Garmin BlueChart Americas Saltwater Map CD-ROM (Windows) Review

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(More customer reviews)Although the packaging offers coverage of the U.S., Canada, Caribbean, and South America on this expensive CD, you can only unlock a very limited "region" with your original purchase. Says Garmin tech support, "When you purchase BlueChart, you're entitled to one free region, and then additional regions can be purchased for $116.65." The word "free" here reflects Garmin's generally abysmal use of language found on their Web site, a labyrinth of obfuscation tangled in their arcane and ultra-paranoid "unlocking" technology and hidden prices. Unlike their Topo and City Navigator CDs where you get a lot of maps for your money, BlueChart gave me a limited sliver of southwest Florida for my purchase price. When I went to load Cape Cod, I discovered I would need to pony up another $116 for this small region. To unlock everything on this CD would costs many, many thousands of dollars, and nowhere is this clear to the unwary consumer.
What is especially grating in all this is that Garmin relies on U.S. government maps and GPS satellites that we taxpapers have already paid for. I find the marketing of Blue Chart really deceptive, especially given the important public safety implications of nautical mapping.
I would add that boat-towing travelers and nautical siteseers will need shoreside mapping and road info, for which these charts are useless, so you'll need additional map products and memory cards to show roads, parks, dining, and local amenities. Buyer beware.

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Garmin's exclusive line of BlueChart marine cartography products is designed to provide interactive viewing of detailed nautical chart data. These detailed electronic nautical charts look just like paper charts when displayed on your Garmin chart plotter. Descriptive details for features typically found on nautical charts can easily be viewed with a simple key press. Cursor movements over the chart provide descriptions for contour depths, chart number, navaid name, and much more.
BlueChart data includes shaded depth contours, intertidal zones, spot soundings, wrecks, navaids, port plans, restricted areas, cable areas, anchorages, and more. Additionally, BlueCharts include information from the paper chart used in the digitization process, such as chart number, name, scale, revision date, and Notice-to-Mariners date.
Three MapSource BlueChart CD-ROMs are available: Americas, Atlantic, and Pacific. The Atlantic CD-ROM covers Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. One CD-ROM contains BlueChart data for an entire region. MapSource BlueChart is a Microsoft Windows-based program that uses Garmin Unlock technology, allowing you to use one coverage area from the CD-ROM when initially purchased and to purchase additional coverage areas. Internet access is recommended for the unlock process.
Compatible products include these Garmin marine chart plotters: GPSMAP 176, GPSMAP 176C, GPSMAP 182, GPSMAP 188 Sounder, GPSMAP 232, GPSMAP 238 Sounder, GPSMAP 2006, and the GPSMAP 2010. BlueChart CD-ROMs are also compatible with Garmin GPS receivers that accept map data, including the GPSMAP 76, eTrex Vista, and eTrex Legend.

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Garmin LakeMaster CD-ROM for Garmin GPS Units, Minnesota Review

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(More customer reviews)Pros:
The maps provide good contours, even in the boundary waters and small lakes that you wouldn't expect. Excellent 1 foot contours are available on popular lakes.
Cons:
I really didn't realize that I'd only be able to use this with just one unit. So, don't install this on your old GPS, because you're not able to transfer the maps to another unit. I think the sd card version solves this problem since you can just migrate it to other units.

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Native Minnesotans and other devotees of the land of 10,000 lakes will delight in this Minnesota LakeMaster CD-ROM from Garmin. Specifically designed for Garmin GPS navigators, the LakeMaster maps are a must for fisherman, but also provide valuable data for recreational boaters and other Minnesota water enthusiasts. The maps include high-definition 3-foot contours and underwater structure details of 51 of Minnesota's most popular fishing destinations, including Pelican, Vermilion, Winnibigoshish, Leech, Whitefish Chain, White Bear, Clearwater, and North Long Lakes. Map specifics also include islands, reefs, points, bays, access points, marinas, and more--all gathered from meticulous on-the-water surveys. Your Garmin GPS will use LakeMaster to accurately locate your boat on the map, as well as show detailed tracklines and waypoints. So quit cruising blindly when looking for the perfect Minnesota fishing spot and let Garmin do the work for you.

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Magellan MapSend CD for Meridian and MAP330 Series GPS Handhelds Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought this software to help with both trail and street navigation with my Meridian GPS. After driving around with the unit once, I thought there was a problem with my GPS. It consistently showed me driving 500-1000ft off the current road I was actually on. I tried to contact technical support to see about a repair, but they won't answer e-mails or phone calls. I finally found a news posting that said the maps were just inaccurate. So I put it to the test. I drove down a major highway (I-95 in New York/Connecticut) with full view of the sky (WAAS mode) and let the GPS keep my track. When I got back, the track on the GPS screen was 500ft off the highway (I was in the water at one point). I downloaded the track to MapSend, and it showed the same thing. I was never even close to the highway or any other street I was on. Then I took the waypoints from the track and plotted them in Microsoft Mappoint. All the points were right on the roads I travelled. I found out the reason. The MapSend maps are based on outdated and inaccurate TIGER line files (US Census data, available for free). Other software is based of other vendors (NavTech and others), that is much more accurate and the vendor has to pay royalties. Mappoint uses NavTech data, and so does some of the Garmin products. MapSend uses the TIGER data to keep the cost down, and passes on the value to you. In short, MapSend is completely worthless. The POIs are outdated by many years, you never know what street you're on, and tech support is unreachable.

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Maximize the potential of your Magellan GPS receiver. The MapSend Streets & Destinations USA CD-ROM provides the capability to download highly detailed maps into your Meridian and MAP 330 family of products. These include detailed maps of streets, lakes, rivers, coastlines, parks, railways, and points of interest for the entire United States. Customize map sizes and regions to your needs.
Create waypoints and routes and then download them directly into your Meridian or MAP 330 for use in the field or save them to your PC. Download your tracks from your GPS handheld to view on MapSend. Use the search function to easily find street addresses, cities, lakes and waterways, parks, and airports.
The MapSend Streets & Destinations USA CD-ROM is compatible with Windows 95, 98, and NT 4.0 or later. You will also need PC cable for both the Meridian series and the MAP 330 series.

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