I've had the IQUE for over a year now and find it to be an excellent product. BUT--you have to compensate for a few design quirks. I would still buy it again for its utility but you should keep its shortcomings in mind. First the good news.
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br /**A bright, clear display large enough for even 55-year old eyes to see map details easily.
br /**With the 256-MB memory card plenty of memory to download 3 or 4 state maps.
br /**Excellent point-to-point map routes.
br /**Quick recalculation.
br /**Tied to the address book it offers routing to all your friends' houses, businesses, clients, etc.
br /**good sync routine to sync up PC and IQUE databases and maps.
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br /The bad news:
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br /**short battery life. While the travel package includes a car adapter, should you put it away for a long weekend and the battery drains completely you've lost all your data including even the basemaps. A MAJOR FLAW. You can restore it all with a sync to your PC but recently I travelled without my PC and the battery discharged completely. Even when recharged all data was lost and all my waypoints for the trip were gone. I ended up renting a car with a navigation system instead.
br /**When driving into the sun the display is difficult to see.

First the important: Do I recommend it? Yes
br /I bought Garmin iQue 3600 with the car mount (that includes the mount, car charger, and the attached external speaker) only a week back. However, I have been using it extensively. It has served me well so far, with minor problems and a few items already on the wish list.
br /I recommend that you buy this unit with car mount and 512MB SD card.
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br /Pros:
br /(1) All Palm functionality works fine straight out of the box, including the virtual grafiti2 as this has Palm OS 5.2.1r2
br /(2) iQue 3600 is stylishly built including the its sync cradle
br /(3) Very easy to create route, either to an address on the Palm Address Book, to a point in the map, to user created waypoints, or to thousands of point-of-interest (POIs) from map software loaded in the unit
br /(4) Allows saving a route if you want to travel the same route later
br /(5) GPS has worked flawlessly. Acquires satellite positions within a minute. Tip: if it doesn't, start driving and it quickly acquires satellite positions, and starts instructions for the current route automatically thereafter.
br /(6) As you drive, it continues to update and display the estimated arrival time based on the current speed of travel, and actual stoppages at the signals or due to traffic. However, I think the estimated time is based on the rates speed along the route, and does not account for the intended signal stoppages.
br /(7) Turn-by-turn voice instructions along with pop-up on the maps are extensive with an option to turn off the voice instructions.
br /(8) You could also preview the turns at any time for an active trip
br /(9) If you miss a turn or want to go by a route other than the suggested one, it informs of the fact, and immediately re-calculates alternate route with voice instructions.
br /(10) One of the most versatile use of this unit - you will love it - is finding point-of-interest (POI) places wherever you are at that time, and ask it to take you there. Once, done you could ask it to get back to the original route without any problem. The POIs could be food joints, shopping, transportation (rail, air, road), attractions, entertainment, lodging, intersection, services (ATM, car wash, garages) etc.
br /(11) You could also save any POI as a waypoint for later re-use quickly. You could also create your own waypoint that is not listed in Garmin's POI database.
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br /Cons:
br /(1) When there is no need for any instruction; for example, when you are on a highway and the next turn or exit is far away on the route, the current position of the car moves out of the map area. One needs to tap the current position icon on the Palm taskbar to bring the position marker back on to the map. I think this is a bug that would be addressed in future patches.
br /(2) Battery life before re-charge seems like an issue but only if plan to charge it weekly. Plan to buy it only with the car charger.
br /(3) It has hung up few times requiring soft reset without loss of any data. I think Garmin needs to address this issue as I didn't have this problem in Palm m505 with the same software. Mind it some old software that are not compatible with Palm OS 5, will also cause the unit to malfunction.
br /(4) Loading the map on the unit is a two step process and takes at least 1.5 hours using a fast 2.8 Ghz Pentium IV PC. Even if you want to add or delete one city, the process time is the same, as the PC needs to prepare one image file each time for all the maps to be loaded into the unit.
br /(5) Interface to Garmin routing is available only from Palm's Address Book, which sucks. Garmin should build interface from better Palm contact softwares such as Iambic's Agendus.
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br /Overall, I am quite excited and happy in the first week of using this unit.

