[gps-talkusers] Re: New Sense Nav with Voice Sense user.
- From: "Keith \(mteye\)" <mteye@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <gps-talkusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 10 Oct 2010 22:44:18 -0500
When I finally was able to get a GPS I was excited. It meant I could navigate
with on demand, feedback of where I was travelling. I ran into a little of the
complications that you describe. I'm still far from being an expert, or even
proficient at it. It just takes practice.
Your right though, the number of keystrokes that are available on a product
like the VoiceNote, or BrailleNote are overwhelming. I think it's wonderful
when travelling as a passenger, because I have the luxury of holding the unit
on my lap, and exploring the keys, and my surroundings at much more leisure.
One thing to realize though is that you really don't need to touch the keys
much, all the time. When you walk with a cane, or a dog, you are already
limited to one hand, and often that spare hand is busy as you walk.
Sure, at any moment, you can hit a button, and be reminded of a host of tidbits
of information. What city? What intersection, POI, heading, altitude, and more.
The Look Around menu has so many things to automatically announce, the voice
will never shut up, if that's what you want. It tends to drive me nuts.
In my own neighborhood, I rarely even set a route. All I really want to know is
how far to the next intersection, and what is that street name. I plug in an
ear bud, just one, so I can get the GPS voice piped right to my ear, and still
monitor my surroundings.
Then I get the VoiceNote fired up, make sure I have satelites, strap it over a
shoulder, get all the wires and straps out of my way as I harness up the trusty
dog. And after making sure the automatic report of the next intersection is on,
away we go.
It's a residential neighborhood, so there's not much for the POI reports to do.
All I do is walk, and listen. I might be able to get by with a more streamlined
GPS product like the Trekker Breeze, but I use the note taker for more than
just the GPS. And there are several times when the extra features have been
very handy in navigating surrounding towns, or making trips to the city.
When I do walk around in the small downtown area in my town, I sometimes do set
a route, or I'll switch from the auto announcing of intersections to announce
the POI's instead. There can be a lot of shops on a block that might be of
interest. More than street names. When I do have the need to press a button, or
switch a setting, I just stop walking. My dog takes five as he watches me mash
the buttons. It's not usually much of a problem. Although in colder months it's
a pain to have to take off a glove to feel the unit, and get oriented on it.
But I suppose that even with a Trekker, or some other device, the gloves would
still have to come off.
I guess the main thing is to not get overwhelmed by the range of commands or
buttons. Just keep it simple. Walk and listen. Then build up from there.
Sometimes the instructions that the GPS is reading, or the reasoning behind why
it made a route the way it just did, or the sounds it makes confuse me. But the
more I use it, the more those sounds are starting to make sense.
My wife sometimes gets annoyed when I take it on a trip. She doesn't like the
voice, she seems to have a host of complaints about the way it works. Not the
sendero product, but any GPS in general. I just put on the earphones and
monitor. One complaint she has was in the way it makes a route. She is always
pointing out a shortcut down a county road that might save her a few ounces of
gas. There are route settings that can help cut corners like this sometimes.
Just this weekend I had the chance to use the feature to record a route and
track her driving to our little family party we were going to attend. Now I can
retrace that route in realtime if I want. I made it into a regular route so I
don't have to worry about having the software process the route on a possibly
longer, or different route. She gets to take all her shortcuts, without me
relaying to her about being off route when she goes her own way.
Not sure if any of that helped.
from
Keith H
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