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GPS: new Garmin wilderness models

Not all who wander are lost.

But GPS is no substitute for “good sense” in the wintertime….

Garmin announced two new “midrange” touch-screen GPS devices today, the Oregon 450 ($399) and the Oregon 450t ($499).

I dearly love my old (discontinued) Garmin eTrex Legend, but no, you won’t see me upgrading to either of these new models anytime soon. IMHO (“in my humble opinion”), calling a device “midrange” does not conceal the fact that these two devices are expensive. Face it, the more expensive of these devices is about the same cost as a low-end Windows :-) laptop, not that I would buy or use one! :-)

The good news…? Garmin GPS units are rugged and dependable. More good news is that the Oregon units come with utility software for Macintosh as well as Windows computers.

The bad news…? Besides the expense of the units themselves, Garmin maps have a proprietary format, and the maps are not inexpensive. I purchased one set of Garmin topographic maps for the entire U.S. ($100 at the time) years ago, and I told Garmin that I would not be buying more until they supported Macintosh.

It looks like other customers must have told them the same thing…. :-) (Garmin started showing up at Macworld Expo San Francisco several years ago.)

I have found an acceptable alternative of using my Garmin GPS tethered to my Mac running MacGPS Pro. When I am doing photography in the field without my Mac (I blogged about photography and GPS a LONG time ago), I have the previously plotted data on a background topographic map from Garmin (purchased years ago). I have converted numerous USGS maps (free on the Net) to MacGPS Pro format and have purchased other MacGPS Pro maps (inexpensive) that I use on the Macintosh for trip planning and for real-time GPS work when tethered to the Garmin unit.

Besides, CONVERGENCE is happening!

At the same time that I need to buy photographic lenses, an updated camera body, and perhaps an iPhone (depending upon carrier options in the future), Garmin is marketing a nüvifone™ G60 (now available from AT&T (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), and MacGPS Pro is promising an iPhone App soon! iPhone is already capable of much that is GPS-related, and “someday” could conceivably be available without AT&T exclusivity. A complication for both alternatives – just TRY to find cell-phone coverage in some of the areas where you will want to use GPS for hiking/photography!

Gee, do you think I should WAIT? :-) Does it make more sense to buy a GPS device that can make phone calls or a phone that can run thousands of apps, including those that involve GPS? :-) Each of us must make the decision.

Meanwhile, it is good that there are many choices for us “consumers!”

-Bill at

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