If you are looking for an excellent palm-pilot with a GPS add-on, this is probably not for you. It is not designed to be an outstanding palm. If you are looking for a GPS based nagivational aide with some palm capabilities, then this is excellent.The time to acquire satelites varies quite dramatically, but it does. I have even managed to track my location whiles flying. The location and airspeed were dead on, but the elevation of 50 ft seemed to be a bit low, considering that we were at 29,000 ft.Quick to re-calculate if you get off route. It has been accurate, with 1 exception. In Boulder Colorade (despite the basemap and detailed map being loaded, it couldn't find all the streets, and had me displayed in the middle of a lake once. All in all I am very satisfied with this product.

I have owned an iQue 3600 since August of 2003. It is hands down the coolest most useful gadget I have ever owned, or dreamed of owning. If I lost mine, I would run, not walk to the store and buy another one. I don't think I could even wait 3 or 4 days to have one shipped from Amazon.
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br /It works perfectly as an in-car navigation system outperforming any built in system I have ever seen. The auto nav kit is a must as it holds the unit securely on your dash, provides power, and has a built in speaker for the voice prompts. It is small and light and I love it. It is my PDA, I have long since gotten rid of my Clie, and with a 1GB SD card, it's a darn good MP3 player.
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br /I have one of the very first iQues and lived with a few problems (electric shocks reseting unit) that have long since been cured by both software and hardware upgrades. My original unit is working just fine and I just bought another one as a gift and can tell that the units are now bulletproof. Any issue with reliablity has been solved and Garmin has the best customer service of any major company I have ever seen.
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br /The only reservation is that if you are not familiar with palm pilots, the learning curve may be steep (my 65 year old mother figured it out in 2 days with a little help). If you are not that tech oriented and just want a great Auto GPS for about $500 you can get a Garmin Quest (very cool and a better pure handheld GPS than the Que), or the Streetpilot 2610 is a near perfect dedicated auto GPS system.
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br /To all those who complain about battery life, turn the backlight on the screen down and use the GPS when only on battery power sparringly. The super bright screen will suck the battery dry in an hour or two, but at minimal brightness, it lasts as long as any palm pilot I have used. It lasts over 10 hours playing mp3 (the screen turns off after a few minutes when just playing mp3s)

