I’m with ya…sigh
Let’s all read first please
NO BATTERY AND SLOW PROCESSOR!
NO BATTERY!
NO BATTERY AND SLOW TO AQUIRE NEW SATELLITES.
If you read closely you’ll see that was firmware version 3.1 the one selling today on Woot is 3.4
That guys complaining that he can’t upgrade his maps with maps meant for another unit. Which is not to be unexpected and doesn’t apply here because the system already had US maps.
People generally use forums for help and support, so if you go off them most of what you get will be problems. People rarely post when things are all fine, but there are some good user reviews on there such as this.
Well we took MN2707 to Kentucky and Tennessee. Highways excellent and when she went through the mountains and areas that were poorly marked she was fantastic, especially at night where the roads are quite narrow and turns tight. POI were great, she brought us to a hotel that wasn’t listed on the internet and we got a great deal. A restaurant in the Smokies, near Cades Cove was a very pleasant surprise, she told us it was there we didn’t believe it and almost passed it. It was the best food on our trip a famous chef was known to cook there and we decided to trust GPS even more. When detours were a problem it gave us a great feeling of relief knowing gps told us how far we were and gave us alternate routes. We got through a big delay by just turning off the road and away we went, bypassed lots of line ups and got back on the right track. When we didn’t listen to “Gabby”, we were stuck in Detroit late at night on Gratoit. She wanted us to turn off i 75 and we didn’t see signs for i96 so we ignored her and boom; never again will we ignore her command.
So, to sum up the forum discussion and reviews I’ve seen:
- Nextar doesn’t support this product for U.S. users. It comes out of the box with Canadian maps. If you get U.S. maps for it, you’re one of the lucky ones.
- Nextar does support U.S. maps for their 2707 unit, but to install those maps, you need a 2707 serial number (which you won’t have).
- You’re potentially putting a heavy device with a hard disk directly in full sunlight (your dash, under your windshield).
- It takes several minutes to lock on (with an annoying female voice telling you that’s what it’s doing).
- There’s no battery, so when you turn off your car, you’re signing yourself up to several more minutes of same-said annoying female voice, long lock on process, and re-entering your route.
- It’s theoretically hackable, and there were some people trying to do so in 2005, but they’ve given up and all their links are now 404.
- So if you want to hack it, you’ll be off in the wilderness doing it yourself, even assuming you can, because the hard disk has a read-only bit set somewhere.
That about cover it? I’m in the market for a portable GPS, but I’ll pass.
Incidentally, Delorme’s software and hardware for GPS laptops is pretty nifty, and I’ve been doing GPS that way since 2003 or so. It just gets annoying having a laptop sitting in your passenger seat all the time.
NexStar is also used by Celestron (manufacturer of telescopes) for their brand of computerized models, of which I have one. Removing the “S” from the name doesn’t seem to affect the way it is pronounced, which might even be a closer trademark infringement.
I find the when I’m upset nothing calms me down like the relaxing scent of carbon monoxide. You should try it some time.
Alot of the problems being reported on here are from users with anadian maps. In fact they all are seeing as this has never been sold with US maps before now.
But alot of them look to have been fixed.
From the GPS Passion forums…
I am the S/W engineer of Nextar GPS, we are all looking at this forum, and keeping on improve our S/W. So, if u have any question, u can put it here, i will response quickly.
@ats65 - I can give u a brief improvement we made in coming S/W upgrade for CTC MN2707(the original version from store, some improvements are included in US upgrade):
1, Voice Prompt is greatly improved, both in French and English, u will get more detail prompt when u are driving(exist in US upgrade, but english only)
2, improved routing calculation
3, smart find feature which makes address search a bit easier(exist in UP upgrade)
4, new Demo navigation and route summary list(exist in US upgrade)
5, improved system running speed
6, improved MP3 player(with DIMO support), now u can play MP3s in background and keep voice prompt running
7, photo viewer
8, some minor improvements to fix glitches.
http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=63072&whichpage=16
LMAO! 
That’s American (with a capital A, damn it! hehe)
Does anyone know what type of maps it takes, this would be perfect for my boat!!!
I have my Garmin that I got with my truck. Its pretty good. I think I will stick with that.
How hard is it to “hac” a battery onto this kids?!
Read the output on the AC, buy the equiv. batt and mount it in a tiny case with an male ac plug dangling, velcro case to back of gps, plug into power socket.
Done.
Seriously, 30 minnits, MAX!
What it looks like mounted, although this looks like a different mounting arm on the top 2 as they are 2707 pics.
http://www.navigadget.com/wp-content/postimages/2006/08/nextar-mn2707.jpg
http://gallery.hartistic.net/MN2707/IMG_3.JPG
The one you’re using at the time. Distributions don’t generally change the kernel interfaces, and most certainly neither do you. If the device is compatible with Linux 2.6, then it is going to be compatible with all 2.6 Kernels save something really odd. The module will have to be compiled directly against whichever specific mod you have, of course, which is why there are different binary module packages for the different distributions. The developer need only 1 source package and most likely they’re submit it to the mainstream kernel tree so everyone would soon benefit and all distributions would have the update.
Um, we aren’t discussing the device. We’re discussing “How can this thing run Linux and not list Linux compatibility.” As an embedded device, compatibility means “Will it interface with a desktop PC.” The reason has nothing to do with “OMG! They R so many LINUXEZ!!1!1!” but simply that it wasn’t in the spec.
As this is an embedded device, it’s going to talk to the computer however they choose to have it talk to the computer. It could show up as a USB flash drive–and this wouldn’t matter which OS is running underneath–or it could use some proprietary interface–which also wouldn’t matter which OS is underneath. The fact that it runs Linux makes it more likely that hobbyists can toy with it, taking out the HD and attaching it to a PC if necessary, but isn’t a reason for the manufacturer to add “Supported under Linux” on their product page.
Does anybody know if this thing pronounces street names?
It takes those ones from the gas station, you know the ones that you can never get folded back up the right way.
7" screen is nice, but the unit is bulky, and will require continuous DC power (no internal battery). I had tried a Lowrance 500 unit, and it was just a bear. This also requires the use of an external antenna, which means more wires running through the car, and up onto your roof.
There are loads of Magellan’s out there (many are refurbs, but mine works and looks as new) for the same $$, if not less. They run on an internal battery and have a built in battery as well as SirfStar III.
My 2cents… Keep the change.
YOU are so RIGHT about the Garmin…I have the Garmin Nuvi 350. It works on battery as well as ac and dc…is super accurate…I use it as a phone book as well. The print is huge and so easy to follow. At night it changes background so it is able to be easily read. I wish we could get a good deal on that one. Would be fun to have blue tooth enabled as well.
Does anyone know how many channels this thing has?