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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
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Very pleased
Well since it was for my wife it had to be easy to use or I'd get complaints. The menus system never leaves you uncertain of where to go next...no getting lost on the screens. Almost bot a TomTom but didn't think the menu was quite as good while trying it in stores. I could be wrong. The audio is plenty loud and usually clear. I only tried one voice. Maybe there are more? Found it does two thing well. Navigates to locations AND if you just display the map without inputing where to go...it provides a fantastic situational awareness of where you are, showing the upcoming streets, side streets etc. While actually navigating, if you miss a turn or opt for a different way, it simply recalculates the remaining trip. Takes about 5 seconds. Never suggested a u turn. At first start up it took maybe 5 minutes to find itself. Every other time it locks on in just seconds. Keyboard is not qwery due to the size. 4.5 inch model has the optional keyboard. That's my only not complaint but a request to Garmin...even if the keyboard had to be smaller to fit the 3.5 in screen. Letters displayed as abcdefg are harder to find than a typewriter type display. If it is plugged into the car and you pull the power or turn off the car it will auto shut off when it detects the power loss. It gives you a choice to allow the shut down or overide and continue ON using battery power. A lot of write ups said the 260 didn't have this feature but mine does. Bought it from Amazon Oct 2008. I paid $200. The best price anywhere Best Buy wanted [...] with a rebate. As everybody says, units that anounce the street names is the only way to go. You might not even look at the unit, just listen. Wife wouldn't take the 5 minutes to learn the unit. After two weeks finaly did. Now loves it.
Rating: -
This is a great investment!
My Garmin Nüvi 260 was a great investment! Its preloaded maps, voice prompts, and rechargeable and long-life battery are just a few of its characteristics which every driver needs. If you run into traffic or a closed road, its detour option comes in extremely helpful. The Nüvi 260 also gives users the option of various routes. Because time is an issue for many people, users may chose to take the quickest route. However, others may opt to take the route with the shortest distance, which may end up taking a little longer but helps to conserves gas.
Its turn-by-turn voice prompts and street names are so helpful. Many GPS devices simply highlight the directions on the screen. However, with the Nüvi 260 users can keep their eyes on the road as it verbally relays directions. This is not only a convenience for the driver, but is also beneficial in preventing vehicle accidents.
The Garmin Nüvi 260 includes a rechargeable, long-life battery. It comes with a power cable that plugs into the smoke thing.
Also on the list of pros, is the device's ability to save locations as favorites. When the driver travels somewhere often, but maybe not often enough to remember exactly how to get there each time option keeps the user from reentering the location each time. Its ability to save a home location is also helpful. Wherever you are, just touch on home and it will get you there without having to enter the address or find it in your list of favorites.
Although I have not had the need to use it, this Garmin also has a SD card slot. This allows users to upload pictures for viewing or a slide show.
These are just some of my favorite characteristics offered by the Garmin Nüvi 260. I have never had any complaints with the device and recommend it to anyone looking for a GPS device.
Rating: 
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Great Product, some minor flaws
We just finished a 5 day driving trip (using side roads and the scenic/long route) from L.A. to S.F. and back using the Garmin, and it was great. My wife also uses it for work. Overall, great unit, very easy to use, nice features, I'll never use a paper map again. Good audio clarity, nice flexibility when you upgrade the firmware online for additional voices, good direction timing. It was really great to be able to find restaurants, gas, landmarks, etc. on the fly, and it also has a pedestrian mode. It also is very flexible if you ignore the instructions about suggesting some pretty good alternate driving instructions on the fly. Lots of nice stats available too, and it's very easy to use, both my wife and I can use it with ease now.
Cons: Weak signal, sometimes it takes a few minutes when you start it up to locate the satellites, and won't work at all inside my apartment, while a cheaper competitor will. Also, some of the directions try too much to optimize, and will take you off of what is in fact the fastest route, like a small stretch of a city street between a bend in the highway, taking you off, then on again, when clearly you should have just been kept on the freeway. Once again, a cheaper competitor's unit seems to work better on this (whichever one Costco sells regularly). If they can fix this, the unit would be perfect, but meanwhile, you end up having to second-guess the instructions a lot and know where it is you want to go and how.
Rating: -
good choice
Have had a chance to use this GPS on several trips now. Very happy with it. Currently using suction cup but may try some sort of air vent clip. Small size makes it easy to carry in pocket. Some small drawbacks: sometimes "Mother" seems to wait until the last second to give directions. I kinda miss the spoken 'next turn' directions as reading that information from the green band at the top of the screen can be difficult, in bright sun especially. The POI feature is very useful but still misses many targets (ie enter the name of a chain restaurant and it finds four of them 60 miles away but not the one in your town...). Still, we're glad we bought it and would highly recommend it.
Rating: -
Exactly what you need in a GPS
I just received the Garmin 260 for my birthday. I researched all the brands to death (especially Tom Tom and Garmin) before coming to my decision on what I wanted.
Here are my reasons for choosing Garmin over TomTom.
1. From everything I have researched, Garmins U.S. maps are much better than TomTom's. Since I don't travel in Europe, Garmin seemed to suit me better.
2. The Garmin, in my opinion, is much more "user friendly" out of the box.
3. In using the Garmin, the satellite aquisition is very good.
4. There are not a lot of extra fancy items to have to filter through.
Just get me to where I need to go the best possible way. Garmin does that.
Also, for anyone who is trying to decide between saving a few bucks and just having the voice say "turn right in 400 feet" or paying a little more and having the text-to-speech say "turn right in 400 feet on oak street. PAY THE EXTRA COUPLE OF BUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you are driving in a city where the streets are right on top of one another, turning right in 400 feet (or even when right when the voice tells you to turn) may only narrow it down to 2 or 3 streets.
You really should have the street names given to you (text-to speech). It helps!!
Another thing. I have read reviews from people saying that they knew how to get to a certain place and the GPS didn't take them on the most direct or quickest route. A gps is NOT supposed to be used to get you to where you already know. Of course you will know little side roads that might be shortcuts. A gps is to be used to get you to where you DON'T know any route to where you are heading. It works well when you use it the right way and will definitely get you to where you need to be.
Virgin America formally launches: Last week, Virgin America offered free Wi-Fi on its single Internet-equipped aircraft, My Other Ride's a Spaceship. Today, the service goes commercial ($10 for flights 3 hours or shorter; $13 for longer flights), and the rollout to other planes begins. Virgin has a special URL--http://wifitracker.virginamerica.com/--that takes you to a tracking page showing which flights in progress have Wi-Fi, but they don't yet tell you how to determine whether a given flight you'll be on will offer the service. With 24 planes and a plan to add service one per week, that shouldn't be a problem for long.
Heathrow Airport Coach Link adds Internet service: Icomera, a leading transportation Wi-Fi firm, has added free Wi-Fi to FirstGroup's RailAir coach service that connects Heathrow Airport with Reading in England. RailAir runs every 20 minutes for a 50-minute route. FirstGroup handles 3 million passengers a day across all its routes, which makes it a plum market for future expansion.
