View Full Version : Delorme + Spot
Shutterbug
08-12-2010, 19:08
Has anyone on Whiteblaze got their hands on the new Delorme +Spot GPS? I am interested in reading a report from anyone who has actually tried it out.
Today, I stopped by my local REI. When I asked to see it, the clerk just laughed. He said that their entire allotment was sold by the time the first unit came in. He doesn't know when more will be avialiable.
I like the idea, but I really want some company to combine those two devices into one. Maybe Magellan? I like their newest devices with voice recording and video. I've been thinking about doing audio journals, and that may be just the ticket IF they allow the multimedia features to be accessed quickly instead of waiting for the gps features to come online like with Garmin's Oregon 550.
magellan is terrible. they probably outsource light bulb changes over there. i have had 2 magellan products, an older black and white mapper - dont remember the name, but for the time it was really good, had a sd card, did maps, etc. and was really accurate. after good luck with that i bought a triton 1000, same as the 2000 that does pics. its a neat unit on paper, touchscreen, flashlight, mp3 player, photo viewer, etc. in reality it does an ok job with the field work...although when i first bought it it was nearly as useful as a brick before a few firmware updates. the bad, map res only goes to 100ft, not incredibly useful when geocaching (its primary daily use when i bought it). the really bad part was the proprietary software that came with it...vantage point...which you have to use because they wont release their code. it barely loads on any machine, i couldnt get it to work on 3 different xp machines, 1 vista, and 2 win 7. only had success once on an xp, which took forever with several backdoor setting that needed to be changed and then something corrupted and wouldnt load, so if you like to actually load waypoints without punching them in, or download them without transcribing, forget it. the worst part was the potential it had. it essentially the same as their $800 survey unit that has windows ce (i think its ce)...and the REALLY crappy part is that the tritons have this os as well but its not accessible(without some hacking. there have even been hacks to put basic linux on the thing. so all i can say is hardware good, software crud, and cust service really crud. fwiw if anybody can do it delorme can, and has with the split unit. their product is humble, and 100% more functional that anything else out there including garmin. yep delorme's COMES with the maps you need, hardware and software top notch. the sat comm is going to stick around in some way and i think it will eventually be integrated, but no telling how long...if magellan does it, i wont even think about buying one. probably dont have to wory because if they dont improve with a best ever product they wont be around long enough to develop something like that (even if they are it probably wont work right).....sorry for the vent but i hate magellan and dont want anybody screwd over by inferior junk :)
Haha, good to hear about experiences with Magellan, even if it's not good experiences. Even if Magellan is bad, I like that they're pushing the envelope. Garmin can match its Explorist 700 with a microphone and software changes. Hopefully this becomes commonplace among top-of-the-line units from each company so that we can get these features from whatever company we prefer. Add the SPOT capability too of course.
couscous
08-19-2010, 10:30
Wednesday, 18 August 2010 11:32 http://findmespot.com/en/spotnews/images/stories/SPOTimages/FbtwitCombo.pngSPOT now supports direct updates to Twitter and Facebook for all devices. Post a Check-in/OK or Custom Message to your Facebook wall when out of cell range and automatically include a map link to your location. Communicate like you never thought possible! In addition, for the DeLorme PN-60w with SPOT Communicator, the device also supports logging of GeoCache finds to GeoCaching.com.
The DeLorme PN-60w with SPOT Communicator provides the most flexibility over these social network features and allows you to select from the device whether messages will be posted to Facebook/Twitter or both.
SPOT Personal Tracker & SPOT Satellite GPS Messenger customers can use this feature to send updates when the Check-in/OK or Custom button is pressed. Currently, this can only be enabled/disabled from your SPOT login account.