Most liked gadget (so far): Garmin Streetpilot C550

Over a year ago I got my very first car GPS unit, the Garmin Streetpilot C550, but already it has saved my ass many times while driving around the poorly visible and M.C. Escher-esque streets of Los Angeles. I’ve taken it with me to Vancouver and Texas where it surely saved me hours of wrong turns, and potential accidents caused by using my former navigational system, the venerable Paper Map or its offspring, the printed map from MapQuest or Google Maps.

Like pretty much any global positioning system out there, it’s not perfect. I bought it with the traffic alert attachment, which at least in L.A. is not terribly useful — it saying “Traffic Ahead” is about as silly and helpful as “Look Ma, a cow!” Gee, really? That’s nice dear.

Its navigation around total gridlock is, well, not any more useful than your own senses and knowledge of the area. More than once I have let it throw me into the middle of traffic morass when I just knew I should have acted like Luke Skywalker, listened to Ben Kenobi, turned off my “navi-computer”, and just let the Force guide me around.

Probably my favorite feature is just its ability to tell me what streets are coming up (particularly in the dark). That and being able to bookmark wherever you are the moment. I like to change my car icon to fun things like a monster truck, or a pirate ship. I have mine set to an Australian female voice. Oh, and it’s got a Bluetooth “Hands-free” mode for my cel phone, where it becomes almost like an iPhone touchscreen can spend the hour long, 7 mile commute calling friends.

One thing I don’t like about it — sometimes it says “Please drive to highlighted route” and shows a twisty purple line without any arrows indicating which way you are supposed to drive.

Still, I can’t live without this gadget now.

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