The Garmin 496...a teenager's review

"Andrew Gideon" wrote in message
news
On Sat, 07 Jul 2007 06:43:43 -0700, Jay Honeck wrote:

Refresh rate relates directly to power. Ideally, the box would offer
options (ie. rapid refresh, more power consumption vs. slow refresh,
longer battery life). That may be a "didn't think of it", I suppose, but
I'd be surprised since this is standard in laptops.

But I believe that inertia weighs heavily at Garmin. I asked once whether
they'd ever have the IFR-friendly flight plan entry of the 480 on the
430/530 line. I was told that they'd probably not do this as it was
considered "more difficult".

Another place where having an option (ie. waypoint entry or airway entry)
would be a Good Thing.

Still, I'm suspicious that none of the other vendors have leaped past
Garmin. That suggests that there's a part of this equation I'm missing.
Perhaps the development costs to "get it completely right" would render
the unit too expensive given the small audience?

I presume that all those little game-box things sell well more than
aviation GPS units.

- Andrew



Ahhh!!!! Whatever!!! The modern displays draw a fraction of the power they
did just 3 years ago and the resolution is 2 to 3 time better. Garmin is
using older cheaper displays. If they spent an extra $50-$100 per unit on
better displays of the same size power drain would be less and resolution
would be better. Don't get me started on cpu speed and flash storage very,
very, minimal costs in these units. As for the XM weather it is just a
software program on the unit and the data is available.

http://www.seattleavionics.com has XM weather requires a receiver but it
works.

http://www.xmradio.com/weather/hardw...lutions_av.xmc

I am done for the day laters.

"Dan Luke" wrote in message
...

"NW_Pilot" wrote:

I have sent out many 6 and 8 layer boards to be ripped apart and copied
layer by layer, trace by trace, solder pad by solder pad, all it take is
money and anything can be copied.

So why hasn't anyone come out wth a half-price 496 knock-off?

Should be easy, according to you, and I guarantee you there's a big
market.

--
Dan

"The future has actually been here for a while, it's just not readily
available to everyone."
- some guy at MIT



Yea, there is a big market I estimate about $90K could produce a really
really good knock off. Then about 1-2 million to get in to mass production.
If I had the capital I would be visiting Hong Kong and gettin it started.
South Korea has some benefits also but workmanship is not as good.

-Only way we can travel to another planet that can support life is to
control time, but if we can control time we don't need to go anyplace!

On Sat, 07 Jul 2007 14:43:26 -0700, NW_Pilot wrote:

Ahhh!!!! Whatever!!! The modern displays draw a fraction of the power they
did just 3 years ago and the resolution is 2 to 3 time better.

Are you attempting to disagree with me? I didn't write about "displays"
but "refresh rates". These are orthogonal issues.

Garmin is
using older cheaper displays.

Proof?

If they spent an extra $50-$100 per unit on better displays of the same
size power drain would be less and resolution would be better. Don't get
me started on cpu speed and flash storage very, very, minimal costs in
these units. As for the XM weather it is just a software program on the
unit and the data is available.

Ah, you sound like the typical IT customer: "it's just software; get
coding. Be done next week."

I wonder why it's so easy to believe that software is so easy to build.
Its massless or invisible nature?

http://www.seattleavionics.com has XM weather requires a receiver but it
works.

http://www.xmradio.com/weather/hardw...lutions_av.xmc

Yet Garmin stands alone. Why?

In fact, though, this isn't quite true. I myself am *still* stuck at
"Garmin 496 vs. Cheetah 190". So there *is* competition.

Anyone have any insights on the 190, esp. how it compares to the 496? On
balance, the Cheetah appears the better product. But I wonder how stable
it is, running as I expect it is on some Microsoft platform. In theory,
at least, the dedicated nature of the Garmin should yield a more
trustworthy platform.

My 430s have never crashed, for example (excluding one hardware issue).

- Andrew

Yep, me too. Lowrance -- the world leader in nautical GPS -- has been
"promising" weather for over two years -- and STILL nothing. It must
be a lot harder than we think it is...

It is a priority thing with Lowrance. They were purchased by a company that
is completely marine based. The new parent company had Lowrance pull
resources from developing XM for aviation so those resources could fill in
some percieved holes in the marine product line.