I have to give Garmin 5 stars on this product, I would give it a 10 if I could. I researched well before buying this unit and I could not be happier.
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br /Price:
br /First I will talk about the price then tell you why you can not beat this unit for the price. If you go to any office supply store or electronics store and try to pick up a GPS with the detailed maps and voice guidance as this unit has you will easily pay $900+ with the average being $1200+. I know, because I looked and looked then looked again after I received my Garmin IQue 3600. Now add in the PDA, Palm OS 5+ and you will pay $200+ to $400 for a PDA with the same technology as the IQue 3600. If you purchased a GPS and PDA separate that is comparable to the IQue 3600 technology you would be looking at $1,100+ minimum, enough said :).
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br /Battery:
br /Now for the IQue 3600 itself, first I will touch on the negative comments about the battery I have read from some other reviewers. What battery problem? I have not had any issues with the battery at all. If people are having battery issues then they must be sitting with this unit on for over an hour working with the backlight set to the highest setting and the GPS on. If these same people bought the IQue to take into the woods for a day hike using the GPS without the car kit or are running around a city with it on at all times then they bought the wrong unit for the job.
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br /If you use the car kit which charges the IQue and keep it in its desk cradle when not in use which also charges the unit then you will have no problems. If you do go running around the city on foot then turn it on get your position in under a minute look where you are then turn it off and go again. If you are going into the woods away from the car then buy another Garmin unit like the Etrex which is made for that purpose.
br /If you are trying to use the MP3 feature while out of the car or away from your desk for extended use then you probaly will run out of battery, so you should buy a MP3 player.
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br /I can sit and use the IQue without the GPS feature on and work fine with all the Palm functions for an hour. I say an hour because I have not worked with it on continually for longer than that. Usually I turn it on review my schedule or contacts, make notes or updates then turn it off.
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br /IQUE functions:
br /I can not be happier with this unit. I am a private pilot and I am use to using navigation in the air and I can tell you that you can not go wrong with this unit. The IQue is very accurate, it usually tracks my position within 12-20 feet depending on how many satellites it is picking up at the time. The voice guidance is outstanding and I have not had a problem with it yet. It prompts you at about 1.2 miles, .250 mile, then 400ft and finally 200ft before changing roads or a turn. It also zooms in on the voice guidance instructions it is giving you at the time to highlight what you are suppose to do visually. If you do get of track for any reason it recalculates your position very quickly and gives you prompts to get you back on track.
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br /Other features: MP3 player, voice recorder, wireless capability, Memory socket, I have a 512MB SD card in mine, and all the features you would expect on a modern Palm platform. The updates from Garmin are easy to install and I have not had any problems or glitches. My unit already came with SW Ver 3.0 and I have not had any of the glitches others reported here before updating to SW Ver 2.0. You can also update the unit as I have to be compatible with 1GB SD cards.
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br /My favorite feature:
br /I use the IQue for business and my favorite feature is being able to link my Palm date book and address book to the GPS technology. I can set a waypoint with a contact or an actual appointment and the IQue will route me to my appointment from my current position, very cool!!!
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br /I could go on all day about how great this unit is and you will find similar reviews stating the same things here, you can not go wrong with this unit buy one and you will see why.
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br /Negatives:
br /I have found a few negatives with the IQue 3600 but none of them are to do with the software or functions of this unit.
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br /1. Case: Very hard to find a case for the IQue, I searched all over and no one makes one for the IQue itself including Garmin that is decent. I found one made of leather for a Toshiba pocket PC with a belt clip and it fits very nicely.
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br /2. The car kit mount: The mount seems to work for some and not for others and you will see this reflected in other reviews. Garmin did come out with a suction mount that others say works well and Amazon does sell it on here. I went for the normal car mount and I am very happy with it. I did not think it would hold well on my dash as others have said in reviews so I fixed the problem by using Velcro tape. I mounted one strip of sticky back Velcro on each side of the IQue car kit stand and matched them to Velcro strips on my dash. I have no problems at all. The Velcro easily makes it so I can remove it and switch cars.
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br /3. Screen protectors: Hard to find for the IQue, so you will have to use screen protectors from another PDA, I found the screen protectors for a Palm T-5 to match well so this solved the problem.
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br /4. Screen viewing in bright sun: If it is bright out it makes it hard to see the screen because of the glare, it is not the units fault because I do not know any LCD screen or other that could be seen well with a glare. With the voice prompts you do not have to look at the screen. Another reviewer suggested making a small glare shield with Velcro and cardboard which should work well. If I cup my hand over the unit I can see it fine. You can also take it off the car kit to use the palm features if it's bright out.
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br /My recommendation is buy, buy, buy, you will not be sorry!
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br /Great job Garmin!
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As a GPS junkie, I appreciate just how slick this navigation PDA is. The detailed City Select mapsets that come with the PDA are very detailed, and give you voice guided turn-by-turn directions anywhere you want to go. Add a SD memory card and you have more than enough memory to hold all the maps you need plus MP3's and other Palm applications as well. The only drawback, and it's a biggie, is that after 3 weeks my IQUE 3600 has completely stopped working. Garmin has asked me to mail it back to them (at my expense) to be repaired (at their expense). Maybe it's just a bit of bad luck with my particular unit. If navigation was all this unit did it would be worth the money (it costs 1/3 of similar non-portable in dash vehicle nav systems with similar capabilities), but it is also a great PDA and MP3 player as well. If it continues working after Garmin fixes it, I wouldn't hesitate to reccommend it to anyone.

