January 17, 2008 08:15
GPSNavX Wrote:I am not going to hold my breath for Garmin OS X compatibility promises. In January 2006 Garmin promised OS X compatibility, but have so far failed to deliver anything of significance (i.e. a way to get Garmin Bluecharts on to their GPS receivers without MS Windows)
http://www8.garmin.com/pressroom/corporate/011006.html
So now they are announcing something, but not even telling us what it will do.
Well, having downloaded and installed all their bits, the only Windows part I had to do was run the PC --> Mac chart converter (in W XP, in VMware). Took about 20 minutes to convert the Bluechart V9 CD. Connect the GPSMap 76Csx via USB, launch Map install, open the Mac formatted charts, and it appears to be willing to upload them; as I have not unlocked any new areas recently, I couldn't put it to the test.
Also installed the webupdater, which finds the GPSMap and appears to check for updates; again, can't confirm what happens if it finds them as I had updated it under Windoze/VMware recently.
Whether Bluecharts are acceptable or not I don't know so far, and much else remains to be proven, but so far, so good, for what it's worth. I still detest these closed mapping systems as much as anyone but since I have this Garmin unit it's worth seeing what it can do.
I haven't tested the POI loader yet.
I'm doing this all in Leopard 10.5.1 on a 24" iMac.