Notes from Dark Hollow

Goodbye Garmin Mobile XT, Hello Mapquest Navigator

darkhollow — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 20:43:37 +0000

I am (or at least, I was) a big fan of Garmin Mobile XT, which is a version of Garmin’s navigation software that runs on smartphones. It really is an excellent product, and Garmin has just made it even better with their recent upgrade to version 5. I give Garmin top marks for their user interface; it’s the best I’ve used. And the fact that you get all of the online capability (gas prices, etc.) with no subscription fee makes it an attractive tool for people that don’t want to pay a monthly fee for something like AT&T’s TeleNav. However, that is the extent of my good comments about Garmin Mobile XT (GMXT), especially after a recent bad experience with Garmin customer service. Let me explain a little about that.

My recent grievance with Garmin has more to do with their terrible licensing scheme and product packaging, than it does with the product itself. It has to do with the various incarnations (versions) of this software that Garmin markets. When I first purchased GMXT in February 2008 for my Samsung Backjack (which has no builtin GPS receiver), I asked Garmin support which version I should buy if I wanted to build routes on a PC, then transfer them to GMXT. I was told to buy the “Garmin Mobile 10 for Laptops” version, which comes with a bluetooth GPS puck, nRoute navigation software for the PC, Garmin Mobile XT software (to be installed on a smartphone from a PC), and City Navigator NT maps of North America. Since February, I’ve been happily using GMXT on my Blackjack. My problems started when I decided to upgrade my phone to an AT&T Tilt, which has a builtin GPS receiver. Thinking that I could just reinstall GMXT on my new Tilt, I followed the same installation procedure as I did for my Blackjack. Unfortunately, Garmin neglected to tell me that this version of GMXT they recommended to me had to be used with their GPS puck; it will not recognize an internal GPS receiver. Not only that, but when I asked Garmin support what I could do to get my GMXT to run on my Tilt, I was told that I had to purchase the “Smartphone edition” of GMXT. That’s right, they want me to spend another $99 for the same software and maps that I just bought less than a year ago, just packaged in a different form. Nope. I don’t think so, and I don’t care how great their software is. If they had offered me, say, a 50% discount on the other version, I might have gone for it. So through their bone-headed licensing scheme and pitiful customer service, they’ve managed to alienate a once-loyal customer.

So what do I do now? Well, I could still use GMXT with my Tilt if I continued to use their GPS puck, but one reason I got the Tilt was because it has a builtin receiver, so I’m not going to do that (just on principle). Since I have an unlimited data plan with AT&T anyway, I decided to try out the 2 major “online” competitors: Telenav and Mapquest.

I won’t waste time talking about Telenav; suffice it to say that I saw nothing attractive about the product. When you click on “Get Telenav” on your AT&T phone, what you get isn’t even a full version of Telenav, which makes it hard to evaluate their product. The second choice, Mapquest Navigator, is a different story. It’s not as well-polished as GMXT or Telenav, but it wasn’t until I started using this product that I realized how seriously out-of-date Garmin’s maps are, even the most recent ones (2009). The Mapquest maps are more accurate (at least in my area) than Garmin’s, whose maps still show a bridge down the road from us that hasn’t existed for 15 years! Mapquest correctly shows a dead-end road. I even verified with Navteq that their database does not have the bridge 2 years ago, so why does Garmin still show it, even on a 2009 map? And for only $50 a year for Navigator, I’m getting current maps, gas prices, and other online goodies for much less than the price of a Garmin map update, which in my case aren’t up-to-date anyway, as well as announced streets (text-to-speech), which GMXT still doesn’t support.

I still prefer GMXT’s interface, and I’m not yet convinced that Navigator’s routing is as efficient as GMXT’s, but if you’re paying for an unlimited data plan already, Mapquest Navigator may be a better solution. And if I was Garmin, I’d think about changing their “we’re the only game in town” attitude.

Samsung BD-UP5000 Combo Player Firmware Update 1.3

Forbin — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 10:54:42 +0000

I’ve been considering returning my new BD-UP5000 bluray/hd-dvd combo player, as it could not play one of my bluray disks (Invincible) without frequent lockups. But first, I wanted to give it one more try with the latest firmware update (just released last week). As it turns out, this latest firmware patch fixed the problem. So I suppose I’ll keep it after all, although I’m still not happy with the fact that the volume levels are so low when connected to my Samsung LCD through HDMI.

Problem Solved with Garmin Mobile XT on Samsung Blackjack

Forbin — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 00:57:33 +0000

I’ve been using Garmin Mobile XT on my Samsung Blackjack for about 2 months now, and love it. But a week ago, it suddenly started crashing after the splash screen. After several attempts at solving the problem with Garmin support (who weren’t much help, I’m sorry to say), I just decided to bite the bullet and do a hard reset of my Blackjack to see if that would help. Sure enough, after the hard reset and a reinstall of Garmin Mobile XT, it’s back to working normally.

I’m not sure what caused the problem in the first place, since it had worked flawlessly for over a month. It may have had something to do with my installing Google Maps Mobile or Live Search, as these both have the ability to access the Garmin bluetooth GPS receiver, which I had tried. I had to play with the COM port settings, which I think is when my problem with GMXT started. It was useless anyway, since GMXT is far more advanced than these two programs, but I at least wanted to give them a try.

