Please note this page was originally found at http://www.csynt.net/pages/navtalk.html but has since been reduced to saying "Nice h/ware, crappy s/ware. Navtalk GSM/GPRS is now DISCONTINUED! but Garmin DID not discontinue its programmers!"

I have reproduced the page without permission for now - no contact address for the author on the site, I hope he doesn't mind :-}


Garmin Navtalk GPS / GSM

Nice as GPS, but there are some BUGS!

 

“Backlight ON forever” when the phone is OFF
If the backlight setup is set as “Always off”, connecting the travel charger to the phone causes the backlight to be ON until the battery charging stops.

“Missing Alarm stays on” when the phone is OFF

If you miss a reminder alarm, the phone displays it on-screen, waiting response from user.

The bad think is that the GSM module is OPERATED, the phone does not connected with the GSM network, but the GSM module is operated, you can see that the “network antenna status” is working … if you move the phone, the status changes..

I will classify this “bug” as EXTREMELY CRITICAL, because the use of mobile phones while on plane, is prohibited.

As I am a frequent flyer, Gamin-Europe suggested me to “..before each flight you make you check your phone to see if any reminder is set in the duration of flight and if so move them to after your flight. If you feel you cannot respond to the alarm reminder I would suggest you do not set them..”

But I DID choose the Garmin from the other GSM/GPS because Navtalk is a PDA too.. why should I “not set” the alarms? Do I have to buy another PDA?


“Missing Alarm + Backlight on forever” when the phone is OFF.


A combination of the both of the previous bugs… If you miss an Alarm (while the phone is Off again..) and the Backlight is set to “Always off” the phone displays on-screen the missing alarm and the Backlight starts and is ON until the discharge of the battery.
Again the tech support from European Garmin, (Mr. Andy Philips, again) wrote me the following: “..However on the alarm issue I would like to say that alarms are not meant to be ignored. I do understand your point but if you feel you cannot respond to the alarm please do not set one.
The whole point of an alarm is to alert someone, if you were to ignore a
fire alarm this would be dangerous.
Again I will pass your suggestion for this along, however you may want to look at how you use the alarms if you feel there is a danger when you are using It..”
I will not discuss his comment comparing a life-critical alert with the alarm-reminders.. what if I miss a “meeting alarm”? Should I be punished by having a useless phone for the rest of the day due to the drained battery?

Navtalk missing features..

Also there are some missing features like :
• Incompatibility with multi-number SIM cards - I cannot see the incoming SMS inbox - the phone reports “Inbox full”.
• There is no Security Code for the phone (an extra protection after SIM code)
•There is no option to disable/enable the GSM module, thus preventing the use of Navtalk on plane as backup GPS (for pilots)
• No information of Outgoing calls duration timer. just a sum of incoming+outgoing calls duration timer.

 

So, far I sent some e-mails to Gamrin, but they did not reply that they will fix these bugs..

If you have a Navtalk, please e-mail Garmin to fix ASAP these annoying ..bugs...


GARMIN (R) and NavTalk (R) are registred trademarks of GARMIN LTD.