator and Geocache with a single unit.

EXCELLENT
EXCELLENT--WE PROGRAM THIS NUVI AND OUR PRIUS NAV FOR THE SAME DESTINATION AND GET DIFFERING ROUTES, BUT BOTH END UP AT THE DESTINATION. THIS NUVI HAS A FUN FACTOR OF 10 BECAUSE YOU CAN SET THE LANGUAGE FOR THE ORAL DIRECTIONS--WE HAVE IT SET FOR A BRITISH ACCENT.

THE NUVI PACKS INTO MY WIFE'S PURSE FOR OUT OF TOWN DIRECTIONS--WORKS GREAT