Originally Posted by
Steve B.
I can’t think of ANY cycling GPS that’ll do an “I’m off the course” re-route that’s functional. Part of the issue is the unit is now in charge of figuring out from the myriad of roads, which are going to be best for cycling, or if there’s a cycling path nearby, how to use it. I think that’s asking a bit from the current level of technology.
Exactly. I've been riding with a GPS based bike computer since they pretty much came out. In every one I've turned off the turn by turn directions and the re-routing - and that includes the latest and greatest. There are instances when you leave a route and the computer has an apoplectic fit while it's trying to re-route and keep up.
What I want from a bike computer is a great looking map with the right contrast that is easily readable and zoomable and a path shown on the map where I am to go. I can get it from there and both the computer and I are much happier.
That all said, the computing paradigm has shifted towards mobile in terms of capability and industry bulk. Too, if we had decent connectivity, a lot of that could be done in the data center too. I'm one of the early adopter/beta guys on the Hammerhead Karoo. That's got an android based operating system and has a sim card and cellular connectivity. Be interesting to see how that pans out and if they can mature their software to the point where some backend features could be added via a data connection to the data center. Not there now, but it's got potential. What is interesting in the Karoo is the switch from a proprietary OS such as Garmin uses to something that is much more dynamic and has much more active development behind it such as android. The UI is much snappier and responsive, the display is awesome (although that is not an OS feature, driving it with software is), etc... The difference between the Karoo and Garmin units in terms of UI is sort of the same kind of difference in user experience that we saw in the "smartphone" before the iPhone upended the smartphone market. Before, they were these sort of clunky telco based smart(-ish)phones and after the introduction of the iphone they went to these sleek consumer electronics and ergonomic style UI smartphones. Remains to be seen if Hammerhead can capitalize on that.
The 520plus sort of underlines that what Garmin is doing is in the vein of "same as, except" engineering. Incremental change. Nothing groundbreaking.
J.