 Poster: A snowHead
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I'm lucky enough to have a new Satsports Multi Sports hand held GPS to play with. It's about the size of a mobile phone, looks pretty bombproof (even for me) weatherproof too. It first appeared on Dragon's Den where Peter Jones backed it, since featured on the Gadget Show, goes on sale in Harrods on Monday for £349.
What it does:
Comes preloaded with pretty much every piste map you'd ever want, if it isn't on it, just download it.
Obviously as it's a GPS it tells you where you are.
It plans the route to where you want to go, what lifts and pistes to take and how long it'll take to get there. You can tell it what type of runs you want to ski on, so you can avoid Blue, Red or Black as your choice.
If your mates have a smartphone the software can be added to their phones and it'll tell you where exactly up to 3 of them are on the mountain at any time.
Restaurants, etc are on the maps too.
It records all of your days adventures, which them can be downloaded onto a laptop to show pretty much everything, what lifts, how long on the lifts, what runs you've done, how fast, vertical drops, etc. This can be seen both in graph form and overlaid onto the piste maps.
It can also be linked into Google Earth to give a Fly-over view of everything you've skied. That bit looks wicked.
It also has the same thing for Mountain Biking, running and Golf, with the golf courses loaded also.
It's also got road maps, so it can be used like a normal sat-nav in the car.
Comes with usb charger, bike bracket and car cradle.
Updates are free for life too.
http://www.satsportsgps.com/
I'll have it with me at Hemel tonight if anybody wants a play.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Spyderman, Hope its better than their last model. 
The prevoius ski version, that I had, suffered from poor reception, loss of signal, unexpected power offs, short battery life..... very dissapointing. In the same areas my other GPS worked flawlessly. Only after kicking up a fuss was I offered any 'compensation' free updates, additional maps, mobile version etc.... no refund and the other issues were resolved though. I still have it, any takers?
I expect on a flat area like a golf course it will work better, but then, it really goes against the spirit of the game.
On their web site it shows 310Euros or £339? I thought the Euro\Stg exchange rate was still in our favour? Hmmm
IMHO at over £300 it's a 'bit' overpriced. 
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Same software avaialbe on your mobile phone for much much less from them. Seems to work very well
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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BMF_Skier,I haven't tried the old one, but this one seems to work perfectly. Obviously the Dragon's money has ironed out any issues with the original one.
When you add up the cost of putting the maps and stuff on a Garmin it works out to about £800, so I don't think it's overpriced. A decent one just for the car is well over £200 anyway. It's what it can do after you've navigated around the mountain is the bit that just the software on a smartphone can't do.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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That sounds a fun gadget; might wait for the price to drop a bit, though. If I hadn't got a perfectly adequate TomTom for the car I might be tempted.
Are the piste maps "diagrammatic" (like the normal ones) or actually shown properly on a topo map?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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pam w,
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That sounds a fun gadget; might wait for the price to drop a bit, though. If I hadn't got a perfectly adequate TomTom for the car I might be tempted.
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Ditto.
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If they increase the range of resorts, I'd consider the Android app. €11 is reasonable price for the year if your resort is catered for. Sadly of the resorts I've skied in the last couple of seasons or plan to ski this year, only 1 is covered.
I knew the early models had lots of problems (imho not fit for purpose), but assume the newer ones have a lot of bugs fixed?
Anyway, I'll be sticking with my Garmin Vista with OSM maps for now (£150 plus £0.00 for the maps!), which lasted me 6 days on a pair of AA's whilst mountain biking in Slovenia. Need to check out if OSM OpenPisteMaps are exportable yet in a usable way - if not, I'll contribute to the project 
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Spyderman, Which ski resort have you used the new device in? Mine couldnt maintain an adeqaute sat lock in Val Thorens but did in the lowland UK.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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I've got a bone fide TT SatNav, with a nice big 4.5" wide screen. I've seen GPS mountain type systems, and I also own a Mobile phone, a Nokia E63, which would take a SatNav upgrade to function like it's big brother.
So why didn't I buy the upgraded phone? Well to be honest, although I know people do use mobiles as SatNavs, I still don't think they do the job as well as a dedicated unit like my TT. Primarily down to the smaller screen size. I know most of the time you are listening to the thing, and it is dangerous to look at it, but sometimes when the voice instruction still isn't clear and you are facing the junction from hell in a strange place (the outskirts of Manchester come to mind) and you've made the decision that your best option is to follow TT and be dammed, then to clock a quick look at the screen and see the junction and where you need to end up can be a godsend. This is where a larger screen comes into its own and is the reason why a dedicated SatNav road unit won't IMV ever be superseded by a mobile phone type. Similarly I don't think mountain type GPS systems are much better for road use, though clearly their small size and robust nature is an advantage up a mountain. I can see the GPS and mobile phones combining in the future, but I think road based SatNaves win due to their larger screens.
At the moment my E63 is vying with with my TT as favourite gadget, but there is no way I would want the two combined - though linked could be useful (I am still fiddling with the Blue Tooth possibilities).
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Did you now about free skimaps on your Nokia E63 ?
Look on symbiangear.com for free skimaps !!!!
Good Luck 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| BMF_Skier wrote: |
| Spyderman, Which ski resort have you used the new device in? Mine couldnt maintain an adeqaute sat lock in Val Thorens but did in the lowland UK. |
I haven't, but it had been used in Solden and still has the data on it. Didn't miss a beat apparently.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Worldtraveler666, it was something that I had wondered about looking for. I had a look, thanks, and found 6 or 7 on offer, unfortunately not for places I am visiting/have visited - Les Arcs and the 3V areas
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| Spyderman wrote: |
| BMF_Skier wrote: |
| Spyderman, Which ski resort have you used the new device in? Mine couldnt maintain an adeqaute sat lock in Val Thorens but did in the lowland UK. |
I haven't, but it had been used in Solden and still has the data on it. Didn't miss a beat apparently. |
So the data was recorded by someone else? Has anyone actually used this 'new model' in a ski resort? I had some 'sample data' on my old version and that looked great but the reality was, it failing to work reliably in Val Thorens and difficulty in getting replies regarding the problems from the company. By the time I did I wasnt in resort so I couldnt test it further.
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You know it makes sense.
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BMF_Skier, The data was recorded by someone else, by a friend, not an employee of the company. I have no doubt it is a true record.
I think quite honestly that the new device is where the old one should have been. The new model doesn't go on retail sale till tomorrow, so it's highly unlikely that anyone else would have used it in a resort, especially as most are still closed.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| BMF_Skier wrote: |
Spyderman, Hope its better than their last model.
The prevoius ski version, that I had, suffered from poor reception, loss of signal, unexpected power offs, short battery life..... very dissapointing. In the same areas my other GPS worked flawlessly. Only after kicking up a fuss was I offered any 'compensation' free updates, additional maps, mobile version etc.... no refund and the other issues were resolved though. I still have it, any takers?
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I spoke to the manufacturer yesterday, explained the issues you had with your original model. Please contact them as they've said they will replace the unit for you. 
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Poster: A snowHead
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MegaMum, The free map will also come from Les Arcs.
I tested the maps of Serfaus with Top2Move on my N97.
And it works good for me
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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i have a htc, is the software for pistes available from internet cost? i'm off to tignes on 26th dec
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| Spyderman wrote: |
Comes preloaded with pretty much every piste map you'd ever want, if it isn't on it, just download it.
y. |
You may want to check your price bud! it costs another £60 for all the maps which came on a SD mini card separately in the box! you got them from big bear right? unless I got the wrong end of the stick!
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FAQ
