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You have surely seen auto navigation systems in your friends’ vehicles and you could be on the point of getting one yourself. It is definitely true that the auto navigation systems are impressive and the price of a set-up has fallen quite radically over the last few years. There are indeed many benefits to be derived from using an auto navigation system, which is also known as sat nav.

In this article, we will take a look at some of the most important benefits of using a sat nav system.

Safety is of the utmost importance in whatever pursuit you undertake and safety has to be taken into account when driving too. It is difficult to know whether the world used to be a safer place or not, but it is a fact that these days more people are wary of getting involved with strangers than they were previously.

Lone drivers do not want to stop a stranger and admit that they are lost or even stranded. Maybe the stranger will send you into an ambush, set up hurriedly over a mobile phone as you drive off happily suspecting nothing. People have become very distrustful of strangers.

It goes without saying that lone female drivers are the most wary of asking strangers for directions, but families with children are often very wary as well.

Having an auto navigation system remedies this problem, because you will never get lost again, assuming that the sat nav console is wired to your car battery or you have spare batteries for a hand-held device in the glove box.

Confidence in getting to your destination on time, if you have left early enough, is another major benefit. Traffic jams, road works, accidents and natural disasters will no longer be surprises to you and your sat nave system will be able to propose alternative routes in order to avoid the obstacle. This is a very big advantage.

You will no longer have to leave really early to make sure you miss the traffic or to make certain you get somewhere on time. Sat nav will give your ETA. This can save you a whole load of stress, especially if you have to be in certain places for work or the kids all the way through the day.

Not to have to juggle with maps is a godsend as well. No more folding and refolding maps and struggling to remember portions of the route and then stopping to check and remember the next section of the route. Maps are always out of date too. New sections of motorway are always being added and small roads are sometimes closed for a new housing project. Paper maps just cannot keep up.

The last but not necessarily the least major benefit is the freedom an auto navigation system gives to you in your spare time. It opens up the countryside If you were always a bit nervous about going on a Sunday drive because you did not know the route or did not have a co-pilot to read the map, now you can just go with your auto navigation system.

Owen Jones, the author of this article writes on various topics, but is presently concerned with the Snooper sat nav system. If you would like to know more, please go to our website at Escort 8500.

Auto navigation systems have improved a great deal since they were invented by the US military in the Sixties and Seventies. In fact, their development is a continuous process, as you can easily imagine. I remember in the Eighties when you received a fix on your location every twelve minutes or so.

This meant that ‘sat nav’ was great for shipping and yachts, but not much good for cars or other fast-moving vehicles. They were also rather expensive and quite large, not like the devices that cyclists can get in a wrist watch these days.

In spite of the fact that sat nav has advanced far enough for companies to be able to manufacture affordable auto navigation systems, there are still problems with them. But there is nothing new about that, it has become normal to start selling a product while it is still at some phase of improvement.

Look at MS Widows for an example; it is nearly thirty years old and still does not work seamlessly – it is still ‘under development’. The same holds true of auto navigation systems.

And part of the trouble is with the software running the device. Software is a very problematic thing, as Windows demonstrates to its users every day. I am not of necessity knocking Windows software, it is probably the best of its class, but then there is no real rivalry for it and that is a pity for all the usual reasons such as indifference, high-handedness and over-pricing, just look at Windows ‘Vista’. What an expensive heap of junk that was.

Needless to say, if Microsoft cannot get their software right, then auto navigation companies cannot either. Therefore, it is imperative to use an auto navigation device that either regularly updates itself automatically or permits the user to do it manually.

You need the latest bug-patches to the software and the latest updates to the maps. Ideally, the system should update itself every day automatically, but you should do it manually at least before each extensive journey.

The signal is clearly very significant too. In order to get a fix on your location at least three satellites must be able to ‘see’ your auto navigation system. If a fourth can verify the data, then so much the better.

This means that you may vanish ‘off the radar’, so to speak, if you are travelling under ground or in mostly built-up locations. Being tracked by one or two satellites is not good enough, there is no triangulation.

It is rational to assume that if you have a clear view of the sky, then the three or four satellites should have a clear view of you, but it is not an infallible check. The best thing to have with you is still common sense. Do not just depend on your auto navigation system blindly. If you think it is giving you a false reading, it might be.

In this situation, the best thing to do is think about whether you or it is right and check it with a map if you have one. If all else fails, take a bit of advice often made by Windows support, turn the device off, count to ten and turn it back on again – in other words, reboot it.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece writes on different subjects, but is presently concerned with the Snooper sat nav system. If you would like to know more, please go to our website at Escort 8500.

There are lots of reasons why you might be a prime candidate for an auto navigation system: If you travel to new locations often, say as a company representative; if the routes that you travel often are always being dug up, if there are regular traffic jams or if there are loads of traffic lights on it; if you want to avoid schools or shopping malls or if you just want to find a quicker or a more scenic route to your destination.

Many individuals would benefit from an auto navigation system, but there are several kinds of systems so it can be quite tricky to work out which one would be the best to suit your needs. In the rest of this article, we will take a more comprehensive look at these different types.

Sole purpose, stand-alone auto navigation systems are the kind that are frequently built into new cars by the manufacturer. However, that is the most expensive way of buying an auto navigation system, so it is worth getting one put in later, because then the cost of the unit does not go on the car’s finance deal, which would make the sat nav unit very expensive.

These devices usually bear subscription charges analogous to a mobile phone. This means that the sat nav unit is frequently sold for a very small profit, but the company makes its money from your monthly payments for the data feed. It is a very similar set up to the mobile phone deals.

