The UK prices sounds close to what might be expected in the US. Just gotta go find me a pound to daler convertion tool. hmmm. Sounds like a job for google. If I remember street talk is now going to be around $1,700 for the full kit. When I got it, it was around $600, but installing it was a pain, because there was full list of things to installed. The list looked like the following: bluetooth card destinator, destinator pach, and streetalk. you also had to make sure everything was authoraized and pared plus put up with maps that was ment for driving. it worked ok for what was around you, but... I think they are going to make installing it into one step, or as close as they can, and throw in blind pesific maps. Now they are surposly working with sandero instead of destinator wich might explain the price increase.

Wait, so with the Trekker breeze, you can't put in an address of, say, a new restaurant you want to go to? A bit strange, if you ask me.

Just got a Breeze, and it works pretty well most of the time. It has issues with two intersections which are extremely close together, these being not uncommon around here. It also sometimes thinks you've gone straight on when you've actually turned off, but it corrects itself eventually. That last point is probably more to do with GPS accuracy.

These two issues combined, and in addition any other random oddities streets may have, are why I think it's best for myself as a cane user not to use GPS in unfamiliar areas. Being able to put in a location I've never been to would be nice and everything, but I don't feel it would be safe. I anticipated issues with the close intersections, and of course you've got all the usual weirdness such as badly placed bike racks, strange arrangements of paths, small almost alley like areas between some buildings and so on. I'm not sure if this is universal, or if it's just specific to mid sized British towns. Your mileage may vary as they say, and I don't know how much difference there is between cane use and guide dogs so I can't possibly comment on that.

It also takes a couple minutes to find the satellites, so turn it on indoors while you're getting ready and hope it gets a signal. It usually does in our living room funnily enough.

Oh and if you're not in the US, check your mains adapter. They had to send me another one separate because it had a US style adapter included of all things.

No GPS is designed to replace a cane, the instructions are always very very clear on that point. They aren't for telling you what obstacles are around, they;re for helping you find your position in terms of streets. Completey different scale. No visually impaired person should use a GPS in the belief that it will stop them needing a cane or guide dog, ever.

The maps don't seem bad for around here, but then things haven't changed that much in our town. I'll also note that it might just be a quirk of the British towns in a lot of ways, the streets aren't realy laid out in any specific manner. The streets probably existed before people thought of towns in terms of laying them out anyway laugh.

That's probably an error in the map. The map data probably has the street going the wrong way round. Haven't noticed that on the breeze so far, but it might just be bad luck in your town. It is a lot easier to carry than a PM though, a lot smaller and lighter. If you can get a signal in a bus, which I haven't tried yet, it should be ideal for using there in particular.

If nothing else it gives you a good idea of what part of town you're in, and usually will indeed tel you which streets are around you. I wouldn't want to rely on it in a strange area though.

Yeah, it's a pity it isn't easier to try them out.

That said if you can get a bunch of visually impaired people together you might be able to convince humanware to come and give a group demonstration in theory.

Hi,
I have a Nokia N95, and use Loadstone GPS. Its not designed as a "Sat Nav", but it is very useful when it comes to telling you what's around your location. Since I got a Bluetooth GPS reciever for christmas, I've been using it on my N73 - but I actually find the integraded GPS of the N95 more acurate.
You can find out more information about Loadstone at:
http://www.loadstone-gps.com
Thanks.

funny seeing this topic especially today. I'm playing seriously with my Trekker, and having lots of fun with it. It's takikng a l;itle getting used to, but I particularly like the way you can use it like a phone book to look up points of interest, ---- as well as have it tell you some of the things your passing as you walk.

I haven't as yet explored all it's capabilities (I've had it a few months), but as I'm going to the gilbert and sullivan festival and wandering about the town a lot, it should get quite a work out there.

Btw, while I know there are options which come with talking phones, as I explained in the other thread, it just wouldn't be worth my while getting one. The trekker had many features I liked when i saw one at site village last year, and looks to be just the thing.

to be honest, I find the best way round is a bumbag with the trecker and reciever in it and a long one piece ear phone, the shoulder strap just doesn't personally sute me that much.

I had a bit of a play with route creation and finding points of interest today, ---- I'll move on to marking points of interest tomorrow and next week. I really! like the way the Trekker can look things up like a phone directory, ---- of course, the sattellyte maps it uses don't have absolutely everything on them, but they do have a fair amount.

Something else I really want the Trekker for is the motorized mode, so that I can keep track of where I am when on a bus.

I really hate busses due to the lack of stop announcements, possible alternative routes and general unhelpfulness of drivers, --- generally it's just trains or taxis for me, but busses would be useful and hopefully the Trekker can help me know where I am on one.

I'm not sure how much facility the breeze has to check satellite connectivity, but on the main trekker, it's possible to check numbers of satellites available which can give you a pretty good idea how reliable the trekker is going to be.

I'm not sure of the buss thing as yet, but I would like to check out unfamiliar routes with it if possible.

It is one of those things you need to practice with and get used to though, as I'm finding myself.

Hmmmmm, I wonder if the breeze works differently in terms of signal strength to the trekker itself. The trekker tells you the atual number of satellites it's connected to. More than six gives a high signal, but usually I find it to be at least four for the medium.

The more satellites it has, the more accurate the distance is.

though it's sometimes taken the Trekker a while to actually find it's connection, once it's got it, it seems to keep it pretty well though numbers of satellites can change (one reason it's important to keep a handle on the conenction).

I wonder if human ware have been skimping a bit on the breeze connectivity?

The main issue I've had with the Trekker has been shinanigans with turning it off, though that is more because of my long standing pc habbit of turning everything off first, ---- which is the last thing you want to do with the Trekker.

I'm getting used to it though.

It'll be interesting to see how it works in buxton where I'm doing serious amounts of wandering around the town.