OT: Loosely RTV related deals (eg Harmony Remotes, Slingbox)

oh, and attn: plyons. You should drop by an Office Depot or two. I've seen Zune and ipod stuff there heavily discounted.


i've seen a:

>zune remote control (think it was $15 instead of $70) (gone at my location, that's what I was considering snagging for you)

>antec lansing stereo system (zune and ipod). coarsely speaking they were $180 slashed to $50 (I don't know if sounded good or not (I'm always suspect of that formfactor))

>zune cases

>many variations of monster cable for ipods (differenet setups, car, stereo, etc)

yada


even more randomized.. at ratshack there's a '$70-80' monster cable for the xbox 360slashed down to $9.99. This cable connects an xbox 360 to a vga monitor. I think that is really good because monitors have full HD resolution but cost a fraction of an HDTV. I got one for a roomie that has an xbox360, but the tard didn't want it because it wasn't dvi (on his tard friend's advice). back it goes, wasting my time. The guy plays on a regular def TV right now.


There's another xbox360 Monster cable slashed to $29.99 at ratshack. This outputs to component.

yadda

Cow what are you doing living with a 'tard? You mean in the group home?



Did Liz kick you out again?

(bet it was that cheapo digital soundcard you got her)



But vaguely back off topic: since Charlie is apparently killing off the standalone sling, wonder if the legacy boxes will become valuable?

Here's another funky deal.


At Office Depot (sunday and monday only) the Becker GPS unit is on sale for $250-$100 rebate=$150.

office depot link to Becker:
http://www.officedepot.com/ddSKU.do?...g=true&An=text


This youtube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GjXLFPLqG

..shows miomap 3.2 being loaded up the the Becker.

(for more info google 'becker miomap')


This looks like a power combo. The Becker is of good hardware build, has a nice antiglare screen, is a good looking unit, and has really nice arm/bracket thing(the thing with a suction cup).


The mio c220, on the otherhand, is like a crappy pda, plasticy and ugly, has a horrible glare-y screen, and poor sound level. But the software has 3.5 million POI (points of interest) instead of the 1.5 million POIs that most sub $350 GPS units have. Best of all about the mio c220 is if I put in 'staples'. 'office max', 'circuit city', 'best buy', or '24 hour fitness' they show up! I don't know what it is, but when I fool with the $500+ models with the supposive 6 million POI it seems like half the time a common store like 'staples' wont show up. Not sure what the 6 million POIs are supposed to be (campgrounds??) but I'd rather have 3.5 mil POIs of places I might actually go to.

(not editing, pragmatic time saver)


I think I'm going to run down and get a $150 becker tommorow and try the hack. Sunday is gone, and Monday (tomorrow) is the last day to get a $150 becker ($100 rebate (ouch)). If anyone is seriously interested, maybe just slip in there (office depot) and get one and keep it boxed. Then I'll report if the hack works before you open the box (i.e. easy return). whatever, up to you, an option you have, I'm going to try it anyway.


yada

I got it and installed the miohack. It runs miomaps, but upon startup sends a complain dialog box in a different langauge. I think it is asking for maps, which I didn't get, which the instructions say to put the maps on the SD card. I'm pretty sure the complain box is asking for the maps because two key words in the complain box was something like mapo foldoro.


I instualled the original folder back and it boots up to the regular software with no problem.


The build quality is nice. The sound very good via headphones. without headphones, sounds can be heard from the two stero speakers in the back. They are plenty loud and sound fine for speakers on the back of a gps unit.


As seen in the video, you can go to the settings/info screen and quadrupal click a little image to get to windows CE. That is just out of the box, no hack needed.


Makes me wonder if I can install games and stuff too.


I called customer support to find out I can't replace the 2 gig sd chip with a 4 gig and move the maps over. I can put in a different sd card that has pictures or mp3s and play them, but not use the GPS unless the original 2 gig chip is in. Can't make backup copies of the 2 gig chip and they want $100 for another one if you lose it. This probably is no longer an issue if the miomaps work. I'm guessing I can but a big-arse sd chip with the maps and be free of space constraints and $100 replacement 2g sd cards. I have to find a few miomaps somewhere to test. I'll have to find them later, maybe tomorrow.


The DEAL ends today, I'm pretty sure, dispite what has been said skimming FW type boards (there is little interest in this product and no mention of the hack that I've seen). Some say the deal lasts a week. The rebate lastes a week but I think they are bringing the price up from $250 to $300 tomorrow, so the cost after the $100 will be $200, not $150.


I hope the miomaps work. If interested, I still recommend getting one, but keeping it boxed for a day or 4 till I make sure I have my cake and eat it too.


It still appears to be a hell of a versitle thing for $150! I'm guessing games can be installed too.

Like I said in a post above, if I search for 'Staples' or 'Circuit City' on the Mio C220 I actually get a results unlike many other GPS units at various prices (this is based on playing with the display models in office stores/circuit city/etc). Too many factors. The displays may have old maps. I know many GPS units (the older ones in particular) can not get updated maps. I think the maps for the tomtom one are freely downloadable from the tomtom website. I think mio lets you download/install a little program that updates the maps from the web to puter to mio via usb. I saw some mio europe maps and might get those.