Okay, I'll buy that -- but isn't downloadable, "live" XM weather
something that boaters want, too?

It would seem like a great thing for the marine crowd?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Kyle Boatright" wrote in message
. ..

"Matt Barrow" wrote in message
...

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
ups.com...
It's amazing that you're the only one to think of this.
Congratulations!

Look around at the demographic of pilots nowadays. I'm 48, and I'm
still considered the "Young Guy" at the airport -- which is the reason
so few pilots apparently grasp how truly clunky the 496 is to use.
Garmin is not dealing with a generation that has grown up with a mouse
in our hands, and most pilots have nothing to compare the 496 against.

My son does. And his observations were right on the money.

Jay,

Stick to running hotels. As a technologist, you're assessment is
embarrassing.


As someone who was presumably taught the English language at an early
age.. "you're"... (??)

Glass houses and all that.

Your analogy is wrong on two counts. Evidently your English skills outweigh
your technical and logical skills.

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
ups.com...
Stick to running hotels. As a technologist, you're assessment is
embarrassing.

Matt, what the hell is wrong with you lately.

Did someone **** in your Wheaties? Something wrong with your lovelife?

For the past few weeks you have been more obnoxious than usual.

Maybe the level of stupidity has grown all out of whack?

(And I'm not refering to Jay here; his error is one of context)


Heck, I haven't noticed any difference...

;-)

Seriously, I *know* that the 496 and PSP are not the same thing, and I
*know* that Sony sells 80 gazillion game platforms for every one of
Garmin's GPS units.

My point in posting is simply to highlight how truly crappy these
units are, and how expensive they are, comparatively speaking. For
those of you who think otherwise, get thee to your kids room, and see
what real "high tech" looks like.

Funny thing, the rest of the market makes stuff just as crappy.

If it were so easy.....

Jay,

"If Microsoft built the X-Box the way Garmin built the 496, they'd
have sold about five of them..."


They did, comparatively.

Have your son try Anywhere map.

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

Jay,

I only know the 430, but with that unit, slewing to a map item to get
the info on it would be the worst way to do it, since there is a
dedicated waypoint page showing info for a desired waypoint - and a
page showing the info on the destination waypoint. I'd be surprised if
the 496 doesn't have that.

As a German saying goes: There are many roads going to Rome - but only
one is the shortest.

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

I only know the 430, but with that unit, slewing to a map item to get
the info on it would be the worst way to do it, since there is a
dedicated waypoint page showing info for a desired waypoint - and a
page showing the info on the destination waypoint. I'd be surprised if
the 496 doesn't have that.

As a German saying goes: There are many roads going to Rome - but only
one is the shortest.

Yep, I've been told that by other Garmin users. To me, that's just a
kludge work-around of a problem that shouldn't exist.

Being able to simply click on the airport to see ALL information is
the single coolest thing about the 496 (besides weather). Heck, my
Lowrance has the same feature (although you stupidly must press TWO
buttons simultaneously to bring up the info -- difficult in
turbulence), and there is none of this "slew, pause" crap.

A friend has suggested checking some of the map settings, to make sure
that it's not always loading the "road" detail (that the unit uses
when in driving mode). This could significantly slow the unit down,
so I'm hopeful that I will find this feature turned on, and can simply
turn it off and enjoy improved performance.

I'll report back if it does.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
ps.com...
Yep, me too. Lowrance -- the world leader in nautical GPS -- has been
"promising" weather for over two years -- and STILL nothing. It must
be a lot harder than we think it is...

It is a priority thing with Lowrance. They were purchased by a company
that
is completely marine based. The new parent company had Lowrance pull
resources from developing XM for aviation so those resources could fill
in
some percieved holes in the marine product line.

Okay, I'll buy that -- but isn't downloadable, "live" XM weather
something that boaters want, too?

It would seem like a great thing for the marine crowd?

Out of curiosity, I was looking at Lowrances marine product line yesterday.
Some of their units include XM weather as a feature. So, lowrance has the
institutional knowledge. The question is when will they come out with the
product.

For my sake, I hope they don't limit XM to their larger platforms. Those are
a bit big for my cockpit.

--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"