Have used the Ique 3600 for 9 months or so now, I find it to be an extremely powerful and synergistic combination, and would recommend it to those with PDA experience and/or patience. A PDA is a natural mate with a GPS and Garmin has done a pretty good job in this combination. I do understand the frustration of some of the reviews posted here though, as there are a few quirks which can make the initial experience less than smooth. But if you hang in there to get past the learning curve of futzing with the maps during 3 or 4 downloads and figuring out how to work with the address book and the 'find locations' feature, you will then have a powerful ally in your daily life's travels and travails and will not part with it for a minute.
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br /Recommendations: get as big an SD card as you can, 1Gb or more, and put the whole dang US map on it and forget about tweaking it for every trip, since the download process is pretty painful. Also, leave it in the charger every night, as it needs a charge pretty much once a day. Gotchas: popping it into the car holder will occasionally glitch it due to static on the connectors, requiring a reset. Try to touch the connectors of the car and the PDA while it is still off before popping it in in order to discharge the static.
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br /Update: after about 18 months of daily usage, on the charging cradle every night, the rechargeable battery finally would not hold a charge for longer than 10 minutes of usage. Though it seems the unit is not really designed for a user to replace the battery, I was able to successfully replace the battery with one from laptopsforless using their instructions. It wasnt too hard, and I only scratched up the case exterior a little. Now the battery life is back to normal, i.e. ~3 hours of continuous use with backlight on.
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I have wasted money on a lot of things that prove to be only half as good as they appeared to be. This product definitely exceeded my high expectations. I travel a lot, and many times, to places that I have never been before. This product was a life saver because it gets me to where I need to go every time, with only a few minor errors (i.e. newer streets not available, address slightly off on smaller side streets). However, one should not expect that it can be perfect every time, even though it does get it right more than I expected.
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br /I have been using Palm OS PDA's for several years now, so I was really excited when a friend told me about this. The PDA on the Garmin iQue 3600 is probably equivalent to a higher-end Palm-brand PDA (i.e. Tungsten) and it has worked out great for me since I took it out of the box.
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br /Please, keep in mind that this item is a PDA with a really good GPS navigation system. If you want a strict navigation system, Garmin makes a few products that are better for that purpose.
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br /The best features include:
br /1. Integration of address book and GPS allows to quickly route to an existing address book entry or set up entries as waypoints for even quicker access.
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br /2. Tremendous list of stores, restaurants, etc. allows you to look up items near your current location, near your destination or even near a point that you choose on the map.
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br /3. It recalculates! If you miss your turn or make a wrong turn, it will automatically recalculate your trip based on your new location and make sure you still get to your destination.
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br /4. It is extremely mobile. It does everything a PDA needs to do and you can use it as a handheld GPS device while you are walking down the street. This is great in larger cities when you cannot always park in front of the building you need to go and you need to walk from a parking garage, or if you road in a taxi or took the subway/metro.
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br /The worst features/issues include:
br /1. The poor battery life. I can understand the battery being drained quickly when the GPS is on, but when I am updating my contacts or inputting appointments it should not burn out the battery so quickly. Be sure you have access to a charger if you think you will need to use it a lot during the day. However, I have not had any problems with the battery draining significantly when I don't charge it for several days and it is not being used.
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br /2. The maps cannot be modified (or at least, I have not figure out how to do it). This is not a serious problem, but there was one instance where there was a new road near my destination that would have significantly reduced my travel time. The iQue didn't know the road was there and I could not add it for future trips. I just had to remember to ignore the last part of the directions and the iQue made it look like I was driving "off road" during that point of my trip.
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br /3. It takes a little while to upload new detailed maps. It never took up to 1.5 hours as one other review mentioned, but it is not a quick process. The few times that I did it, it took about 25 minutes for the software to prepare the maps and perform the hotsync. However, you should only need to do this every once in a while, unless you constantly need to change maps or you don't have enough memory to store all of the maps that you want.
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br /Regardless of any slight imperfections (as most products have), I plan to buy this product for my wife and for my mother. That just shows how much it has been a benefit to me and how much I can trust it.

