Just passed the Continental Divide en route to Albuquerque.
Forgot to mention other goodies along on the trip. I've taken the excellent Hydroflask 24-0z. Original model with the new sport flip top. It's double-wall insulated and made of 18/8 stainless steel. Even in this heat when we have been outdoors, such as on our visit through the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest, the water inside my Hydroflask was C-O-L-D, with ice. It can stay like that for up to 24 hours. You want one of these!
Another asset along the way has been and will continue to be the new $129 (list) Wilson Sleek from Wilson Electronics. This little gadget is a portable cell phone booster that clamps over your phone, sort of like a phone mount. The back of your phone contacts the front of the booster and is held in by a pair of clamps (it comes with three sets to fit just about any width and thickness of handset out there). Hit the link above to see it. Shop online for much better price! New, and first seen at CTIA in Las Vegas this past March. It has proven to boost weak signals out in the middle of nowhere, whether on my drive home to SoCal from CTIA or on this very long trip. I've monitored signal with and without the device. There is no doubt it works and works well, not where there is no signal, but where there is some, it's always better with the Wilson Sleek. For any road warrior, that is, a genuine, behind-the-wheel road warrior, even in rental cars, get Wilson Sleek for maximum cellular signal of whatever is available, all the time, from any mobile provider (in the US).
I've taken video with the EVO 4G and posted them on my YouTube channel.
I've also taken some video with the Kodak PlaySport camcorder ($150 list, but heavily discounted online, plus extra battery and 16GB memory card combined for a total extra of about $50) while in the car, with and without EIS (Electronic Image Stabilizer) switched on. See any difference? Read my review. KODAK PLAYSPORT Video Camera My video also at my YouTube Channel.
More videos also taken with the $280 (list price) Flip Slide HD (www.theflip.com) for comparison of not only stability but video quality and just overall differences between the two when taking the same shots. See these, too, at my YouTube Channel.
Finally, we are also using the brand new $259 (list) Magellan RoadMate 3055 (www.magellangps.com) for our nav job. I just saw it on Amazon.com for about $195 with FREE SHIPPING. The company has done a fantastic job with the new mount! Not only does the unit slide so easily onto the mount, but the power cable tip base can now be slid into a slot on the bottom of the mount. In this way the cable stays put in the mount while the user slides the PND onto and off of the base. Neat, really neat, that is, the cable is neatly positioned out the back of the bottom of the mount and the PND itself sits on a little landing as it bottoms onto its windshield mount's base.
As for the PND (Personal Navigation Device) itself, this new Magellan is quick to respond and sports a few new and worthwhile features. First, when tapping the lower left which defaults to trip ETA, a "tree" rises with altitude, speed, direction, distance and time remaining to destination. After about 10 seconds, the tree descends and disappears. Previous models resorted to tap and toggle through the info. This innovative new presentation is just plain smart.
I also like the included lifetime built-in traffic. Tapping the icon when it appears there is traffic ahead reveals a new split screen - on the left is the current status with delay and, if there is a better suggestion, it appears on the right, showing that something is possible and how much time would be saved with the detour. The user selects at the bottom of either column. If there is nothing better, nothing appears on the right of the split. Simple and intuitive, just as I have come to know and appreciate of Magellan, especially in the past few years.
This unit continues its helpful feature whereby it can take multiple destinations and save them for you in the order you choose OR click to optimize your route automatically. This has been particularly useful as we trek across the great expanse of interesting and unusual natural wonder toward Houston. For example, we enter the day's basic destination. Then, later on, when we figure out where we will stay the night, we enter more precise info and delete what was just a city center listing. Then, we figure out where we are going to have dinner, add that location in the order of our choice. hit the check mark in the lower right of the screen and continue on our way, without leaving the basic nav function or the directions already in progress. Of course, only the passenger is operating the PND while the vehicle is in motion!
Also essential has been the built-in AAA tourbook info on this and other Magellan PNDs. For example, when I looked up the Painted Desert as a point of interest in Arizona, it was most easily found, with other useful info by choosing the AAA info to search instead of the Magellan's nav database.
I like that the volume can be selected as speed sensitive, so at higher speed, it becomes louder as interior vehicle noise is naturally greater at higher speed. These little things add up to a lot of value from Magellan.
Oh, and as we drove from Arizona into New Mexico, I watched as the ETA added an hour as we entered the Mountain Time Zone.
Haven't tried the built-in Bluetooth yet.
Another strong point for this new Magellan and all others is their excellent spoken directions. Not only are they timed just right and in just the right amount, but Magellan, above all others I've tested, speaks in the best, most understandable, properly pronounced English. Very impressive. I'll have more to say on this later.
On line as we drove, I uploaded loads of photos, each at 2MB from the 8 megapixel camera on board the EVO 4G. The quality is quite nice!
And finally for this installment, as we drove and I was on the Internet and on my laptop via the EVO 4G hotspot capability, this time with strong 3G coverage as we neared Albuquerque. I was in my Gmail and saw that Mrs. Gadget had asked for a video chat. Well, I thought this would not be possible, so I suggested an audio chat - loud and clear. What the heck, I tried video chat and son-of-a-gun, it worked! There we were, streaking along at freeway speeds and I was doing credible, high quality video chat with no apparent lag or artifacts. I spun the laptop around to show her our forward view and all around the interior of our vehicle.
That was amazing! I just can't wait to be in a 4G market and use this capability.
As we rolled into Albuquerque tonight, our dining choice was another from the Food Network' Diners, Drive-ins and Dives show -Monte Carlo Liquors & Steak House. Another winner!
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