Mapsource native for Apple Macintosh?

"By the end of 2006, Garmin intends to have made all its popular hardware and software applications Mac OS X compatible. This includes the ability to load MapSource map data to Garmin units via a Mac, as well as waypoint and trip planning applications. Additionally, the Garmin nRoute application will allow Powerbook and iBook users to turn their laptop into a powerful street navigation tool with Garmin’s GPS 10 or GPS 18 sensors."

Wake me up when we get there.

I mean, WTF?

Does anyone have any new info?

IFAIK, they ain't done shite in the MacOS realm. What a p*ss off. I love Garmin products but I have to keep a beater Winblows machine around to keep the StreetPilot happy, plus I don't use all of its potential because I hate using Windows.

C'mon Garmon, wake up. And Mapsource's Windows98 appearance is cheezy.

Coincidentally, I was just corresponding with someone at Garmin (not, unfortunately the Mapsource Dept) that I met at MacWorld

I was able to get two tidbits of useful info (more than one would get from Garmin support)

1) There is a Garmin blog with more up to date info than the idiotic press releases. Not much more mind you, but if several of us post requests to garminblogs@garmin.com perhaps they will give us more info. The blog is at: http://garmin.blogs.com/my_weblog/

2) Though the Garmin staff person I was email with would not state unequivocally (for obvious reason) he firmly believes that there will be a free crossgrade of some type from the windows version

Not much info, but more than I have gotten elsewhere

It was about exactly what they were saying 5-6 years ago. "It's in the works"... yeah, right! My impression is that they are not spending a single man hour on making Garmin products compatible with Macs. If they did, there would have been something to show for some years ago. At every event I had to call Garmin for one reason or another I told them that I am not going to buy another Garmin till it's compatible with Mac OS. True to my word, I have not last five years.

I'm pretty much forced to keep an old ThinkPad around running W2K Pro just for mapping/GPS purposes while the only thing related to that task that my 17" G4 PowerBook can run is National Geographic Back Roads Explorer 3D and Google Earth. And, oh yes, the excremental crapfest called Route 66

Yes, I tried Mapsource, Delorme products and MS Streets and Trips under VPC. Do the words, "January", "molasses" and "uphill" ring a bell?

The final indignity that Garmin will probably heap on us after delaying an OS X version this long is to refuse to make it a universal binary, leaving us PowerPC owners out in the cold. Given their history of blowing off Mac users, I can really see this happening.

Monumentally stupid. Windoze gets worse and worse and more and more intelligent (and prosperous) folks are going MAC. Garmin is oblivious. Bill Gates' POS software trundles on solely due to momentum (it actually died years ago). Just read a new report on Vista's latest virus protection ... crap.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nf/50460;_ylt=Ap1HRo1q9c71ioQa019TCWQDW7oF

The very worst.

Wake up Garmin! You are behind the curve. Apple is on a roll and you are ignoring a critical situation for you. I trashed Billy's junk three years ago. Granted I'm a trendsetter but the trend is a stampede now.

you'd better hope that they make it a Universal Binary and not an Intel-only build. UBs run on both intel and power pc processors.

i'm going to try a demo of Parallels and see how the garmin software runs on it...if it works fine, i might buy parallels just to do gps stuff...now to find that "borrowed" xp install disc :)

The recently released Parallels 2.5 (and beta 3170 for that matter) run Mapsource and transfer to the Legend CX (and I hope others) just fine.

The only wierdness I found is that if you are using the US Topo mapset and you forget to insert the proper CD first, the map that is transfered will not be recognized by the GPS (despite asking for and requiring you to insert the cd). Don't know if that is the same on the PC. There is probably a way to transfer the map data to the hard drive so that you don't need the cd, but I have not dug for it yet

I'd use MacGPSpro and Google Earth for all my managment except map transfer anyway (and routing I perhaps). The Mapsource UI really sux

Well, not to defend them too much, but they do have (as of this January) the Motionbased product for OS X and have stated that the Firmware updater tool is next in line. So there has been some (glacial) progress, just nothing on Mapsource. No progress report either. Stupid of them IMHO. :huh

I'd be happier if they would focus on thier crappy USB implementation that requires complete disconnect of the device (on PCs and Macs) after every data transfer.

