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January 15, 2009

Garmin nuvi 755T Review

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7. Finding A Restaurant

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 pre-loaded yellow pages on the 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, and more.

The nüvi 755T ships with relatively large POI database of around 6 million entries. During my testing, the nüvi 755T was able to find nearly every restaurant or nearby business I searched for.

Main Menu
Figure 52: Main Menu

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 how far away you want to search.

To begin searching for a restaurant, touch Where To? from the Main Menu.

Where To? Page
Figure 53: Where To? Page

Choose Points of Interest from the Where To? page.

Selecting the Search Category and Proximity
Figure 54: Selecting the Search Category and Proximity

In this example I'll be searching for a restaurant, so I'll tap on Food from the Points of Interest page. I could have also chosen any of the following other available Points of Interest (POI) categories:

  • 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 the entire POI database for a specific name.

Telling the nüvi Where to Search
Figure 55: Telling the nüvi Where to Search

By default, the nüvi 755T searches for Points of Interest (POIs) close to your current location. If you want to instead search near a specific address, along your planned route, or near your destination address, tap Near... on the Points of Interest page (shown in figure 56) to access the Search Near... screen, shown above. The following four options are available:

  • 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)

Setting the POI Sub-Category
Figure 56: Setting the POI Sub-Category

Some POI categories have sub-categories. For example, if you choose "Food" as the main category, the nüvi then asks if you also want to enter a sub-category (in this case, a cuisine type). If we wanted to find the closest Mexican restaurant, for example, we could choose Mexican as the sub-category, and the nüvi 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 in the search area you specified.

Viewing the POI Search Results
Figure 57: Viewing the POI Search Results

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

POI Details Page
Figure 58: POI Details Page

Tapping on a POI in the search results list displays the details page for that particular POI. This screen displays the street address and phone number of the business.

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

8. Setting the Home Address

Setting the Home Address
Figure 59: Setting the Home Address

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

The first time you tap on Go Home from the Where to? menu, the nüvi 755T will prompt you to enter your home address.

Entering a Home Address
Figure 60: Entering a Home Address

The nüvi 755T 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 pick a recently used address as the Home address.

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

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