Overall this unit works pretty well. The user interface is a mess - and I am very experienced technology user. It took me several weeks to really get the system to work the way I needed it to.
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br /The maps aren't always quite accurate, and a lot of time the voice guidance runs behind schedule, so it tells you to take an exit just as you pass it, for example.
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br /Other than that, its a nice system that performs as advertised, and also acts as a Palm organizer and MP3 player.

I bought the iQue 3600 Bundle several months ago now and use it every day. The unit has operated flawlessly. I've read other reviews below (with attention to others "cons" for the product). I am always curious about overall product quality and other people's experiences. Plus, I like knowing if there is a problem that I have not experienced - if I do experience it, at least I'm not surprised or disappointed.
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br /I have to say honestly that I personally have not experienced difficulty reading the screen when driving into the sun in Michigan. Additionally, I have never lost my base maps. I do agree that purchasing the SD card is important. I bought the 1GB SanDisk card from Amazon (48$ using rebate and Amazon discount offered [...]- did not see advertised at Amazon...) and have stored detailed maps of the entire mid-west, coastal areas, portions of Canada, etc. Overall, to store detailed maps of all of Canada / US requires 1.6GB... I am waiting for a 2GB card to come out!
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br /I agree that the battery life is short. My experience with PDAs is that all battery life is short. No problem when using for business; I keep it in the hot sync cradle and its on all day. Travelling w/o constant power gives you very little time to play with your device (games, etc). And the GPS really cannot be used if you are hiking. To be fair, this is not what this model was built for. In the vehicle, I keep it in the no-friction dashboard mount with constant power and have travelled on 13 hour trips. It worked without flaw, guiding me there, all through town on my stay and on the way home. The level of detail is surprising - it tried to route me on a two-track in the Upper Peninsula! I should say - more detail than I required! I simply opted to miss that turn and Garmin recalculated quickly. This has been a real gem and I wish I bought it long ago.
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br /As for the price, considering an automotive GPS is about a grand, the multiple functionality in this unit makes the price VERY reasonable. Especially when you consider a standard PDA w/o an integrated GPS is typically $300 or more. Love Garmin, Love my iQue!
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br /PS - I was missing a part for the mount; Garmin customer service was IN the USA (what a treat!!!), I did not wait on hold for more than 20 seconds before speaking with a person! They were great about the missing part (I didn't realize it until about a month after the purchase!) - I had it 2 days later. I purchased from Circuit City so the missing part was not likely Garmin's fault...

As of today, Sept. 5, 2004, it's actually cheaper to buy the iQue 3600 and the car kit separately.

I should have had this gadget years ago. I have no sense of direction and with the ique I no longer get lost. With the price of gas these days I decided to invest in the ique and am I glad I did. It has eleminated 2 of my gadgets and gave me something I didn't have. I use it as my Palm Pilot (it has all the Palm technology). I also use it's voice recorder eleminating the one I was carring and it added the GPS. It also has the ability to be an MP3 Player which I don't use because I have an ipod. But if you have any other type MP3 Player it might be good for that also. I have to admit that with the voice recorder you must speak directly into the speaker and the sound quality is not the best but it works for me. I love the alarm feature. The reason I did not give it 5 stars is because of the battery life. I can see the battery going down as I use the palm pilot. I use my palm for everything so I am constantly turning it on. I am considering getting the charger to keep it plugged in at work.