I seem to remember seeing a link to an OS-X native Mapsource application - you had to purchase it separately however. Did a search of this forum, but couldn't find that post.

I just received my new Zumo 550 yesterday ... wrote Garmin to see if there is any way to use this new device with my Macbook Pro ... we'll see what they say.

Look here:
http://www8.garmin.com/macosx/

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=313935

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=283360&page=16

Here is a screen shot from Bobcat running. Garmin put out two updates within a week on this program so looks like the lights are on and someone is home. This is my TAT planning. Only 3 states to go!

Way to resurrect a year-old thread, Inte! BTW, I heard a rumor that Garmin will fully support Mac & OSX by Jan 1, 2007! I can't wait!

LC4, I've also transcribed the TAT for our trip coming up in May. It looks like you entered in each of Sam's coordinates into Bobcat? Wow, lots of work. I did it by looking at the maps and dividing it up into routes of about 40-45 turns, which was anywhere from 100-400 miles, depending on the terrain. Then I'd name and save a waypoint each for the beginning and end of each route. I used Bobcat to transfer those waypoints to the handheld, selected the routes one by one, looked at each 2-point route by selecting "map" (not navigate), then "rubberband" the line, tacking it down as many times as I thought was necessary along the way to force the auto-routing algorithm (on the unit) to select the TAT as the route.

Then I'd relocate the pointer (under the satellite menu) to the beginning of that section, and have it navigate (on-road, shorter distance) the route in demo mode, then scroll through to confirm that it had chosen the right roads. If it hadn't, I would note where I would have to tack it down, and reconfirm. After a while, you learn to think like a garmin, and I could really be efficient in how many tack-points I would have to stick down the "rubberband" line (for auto-routing to work, there must be <50 points per route.

BTW, you can use Bobcat to "recalculate route" once it's selected and created, just be sure to change the preferences to "scenic" and "shortest distance." I usually found that the same roads have been chosen, however, I would NOT depend on Bobcat's auto-routing algorithm, rather I have confirmed using the hand-held that autorouting has chosen the correct roads.

Next, I'd use Bobcat to send/receive the waypoints and routes to/from the computer. I'm mirroring all my work onto a second hand-held, so I've found out that each time you send/receive to/from Bobcat/hand-held, it doesn't rewrite. So unless you want to pick through and delete all the duplicates, remember to delete all the waypoints and routes on the recipient before sending.

To keep things safe and backed-up, I've moved the Bobcat and Mapinstall folders to a folder that gets backed up at home and work, and created symlinks to those folders in user/library/application support/Garmin.

I'm going back now, and entering the Gas stops and Hotels, and a few of the other notes from the roll-charts. A few of the gas stations that Sam has listed aren't in the garmin map database. I hope they're still in business.

BTW, we're jumping off the trail in northern NM, and heading to Albuquerque. I haven't seen the maps west of there, but I understand that there are many more places that do not appear on City Nav NA 2008 as roads, which means the auto-routing technique I've described wouldn't work. From TN to NM, though, there were only 2 spots that I couldn't get it to auto-route correctly. One is the levees, the other is a glitch in the maps that has two roads disconnected where you turn a corner, so it makes a big loop. No biggie.

On my screenshot below, all the little white open boxes on the route are points that I chose by tacking down the rubberband on the handheld... didn't have to enter coordinates or name a waypoint, or anything... just select the line on the handheld, scroll it over to where I want the route to pass, and press enter. The only waypoints I saved by naming were the start and endpoints of each segment (the green and red flags on the map, blue on the list)

When are you going to be riding it? We'll be out there May 2-18, then picking it up again in Sept.

Magic of the search feature

They're running pretty late then¿no?

In other news, I downloaded Bobcat & transferred all the maps on my PC over - so far so good! My old routes & such loaded up fine. Haven't tried transferring anything to the unit. Never messed with autorouting much in the past as I was on a GPS III+ which didn't support it. Tried it a couple times with the GPS V, but there was so little memory, half the time I didn't even have any maps stored in the unit to autoroute to. Now that I've got the Zumo, I'll probably start trying out some of the methods you described above.

Good luck. It's really not that bad, a pretty steep learning curve, and as painful as it is, for me it's still better than having to deal with windows. or parallel, or boot camp, or whatever.