The monthly fees are a bind, but the systems are bang up to date. The information in these units is updated live and you will be made aware of obstacles or hazards in the road ahead of you within minutes of them happening.

Multipurpose hand-held navigation units are auto navigation systems that do not offer quite as much detail as the stand-alones, but they can be upgraded by software additions to do the same job if you want.

However, because they are portable, they can be removed from the car and used in a boat or for hiking or cycling. In other words, the hand-held console is far more adaptable.

Laptop or Palm Top based models are designed to run on your computer. They are usually just as capable of delivering as detailed information as a stand-alone system and they are obviously portable too.

If you already have a portable computer then this is just about the cheapest, good set-up. You will get a top of the range, GPS auto navigation system on a large, laptop screen for only the cost of the subscription.

Satellite navigation is certainly here to stay, because young people like it. It can also be seen as a safety device for unaccompanied travellers. For example, if a lone traveller gets lost, there is no need to stop to ask directions or if your car breaks down out of town, you will know where you are located in order to direct the service to where you are.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece writes on various subjects, but is presently involved with the Snooper sat nav system. If you would like to know more, please go to our website at Escort 8500.

In order to find out which GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) navigation system (also known as sat nav) is suitable for you, you first have to be clear on what you want to get out of the set-up. Will you be utilizing your GPS auto navigation system solely in your car or will you be requiring to use it to go cycling, hiking or boating? Another question is, whether you already own a laptop or palm computer or not.

There are dedicated GPS auto navigation systems for every situation and some are flexible enough to cover a couple of uses. The best systems are those that are devoted to doing just one job. In this category, you have the stand-alone vehicular GPS navigation systems. These are either cut into the dashboard or mounted on it or sometimes even onto the windscreen.

One good piece of advice, if you are buying a new car on finance is to have the sat nav installed by a third party or to pay the garage cash for the sat nav and its installation. If you have the price of the GPS auto navigation system put on the finance contract, you will end up paying a great deal more for it.

On the other hand, you could install the device yourself. I do not mean that you should cut holes in your instrument panel yourself, but you can buy mounting kits that use powerful transparent rubber suckers. They will hold the screen firmly, as long as you check them from time to time to make sure that the suckers are still holding.

You can get just as good a service from a GPS navigation system running on your laptop and the screen will almost certainly be larger that the average sat nav screen too. Your laptop will run off batteries or an in-car adapter and the software will run within the laptop.

This is an outstanding alternative if you already own a laptop or were thinking of buying one. The laptop will perform its normal tasks as a computer and double as a navigation aid with the added bonus that you do not have to leave it in the car as another reason for a thief to break in.

The cheapest alternative in the portable sat nav market is the portable or hand-held unit. However, the screens can be rather small and the directions may be given either in pictures or by voice, not all hand-held sat nav systems present both options at the same time.

If you want a GPS auto navigation system but you are finding them a bit expensive, you could always wait a while, because prices are dropping all the time. You could also check out online stores such as Amazon and eBay.

Remember, that the worst thing you can do if you are thinking about costs, is to put the cost of the sat nav on the car finance deal. If you really want a stand-alone GPS auto navigation system installed by an expert, take your car to a garage after you have bought it. Otherwise, run the software on your laptop and sit that on the seat next to you.

Owen Jones, the author of this article writes on different subjects, but is presently concerned with the Snooper sat nav system. If you would like to know more, please go to our website at Escort 8500.

It is a bizarre fact that many purchasers of new cars are willing to pay several times the true value of a satellite navigation system in order to have it installed by the maker. It is true that the car’s manufacturer normally does an excellent job of installing the unit, but then you are paying through the nose for it.

If you bought the sat nav unit separately and had it fitted by a third party, you would buy it for a third or a quarter of the rate. Still, it is part of the idea of buying a new car to have all the latest apparatus built in to it. Satellite navigation, popularly called sat nav, is a real boon, if you buy a system that is up-to-date and that is frequently updated.

It is not necessary to have the sat nav fitted in the car factory in order to have it installed well. Many third party installers are quite capable of making a good job of it too without having to have your radio/CD player removed.

Many auto navigation systems are fitted to the dashboard by means of rubber suction cups anyway. Buying a sat nav unit that does not have to have holes cut for it will also keep the cost to a minimum without having to sacrifice quality or safety.

An important point to remember is that there are many kinds of GPS systems, each with rather specific uses. GPS for an ocean-going yacht does not have to have road maps, whereas GPS for a bicycle may not give sufficient advanced warning for the speed of a car.

Even if you purchase a GPS sat nav system for a road vehicle, there are different types. The three fundamental kinds are: stand-alone, such as you see installed at the car factory; hand-held and systems that are meant to be used with a laptop computer or similar device.

The stand-alone units are the most prevalent, because they have certain advantages: they are built for the job of getting you from A to B via C, D and E, if required; they carry a database of landmarks which will help you know that you are on the right route; a voice will give you directions so that yo do not have to keep referring to the screen and it will memorize and integrate previous routes.

Hand-held sat nav systems work, but require more thought and sometimes additional software to be provided by the user. The screen is usually too small to be of much use and some only provide voice directions. Others only provide graphic directions. However, they are better than nothing if you are walking or cycling in unfamiliar terrain.

Laptops and PDA’s offer an excellent service, especially if you already had the apparatus for other purposes such as office work.

So, it is not just a question of picking up a cheap sat nav system and thinking that they are all the same, you have to see it running so that you can weigh up whether it is going to be of any benefit to you in your situation.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece writes on different subjects, but is currently concerned with the Snooper sat nav system. If you would like to know more, please go to our website at Escort 8500.