Application itself is odd. Click on "Exit Application" does not shut the app down, I have to kill it via Task Switcher. It attempts to be smart about taking the street/area youre typing in and auto-completing...which usually results in the cursor moving and you have to retype or delete letters.

The 3450 does not support WAAS, so accuracy suffers. I find that on freeways which have frontage roads or long parallel interchange ramps the location jumps back and forth; Im on the freeway, Im not on the freeway...

For some unknown reason when I put the iPaq 3630 into the GPS sled it drops the volume way down. This was not the way it operated when I first setup and tried the unit, it just started today. I do a soft reset on the iPaq, sound is maxed and *loud*. iPaq into sled, sound goes way down. Sound *stays* down if I remove the sled, and until I soft reset.

Finally, injury to insult: the box claims that the kit comes with a 12v lighter adaptor for power. Not. Navman customer service is apparently split across two different divisions. The one that handles the 3450 has a phone number thats always busy.

A couple of tips - each one of the maps takes 20 to 40 meg depending on the size of the state. If you have an older iPAQ, youll probably need some SD memory. You wont be able to load the maps without the extra memory. It took about four minutes to load a 20 meg map on my iPAQ. There are some tips about increasing performance in the manual that are worth the read. When you install the software on your computer, check the website for updates before downloading to your iPAQ, they have corrected a couple of minor error messages that came up.

If you have a basic understanding of how to install software, you should not have any problem with Navman. I found the device easy to use and install. I am very satisfied with the performance.

One major flaw I found is that the Navman mapping software has confused a major thoroughfare with the wrong US highway number. Since this thoroughfare MUST be taken in order to get to my neighborhood, anyone using Navmans routing would never get there.

I also noticed that the Navman routing seems to avoid highways when they are both the fastest and shortest way to get there. I inputted a local airport as my destination from my point of departure, and Navman on either "quickest" or "shortest" settings, always maps through a maze of local streets, when anyone would know the quickest route is a particular local highway.

I have used Hertz Neverlost GPS when I have rented cars, and I never had this problem with whatever mapping system they use.

Another unique ride, took me through the turnstyle at disney, ran through 2 tolls on Floridas turnpike, and paid a toll at my local burger king drive thru. I then proceeded to rent a movie at the local church, visited an aunt at a funeral parlor, grocery shopped at a Best Buy, and went fishing for lobster. They eventually kicked me out of the supermarket.

The final draw, was when the air force base showed up as a local family park. I am now serving 20 years at the local prison, and wish my family had one of these, so they could eventually find me.

The map loading software that loads on the PC for transferring maps to the iPAQ is unstable. Freezes regularly. Often fails to recognize the iPAQ. Even when it does, after each map is loaded to a memory card it only "sees" it until the next map is loaded.

Once, I successfully loaded a series of maps to the card and the iPAQ could see them initially, but once the sleeve was removed and replaced it lost them. Had to delete and reload them all.

I could go on and on about the problems with the flaky software, but lets move on to experiences once the unit in use. Firstly the ability to obtain a fix once on the move is very poor. Its virtually incapable of doing so in fact and you need to stop the car for around one minute to establish a fix. I have an old Magellan which is far superior in this respect.

Next, the route planning is poor. It seems to want to take you up major roads only, even when the traffic on these roads is so bad they are virtual car parks. It has no waypoint facility, so you cant enter waypoints to force the unit to take you on a better route. Once it tried to take me up a one way street the wrong way. Sometimes though it thinks it is cleaver enough to figure out a shortcut. Coming into my suburb is a big, wide sweeping bend in the road. There is a minor road which looks like it cuts out part of this bend, and the Navman routes me through it. But once you have slowed to take the 90 degree turn required to get onto this road and then merged back into heavy traffic back on the main road again the "shortcut" has cost rather than saved time.

Even worse, the program is unstable. It regularly freezes, and of course this happens at the worst possible time. This requires restarting the iPAQ, rebooting the software, re-establishing the fix, re-entering the route etc!!

