Anyone else been looking at the new program Garmin is releasing.

Looks like they have updated a few things. I guess with all the other mapping programs coming out, and making the old Garmin maps look bad, they had to do something to get back in the game.

From looking around on their website, the maps do look a little better. They have shaded added in (still dunno whether the shading will be on the GPS), more roads, more road names, and a few other features.

Thinking about ordering it just to have the updated roads on my GPS. Would be really nice if they had an auto-routing feature built into the new TOPO Program as well.

I've been looking at it too Archer. Like you say the detail has improved and they've added a couple new things to the software. I was about to order the older version and saw a post on another forum about the upcoming release. So, I've been waiting patiently these past several weeks to get a copy. It was scheduled to be a mid June release. I haven't checked to see if it is shipping in about a week now. I guess it's time to do that.

A lot of places are taking pre-orders now, it may even be shipping for all I know now. You couldn't order it off the garmin website as of today (6-13-07) yet. So I figured they must not be shipping it out just yet, but it should be any time now.

Amazon had a good deal going today when I looked, they had it for about $72 before shipping. It had the wrong picture, but all the right descriptions and part numbers.

I've seen other places had it for about $89 that you could pre-order from, like tigerdirect.

I think I'll wind up getting it, just because it has all the features I wish the old one would have had. Too bad they didn't up the detail from 1:100,000 to 1:24,000. I imagine that would take up quite a bit of space though with all the added map detail. I don't know if all the detail would work out too well on a small GPS screen anyway.

I had seen a couple sites with pre-orders a few weeks back, but I didn't know them so I decided to hold off on it. I hadn't seen it on Amazon. I'll go there right now and pre-order it. I try to order from them when I can because 99% of the time it ships from Lexington or Nicholasville. I like getting the next day service without the price.

Yeah, I like the idea of the 1:24,000 like the national park series. I wouldn't want the entire US, for the obvious size and cost issues, but if they did individual states, I would be interested in at least two or three.

When you get it, be sure to let us know what you think about it on here.

I like ordering from Amazon for much the same reasons you listed too. Usually doesn't take them long at all to ship something out, and when they do it really doesn't take long to get it. I've had someone steal an order off my mail box before, and when I called Amazon to tell them about it, they sent me a whole new set for free, and ever since I've been a great fan of theirs. I really hope whoever stole the books was very disappointed in what they got.

I've been ordering from Amazon since...well since they've been around. I can remember when they only sold books.lol

I ordered the software last night, actually I guess it was technically this morning. It showed up as 'in stock and ready to ship'. It was sold through Amazon, but is coming from ANTonline in Atlanta. I'm going to check with ANT on the status this afternoon to find out if it's shipping or pre-ordered. Either way it was a good price ($78 and change shipped) and I have the Amazon a-z guarantee. Will let ya know what I find out.

Well I got it in today (Monday). Between getting daughter off to camp, picking up a new toy, then trying to get some real work done, I haven't had much time with it yet.

For now I'll say the maps have good detail, the editing features seem to be good, and it will take about 4 meg of card space to load 6 1:100K topo quad map sections of to the gps that include all ofCumberland Gap Nat. Park, east to Kingsport, north to Wise then back west to just east of Corbin. Not bad, and with a 64 meg card you have more than enough room for a decent road trip. Depending on terrain and features these sections ranged from 550K to 780K in size. I don't have the older version, but I've been told that is about 2.5 to 3 times the average size of its quads. That's just a hint of the improved detail over previous versions.

RockCrawler
Can the New Program be installed on more than 1 computer, say a home computer and Laptop?

I got my copy in yesterday, I couldn't help it, I had to go ahead and order it when Amazon had it for such a good price last week.

The program itself is much the same as the older version, but I always kept the program updated off the garmin website. It was always a free download, so I updated fairly often. The maps though, are much better. More road labels, more roads, the shading of the topo regions.

Compared to the old maps, each section is quite a big bigger file size, almost double in many cases. So you can't get quite as many on a card as before. Like I used to have everything east of the Mississippi on my 512mb card with the old maps, and now, I had to leave out parts of the northeast and Florida. Not that I will ever need all the maps I do have on my card, it's just fun to have them on there. Not really a big deal. The program also loads all the maps to your hard drive, so you don't have to always have the CD with you to use it too, which is really nice.

As far as you question goes EZ GO, for some reason last night I actually took the time to read through the liscense agreement. It says it's alright to have a copy on your laptop, and your desktop, just so long as you don't have them both open and using them at the same time.

EZ GO, like Archer said it doesn't matter how many computers you put the software on as long as it's you using it. But, here's where map source gets you. They have what they call an unlock key built into it. It will unlock the software to download maps to only two different gps units that you own. If you have more than two or you upgrade to a newer unit you have to buy another unlock key. It cost more than a new copy with two fresh unlocks. I'm sure this method cuts down on piracy, but it puts the honest folks that may own more than two or upgrade over the life of the software in a bind. For this reason I wouldn't risk an ebay purchase or other used purchase unless I knew the person and only had intentions of one use.

Archer, I figured you would end up with a copy as much as you like mapping. I didn't even get to look at it today. Had to take the new toy for it's maiden ride and then off to pay for it. Looks like you will end up tutoring me on it if I don't get busy.

Can You use other brands of GPS's with the Garmin software?I have 2 (Garmin and Magellan). It would be nice to use the same software on both units.

It only works with the Garmin units. Guess that's their way of keeping us brand loyal.

I've been reading in various places that this program may not have the problems with locking people out anymore. That you don't have to worry about uploading the maps on more than two GPSr's if you own more than two. I'm not sure I'd want to be the first to try it though.

However, I do wonder about one thing. The first mapsource program I bough was completely unlocked, and I did try it out. I've installed maps on four different gps's with it without a problem. I just kept that program updated, and it never did try to lock me out, and when I installed the new TOPO 2008 the other day, it didn't change my mapsource program any since I had already downloaded the latest version of it. It just installed the new maps to my computer. So maybe I kinda just lucked out in the locked/unlocked department.

If you run into any trouble just give me a yell and I'll try to help with it. I've been using the mapsource program a couple years now, and know most the ins and outs of it.

Well I'm still in the dark so here's another lil question I come up with due to reading this post, I do plan on getting this new topo 2008 software.

So you.......
1. Download it to your computer
2. Select the area you want to download into the GPS
3. Click & Drag I assume
4. And if the area is small enough still have memory left to save tracks, turns, and waypoints?
5. Then is it possible to download it back to the computer with the extra data after the excursion saved as a "my trip" kinda thing?

You got it Doc. Load the quad sections you want onto your gps unit. Make your tracks, waypoints, etc., on your gps as usual. Upload the data back to the computer, and view/edit it as you see fit. You can also save the info in different formats to use with other software. That's basically all there is to it.

Thanks RockCrawler, I look forward to using this stuff.

Well I'm off the pot and on a spending spree BUT time for more folks to do the same look at the price for the topo 2008