One new Bobcat quirk I just uncovered: If you want to check out your routes using Bobcat's autorouting algorithm, be sure to turn OFF "avoid U-turns". Seems as though it will mistake a sharp switchback for a U-turn. . Kind of common to the kinds of routes & trails we seek out, no? On principle, I avoid U-turns. (and I never get lost, ever. ), and on the handheld, I've never had it autoroute where it's trying to avoid a switchback.

Just to emphasize: if you're going to be viewing autorouting on Bobcat, before you leave on your trip, confirm that the route goes where you want it to by using the "new location" function under the handheld's "satellite" icon to "move" yourself to the start of the route, then "navigate" the route on the handheld in demo mode.

I thought about using the above-mentioned method (i.e. using routes) but I noticed that once I started getting out west then CN08 did not have many of the roads on the maps from Sam, which means I will have to use R&R and it does not autoroute. So, it's not that big a deal for me. I am going to get finished up this way and send it to a pc, then draw a track for each state and load those onto the handheld. I will also load some POI's for the hotels, gas and food stops.

We are leaving either the 2nd or 3rd week in June and riding the whole trail. Doesn't look like we'll see you but who knows.

So just to clarify, you use the handheld to "rubberband" the route (don't see anything in Bobcat that would allow for this.

Curious if there's another build/version of Bobcat out there - I created a route simply by making a bunch of waypoints & linking them with the route tool - double-clicking or selecting a route & choosing "get info" only brings up an error saying "This feature is unavailable in the preview build of Bobcat" (I have version 2.0.0.2 Beta).

Going to go try messing with the Zumo now...

Re: rubberbanding; correct, there is not any way to do this currently in Bobcat. The best implementation of "rubberbanding" is in www.maps.google.com. real-time rerouting. it's awesome. I frequently do my route scouting on maps.google.com even though there's no way to transfer them to garmin bobcat nor handheld. it's just so fricking easy, though. Then once I have a general idea of which roads go through, or over or around the terrain I'm covering, I start plotting on the handheld.

Re: Bobcat version; 2.0.0.2.Beta is what I'm using as well. I'm wondering about this you wrote: "I created a route simply by making a bunch of waypoints & linking them with the route tool" Did you do that with Bobcat? I've found the routing tool to be pretty useless... once you lay down a point, how do you go back and move it? I just find rubberbanding on the handheld so much easier, not the least reason is that the small roads appear on the handheld at 0.5mile scale on CNNA2008, 0.8mile on U.S. topo2008, but only 0.2 and below on Bobcat. PITA.

I'm adding Gas, Campground and Hotel waypoints now, as well as "TAT turn-off" markers along the routes to flag when they come up, as I don't anticipate having the resolution broad enough while riding to see that there's a town with gas available 7 miles off the trail. What's nice about using Bobcat to save and then relay the waypoints and routes from one unit to the other is that I can easily type in a note (ie. "Shell station 7 miles along HWY224 @ I-40 junction"... or the hotel's phone # to call ahead for a room) by using the get-info feature in bobcat (for waypoints), rather than hunt and peck each letter on the handheld. Then that info is stored on the handheld in the waypoint.

Oh, and I finally figured out what that one waypoint icon is that's always bothered me for some reason.

It's the "plotting on the handheld" part I'm trying to get. Poking around the Zumo forums now. There is a menu-type interface on the Zumo that allows for this, but it would be so much easier to simply tap & create waypoints or drag ("rubberband") the route on-screen. Can't see how to do that just yet.

I am using CNNAv8, but don't really need much plotted there for now - mainly creating stuff on the Mexico maps.

I did create the route in Bobcat. Guessing it's a horribly inefficient way to do it, but I started out using the GPS III+ and this was the only way to do it (no autorouting in that unit & only 1.2 MB RAM). I simply did a bunch of searches in Bobcat of place names & created waypoints at each, then took the route tool & connected them all. Seemed pretty straighforward. In the past I would do this same procedure simply creating more waypoints along the various roads that appeared on-screen. What I'm trying to do now is get this "rough sketch" of the route to autoroute so I have an accurate idea of milages.

Here's the rough route - I simply want to have it somehow "snap" to the nearest roads:

yes there is check this out


http://www.elsewhere.org/journal/gmaptogpx/

Where does Bobcat save routes?

I would be curious to try & load one into Google Earth.