GPS Tracklog

Garmin TOPO U.S. 24K goes nationwide

I knew something was up when Garmin named their last topo product with the soon to be dated moniker TOPO U.S. 2008.  Now it's official, Garmin will be releasing 1:24,000 scale topo maps of at least the 48 contiguous United States, complete with routable roads and trails. Previously available only for some National Park areas, this software will be known as TOPO U.S. 24K.

These will be available by region -- the Pacific Northwest (WA & OR) is already out, with California / Nevada scheduled to be available in July. The remainder of the U.S. is "coming soon." The maps will come pre-loaded on micro-SD cards with an SD card adapter at $99.99 a pop.

Upgrade your maps within 30 days of buying a GPS

It appears that TomTom and Garmin have both adopted a formal policy of allowing free map upgrades within 30 days of registering a unit. Wait 31 days and you no longer qualify. Hence, I am recommending that anyone purchasing an auto GPS register their device immediately to see if they qualify for a free upgrade.

Open Street Map on a Garmin handheld

In last week's Waypoints, I issued a challenge to Free Geography Tools' Leszek Pawlowicz to check out Open Street Map (OSM) on a Garmin handheld, now that OSM has incorporated U.S. TIGER data. He good naturedly accepted the gauntlet and posted his findings. The screen shot at left shows a sample.

I'm disappointed that using OSM data in this way doesn't allow for autorouting. Still, for those of you with Garmin handhelds that don't want to lay out the bucks for MetroGuide or City Navigator, this is another option.

Thanks Leszek!

Free hi-res topo maps of CO and WY (and Utah soon)

One of the great things about Garmin units is the wide range of free maps that are out there for them. I recently became aware of another source, this one offering 40-foot contour interval maps of Colorado and Wyoming. The not quite accurately named site, Miscjunk, will soon add Utah to the mix too.

The screen shot at right shows a sample map loaded onto the new Garmin Colorado series. If you load a custom (U.S.) map onto the unit and have Topo U.S. 2008 (which has DEM data) loaded too, you'll get the nice shading effects seen here.

NAVTEQ vs. Tele Atlas - Try before you buy

Sharp-eyed reader and frequent commenter Zane tipped me to this. Here's a mashup from Mike Purvis, co-author of Beginning Google Maps Applications, that lets you see and compare Tele Atlas and NAVTEQ data sources. So if you have been wondering whether to buy a Garmin GPS (with NAVTEQ data) or a TomTom GPS (with Tele Atlas data), now you can check them out before you buy!

Free maps for your Garmin GPS

Free user-generated U.S. and international maps

This was originally intended as a follow up to my international maps for your Garmin GPS post. Yet those sticking closer to home should investigate this too -- the sources below include road maps of U.S. cities and some very nice topo maps of greater detail than you can find elsewhere. The image below is from a 1:24,000 scale Lake Tahoe map.

International maps for your Garmin GPS

One of the more common questions I receive relates to international (non-U.S.) maps — where can I find maps of a particular country? There are actually many options, and I suspect that most people aren’t aware of them all. Some are even free. I’m going to focus on Garmin in this post, which has the greatest variety of international maps readily available, at least for any of the top selling GPS receiver brands in the U.S.

Lets go through the options one by one...

Garmin to offer tour maps online

Garmin will team up with MAD MAPS to offer tour maps beginning in December. These digital guides will be available for download from the Garmin website for Garmin nuvi and zumo GPS receivers.

Three types of maps will be available:

• U.S. Regional Touring Series, $11.99 per map: Longing for an ideal day trip or overnighter? There are 24 maps in this series; each map contains between 25-35 routes.
• Get Outta Town Series, $6.99 per map: Hoping to escape the hectic pace of the big city? There are 25 maps in this series; each map contains 5-7 routes.
• Rally Run Series, $6.99 per map: Looking to join the action at the nation's biggest motorcycle rallies? There are 4 maps in this series, averaging 5 routes.

3-D navigation video preview

It's official, the Mio C620 will include 3-D maps by Tele Atlas. And we have a preview of what it "may" look like!

Via BlinkGeo.

Speculation - Garmin Topo U.S. 2009

File this one under speculation. Earlier this year, Garmin announced Topo U.S. 2008, which offered minor improvements over the previous version of Topo U.S. I've got a review copy and hope to have a full write up on it in the near future.

What I don't understand though, is why they would give this product a name with a year attached. The type of improvements that Topo U.S. 2008 offered aren't likely to sway anyone towards an annual upgrade, unlike City Navigator.

Which brings me to conclude that by this time next year, Garmin will announce a next generation topo product. This would likely include the ability to display one or more of the following:

• 1:24,000 scale topo maps
• USGS topo maps
• Aerial photos

Garmin units, for now, display only vector maps -- data sets made up of lines and points. The last two features listed above would require a unit that can display raster imagery, ala the DeLorme PN-20 and the Magellan Triton series. Raster imagery -- maps and aerial photos -- are image files which eat up a lot of memory. It is likely that an entirely new line of handhelds would be required to display raster images.