Quite frankly, I like the mapsoftware that comes with it. The maps seem to be little off (when I reached home it said I still needed to drive 600 feet, no other anomolies in the ~1 hour of driving). What I really like about the default software is what I'll call the 'farsighted' perspective. All the streets are thin, and I see more streets. They are thin like spaghetti, opposed to the typical thickness I'll call 1/4" headphone cable. That means everything closer to scale. It's like seeing everything at 500 feet high instead of 300 feet.


I don't have an exact plan,except that I have 14 days to return it, but I don't think that is going to happen any which way.


Too bad I didn't get it at $100. That would have been righteous.


Another thing about this Becker is it looks good enough to be room furniture. It has a presence more like a wooden picture frame than the typical GPS utility ghetto gadget feel.


Both Becker and Mio use the supposively inferior 'navteq' map suppliers (opposed to another company whose name I cant remember right now (garmin, magellian, and others use em). But the Mio's seem to have more up to date navteq maps. I was under the impression that Becker was discontinuing this model because of the clearence like deals, but when I was on the phone with becker customer service (who answer quickly, I got a smart white woman that speaks native english, which was nice being a white guy) ...she corrected me and said this model wasn't being discontinued to her knowledge (of course that's not too conclusive). I know Becker is a German company and now I'm under the impression they are just pulling out of the american market and suspect no plans to update american/canada maps. I asked about mexico, she diimilated and said more maps are comming, and many want europe maps right now, sounding as if mexico maps would be after, what's that? an eta of 2 years? I'll have another $150 gps by then. bla bla bla


The 'rip off' element here is the POI. if I run mio, I'll get points of interest like 'Staples' which aren't in the Becker.


bla bla bla


bla bla more bla bla..


btw, there are a few memory areas in the Becker. Two areas are internal memory and one SD card memory. The hack is done in the internal memory. Just delete a folder(after making backup of course ) and replace a folder. The Becker uses MS activesync to transfer files. It's all old school stuff. The becker runs MS Win CE NET 4.2 Core. I thiink I can just install tetris and junk on it, but I'm a slow mover (I'd rather chill the fix broken crap).


you are lucky I'm bored, or, or, nothing..



Quote:
Originally Posted by plyons10 /forum/post/11783660


When I did like Cow suggested and Googled Becker and miomap, most of the hits were for torrents so I just assumed this was some sort of cracked or public domain mapping software.


I may still drink too much wine tonight and buy one of these online (free shipping)...


How was the display quality? It really seems too small to be useful, but I'm not sure.

Click to expand...

This thing definately has my vote for style, pricepoint, etc. The slews of $500-$800 units just don't get you anything for the money. They have options like mp3 players, subscription services, hands free bluetooth (If I wanted that I'd get it in my stereo (like I just made liz do )


In the $150-$350 range most of the maps are old (and more or less fine) and/or offer defunct subscription services, ect. All similar.


I don't think of a GPS as a toy. a tuner slingbox.. that is a toy. A $150 harmony remote..that is a toy. A $60 harmony remote.. I don't think that's a toy anymore. People spend half their lives in front of a tv more or less, it's retarded to have a b&w tv, no PVR, and/or turning on your tv with 2-3 remotes or one (or two) remotes in a convoluted way. That's just disfunction.


It's actually dumb not to have a GPS on the given you can get one for less than $250.


There's a few others that go for $200ish that I'd consider worth it. one is the oldschool tomtom one. and a few less obvious $200ish megelan(s), probabably a good $200ish garmin I don't know about, and the poorly build but highly useful mio.


I liek the tomtom one but it's maps are kinda old, and no staples shows up in the POI. At the B&M Office Depot I saw a refurb tomtom one for $159. It's not on their website, just accessible by customers via kioask at the store. I notice things. I notice little things everywhere.


The tomtom one doesn't have mp3s or pic viewer (who cares really, but it's nice the becker does). And I think the tomtom one isn't exclusive to one SD card. you just download the maps free on to any sd card then put in your hardware serial number to activate them. That's nice, but no mp3 so the room isn't really needed.


bla bla bla



Quote:
Originally Posted by icecow /forum/post/11783756


Both Becker and Mio use the supposively inferior 'navteq' map suppliers (opposed to another company whose name I cant remember right now (garmin, magellian, and others use em). But the Mio's seem to have more up to date navteq maps. I was under the impression that Becker was discontinuing this model because of the clearence like deals, but when I was on the phone with becker customer service (who answer quickly, I got a smart white woman that speaks native english, which was nice being a white guy) ...she corrected me and said this model wasn't being discontinued to her knowledge (of course that's not too conclusive).

Click to expand...

Navteq maps are supposed to be better for US market and TeleAtlas is better for Europe. TeleAtlas used to be pretty bad in the US but supposedly they improved their accuracy in more recent years. They are based out of Europe and they got a slow start here.


Anyway, Navteq is used by Garmin, Lexus, Google, etc. They are either at the top or tied for the top in accuracy.


From what I understand rather than discontinuing the Becker unit, it just got introduced by Harman Kardon into the US market July/August timeframe. I think they had some early promotional pricing with the $99 net.