DC121 Critique: Garmin Nuvi 2598LMTHD, Plus Email from Listener Katie

Aravindh Baskaran joins Tim Keirnan for a critique of the Garmin
Nuvi 2598LMTHD.
We follow our usual critique structure that includes the
following:
Encounter
Decision
Purchase
Out of the Box
Initial Use
Longitudinal Use

The Garmin 2598 is an interesting mixture of excellence and
frustration. On the positive side, we found that
* The map screens, both day and night versions, are very well
designed.
* The voice sounds terrific because it is both pleasant
stylistically and cuts through the noise of the car
sonically.
* The device is fairly quick in its operation, including finding
satellites (unless you are indoors, but why are you driving
indoors?)

On the negative side, we found that
* The vaunted voice interface doesn't work well at all. Very
frustrating.
* The un-changeable and incessant alarm for school zones within a
half mile of the car is extremely frustrating and can make us
ignore alarms in general.
* The unit occasionally freezes and no amount of pressing or
tapping the screen will bring it back, forcing the user to unplug
power from the unit and restart it.
* Inexplicable routing can ignore oft-travelled commutes and
actually send us the long way around. And sometimes Tim got a
different route home if his address was in the Home saved
location rather than his address being in the Recent list.
* The settings don't encourage quickly finding what you want to
adjust.


Finally, email from listener Katie was a wonderful compliment to
starting a new year of episodes. Thank you for listening, Katie.