Garmin Support For OSX
- Thread starter Teegate
- Start date
It's about time - that's great! However, MapSource is really what we need on OSX and that isn't promised for another year (end of 2006). But certainly a step in the right direction 
Well...it is the end of the year and Garmin has not fulfilled their promise. My friend from work just came over with his new Garmin GPS and there is no software and drivers for the Mac. I tried every Mac GPS software I have and Garmin products still are not supported. It appeared I was getting the Bluetooth to connect to his unit, but in the end....nothing.
He has the eTrex Vista Cx and we were comparing that to my Legend. Using XP since Garmin fails to support Mac, I can upload maps to his unit in seconds. My serial Legend takes 10 minutes. The screen is more square on his where mine is more rectangle, but the difference seems minimal.
The real advantage to the Vista Cx is the brightness of the color screen. In my room here I could barely see the numbers on my screen and his stood out much much better. And it seemed much faster compared to mine.
And unfortunately it only accepts 500 waypoints and I have 1000 with over 925 used. I would have to remove over half of my waypoints just to have room to add more. That is a big concern for me.
Guy
He has the eTrex Vista Cx and we were comparing that to my Legend. Using XP since Garmin fails to support Mac, I can upload maps to his unit in seconds. My serial Legend takes 10 minutes. The screen is more square on his where mine is more rectangle, but the difference seems minimal.
The real advantage to the Vista Cx is the brightness of the color screen. In my room here I could barely see the numbers on my screen and his stood out much much better. And it seemed much faster compared to mine.
And unfortunately it only accepts 500 waypoints and I have 1000 with over 925 used. I would have to remove over half of my waypoints just to have room to add more. That is a big concern for me.
Guy
On a GPS forum which I visit people having been saying Garmin is behind on the OSX port. However, if they continue to go in the same direction as their newer products then it may be a moot point. As I understand, the Nuvi series can be mounted on your computer via USB like a flash drive. All the data is stored in GPX files which can be exchanged with other applications or modified with an XML editor. Maps and software updates are just files which can be copied to and from the GPS. This open source program runs under OSX to exchange POI's with the Nuvi: http://www.hearsay.demon.co.uk/mac/MakeGPI/index.html. I haven't seen a Nuvi yet, but it sounds like Garmin is finally bringing the GPS out of the old 9600 baud serial port days
Of course none of this helps people like you and me with older Garmin GPS'es, so hopefully they will keep their promise an deliver an OSX version of MapSource this year. I have the eTrex Legend C, and yep the USB interface is a big improvement over the slow serial ports. I think mine is the same as the Vista C but without the compass and altimeter (or something like that?). But I also believe the newer "x" versions have removable SD memory cards. I'm not sure what can be stored on the cards... is it just maps? Or can you have a different set of waypoints on each card? Or, for that matter, does the size of the card have something to do with how many waypoints you can store?
Of course none of this helps people like you and me with older Garmin GPS'es, so hopefully they will keep their promise an deliver an OSX version of MapSource this year. I have the eTrex Legend C, and yep the USB interface is a big improvement over the slow serial ports. I think mine is the same as the Vista C but without the compass and altimeter (or something like that?). But I also believe the newer "x" versions have removable SD memory cards. I'm not sure what can be stored on the cards... is it just maps? Or can you have a different set of waypoints on each card? Or, for that matter, does the size of the card have something to do with how many waypoints you can store?
His does have a card (he told me that) but I did not see it because we were concentrating on getting him to learn how the features work and how to upload and use Mac or Windows programs. I was not much help since it is so different than mine. The software I did have some input on.
Guy
Guy
You can download the owners manual here: http://www.garmin.com/manuals/eTrexVistaCx_OwnersManual.pdf
There are some interesting things there. For one thing, Garmin is now offering a free program called "POI Loader". Unfortunately it appears to only be compatible with the new units. However it might to be one way to get around the waypoint limits by turning them into POI's (Points of Interest) instead. Of course it only runs under Windows XP also...
This unit will also let you save track logs directly as .gpx files on the memory card which is pretty cool, but it doesn't look like you can save waypoint files unfortunately.
But all in all, this looks like a nice upgrade from the earlier series like mine.
There are some interesting things there. For one thing, Garmin is now offering a free program called "POI Loader". Unfortunately it appears to only be compatible with the new units. However it might to be one way to get around the waypoint limits by turning them into POI's (Points of Interest) instead. Of course it only runs under Windows XP also...
This unit will also let you save track logs directly as .gpx files on the memory card which is pretty cool, but it doesn't look like you can save waypoint files unfortunately.
But all in all, this looks like a nice upgrade from the earlier series like mine.