I purchased a Garmin 2720 portable GPS unit about a week or so ago and thought I'd share some early impressions and neat features with the group. This may be a little long-winded, so sorry about that, but I was in the dark for a long time about the capabilities of these units and thought this information might be helpful to someone in a similar situation.
I have found this to be a very easy to use piece of equipment and just a lot of fun to have on the few short hops I've made around the area here, as well as to play with in the house. I like the "3-D" view that the 2720 has the capability of showing over the more conventional 2-D, although I think a more accurate term for it would be "bird's eye" view, since it is not really three dimensional being on a flat screen. Finding places is a snap, however, some restaurants and other points of interest (POIs) around here that I expected to find were not loaded on the software. The nice thing is, updates can be downloaded from Garmin's website as they become available. Buttons on the touch screen for key functions are a decent size, but entering addresses from the small-ish keypad while riding probably wouldn't be advisable. The 2720 also has the capability of loading custom POIs (red light cameras, for example) using web-based services, but I have found that not many of these databases currently exist for the US.
Programming the 2720 with pre-planned routes is made easy using the supplied MapSource software. MapSource is very similar to Microsoft Streets & Trips and allows you to create waypoints and routes on your PC and then upload them via a USB/Serial port connection for use on the road. You can also go the other way and download routes and waypoints you've created in the 2720 to MapSource for storage and/or manipulation later. Another neat download feature is the "track" tool which, when turned on on the 2720, will drop "bread crumbs" along your route every so often. You can then download the track to MapSource to create a record of where you've been.
I will cover these features in more detail in the following posts, but for starters, here is the owner's manual for the 2720 which will give you a good idea of the basic functions such as finding places, saving places you find, and creating routes as well as show you what some of the screens look like . . .
2720 Owner's Manual:
http://www.garmin.com/manuals/StreetPilot2720GPS_OwnersManual.pdfAnd here is the user guide for the MapSource software, covering a great deal of its functionality . . .
MapSource User's Guide:
http://www.garmin.com/manuals/MapSource_MapSourceUsersGuide.pdf