Thanks, Mike, I really hope you can look into that.
-- Carol carol.pearson@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Carol,
I completely understand where you are coming from. It is very impressive that you are hanging in there despite the frustrations. The reality is that the GPS is very powerful and to fully benefit from this power, one has to slog through some difficulties. My point is that the work is worth the benefit not that one will ever be fully satisfied but it will get easier for you to use and the map and POIs will improve over time. Certainly being here in London and Spain before that, I am reminded that obtaining better POI content would be very helpful. Perhaps we can find another provider of POIs to augment what we get from TeleAtlas. I'll be looking into that.
Only 2 years ago, there were one million points of interest in the U.S. and suddenly with 3.3, we leaped to 12 million. There is such a growing demand for GPS products that I believe the same will happen in the UK and Europe.
Those of you who are learning the technology now are poised to gain even more over time as the accuracy and content improve.
Mike
10:48 AM 5/11/2006, you wrote:London is the capital, after all, and I do know and appreciate what you're saying about it being better to have something that's not quite got there than nothing at all; but Mike, you need to possibly bear in mind that some of us may not be so adept with our GPS (yet) and so things like this really throw us into confusion and some are much better than others at getting around anyway; so we really need to take this seriously and aim for the tops and not just settle back in a frame of mind that says "Ah, I'm doing OK getting around even if . . .."
Yes, I still am glad I purchased the GPS and am using it and my personal POIS will probably overcome a good deal of my current frustration; but some of that frustration is due to the fact that I am not yet clear enough as to whether the problems are in the lack of updated maps or my own lack of understanding. It's probably a combination of both.
-- Carol carol.pearson@xxxxxxxxxxxx
----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael May" <mikemay@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <gps-talkusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2006 9:55 AM
Subject: [gps-talkusers] POIs in London
I know the data could be a lot better, but at least here in London, I find the POIs quite helpful.
Mike
At 08:47 AM 5/11/2006, you wrote:Hi
The POIs for the UK are to be frank pretty useless.
Carol's problem with the numbering of properties on side streets instead of the main thoroughfare may also be due to the fact that many corner sites are numbered on the side street although they may appear to be on the main road.
Steve
----- Original Message ----- From: "Richard Bartholomew" <richard_bartholomew@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <gps-talkusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, May 10, 2006 8:08 PM
Subject: [gps-talkusers] Re: MAPS CURRENTLY IN USE
Hi, Carol
I'm nothing to do with Sendero but just a couple of comments here.
I've been using the GPS in the UK for nearly three years now and, whilst the maps and commercial POIs are improving, sadly, as you're discovering, there are still fairly large holes. In particular, the commercial POI are woefully sparse and, where they do exist, usually out of date! Similar to your McDonalds example, I have one hospital which closed down at least five years ago but which is still listed; whereas one which opened two years ago is not.
The maps are definitely improving but one frustrating feature which I think is particularly related to the UK rather than US is the frequency of streets looping back on themselves even though they don't; I think that this is largely to do with the fact that UK roads are rarely arrow straight. As far as your experience of having the house numbers of the side street appearing rather than the road you were on - could this be to do with the quality of reception you were receiving at the time, ie the receiver may have been placing you on the sidestreet.
Regards
Richard Bartholomew E-Mail: richard_bartholomew@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
----- Original Message ----- From: "Carol Pearson" <carol.pearson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <gps-talkusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, May 10, 2006 7:49 PM
Subject: [gps-talkusers] Re: MAPS CURRENTLY IN USE
Hmmm! Thanks, Charles.
OK, here are a few initial observations here in the UK. (Please bear in mind how little experience I have had so far and I am not looking to blame anything or anything but merely to explain how I'm seeing things, most probably through very tinted specs or something!)
First, I see that some houses (including ours) does not have a recognised number. (We concluded, when first testing the GPS that this could be because the bungalow itself is packed into a sort of corner, as the road bends, and the building is therefore slightly away from the road.)
I walked through the town centre yesterday, making use of the "look around" feature in a situation I knew well enough, to see just what I got! As I walked along the general pedestrian area I noted I was made aware of numbers along a side road that were often picked up as opposed to the numbers on the main street along which I was walking. I found this quite confusing to begin with. I remember, some considerable years ago now, this pedestrian walkway was in fact just a main street and has therefore been altered. It did make me wonder if this had any bearing on what I was experiencing, but until I have tried out more town centres I cannot be sure or comment further.
In my locality (within four miles) I have looked up one very well-known hotel, opened in 1983. It was first called The Ramada Hotel (being part of the Ramada Jarvis group), and for the past five years it has been the Renaissance Hotel. I cannot find it listed. In addition I have looked up two addresses, one of which may have been given to me incorrectly, but neither have been found. One is in Kitwood Drive and the other was given to me as Stilton Close, but I accept it could be Stirling Close which I have located.
In addition to the above, when searching POIS, using the "All" category, I can find only 1 McDonald's within five miles of my home. I know of three! It seems the POIS listed are very few (relatively speaking). I notice too that "American" terms, such as "Veterinarian" are used. If you don't mean "Veterinary Surgeon" here then please explain to the uninitiated and, BTW, I don't find any listed!
What am I doing wrong here?
----- Original Message ----- From: "Charles La Pierre" <lapierre@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <gps-talkusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, May 10, 2006 6:06 PM
Subject: [gps-talkusers] Re: MAPS CURRENTLY IN USE
All our maps are from the same company TeleAtlas.
All our 3.5 maps were updated all at the same time. All maps are version 2005.2 GDF TeleAtlas maps. TeleAtlas released the 2005.2 maps in January of 2006, and Telcontar our map engine company released the filter for the 2005.2 maps on February 22 of 2006, and we started testing the new maps a week or so later, and released GPS 3.5 with new maps 48 days later, not too bad!
Charles.
At 07:29 AM 5/10/2006, you wrote:Hi all,
As some of you have gathered by now, I'm a pretty new user with the GPS 3.5, beginning to make some inroads (no pun intended) into my learning curve now and get some useful information from my GPS. I feel I need to do a little more checking up with some things before making comments about the seeming inaccuracy (out of date) senarios with my local maps but would like to know at this time, first, which company produces the maps and when were the British ones updated? I realise that User POIS in these situations can really help and I'm beginning to use them now to my advantage.
-- Carol
carol.pearson@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Charles M. La Pierre CTO Sendero Group, LLC
Lat. 37 15' 25" N Lon: 121 53' 04" W
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