 Previously in the GPS City Buzz, we shared a video explaining how to connect your GPS to Google. Today, we introduce our customer, Christopher, who used Google on his GPS during a trip to California. "A couple of years ago, I went to Southern California for the first time on a business trip and I had a free day or so to explore. I wanted to see as much as possible, so I spent a lot of time just driving around, stopping whenever something interested me. I had my Garmin Legend handheld in the car, attached to the dash with a suction cup mount. I was primarily using it to make sure I didn't get lost and could find my way back to the hotel in Anaheim, but I'd recently began experimenting with Google Earth, so I made sure that I kept the tracklogs on the GPS and downloaded them to my laptop every night." The Garmin eTrex Legend, which Christopher used on his trip, has since been discontinued by the manufacturer. However, this week Garmin introduced three new models to the eTrex series, the 10, 20 and 30. The redesigned eTrex offers an improved 2.2 inch display, worldwide basemap, spine mounted accessories and a battery life of 25 hours. "When I imported the tracklogs into Google Earth, I was able to see exactly where I had traveled. Even cooler, I could set it 'fly' along my driving paths in 3D and explore the terrain. When you combine that with the community of user information in Google Earth, you can identify landmarks. Unfortunately, that was after the fact, so later I could find that I drove right by Pamela Anderson's house, but didn't know it." "Of course, modern GPS navigation systems make it a lot easier to find your way around unfamiliar cities and even then I could have connected the GPS to my laptop for better maps but being able to analyze the trip data in different ways once I got home was really cool. You can also geocode photographs you take and post them on Flickr or other sites, then generate KML files for Google Earth to link your photos directly onto the maps, right along side the tracks you made, so you can see where you stopped and took photos." For more of Christopher's uploaded images, go to his original post. We want to hear your story! Submit your story and pictures to the GPS City Gallery. If you include photos with your story, we'll send you a FREE T-shirt upon approved submission. GPS City T-shirts are navy blue with white letters. International addresses subject to a mailing fee. |