Overall this is a great little pda/gps. there was a small problem with sofware installation, and Garmin tech support was helpful-
br /The unit almost always quickly locks on to the satellites . I have not had to reset it. When you are off course, Autorouting is a great help, and works very well. The screen detail is excellent. The detailed maps are excellent, but points of interest are outdated by 2 years even though I just bought my new unit one month ago.(i.e.Wendy's old location is now a Chinese restaurant, etc. Fortunately, the major points of interest have not moved.)
br /You can use the unit for voice guidance while driving (it has a handy tone to alert you to upcoming turn instructions). The built -in speaker is adequate. However, with the auto bundle the speaker is louder, and the unit is being continuously recharged.
br /Without recharging, when used as a gps the battery life is short- prob. between 1 and 2 hours, so the auto bundle is a necessity.
br /As a palm pda the unit is fine- the most useful special feature is the ability to use the full size of the screen when you are not entering data.I would have liked to have included software to transfer files directly from pda to sd card.

The iQue 3600 does not support Mac. Even using Virtual PC running Windows 2000, the cradle isn't recognized. You will have to find a Windows PC to set-up the iQue and (most importantly) install the detailed maps. And to make things more interesting, Windows XP seems to enjoy making the installation a living nightmare. The "Add New Hardware" nonsense interrupts the install process, preventing the Map installer from being installed. Turn off "Add New Hardware" before you install.
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br /Once you have the maps installed, you can purchase third party software that will allow you to synchronize your contacts, calendar, mp3s, and photos on your iQue 3600 with your Mac.
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br /As for the iQue itself, it's awesome. Huge WOW factor when people see it - bright screen, easy to use, loud speaker. Would have given it five stars if it were Mac friendly.

UPDATE TO THIS REVIEW (10/18/2004): After a fair amount of trial and error work, I found that the problem I describe below was on my end with a combination of add-on Palm software I had installed. Amazon's software won't allow me to change my rating to 5 stars, but consider it changed. Now that I've removed the offending software, the unit works great!
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br /I have had this unit for 2 weeks now and am extremely impressed with the integration of the GPS functionality with the Palm OS and PIM functions (and I'm difficult to please when it comes to electronics!). I strongly recommend that you buy it with the Automotive Friction Mount package to securely hold it on your dash, and I'd throw in a 512MB SD card to hold maps, too. The product is so well implemented that I would have easily rated it with 5 stars except for the following hardware problem I've been experiencing. Several times, when the battery has been fully charged, I've turned off the unit and left it for a few hours, and when I've tried to power it back on, the battery has been completely dead. I hope this is a random defect and the next one will be problem-free. Of course if this proves not to be the case, I'll have to change my rating. As usual, Amazon is *great* and is gladly sending me a replacement for this defective unit. I'll update this review after I receive the new unit and have used it a while.

I borrowed this from a friend and used it for 2 weeks driving up and down California and Nevada, travelled about 2500 miles in the process. It was fantastic as a GPS navigation system in the car, though twice in the middle of a freeway it got totally confused and tried to reroute me off the side of the road. Otherwise it performed great, and not once did I have to stop and consult a map. I just program all the places I want to visit (whether is is a restaurant, Universal Studio, or the hotel) the night before, and it always guided me there without any problem. A great feature is to be able to locate, say, the closest McDonald's and take me there.
br /As a PDA, however, it is pretty worthless since the battery life is very short, and if you do not have it plugged in, you should not really use it very much at all. The battery is not user replaceble. If it goes bad, you'll have to send it back to the factory to be replaced.

