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Comment on iKross Wireless Bluetooth Handsfree Headset for Verizon Motorola Droid A855 Cell Phone by Catherine Herb

Catherine Herb — Mon, 21 May 2012 03:47:51 +0000

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

Defective product, bad service, August 8, 2010

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: iKross Wireless Bluetooth Handsfree Headset for Verizon Motorola Droid A855 Cell Phone (Wireless Phone Accessory)

This is the first time I've ever written a review of a product on Amazon, but I thought it necessary in this case. I bought this product, got it working, then after a few uses, found that the no one could hear me when I used the headset. I contacted the seller to return it, and found their return policy ridiculous. I had to get some number from them before I returned it, then they wanted me to send the device I was using it with to them too. There was no way I was going to send them my Droid phone. So I sent it without it, and they replaced it for me. But I again only could use it once or twice before this time the device won't even turn on. I will not be buying this again or anything from this seller again.

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Comment on TomTom XL 340S 4.3-Inch Portable GPS Navigator by SS2008

SS2008 — Mon, 21 May 2012 02:14:35 +0000

347 of 372 people found the following review helpful

The search for the best GPS, November 15, 2009

SS2008 (Georgia) -

This review is from: TomTom XL 340S LIVE 4.3-Inch Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)

(please keep in mind the date of this review, it is from Nov. 2009 and some things have changed since then)

I have used many GPS devices such as Garmin, TomTom, Navigon, etc.. And in the end the TomTom products always seem to be superior. Every time I buy a new GPS, I sit in my driveway and do a few simple tests. The first is how fast is it ready to navigate. I don't think anyone will ever be faster than TomTom. Second, how easy is it for me to find a local store I shop at every week... for example the local Kroger's grocery store that's close to my house. Again, TomTom can help me route to this very quickly and with minimal amounts of button pushing. To be fair, other devices may be able to find the same place, but not without having to scroll through 1000 POI's, or without having to push 50 buttons... Third, I need weather and traffic, and as much information as I can get about where I am, where I am going, and what's in between.. the more information the better as far as I am concerned. TomTom again is excellent in this area and now with a built in data connection provided by a cell signal, I can have all the information that I want, anywhere and anytime. I have tried the FM traffic version of this, and the MSN version of this, but MSN is going to stop offering this service next year (2010), so don't waste your time getting a device that you plan to use MSN on, and the FM signal range and quality of data has left me a bit underwhelmed. Once again the TomToms "Live" feature has found a great way to provide real-time information to me regardless of where I am. Yes, this feature is free for the first three months, and then runs about $10 a month. If you buy this GPS, try the Live feature out for a week or so and if you don't see the value, then go back to buying printed maps, because you are not ready for the future of GPS devices. One of the interesting features of the Live service is the ability to use Google search right from the device. At first I was not sure what use this would be, then I found myself in a situation where a location I thought should be a POI was not found on the device, or perhaps I was not looking in the right place, or had the category wrong... who knows.. But I went to the Google search feature, and told it what I was looking for, and Google pulled up some listings just like it does on your computer, and I selected what I wanted, and the device created the route from that. So for some reason if the GPS device can't understand or find what you are looking for, then Google is there to fill in the gap. Another great feature of the Live service is the location of cheap gas! Yes, that's right, the Live service can tell you all about the gas prices around you, and help you get to the cheapest. Who couldn't benefit from that? Additionally, the "TomTom At Home" software that you install on your computer does a great job of updating the device, make changes to it or even plan routes or travel from it. Lots of GPS's lets you update the device from the web, but none allow as much interaction with the device outside of basic map updates then the "At Home" software. If being able to interact with the GPS device using your computer is important to you, then I would suggest getting a TomTom for now. For me, this device has all you can ask for in a car GPS (PND for you tech geeks), and the price is right. The device is advanced, yet easy to interact with, so I feel even for a first time GPS user, or non-tech type of person, you would still be very happy. I have spent a long time on my quest for a great GPS device, and I hope this little bit of information will be helpful to you on yours.