Hope this info helps others that may be struggling with this weird problem.

[Editor's Note: See comments below for final resolution of this issue]

HDMI for regular Xbox 360

Forbin — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 23:00:32 +0000

New HDMI cable for regular Xbox 360 that will enable a 1080p picture. Won’t do me much good til I get a 1080p TV (only have 1080i now), but it’s still good news as I just got a 360 HD-DVD player. Picture is awesome on my Hitachi 50V500.

My First Game Addiction

Forbin — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 23:30:11 +0000

Back in the summer of 1979, I was working part time in the undergraduate student computer labs at Penn State. It was a very rewarding experience; I can still remember using that plastic knife to clear out the jammed and ripped punched cards from the card readers (and no, youngsters, I don’t mean media card readers)! Anyway, in those days, there were no video display terminals in the labs, mainly key punch machines and card readers. But a few of the labs had some new Anderson-Jacobsen thermal printing terminals that were connected to a PDP-11 in the main computer building.

One day I was poking around on the system from one of these terminals, and I stumbled upon the original Adventure game by Crowther and Woods. Once I started playing, I was hooked. I have no idea how many hours (or miles of thermal paper) I consumed playing that game, but I doubt it rivals the couch time my son has racked up playing Oblivion (an awesome game I’ll talk about in another post).

When I talk about the Adventure game to my kids, they can’t believe anyone could actually play something so primitive. “How do you know where you’re at? There’s nothing to see!” Then I whip out my old yellowed maps of Colossal Cave that I carefully drew back at old PSU. But they’re still not impressed. They just look at them with the same blank expression they get when I show them my vinyl records.

Hmm. I wonder what their kids will be playing when they’re looking back fondly at primitive games like Oblivion and Battlefield 2? Photorealistic adventures with near-human AI, as-yet-unheard-of controller technology, and running on consoles the size of a wallet with processors containing 1000′s of cores. I can’t wait.

Optimizing Xbox Live with a Linux Router

Forbin — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 15:13:54 +0000

If you have a Linux box as your home router/NAT, and you have an Xbox or Xbox 360 connected to Xbox Live, then you may be interested in the little exercise I just went through.

I’ve always wondered why when I did the “Network Connection Test” on the Xbox, it gave me “Moderate” under the NAT test. But until now, it had never bothered me enough for me to dig into the answer. It turns out that this problem was probably also keeping my son from being able to join some of his friends’ games on Live.

Here’s a link to a Microsoft article that will explain why.

I poked around on the internet a little and found this blog entry by Todd Ostermeier that gives a good step-by-step guide to installing the Linux IGD on your Linux router box. In a nutshell, you’ll be installing libupnp and linux-igd.

After following the instructions (the version numbers in Todd’s blog are a bit out of date, but using the latest version of everything worked fine for me on my Suse 9.1 box), we now show “Open” on the NAT test, and my son no longer has trouble joining games on Live.

Thanks Todd!

Hello Microsoft, anybody there?

Forbin — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 13:29:49 +0000

To quote a favorite saying at my place of employment, “How hard can it be”? Look guys, all I want is a box that I can send my ailing Xbox 360 back in (see previous post Xbox 360 Freezing) so you guys can fix it (you know, like it should have been BEFORE YOU SHIPPED THEM!). First, you let me waste 2 weeks through your totally boneheaded email support. So I finally get frustrated enough to call (I know, like I should have done in the first place). You promised me a box to ship it back for service under the terms of the extended warranty I bought. A week goes by, and no box. So I call you again, and you tell me you’ll ship another box immediately. Guess what, another week goes by, and STILL NO BOX! So I call you yet again, and amazingly enough, no sign of a box shipping again! Ok, so you’re shipping another one after creating a new ticket. Yeah, I’m sure that will help.

Let’s hope the people building Vista have a little more competence than their support staff.

Game Development with XNA

Forbin — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 21:58:29 +0000

Yesterday I downloaded the XNA Studio Express (along with C#, etc). I applaud Microsoft for finally providing some decent software with substance for free (well mostly; if you want to get games you develop over to the 360, you’ll have to pony up $99 per year for a subscription). Still, for someone like me who’s always been a closet game developer wannabe who just wants to learn a little about how it’s done, it’s very cool. Looks like I’ve got a lot of reading to do…

Xbox 360 Freezing – guess it had to happen sooner or later

Forbin — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 19:15:36 +0000

So we’ve had our Xbox 360 since the day it came out. We haven’t really had any of the horror problems reported on the forums…until now. One night last week, it started freezing up, after being turned on for about 5 minutes. Followed all the advice on the Xbox support pages, but to no avail. We also get the dreaded 3 red lights on the Ring of Light (RoL), denoting a “hardware failure”. Called Xbox support; they’re shipping a box for us to ship it back in for repair. Good thing I bought the extended warranty. Now we’ll see how long it takes to get it back.

Bluebirds fledged

Forbin — Tue, 23 May 2006 10:26:53 +0000

Our first brood of bluebirds for this season fledged yesterday. So far, I’ve only seen 2 young ones, one male and one female. Still have two sets of Tree Swallows in the boxes. Tried to get some pictures yesterday of the bluebirds, but couldn’t get close enough. Guess I better clean out the box today to make way for the next nest.