The Garmin 496...a teenager's review

Being able to simply click on the airport to see ALL information is
the single coolest thing about the 496

Well, if it's so cool, why are you complaining about it? gd&r

If only it worked as well as my LG cell phone, I'd be happy. Now
THERE is a product with bullet-proof technology that actually works as
advertised.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay Honeck wrote:
Being able to simply click on the airport to see ALL information is
the single coolest thing about the 496
Well, if it's so cool, why are you complaining about it? gd&r

If only it worked as well as my LG cell phone, I'd be happy. Now
THERE is a product with bullet-proof technology that actually works as
advertised.

I dunno. Of the 4 LG 3300 phones on my current contract, two have been
trouble with one dieing completely in less than 18 months. My former
Moto phone was bullet-proof (StarTac) as is my current Samsung 650
(nearly 3 years old now). I should upgrade the latter as I'm well
beyond the 2 year contract, but the thing works and I know how to use it.

No more LGs for me...

Matt

Jay Honeck wrote:
4. In order to click on the desired airport, you must "slew" the
cursor off the edge of the screen in order to find it. This means
hold the arrow button down, slew to the edge of the screen -- wait
three seconds while the screen disappears and reappears -- and
continue.

The REALLY bad thing is that the cursor doesn't stop moving when the
screen disappears, so that in those three seconds you can easily WAY
over-shoot your target airport. (I've even ended up in a different
state during the time it's blank.)

It takes much less time and effort if you first zoom out, requiring only
a small amount of cursor movement to get it near the airport you want,
then zoom back in to the exact point you want.

It takes much less time and effort if you first zoom out, requiring only
a small amount of cursor movement to get it near the airport you want,
then zoom back in to the exact point you want.

This helps, to some degree, but does not eliminate the problem. Often
when you hit the arrow button (that moves the cursor) there will be an
annoying lag before anything happens. Then, when it reappears, your
cursor may (or may not) be anywhere near what you were aiming to hit.

There is also the problem with decluttering. When you zoom out,
Garmin (by necessity, due to the puny screen) declutters the screen.
This makes all the smaller airports (and most detail) disappear
entirely. It's hard to click on an airport if its not displayed.

Everything we're discussing is a compromise due to poor design. For
$3K, I don't deserve poor design -- but until Lowrance and AvMap get
their fingers out of their collective butts, we're stuck with it.

(And, BTW, NONE of my comments are a slam on XM weather. To have the
clouds, radar, METAR and TAF data overlaid on a moving map is worth
putting up with a lot of crap -- which is why we reluctantly purchased
the 496 at OSH last year.)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
oups.com...
It takes much less time and effort if you first zoom out, requiring only
a small amount of cursor movement to get it near the airport you want,
then zoom back in to the exact point you want.
[snip]

heres some snipets of an article from the NYTimes which your son might find
interesting

SOMETIMES there is a huge disconnect between the people who make a product
and the people who use it. The creator of a Web site may assume too much
knowledge on the part of users, leading to confusion. Software designers may
not anticipate user behavior that can unintentionally destroy an entire
database. Manufacturers can make equipment that inadvertently increases the
likelihood of repetitive stress injuries.

Enter the usability professional, whose work has recently developed into a
solid career track, driven mostly by advancements in technology.

The Usability Professionals' Association offers tutorials and holds an
annual meeting. The Society for Technical Communication also has a group on
usability and user experience.

General online job boards are a good resource for usability jobs. In
addition, the usability association lists job postings on its Web site, and
job placement firms like Bestica Inc. specialize in usability design jobs.

Harvinder Singh, president of Bestica, which is based in San Antonio, says
that there is a shortage of people to fill usability jobs.

"We're working with companies like Microsoft and Yahoo and having a lot of
trouble finding user-experienced people," he said.

More companies are dividing the various aspects of the job, he said. A
business might want a usability researcher to go out and talk with users and
examine what they're comfortable with. Then it might employ a usability
design expert to incorporate the researcher's findings into the way a
product works.

According to information compiled by the usability association in 2005,
annual pay in the field in the United States started at about $49,000 and
rose to about $120,000. The average salary was $86,500.

Usability position are receiving more visibility within companies, and
high-ranking positions like director of usability are being created, Mr.
Danas of Microsoft said. "From a career standpoint I think there's a lot of
opportunity, and that's getting broader every day," he said.

According to information compiled by the usability association in 2005,
annual pay in the field in the United States started at about $49,000 and
rose to about $120,000. The average salary was $86,500.

Sounds great for my son's future career -- but that's the kind of
corporate stupidity that drives me CRAZY. Imagine, paying some
schmuck $120K to be a "Useability" expert, instead of just making the
effort to get input from actual users.

Honestly, IMHO large corporations are so wasteful, it's a miracle any
of them survive.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

In article . com,
Jay Honeck wrote:

According to information compiled by the usability association in 2005,
annual pay in the field in the United States started at about $49,000 and
rose to about $120,000. The average salary was $86,500.

Sounds great for my son's future career -- but that's the kind of
corporate stupidity that drives me CRAZY. Imagine, paying some
schmuck $120K to be a "Useability" expert, instead of just making the
effort to get input from actual users.

Jay: If I understand the term correctly, the useability expert IS the means
for getting input from actual users. However, users generally don't have
any objective quantitative measures for assessing which features are more
useful or for comparing different capability implementations.

--
Bob Noel
(goodness, please trim replies!!!)

Jay Honeck wrote:

3. You want to check the runways at your destination airport, which is
NOT displayed. (Remember, you're zoomed in so that you can see stuff.)
The 496 has the runways stored in its database -- all you have to do
is put your cursor on the desired airport and hit "enter" to see them
all.

4. In order to click on the desired airport, you must "slew" the
cursor off the edge of the screen in order to find it. This means
hold the arrow button down, slew to the edge of the screen -- wait
three seconds while the screen disappears and reappears -- and
continue.

The REALLY bad thing is that the cursor doesn't stop moving when the
screen disappears, so that in those three seconds you can easily WAY
over-shoot your target airport. (I've even ended up in a different
state during the time it's blank.)

5. Repeat ad nauseum.

This process must be performed in order to see ANY of the good stuff,
including accessing the AOPA restaurant/hotel guide, radio
frequencies, field elevation, airport diagrams, METAR and TAF weather
-- you name it, you've got to put your cursor on the airport and push
"enter" to activate it -- which means slewing.




RTFM. Press and hold the Direct To button. There's your menu.

RTFM. Press and hold the Direct To button. There's your menu.

That works for your destination only.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay Honeck wrote:
RTFM. Press and hold the Direct To button. There's your menu.


That works for your destination only.




That's what you asked for under #3.