4. Using the nuvi 680

Figure 26: Viewing the Installed Software Version

The nuvi 680 I tested was running version 2.78 software, as shown above in the "System and Copyright info" screen. You can check the version of installed software by tapping on the wrench icon from the main menu, then tapping the System icon, and then tapping on About.

Figure 27: Checking the Version of Installed Map Data

The nuvi 680 comes pre-loaded with City Navigator North America NT v8, which includes full map coverage of North America.

Figure 28: nuvi 680's Main Page

Figure 28 shows the Main Page screen on the nuvi 680. This is the screen you see when the nuvi 680 is powered on. From here you can view the battery life, GPS signal strength, view the map, enter a destination, or use the Travel Kit. Along the right-hand vertical bar, you can configure various options by tapping on the wrench icon, set audio and volume options by tapping on the speaker icon, and view MSN Direct dynamic data by tapping on the MSN butterfly icon.

Figure 29: Map Page

This is the nuvi Map Page. This is the screen shown during normal navigation. Touching the plus and minus icons zooms in and out on the map. The purple line indicates the route you should follow. The lower-left hand corner of this page displays the estimated arrival time. Touching the arrival time opens the trip information page (shown below in Figure 30). Touching the blue button just to the right of arrival time brings up the main menu. Touching the blue note icon brings up the integrated MP3 player, and touching the "Turn In" box brings up the Next Turn page. You can also tap on the horizontal green bar across the top of the screen to bring up a maneuvering list of all remaining turns in the trip.

Finally, notice the yellow warning icon in the lower-right hand corner. This is the MSN Direct traffic alert, and is letting us know there is a traffic event approaching in 1 minute along our planned route.

Figure 30: Map Page - Night Mode

The nuvi 680 can automatically switch into night mode for easier viewing at night. You can also force the 680 into always using either day or night mode. When set to automatic mode (the default), the nuvi switches into night mode after sunset, not just whenever it's dark. It would be a nice additional feature if the nuvi 680 would automatically switch into dark mode based on the ambient light, but currently that is not how it works.

Figure 31: Trip Information Page

The Trip Information page shows your current speed, along with various other statistics. Not sure how useful this feature is (unless you want to find out how fast the Mrs. was driving while you were asleep on that long drive), but I suppose it could be fun/interesting for long road trips.

Figure 32: Next Turn Page

You can manually bring up the Next Turn page at any time to view your next maneuver by tapping on "Turn In" from the map view".

This is also useful if you want to repeat the last navigation prompt. While I liked having this feature available, I sometimes found the nuvi was too slow to render the map display, so by the time the nuvi finished drawing the map, the screen timed out and returned back to the standard map view before I could see the next turn. Also, I wished there was a way to set the feature to automatically appear shortly before a turn (Magellan's interface currently does this).