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Comment on TomTom XL 340S 4.3-Inch Portable GPS Navigator by a gadget lover

a gadget lover — Mon, 21 May 2012 01:34:42 +0000

412 of 419 people found the following review helpful

Good features for the price: $149, October 12, 2009

a gadget lover (CA, USA) -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: TomTom XL 340S 4.3-Inch Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)

I'm pretty tech savvy and have used different GPS devices in the past. I chose Tomtom over Garmin mainly due to tomtom HOME support, better user interface: tomtom has more info on the screen including the street name you're driving on.

Most negative reviews here are from issues updating map which is larger than the old one (about 5 Mb larger) and causes error.
but it's simple to go around it.

1. connect to home computer. turn the unit on. select Yes to connect. Tomtom Home will install on your computer.
2. on Tomtom HOME menu, go to "Manage my ONE XL". On Items on Device, click voices. you can back up then delete all foreign computer voices (recorded voice files are small, so doesn't matter). just keep DAVE, and Susan computer voices( you need at least one computer voice for spoken street names). You should free up about 130 Mb (much more than you need)
3. now you can update new map with no problem. it does take a long time. after you're done, you still have 125 Mb extra to download customized items, map corrections in the future. customized car symbols are really cool, as are start up and shut down images. these customized items and map corrections are so small: tiny to 0.5 Mb that with > 125 Mb free, you can keep updating for years to come.

Pros: 4.3 inch screen, great routing, advanced lane guidance (it does work well), IQ route (faster route based on historical traffic data), very quick GPS fix <30 sec (but you need to connect to computer at least every 7 days so that a GPS file can be updated to help fix signal quickly), a little longer for a cold start or if you forget to sync with your computer more than 7 days, but it's still around 1 minute or less to fix the signal. also very strong signal, almost full bar inside my house. Text to speech (for spoken street names) is computer voice, so it's OK. recorded voices are nicer but unable to do text to speech. the included Easyport mount is great, simple, stable.

Cons: the screen brightness at 100% is still not as bright as I want (I also use Tomtom Navigator 6 on my smartphone with better contrast, brightness) but you still can see fine on a sunny day. The computer voices for text to speech are not as clear when you drive and play music.

In summary, this tomtom has a lot of great features for the price. if you don't need bluetooth (for hands free call with your cell phone, which is not good anyway because your volume always appears tiny to the other end), FM transmitter (which is not practical if you need to play your CD in the car), or live traffic receiver (which is spotty based on the info I've read), This 340S is the one to get. most people own smartphones these days with internet, so they can get live traffic, up to date points of interest from Google map, play mp3 and pictures. So you don't really need those features from a GPS device (which is more expensive)

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Comment on TomTom XL 340S 4.3-Inch Portable GPS Navigator by T. E. Pickering

T. E. Pickering — Mon, 21 May 2012 00:54:21 +0000

993 of 1,014 people found the following review helpful

great unit, but there are things you need to know., September 18, 2009

T. E. Pickering -

This review is from: TomTom XL 340S 4.3-Inch Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)

just received my new GPS today, plugged it into my mac, and installed tomtom's mac version of their home software. everything has worked well so far and the free map update installed fine. there are two main things that purchasers need to know:

1) space is very limited on the device. there is only 2 GB of internal flash memory and out of the box there was less than 50 MB free. the very first thing you should do is to delete voices in languages you don't use. this will free up a couple/three hundred MB. they can get backed up to your computer so you could always put them back in the future. once a bit of space is freed up you'll be able to update the device without issue. after removing spanish and french voices, running update which installed a new dave voice, and then installing the free map update i was left with 89 MB free. when i tried to run update before removing the voices, the unit warned me about lack of space and aborted without creating any further problems. maybe the mac version of home is more robust than the windows one in this respect.

