I finally bought  a car gps (till now i had a gps mouse to connect to a laptop).The gps i bought is the refurbished tomtom 130s, more details @ http://www.tomtom.com/products/product.php?ID=488&Category=0&Lid=4 for about $67 after rebate.

First impression
No power adapter for connecting it to the wall.
Can only charge battery via computer or car charger.
Sofware updates was very quick and automatic  as soon as you install TomTom Home and connect the gps to the laptop.
You can completely operate the Tomtom from the laptop in a mode called "Operate One" where in instead of tapping on the GPS screen you can use the mouse your computer.
No SD card input or bluetooth as advertised.
Adding favorites is not that easy because it stores the latitute/longitude as the name of the favorite so unless you rename it quickly it will be hard to remember Lat/Long.Also renaming favorites is very hidden under the Change Preferences->Manage Favorites.

Tips

• As soon as you charge it , please connect it to a laptop so that you can update all the software on the gps to get the latest version.
• Please backup using Tomtom Home all the configurations as soon as you get it.
• Download POI's from Tomtom's website and from the Open Street maps Project  via cloudmate's download site for tomtom @ http://downloads.cloudmade.com/
• Download POI Edit from http://www.poiedit.com/ it will help you backing up your favorites
• Looking for 3rd party apps for your tomtom look it up @ http://home.comcast.net/~spheasant1/3rd_party.html
• Interested in using Openstreetmaps on your tomtom find more information @ http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/TomTom

After using it for my major road trip here is my feedback on this gps.

Pros

• Simple interface
  
• Hackable
• Good community around it which has lots of software (most of them free).
• QuickGPS feature works.
• Cheapest with a lot of bells and whistles.
• Very compact fits in a pocket.I carry it everywhere I go.

Cons

• No SD card
• No POI modifications or categorization.
• Llimited to about 80 favorites only.
• Battery life of only about 2 hours
• Lacks multiple route planning facitlity
• Lacks planning route  on desktop and then moving it to the gps.

posted at: 23:48 | category: /reviews | permanent link to this entry