I detailed some of these problems to Navman support by email. After two follow ups and one week they finally replied. They suggested updating the ROM image on the iPAQ, a process which promptly destroyed it. I contacted support again and am still waiting on a reply. I have now binned the iPAQ and returned the Navman for a full refund.

DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT!!!

Only problem is that its hard to manipulate while driving if your typing in your friends name on the PDA.
Also, cold starts seem to take forever but I dont think its ever gone over 2-3 mins. Most of the time it takes about 20-30sec.

Product: Rank 1 - junk - crashes often. Need PDA reboots.(...)

Product - want to get back to this one again - JUNK! Plan a reboot at least once daily.

Map - 1 - junk - my house is 600+ ft off the road. Actually - my house is on the wrong street. At least I am in the same state. OUtdated software on web site that rarely gets upgraded.

Navman - JUNK!

I gave it only 4 stars because it does not have the 3D map feature as the more expensive units have. All in all I find this to be a very good buy for the price.

The product often looses position, maps in my neighborhoob are off by more then 800ft.

BAD BAD BAD STUFF.

This this is so fun and is very accurate and its unbelieve about that i can put every public road in California, Nevada, Michigan and Minnesota onto a 128 Meg CF card! To fit the entire US on a CF card you will need a 1 Gigabyte CF which currently is about two hundred bucks at Costco.

Highly recommended for your Ipac. You will have lots of fun!

The product itself is FANTASTIC. Once a signal is acquired (Just over 1 min from power-off), a polite voice is guiding you to your destination. If youre on foot or have a chance to look away from the road, the interface is simple and easy to navigate.

Make sure to go to the Navman website (www.navman.com) to update the firmware on the sleeve and download the latest service pack for the included software.

I have had an instance of address mis-direction that makes no sense to me...Mapquest got it right and NavTech provides their mapping...but it did get me to the right street. I guess this doesnt totally negate back-checking if youre making a job interview or the birth of your first-born, but it is EXCEPTIONAL in the case of your general, every day sight-seeing and getting around.

I look at it this way: If I use my coupon book 8 more times during the course of the year than I normally would because I have no clue where the restaurant is, then I have nearly paid for it already.

I would have paid twice this for the thing and still been pretty happy.

The maps that come with the unit are poor at best, and the device itself often causes the PDA to which it is connected to reboot sponataneously.

While not fully documented at this time (investigations are ongoing), the Navman has been purported to cause cancer in small animals and as such can be considered a danger to our precious environment.

For the sake of all that is good in this world - Do not buy the Navman!

Also, the product does not hold a position. The maps are way off and it causes my PDA to have to reboot most of the time when I start the Smart St. app.

I WILL NEVER BUY FROM NAVMAN AGAIN!

Oh - yea - I just called them.... the customer service and operator mailboxes were both full! No one to talk to and no way to leave a message.

Rerouting is not as impressive as I thought in the beginning. It is quite faster then I thought It would be. It varies from under 5 seconds to about 25 seconds max. Rerouting is usually very logical if you make a wrong turn or miss an exit, but not if you are heading on a totally different direction. It will insist on getting you back to at least part of the original route. This starts to be rediculous at some point when you reach are about 15 minutes away from you destination but if you really listened to the unit and got back on its track it will take you more then 45 minutes to reach your destination. Tthe unit will not always adapt to your route preference when you go off route. If you canceled the route and plan a new one, then you are likely to get a much better route from your current position after you go off route. A quick Suggestion for the NAVMAN Software people: Just start the rerouting from the start, it almost takes the same amount of time any way so whats the deal, you can gaurantee a better route every time. And one more suggestion, you dont really have to tell us users that you are starting all over again, Just play with the softare and get the job done.
Navman gets 3 starst, It still a an OK GPS system. I dought if if any of the other vendors are much better. Graphics are OK and GPS hardware is OK. I would just get some better softare people and get this unit closer to perfection.