7. Finding A Restaurant

Figure 48: Searching for a Point of Interest

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

Like all other Garmin nuvis, the 750 ships with around 6 million POIs pre-loaded onto the unit (Magellan's highest-end GPS units only have 4.5 millions POIs, so 6 million is a respectable number). The accuracy of the Points of Interest (POI) database has been helped by Garmin's recent 2008 map update (the nuvi 750 ships with the latest maps installed). I found many new POIs in my area using the nuvi 750 new mapping data that my older nuvi 660 could not find.

To search for a "Point of Interest", tap Where to? -> Points of Interest, as shown above in figure 48.

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

Figure 49: Selecting the Search Category and Proximity

In this example we'll be searching for a restaurant, so I'll tap on Food from this menu. The following POI categories are available to choose:

• Food
• Fuel
• Transit
• Lodging
• Shopping
• Bank/ATM
• Parking
• Entertainment
• Recreation
• Attractions
• Hospitals
• Community
• Auto Services

If you're not sure what category a given business would be found under, but know the name of the place you're searching for, tapping on Spell Name allows you to search all POI categories at once for a specific name. However, in my testing I found searching all POI categories extremely slow. In some cases I gave up after a few minutes, assuming the search would never finish. You're better off searching within a particular POI category rather than searching all categories. Hopefully Garmin will address this issue in subsequent software updates.

Figure 50: Telling the nuvi Where to Search

By default the nuvi 750 searches for Points of Interest (POIs) close to your current location. If you want to search for a business in a different area, such as along your planned route, or near your destination address, tap Near... (shown at the bottom of the screen in figure 49). That brings up the Search Near... screen, shown above:

• Where I Am Now - Searches for businesses close to your current location
• A Different City - Searches for businesses in a city (you will be prompted to enter the city name)
• My Current Route - Searches for businesses along your current planned route (you must be navigating to a destination for this option to be selectable)
• My Destination - Searches for businesses near your destination address (you must be navigating to a destination for this option to be selectable)

Figure 51: Setting the POI Sub-Category

Some POI categories have sub-categories. For example, if you choose "Food" as the main category, the nuvi 750 asks if you also want to enter a sub-category (in this case, a food cuisine type). If we wanted to find the closest Mexican restaurant, for example, we could choose Mexican as the sub-category, and the nuvi would limit the results to just Mexican restaurants.

If you don't want to narrow the results by cuisine, choose "All Food" to list all restaurants.

Figure 52: Viewing the POI Search Results

The POI search results page displays each restaurant in order of closeness to your current location, along with the exact street address, distance, and direction.

Figure 53: POI Details Page

Tapping on a POI in the search results list displays the details page for that particular POI. This screen displays the POI's exact address and phone number. Garmin's more expensive nuvi 760 can be paired with a bluetooth cell phone and dial the POI directly from this screen. The nuvi 750 lacks bluetooth, so hands-free dialing isn't an option on this screen.

This screen also lets you view the POI on the map before navigating to the address by tapping Show Map, save the POI to the address book by tapping Save, or begin routing to the business by tapping on the large green Go! button.

8. Telling nuvi Where To Search

Figure 54: Expanding the POI Search Scope

When you search for POI's, the default behavior on the nuvi 750 is to search close to your current location. But what if you want to find a restaurant near your destination address instead? Or a shopping mall along the way to your destination? Tapping on Near... from the Where to? (shown above in figure 54) menu allows you to specify where you want to search for a given POI.

My eyes skipped over this button the first few times I used the nuvi, but it's an important feature you'll want to be familiar with.

Figure 55: Telling the nuvi Where to Search

The nuvi 750 allows you to specify one of four options for setting the POI search radius:

• Where I Am Now - Searches for businesses close to your current location
• A Different City - Searches for businesses in a city (you will be prompted to enter the city name)
• My Current Route - Searches for businesses along your current planned route (you must be navigating to a destination for this option to be selectable)
• My Destination - Searches for businesses near your destination address (you must be navigating to a destination for this option to be selectable)

For example, if you wanted to find a restaurant near your destination, you would tap on Where to? -> Near... ->My Destination ->Points of Interest ->Food and so on.

9. Setting the HOME Address

Figure 56: Setting the Home Address

The Home address is a special saved address on the nuvi that provides quick, one-touch access to the address you'll use most often: home.

The first time you tap on Go Home from the Where to? menu, the nuvi 750 will prompt you to input your home address.

Figure 57: Entering a Home Address

The nuvi 750 allows you to enter a street address for the saved "Home" address, store your current location as the Home address (especially handy if your street address isn't located exactly where the map thinks, or you don't live at an exact street address), or select a recently used address as the Home address.

Once the Home address has been set, it can be changed any time by tapping on Where to > Favorites > Home > Edit

10. Favorites (Address Book)

Figure 58: Finding the Favorites Icon

Garmin calls its address book Favorites. To access the saved addresses screen tap Where to? > Favorites.

Garmin orders the favorite addresses by closeness to your current location. That makes sense if you want to know which favorites are closest to you. However, I find the inability to sort the favorites alphabetically annoying, especially once the favorites list grows larger than just a few addresses.

For example, suppose you save an address for a friend's house under the name "Bob's House", next time you want to drive to Bob's house you'll need to scan the Favorites list line by line until you find the saved entry for "Bob's House", which, depending on your current location, could be the last entry on the list. I'd like to see Garmin include the ability to sort on proximity OR alphabetically.