[gps-talkusers] Earthmate, Magellan, BrailleNote and Pac Mate

To the question about the Earthmate's size, the receiver that goes on your 
shoulder strap is about 2 inches square and an inch thick. There is a 
separate battery/serial cradle that is twice that size and goes in the 
accessory pouch of the BrailleNote.

There have been 2 Magellan receivers used with the BrailleNote. The first 
was the 310, which did not have WAAS. The Sportrak does have WAAS as of 
course does the Earthmate.

In addition to Chip's comments about the BrailleNote GPS verses some other 
systems, a couple other points. The Pac Mate GPS to be out later this year, 
is more like $500, but it doesn't do many of the things the BN GPS does. It 
primarily is a Point A to Point B routing system and it appears to do a 
good job of that. If you are already a Pac Mate owner, it is your only 
option. If you are considering which PDA to purchase the BrailleNote GPS is 
a very good reason to choose it. Four years of user input and 10 years of 
experience with accessible GPS does give maturity to the BrailleNote GPS.

Many GPS systems for sighted folks understandably use arrow and click menu 
driven user interfaces. Both the Trekker and Pac Mate interfaces operate in 
this fashion. You can't just type Chord F, Starbucks and Enter to find the 
location of the nearby coffee shop like you can on the BrailleNote. You 
have to choose Points of Interest, then Restaurants, then Fast Food, then 
arrow to McDonalds. On some systems, you can choose each letter, one at a 
time. Think of the BrailleNote GPS as the Cadillac of accessible GPS 
products but not everybody likes or needs a Cadillac.

After being on my soap box for 10 years about accessible location 
information, I am very happy to see alternate accessible GPS products. 
Choices are good for consumers and first and foremost, I am a consumer.

Mike





Michael G. May

CEO Sendero Group

Developers and distributors of BrailleNote GPS
Now distributing BrailleNote, VoiceNote, Miniguide, The Tissot Silen-T 
tactile watch and the ID Mate, bar code reader

MikeMay@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.SenderoGroup.com

(530) 757-6800, Fax (530) 757-6830, Mobile (530) 304-0007
Sendero Group, LLC
1118 Maple Lane, Davis, CA 95616-1723, USA

Latitude, 38 33 9.239 North
Longitude, 121 45 40.145 West

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