20. Playing Audio Through the Vehicle's Speakers (FM Transmitter)

If the nuvi 750 has an achilles heel, it's almost certainly the underpowered FM transmitter.

All nuvi 700-series GPS units have an internal FM transmitter that lets you pipe the nuvi's audio through to your vehicle's in-car stereo speakers. Tune the nuvi 750 and your car's stereo to the same FM frequency, and the nuvi's audio can be heard through your car's stereo speakers.

The nuvi 750 can use frequencies from 88.1 to 107.9, and steps in 0.2 increments (e.g. 88.1, 88.3, 88.5, and so on).

Figure 82: Activating the FM Transmitter

To enable the nuvi 750's internal FM transmitter, tap Volume > FM Trans

Figure 83: Adjusting the FM Frequency

The first time you attempt to use the FM transmitter feature a brief legal warning is displayed notifying you that the use of FM transmitters in the car may be illegal in certain countries. Agree to the legal disclaimer (thankfully you only have to do this the once).

Tap Enable FM Transmitter to activate nuvi's internal FM transmitter.

The FM frequency can then be manually set using the plus and minus buttons.

Having an FM transmitter built-in to the nuvi is a great feature that, in theory, should allow the Garmin GPS to function as an MP3 player for the car. Unfortunately, the nuvi 750's underpowered FM transmitter is inadequate. Even the slightest interference causes static, and the nuvi isn't powerful enough to broadcast on top of other FM frequencies. The result is an endless hunt for unused FM frequencies that must be re-adjusted every 10 miles or so.

Garmin needs to boost the power on the FM transmitter before this feature is of much practical use.

21. Using the Media Player

Figure 84: Accessing the Media Player

The nuvi 750's Media Player supports MP3 music files, and M3U and M3U8 playlist files. Playlist files can be created on a computer and uploaded to the nuvi, or you can create playlists directly on the nuvi using the Media Player.

To access the Media Player, tap Tools > Media Player.

Figure 85: Garmin nuvi's Media Player

The Media Player itself is relatively straight forward:

• Browse - browse the available MP3s by artist, genre, song title, etc.
• Tapping forward or rewind skips to the next/previous song. Holding either of these buttons down fast forwards or rewinds.
• Pause - pauses the current song
• The repeat and shuffle icons are located above the Source button
• Source - switches between the nuvi's internal storage and the SD card slot

Figure 86: Browsing the Media Files

MP3 files can be browsed by title (All), Album, Artist, or Genre.

You can also create a new playlist by tapping Playlist > Create New Playlist, and selecting the songs you want added to the new playlist.

Figure 87: Choosing a Song or Songs for Playback

Within the browse view, you can tap on a song to select just that song, or tap Play All to play all songs.

Figure 88: Volume Adjustment Within Media Player

Garmin provides several handy options for volume control within the Media Player. For example, you can independently adjust the navigation prompts and music playback volume levels, as well as mute navigation prompts during music playback.

Figure 89: Music Playback While Navigating

When listening to music or an audio book while navigating, a shortcut to the Media Player is placed in the corner of the map screen, as shown above in figure 89.

Garmin does a good job not cluttering the map screen, but I would have liked to see basic music controls on the map view, such as pause, fast-forward, and rewind; it would be nice to jump around from song to song without having to exit the map view.

22. Dude, Where's My Car?

Figure 90: Last Position

Another feature new to the 700-series nuvis is the "Last Position" feature, affectionately known as the "where did I leave the car" feature.

Whenever the nuvi 750 is removed from the windshield mount, the nuvi automatically creates an entry in the recent destinations called "Last Position", and remembers the position of the GPS when it was separated from the mount. The "Last Position" entry can then be used to navigate back to the last location where the nuvi was removed from the mount.

For example, if you drive to a crowded parking lot, or park at the base of a trail and take the nuvi with you, you can use the "Last Position" entry in the Recently Found destinations to get back to your car. Depending where you parked, you could also put the nuvi into pedestrian or off-road mode.

To view the "Last Position", tap Where to? >Recently Found >Last Position

Note that the "Last Position" will only appear if the nuvi has been removed from the mount.

23. Where Am I?

Figure 91: Where Am I?

Garmin's new "Where Am I?" feature can be used to quickly view your current location, give emergency personnel your location, as well as locate nearby services, or save your current position into the address book. To view your current location information, tap Settings >Where Am I?, as shown above in figure 91.

Tip: A handy shortcut to view the "Where Am I?" page is to tap the vehicle icon on the map screen.

Figure 92: Where Am I / Save Current Location Screen

This is a fantastic feature that provides one-touch access to your current street address (or closest valid street address), nearest intersection, and exact coordinates.

Garmin's well designed location screen also provides one-touch access to nearby hospitals, police stations, and gas stations.

Saving your current location adds the current position to the nuvi's Address Book, and allows you to name the location.