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I have owned the I GPS 360 for about 4 months now and feel I have run into all the good/bad aspects of this product. I will break the review down into 2 parts. 1) hardware 2) software.
Hardware:
gps, extension cable, CF slot card, pda mount, 12 dc adpater
The extension cable is a good idea to allow optimal placement of the gps unit in the car, or without the cable allows the pda/gps combo to be carried around easily. I put velcro on the back of the gps and on my dash in the center to keep it put. The pda mount included is a cheesy vent mount, but hey it works. The 12v DC adapter works just fine and stays plugged in.
However, I mostly just let the gps sit on my dash even when I am not using it and just plug it in when I need it. For some reason the connector on the cable extension that plugs into the CF card adapter began to come apart and I have to glue the casing back together. This is not from abuse, as I said it mostly just sits on my dash in my car.
Software:
This came with Ostia 6.0. The software breaks up states into sections for you to download to your pda. I live in Michigan for example and I beleive Michigan was broken up into 7 sections. They average 15 meg or so each. The software also has all the highways into 4 sections NE, SE......
When routing locally, within a state, calculations are fast and seam accurate. However, when you open Interstate maps it can take 10 minutes to calculate a route. I ran into this on a trip from MI to Georgia.
Finding an address can be tricky, Ostia requires the exact address as in dr, ct, NE... or it will not find the street. It does not contain zip codes which would really help narrow down the streets.
The software does recalculate for you automatically if you miss a turn. It has easy to follow turn by turn instructions. Except the interstate map problem, I really like this software.
A few things I have noticed about this unit though, it does not lock onto signals very well. Sometimes not at all. I have a handheld Garmin GPS and did some tests...
I placed the Pharos gps in optimimum location inside the car and turned it on. I held the Garmin in my hand and turned it on. The Pharos took well over 6 minutes to lock on and the Garmin too under 2 minutes and had great signal stregnth from 7 satelites while the Pharos had a weak signal on 3 satelites. Placing the unit outside the car did not improves the signal. Overall it seams this unit has trouble either 1) picking up a signal 2) locking on. Pharos released a "program" called jump start to correct the problem of not locking on. Basically when your gps will not lock on, you close Ostia open "Jump start" let it lock on, the close that then open Ostia again. A horrible solution if you ask me.
I am unhappy with the performance of the gps. it struggles to lock on and keep a signal. I have not called tech support yet, but plan to do so shortly. I do like the software Ostia is easy to use.
** My first call to tech support didn't seam to help. They advised me to disable receive IR and try again. I will try for a little while longer, but at least initially, it did not help.
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