2) the device only supports USB 1.1 transfers which max out at a bit over 1 MB/sec and can be slower. so doing a full backup or a map update will take quite a while (1-2 hours) and this is normal.

for me, those limitations are more than offset by the large, bright screen, text2speech capability, crowd-sourced map/route updates, and cheaper southern africa maps (we're moving there soon). especially given the cheap sale price i found. i will provide updates as i put unit through paces on cross-country trip and then intercontinental move.....

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Comment on Garmin GSC 10 Speed/Cadence Bike Sensor by Ron Henson "Ron"

Ron Henson "Ron" — Sat, 19 May 2012 14:44:09 +0000

45 of 49 people found the following review helpful

Design could be improved, February 24, 2006

Ron Henson "Ron" (Kirkland, WA) -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Garmin GSC 10 Speed/Cadence Bike Sensor (Sports)

The design could be improved upon as you need to have a magnet on both the crank arm and the spoke within 5mm of the sensor. This makes id difficult and may require some minor modifications on some bicycles (I needed to add a spacer between the crank arm and the magnet). Too much tilt towards the crank, risks having the arm of the sensor being caught in the spokes after a large bump on the trails or raod. I have known of other people being able to purchase a larger magnet to the inside of the pedal screw which allows the sensor to be farther appart. Other than that, it works great with the Edge.

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Comment on Garmin GSC 10 Speed/Cadence Bike Sensor by Marty J. Solomon

Marty J. Solomon — Sat, 19 May 2012 14:00:32 +0000

73 of 73 people found the following review helpful

Great product, confusing packaging if you have a Forerunner 305, February 17, 2008

Marty J. Solomon (Tampa, FL United States) -

This review is from: Garmin GSC 10 Speed/Cadence Bike Sensor (Sports)

The handlebar mount and cadence and speed sensors went on quickly and worked flawlessly. However, when I first received the package in the mail, I was concerned I had ordered the wrong item. I have a Forerunner 305 wrist-mounted GPS, and all of the packaging for this product references the Edge GPS sensor, so I didn't know whether or not this would even work with the Forerunner. There are very slight differences in navigating the menus to set up the cadence sensor between the Forerunner and the Edge, but the cadence sensor does indeed work very well with the Forerunner, so Forerunner owners order without fear!

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Comment on Garmin GSC 10 Speed/Cadence Bike Sensor by Brad Jackson

Brad Jackson — Sat, 19 May 2012 13:08:13 +0000

177 of 178 people found the following review helpful

Excellent compact lightweight wireless cadence sensor, November 22, 2007

Brad Jackson (Panama City, FL USA) -

This review is from: Garmin GSC 10 Speed/Cadence Bike Sensor (Sports)

Another handy piece of equipment from Garmin!

This kit comes in three basic parts; a sensor unit, which is about the size of a matchbox, and two magnets about the size of your pinky nail. Several zip-ties are included for mounting purposes; the entire kit weighs at most a couple of ounces.

Installation is pretty straightforward, but do follow the directions carefully and don't snug down the zip-ties until you're sure you've got all three components just where you want them and have tested the system!

The sensor mounts to the left chain stay with a pair of zip-ties. Garmin thoughtfully added a piece of rubber padding to the bottom of the sensor unit, so it won't rough up your fancy carbon frame or your paint job :)

A single zip-tie attaches the crank magnet to the crank, although I had to use a large (3/4") shim on my FSA crank (which has a curved profile and a hollow back) to place the crank magnet in the proper position for the sensor to "see" it. The spoke magnet clamp has both a round hole and a square hole; make sure you use the right hole for your spoke profile! I mounted mine on a spoke directly opposite the tire valve, just to help keep the wheel in balance.

The sensor unit must be positioned along the chain stay such that it can "see" both the crank magnet as it passes by the cadence sensor (the round part on the side of the sensor unit), and the spoke magnet as it passes the speed sensor (the part that looks like a lever in the picture).

