I bought one of these when they first came out. It's a great bundle for the price. You get all the US maps on CD, and the software does voice prompting. Unfortunately, for me, I live in a fairly new development and my street wasn't on their maps.

I have now bought Mapopolis software which works great with the Pharos hardware.

One thing I really like about the bundle is the well made Y cable. This cable provides power to your Phone Edition, as well as communications to the GPS. I have made a mount for my Phone, and a custom audio cable to connect it to my car stereo. It makes for a nice setup.

Has anyone else used this product? Please let us know what you think.

I've owned this system for about a year. I'm pretty certain I've been frustrated by it more than I've been helped. Problems range from taking 10-15 minutes to acquire position, to just having completely bogus directions in the maps. In the Bay Area it constantly tells me to turn off highways onto side streets, as if you could. In Tucson the entire map is off by about 1/8 mile in two directions. Everywhere I go it gives me weird circular routes that make no sense.

Support is non-existent. I've sent SIX e-mails in the past month with NOT ONE reply. Three were to sales and three to support. When I have talked to them, I got a lot of shoulder shrugging and "we'll get back to you." Of course, they never did.

Yep, great connector arrangment and cables. I've got a $200 car charger.

Swampnut, I agree with you on some of your complaints, however I think it's largely their software. I abandoned the software within the first week and bought Mapopolis. It acquires quickly, and the maps are (in my opinion) much more detailed. I didn't have much choice because the development I live in wasn't in the Pharos software.

Check out Mapopolis at Mapopolis. Their software is free, but they charge you for the maps. So, you can download it with a demo map and try it with the Pharos hardware. Their responsiveness is great. There was a feature that the product had which I didn't like... it gave you too many audible warnings before turns. I spoke to them and they said they had gotten many different views on the topic, so the erred on the side of more warnings than less. I suggested that they make it user configurable. I got a nice note back saying they thought that was a good idea. Within a month they had added it to the product and I was able to freely download it. Cool!

Here is what I used for a car mount - Home Made Car Mount

And welcome to the site!!!!

I've heard that about the software also. And you and I had talked about your car mount--I'm the one that did the cradle mods to use the headset in the cradle.

I agree that the hardware is probably pretty nifty. Though the failure to acquire bothers me--some claim it is a software problem, but that doesn't make sense to me. I post my findings because I'd hate for another traveling professional to get screwed by depending on this stuff while traveling. I've been late more than once thanks to this junk software.

And the support...I just hate supporting a company that doesn't care about its customers.

I agree with you. The acquisition is quicker with Mapopolis on the same hardware. It rarely takes over a minute... most of the time much less.

Hey, how about submitting a FAQ about your cradle mod... like "How can I use my headset with the phone in the cradle? You can submit the question on the FAQ page.