Good time to update your GPS devices

I am sure by now you might know - yea I have six, 3 portable,1 mountain bike, to 2 driving (his & hers). two are retired. So as I sit here some updates are taking 10 minutes updating or replacing the North American Map 2012/4 Garmin required almost two hours. Repairs to the OS on the older ones are easy... The corrections are important to fix a multitude of issues. I noticed last week (I do 200 miles daily) that some roads were not findable and I had to open Google Earth to get a fix or correct a spelling mistake or two. it's well worth it. Some GPS are retired so its important to look up the model and set up an account with some companies... GPS that are older than 7 years might not be worth the trouble.

Interesting that you brought that up. I bought a new computer and loaded Magellan's almost completely worthless Vantage Point program on it. When I connected my eXplorist 710 to it I was informed there was new software. After loading it onto my device it would not boot. I called Magellan and they have promised to send me a brand new one. Didn't have to fight them or anything so I'm guessing I'm not the first.

Not only should you update but make sure you have your current stuff backed up.

I always have troubles when I try to update my GPS navi! Therefore I thought I should buy a new one and take a special care about the updates.... I need a gps navi system with easy updating options, so if you have any suggestions for me, this would be great! I found some nice comparision websites, like this list here, but there aren't the recent navis listed there.

I had a GPS for my last birthday but still I didn’t update it because I am little bit scared for the update. So I am planning to give the device to someone and update it.

I still use my magellan sportrak map from 2002. I think I updated the firmware in 2005. It's simple, daylight readable LCD (daylight readable in full bright sunlight, in fact, the brighter the light the better). I like it, I've seen the new ones with the fancy full color screens and all the extras, and I'll probably get one in the next year or two, but Magellan did something right with the sportrak.

6 months ago I just wanted to punch you if ya got close to me with one of those damm smart phones. I got one now. why would you cary anything else? I got HD video, 10meg photos, 1000 hours of music, police scanner, phone, internet, google maps, a navigator to anywhere, tons of worthless app's like learn chinese and spanish and jokes and brain puzzlers and all sorts of junk, sound recorder, calendar, app to book cheap hotels when I get into a big town after a long hike, google sky maps for looking at stars at night, tree identifier, 2 different weather app's, decibel gauge, video enhanced tape measure for measuring distant places, direct tv, and a ton of other junk loaded onto it & I don't even have to be in cell tower area to do 99% of that stuff. I hiked the JMT this summer and while I was in town I would go over the area I was going to hike. google maps would save the maps and it even had the trail marked on its topo layers so I could always see the maps. made hitching easy. AND ITS GOT BUILT IN GPS!!! I got a solar cell and it was unstoppable. I could find out when P.O.'s closed, local watering holes, info on camping while going to redwood forest, the navigator does an awesome job of finding public transportation, order pizza to my camp site. so I ask, why use an old GPS anymore?