10. Finding a Restaurant

Figure 46: Searching for a Point of Interest

In GPS speak, a "Point of Interest", or POI, is a business address saved on the GPS. You can think of the POI database as a yellow pages installed on the GPS. Most automotive GPS devices come pre-loaded with a Points of Interest database, allowing you to find nearby businesses, such as restaurants, gas stations, hotels, and more.

Like all other Magellan Maestros, the 4250 ships with around 4.5 million POIs pre-loaded onto the unit. Despite the fact that some other GPS devices have 6, 10, or even 12 million POIs installed, Magellan's Points of Interest database is stronger than most. I found the Maestro 4250's POI contents stronger than Garmin's or TomTom's, and was frequently able to find nearby businesses that weren't contained in the other GPS units (even though all the tested units had current maps and more POIs than Magellan).

To search for a "Point of Interest", tap on Points of Interest from the Main Menu, as shown above in figure 46.

Searching the pre-loaded POI database is a simple affair, requiring a few screen taps to choose a category (i.e. Restaurant), sub-category if appropriate (i.e. Restaurant -> Chinese), and where you want to search.

Figure 47: Searching the POI Database

After tapping on Points of Interest from the Main Menu, Maestro displays the screen shown above, and asks us to specify how we want to search for POIs. Four options are available:

• Search By Name - If you know the name of the business you're looking up, tapping on Search By Name allows you to enter all or part of the name.
• Search By Category - Allows you to specify a category (and sub-category when appropriate) to search. For example, Restaurant -> Italian Cuisine
• AAA TourBook - Search the AAA TourBook for businesses that have been reviewed by AAA
• Enhanced - By default there are no Enhanced POIs on the 4250. This category is for searching any additional, custom, POI databases that you might install on the GPS.

In this example I'll be searching for a restaurant, so I'll tap on Search By Category to continue.

I did find myself wishing that the AAA TourBook reviews were integrated into the regular POI database. Currently, in order to see a full list of nearby restaurants, for example, you have to search the regular POI database (Search By Category), and then back up and search again under the AAA TourBook option to see which restaurants have been reviewed by AAA.

A more logical and streamlined flow would be to simply display all the restaurants in one list, but indicate a AAA reviewed business with a special icon, or something similar.

Figure 48: Choosing a POI Search Category

After choosing Search By Category, the Select Category screen appears, shown above. Use the scroll bars to view the categories and tap on the category you want to search. In this example I'm looking for nearby restaurants, so I'll scroll down and choose Restaurants to continue.

Figure 49: Choosing a POI Search Subcategory

Some POI categories have sub-categories. For example, if you tap choose Restaurants as the main category, you can then choose a cuisine as a subcategory, or search all restaurants by choosing "ALL SUBCATEGORIES".

Figure 50: Setting the POI Search Area

After choosing a category (and possibly a subcategory, if needed), Maestro asks where to search. Three search areas are available:

• Near Current Position
• New City (requires entering a city name)
• Near Address (requires entering an address)

Conspicuously missing is an option to search near the destination address. Also annoying is the inability to search for a POI while en route to a destination. Apart from the Exit POI feature, the only way to search for a POI while navigating to a destination address is to cancel the current route and begin a POI search.

Figure 51: Viewing the POI Search Results

After telling the Maestro what type of POI to look for, and where to look, the unit produces a list of matching POIs, ordered by closeness to the location you specified.

Tapping on the top portion of the display shows detailed information about the highlighted POI in the list. The arrow and distance indicates the direction and distance in a straight line from your current position to the POI. Note that this distance is "as the crow flies", and not the actual driving distance.

Figure 52: Choosing the Routing Method

Choose a routing method (as described in more detail in section 9), and tap the red "Go" button to start navigating to the selected POI.

11. AAA TourBook

Figure 53: Accessing AAA TourBook Information

At first I wasn't all that excited about the inclusion of AAA's "TourBook" data on the Magellan Maestro. But after using the unit for a few weeks, I've come to love the additional information it provides. For example, when searching for a restaurant, AAA TourBook provides a short review of the restaurant, approximate cost of the meal, parking information, whether they take credit cards, and more, making it possible to figure out which restaurant you want to eat at.

To access the AAA TourBook, tap on Main Menu -> Points of Interest -> AAA TourBook

Figure 54: Choosing the AAA TourBook Category

This screen is the AAA TourBook menu. From here you can search the AAA Tourbook by tapping AAA TourBook Information. If you're a AAA member you can tap Show Your Card & Save to view special discounts available to AAA members. Approved Auto Repairs lets you search for AAA authorized repair shops, AAA Branch Offices finds the nearest AAA offices, and Campgrounds searches for AAA rated campgrounds.

Let's take a closer look at the TourBook guide data. I'll tap on AAA TourBook Information to search for a AAA rated restaurant.

Figure 55: Choosing A TourBook Category

AAA's TourBook includes five categories to choose from:

• Accommodations
• Restaurants
• Destinations
• Attractions
• Events

I'm searching for a restaurant, so I'll tap Restaurant to continue.

Figure 56: Setting the Search Area

The 4250 lets you search for AAA rated POIs using the same location criteria as non-AAA POI lookups: Near Current Position, Near Address, Near Which City?, and Spell Name to find a specific restaurant by name.

As with regular POI searches, there's no way to search for a AAA POI near your destination, nor is it possible to search the AAA TourBook data while navigating to a destination address.

Figure 57: Viewing the AAA Results List

The AAA search results look similar to a standard POI results list, but notice the $$$$ and diamond ratings on the right, just above the Restaurant's phone number, indicating the price and food quality ratings, respectively.

Figure 58: Viewing TourBook Information

I was surprised how much detail is available for each POI in the AAA TourBook. For example, when looking up a restaurant, you'll see a good description of the restaurant, the hours of operation, the parking situation, and what (if any) credit cards are accepted.

Magellan doesn't specify how many AAA Points of Interest are included, but I found it quite exhaustive in all the areas I tested. Navigon recently began including Zagat guide data on its 7100 model and, while I did find Zagat's reviews higher quality than AAA's, AAA has reviewed many more businesses than Zagat.

Also included within the 4250's AAA TourBook is information about hotels/motels, attractions, events, and destinations. Overall I was very pleased with the quality of AAA's information, and found it a real benefit having the information integrated into the GPS, particularly on longer road trips.