Testing is accomplished by pressing a small button on the sensor unit, which prompts it to flash a red LED, then a green one to indicate that testing is started. As pointed out by another reviewer, the LEDs are hard to see in bright ambient light; I'd recommend testing in a garage if possible. Hi-intensity LEDs would have solved this problem, although I suspect these LEDs were chosen for their low power consumption, so maybe it's a smart design decision after all.

Once the test button is pressed, the next 60 revolutions of the crank should cause the red LED to flash when the crank magnet passes the sensor, while the spoke magnet passing the sensor should generate a green LED flash. If you saw the red/green flash when the button was pressed, but don't see a flash as each magnet passes the sensor, chances are one or both magnets are not properly aligned with the sensor (there are alignment lines on the sensor and both magnets), or the magnets are passing too far from the sensor (this is the problem I encountered and solved with a shim).

When you're sure everything is in the right places, snug the zip-ties and cut them flush. Then set up a screen (typically the Biking screen) on your 305 to display Cadence in one of the data fields, and go ride!

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Comment on Garmin Foretrex 401 Waterproof Hiking GPS by Orlando Matos

Orlando Matos — Fri, 18 May 2012 01:17:35 +0000

39 of 40 people found the following review helpful

For the military, May 10, 2010

Orlando Matos -

This review is from: Garmin Foretrex 401 Waterproof Hiking GPS (Electronics)

I have not used this item extensively yet, but the setup process is quite simple. Im using this product for military purposes and finding which datum to put in was i a breeze (just read the manual) and i also verified. The 10 digit grid with a military map so i know it works. I really havent used any of the other features like the compass but ill update once i do. P.S. for ang other military grunts out there you'll want to set it to MGRS (military grid reference system) and for stateside use NAD27 CONUS (continental united states).

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Comment on Garmin Foretrex 401 Waterproof Hiking GPS by Crimson

Crimson — Fri, 18 May 2012 00:30:17 +0000

149 of 153 people found the following review helpful

Used in Combat with excellent results, December 18, 2010

Crimson -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Garmin Foretrex 401 Waterproof Hiking GPS (Electronics)

I am currently deployed in Afghanistan and have used this GPS during my combat patrols for about two weeks now. I have found that it performs perfectly. It is easily configured for MGRS, the metric system, and the compass can be set for Mils which makes calling for polar fire missions very easy. I love the fact that I have a 10-digit grid on my wrist. It cuts down on weight, not having to lug a DAGR around, and as I am taking notes during Community Engagements I can grab the grid right off my wrist as I write. So far it has stood up to the insane temperature differences from day to night. It has stood up to the dust (which gets into EVERYTHING - and has ruined two of my digital cameras [including a so-called dust-proof one]) with flying colors. The batteries last about 8 hours and it takes AAAs which are easy to carry. You can easily beam waypoints from one GPS to another. Several guys in my platoon carry the same one which makes it very easy. I am looking forward to using this when I get home to track my runs. So far I have found nothing wrong with this to speak of. I would definitely recommend it for whatever purpose you would use it for. I haven't tested its water-proofness yet; however, it stands up to my sweat very well.

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Comment on PhantomALERT Red Light Camera, Speed Camera, and Speed Trap Detector Software for Select Garmin, TomTom, and Magellan GPS (1-Year Download Subscription) Reviews by james conger

james conger — Thu, 17 May 2012 21:25:20 +0000

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

Phantom Alert--pretty good, but not current, December 11, 2009

james conger -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: PhantomALERT Red Light Camera, Speed Camera and Speed Trap Detector Software for select Garmin, TomTom and Magellan GPS (Lifetime Subscription) (Electronics)

While I expect this to be a worthwhile product in the long haul, it's pretty annoying in the D.C./northern VA region (and likely elsewhere). Seems that because it is "user supported", if anyone ever even THINKS they saw a speedtrap, it's reflected with an alert, even if the cop was only there once, long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away. Also, most (all?) redlight cameras have been pulled from VA, but they still pop up as an alert.

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