Where Do You Want To Go Today? Let OnCourse Guide You!

Each time I started the program, I had to enter a place to go before I could see the map. I didn’t want that! I wanted to start the device, turn on my Bluetooth GPS and have a map appear and show me moving along the road. I wanted to see the device track where I was going…but it didn’t exist (or did it?). Wow, I thought this was a major flaw and I was very unhappy. I looked and looked but no luck, it just did not exist. There was NO button to just bring up a map showing where I was.

I was very disappointed that I couldn’t track my comings and goings… that is until I really opened my eyes. From the main page, if you click SETTINGS, there 10 options to scroll through that you can adjust for your personal preferences. Items such as User Mode, Signpost information, Speed Limit, Volume, Routing Options, Keypad, Format, GPS, Home Address and Product Information. Now I clicked on each item on the list to see what was offered. Some had just one choice and others had several.

For what ever reason, under user mode, I just did not realize that it was adjustable from the factory default of Standard to an Extended mode. Changing to Extended mode gives you a much richer experience in what you can do and how you do it and it gives you the ability to SHOW THE MAP and TRACK where you are!!! I can’t believe I missed that…so; remember when I said you should run that very short 7 page tutorial in the beginning? This option was clearly displayed and explained on page 7. It may be time for me to rethink my philosophy of reading directions first!

In my opinion, OnCourse should remove the standard mode. The Extended mode is a significantly better experience; providing you with a myriad of options to get to where you want to go. You can plan your trip by inputting an address, by inputting a POI, hand select it from the map, you can choose a Recent Destination or a Favorite that you have saved or you can use a Contact Address. And best of all, it is very intuitive!

With the extended mode, using a Contact Address is very cool. Pressing Contacts, the opening page listing all your contacts appears. By pressing on the contact, one of the options that appears is OnCourse Navigator and by choosing that option, the address of that contact is inserted in the address screen for routing. I have a contact with two addresses listed (home and business) in California. Choosing that contact, I was given the option of picking which address I wanted before inserting the address…a good feature! One minute and 42 seconds later, I had a trip planned from Boston to California, a distance of 3178 miles.

I have found a glitch in calculating long trips. If a trip is going to take longer than a day, the time that is indicated omits the days. For example, my trip to California (3178 miles) should take several days and yet it said it was going to take 16 hours and 3 minutes. A trip I routed to Florida (1453 miles) was showing as being 4 hours 34 minutes and yet a trip to Chicago was 22 hours 4 minutes. This is a glitch which I hope they fix in the next iteration. Considering what I have experienced so far with this program, I am extremely pleased that I have only found one glitch (days) and one bitch (registration).

Another very cool feature is finding a route to a Point of Interest (POI). Given the option of finding a nearby POI to your GPS position, a Nationwide search or in a Browsed City, the search is fast and easy. Once you have found what you want, a press of the navigation button quickly gives you a route and you’re off and running!

The ability to determine a route by inputting an address, using a point of interest, manually selecting it on the map, using a contact address, choosing a recent destination or by recalling a saved favorite gives you ample opportunities to choose your route in an easy and convenient manner. All of these methods are easy but what do you do if you have to plan a route that has multiple stops? The option for Route Planning on this software package is convenient, powerful and with practice is very easy to use. However, this was the only feature that for me was not really intuitive. It required several attempts, many mistakes and some frustration before I mastered it but once mastered, it was all worth it.