Magellan, Garmin, and Lowrance have been busy!

[Siskiyou]

Garmin's MapSource User Guide Rev. B can be download as a pdf file from the Garmin website.  This revision has just been released.  I downloaded it to my harddrive.  

I wish they published a list of the pages what have been changed.  That way I could easily printout the new pages and insert them into my current downloaded manual.  I have made a number of pin & ink notes in the old download and would like to retain them.  A number of the changes that I spotted was the support information for using the USB connector on the "C" series of units.  I have not made a page by page comparison but there appears to be allot of changes.   A guy could overload on to much at one time.

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MapSource Beta v6.6 has been released.  I downloaded and installed it last night on one of my computers.  The operating system is XP Home Addition.  The process was smooth.  I did not try any uploads or downloads.  I will get to that later today or when it starts raining.

 :noway: CAUTION WITH THIS BETA UPDATE!  This update worked fine with my GPS76C with the mini usb to standard usb cable.  I was able to upload and down load data without problems.  But! For those who have used MapSource with Garmin GPS units know the program downloads old mapsets and then replaces the old set with a new set.  The problem came when I tried the Beta software with my older Garmin Legend.

I will start a new post of this subject!

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etrex Legend owner manual revision D and etrex Vista owners manual revision D.  I downloaded the revision for the etrex Legend to my hard drive.  Again I wish they would publish a list of pages that have been changed.  I guess that I was in government to long.  Manuals and Penal Codes were always being up dated.  In many cases we would receive replacement pages and a list of the effected page numbers.
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There have been a number of operating system(firmware) updates for Garmin units in the last few months.  Take a look your unit might be on the list.  
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Lowrance has a software update for it's ifinder gps units.
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Magellan who is the father of the recreational gps has updated some of it's software and firmware.  Again check it out.  Of course it is hard to recognize who Magellan is now days.

[MI VHNTR]

According to my new American Hunter magazine, Bushnell will be coming out with a new GPS this summer. It's supposed to have the ability to download ariel photos to the unit from the Bushnell website. There's nothing on the website yet though. It might be time for another new GPS... MI VHNTR

[Siskiyou]

Good News.  I believe that they will produce a good product.  I have done a lot of work with ariel photos.  They will never replace a good topo map, but they compliment good mapping.  To do detailed work with ariel photos you need to be able to see them in stereo.  In heavy cover they do not show established trails, roads, and other items hidden by vegetation.  

It will be interesting in seeing how they present the photo's.