15. Setting the Home Address

Figure 74: Setting the Home Address

The first time you tap on the Home button, the nuvi asks if you want to specify the Home address.

16. Travel Kit

Figure 75: Travel Kit

The Travel Kit is accessed from the main menu by tapping on "Travel Kit", and it used to access the nuvi 680's multimedia features as well as optional travel related ad-on's Garmin makes available for purchase.

Figure 76: Features located in the Travel Kit

The "Travel Kit" is where you'll find the following nuvi features:

• Listening to MP3s
• Playing Audible Books
• Viewing Photos
• Using the World Clock
• Converting Currency
• Converting Measurements
• Using the Calculator

17. Playing MP3's

Figure 77: Accessing the MP3 Player

The MP3 player can be accessed either by tapping on MP3 Player from the Travel Kit screen, or by tapping on the music note icon from the map view, as shown above in figure 56.

In order to really make use of the built-in MP3 player, you'll want to get an SD memory card. In my testing, I found 512MB large enough to hold about 100 songs. A decent 512MB SD card can be had for around $15.

I have to admit that I really thought I wouldn't care about the MP3 player, as I normally don't think of using the GPS to play music. However, the combination of the MP3 player and the integrated wireless FM transmitter really made a believer out of me. The wireless FM transmitter broadcasts the audio from the nuvi to your car's stereo, making the music (and navigation prompts) play over your car's speaker system. Sure, you could do the same thing with an iPod and a separate FM transmitter, but the key here is EASE OF USE and having the nuvi automatically pause music playback so it can announce an upcoming maneuver, and then resume the music. Having everything integrated really makes the whole proposition viable. I found myself actually using the MP3 player all the time, now that it's so easy to use and plays over my car's speaker system.

If you're navigating to a destination, and playing music at the same time, the nuvi will politely pause the music, announce the next maneuver, and resume playing the song. You can also link your cell phone to the nuvi via Bluetooth, and use nuvi's built-in FM transmitter to use your car's stereo speakers as a hands-free speakerphone. See what I mean about the benefit of integration? I found myself using the hands-free speakerphone all the time, as using your car's stereo speakers allows you to get the volume loud enough that you can actually hear the other person, even when traveling at highway speeds.

Figure 78: nuvi's MP3 Music Player

The interface for the MP3 is intuitive: tapping the speaker icon brings up the volume control, tapping rewind or fast-forward backs up to the previous song or jumps to the next song, tapping and holding the same buttons rewinds or fast-forwards within the song. The two icons on the right side of the screen are the repeat and shuffle icons.

Tapping on the Source button allows you to toggle between the nuvi's internal memory, and an SD memory card (if present). Tapping on the Browse button allows you to search your MP3 collection.

Figure 79: Browsing the MP3 collection

The nuvi's MP3 player allows you to search your collection of songs by album, artist, genre, or search the entire collection for a particular song/artist. The nuvi reads this information from the ID3 tag, so you'll need your MP3's to be correctly tagged in order to use the browse function effectively.

One things that would be nice is the ability to create playlists on the nuvi directly. You can play a given album, or stay within a genre, but it would be nice if you could create a custom playlist and save it.

18. Audible Books

Figure 80: The Audible Book Player

I've never purchased any audiobooks from Audible, but if you do, then the nuvi's got you covered. After activating your account on Audible.com, downloading the book you purchased to your PC, you can transfer the book over to the nuvi via Audible's downloadable management software, AudibleManager.

The nuvi player allows you to save your current location in the audiobook with a bookmark (the icon on the right in figure 54). The player supports MP3 files and AA audio book files.

Getting MP3s and photos onto the nuvi is a matter of connecting the nuvi to your PC and using it just as you would any external hard drive. Once you connect the nuvi to your PC (or Mac), the nuvi and the SD memory card will appear as additional drives in My Computer. Just drag and drop the MP3s or JPGs you wish to copy onto the nuvi SD memory card, and then disconnect the nuvi from the computer and you're ready to go. I know some people like to have file management software from the GPS manufacturer (such as TomTom's HOME application, for example). Personally I much prefer the Garmin method for the following reasons:

• I don't have to install another application on my (which then needs to be kept up-to-date as new versions are released)
• I don't have to learn a new application
• Using a file management program is almost always more time consuming than just dragging and dropping the files directly
• Using the nuvi as a USB hard drive mean it will work fine on any USB capable system. I don't have to worry about Garmin releasing a MacOS version.

The only potential downside of directly accessing the nuvi via USB is that you could potentially accidentally delete important system files, so take care when deleting anything on the nuvi (you can be less careful on the SD card).