Although I've only used it for 2 weeks, I'm quite impressed. The display is crisp and very visible (though it does drain the battery in less than 2 hours of continuous use). The automotive friction cradle stays where you put it (I have not tried to crash-test it though). I was also able to duct-tape a piece of this cradle onto my bicycle, and can vouch that this unit makes a great bike computer and navigator.. And have you ever wished you knew where you were while flying- after all, the captain does not come on often to give details about the scenery! This unit shows your position, speed and altitude while displaying a map of the scenery below - just make sure you have a window seat and that unit's antenna is close to the plane window.
br /From a more practical point of view, I had some problems in installing software to second computer (my laptop) and sent an email to Garmin technical service - less than 24 hours later received step-by-step instructions that solved the problem. And, on a trip to Denver, found that though I accidentally erased detailed Denver map data, I was still able to navigate my rental car, just by using the base map of North America already on the unit.
br /Here's another use, surely useful in retirement communities: park in the middle of a 3000-car lot; tell unit to memorize your location; when you want to find your car again, just ask to be guided back to that point- accurate within 15 feet.
br /Correction to earlier comments: you can load just one city or two into the PDA (load your more massive maps into the SD card): this does not take nearly as long to synchronize! Also, you CAN interface also to Outlook address book, not just Palm's.
br /My previous car had a built-in GPS and I was initially disappointed to have to replace it with one that does not. Seeing all the other applications this little unit can be put to (not to mention a great non-Bill Gates PDA), I'm really satisfied with the results.

I've had an iQue 3600 (bought the bundle and recommend you do, too) for about two years. I did not realize how good the Garmin was until I rented a car with Hertz' GPS.
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br /Right out of the box you'll see the iQue 3600 uses a "portrait" screen, as opposed to the "landscape" used on most of the GPS I've seen. When I travel, I'm going forward and want to know what's ahead, rather than what's on the side. The portrait screen is the logical way to build a GPS.
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br /I was disappointed with the GPS documentation. The box didn't even include the Palm OS instructions, but I was able to download them when I finally realized they were missing. Because you get the Palm OS and this is really a PDA, you can load the iQue with a lot of stuff: you can download books, spreadsheets, games, etc. I had not really considered this since I was really shopping for a GPS.
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br /I did not find the Garmin OS/navigating system to be especially "intuitive", but that's par for the course these days. A little trial and error and you're off to the races. I also had a hard time getting help from Garmin when I lost a mounting screw, but they finally came through.
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br /I use the iQue 3600 mostly on business trips to cities I'm not familiar with. The maps and instructions you can get on the Internet always seem to have errors. Trying to read them while while driving on unfamiliar streets is probably hazardous to your health. The iQue tells and shows you where you're going. The iQue gets you in the correct lane before a turn, warns you as you approach the turn and if you blow it, tells you how to get back on track.
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br /I think it would be good enough if that's all it did, but it also will tell you where the nearest Mexican (or seafood or fast food) restaurants are, where the nearest park, winery or place of worship is and so forth. The PDA interfaces with the GPS, so if you've synchronized with your Palm or MS Outlook address book, you can attach the geographic coordinates and let the iQue guide you to your destination. The appointment function also works with the GPS.
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br /On a flight to Houston, I pointed the iQue's antenna out the window and it was able to give me a representation of the plane's location, altitude and speed. That fascinated me. I don't use an iPod, but the iQue will record music--good luck figuring that out, though.
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br /I have a 256 MB SD card (top of the line when I bought it) and have never had a problem storing the maps I need, but I don't try to store all the maps of the U.S. If you travel to a lot of different locations, you might want a bigger card.
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br /The battery is disappointing. If I don't use the device for a couple of weeks, the battery's dead and I have to reinstall some of the software. Next time that happens, I'll install the French language module and see how well my ancient French gets me around Atlanta.
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br /I was surprised to find that the dashboard mount, which is connected to the cigarette lighter, doesn't charge the battery--I guess it uses the electricity it draws to run the speaker. On the other hand, I found an inexpensive gadget to charge the battery from most PCs and the charger for my wife's Kyocera phone works on the iQue.
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br /Bottom line is you're getting a superior GPS with a good PDA and music recorder thrown in. Weak documentation and support are the order of the day, but the others may be worse.

I've had my iQue 3600 for about 7 months now and I really like it. It's also the only gps reciever/pda I've ever used, so I can't compare it to anything, although I've read countless reviews and did a great deal of research.
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br /Setting it up wasn't bad, but if you're not computer savy you may want to get someone that is to help you out. You also will probably want to buy a SD memory card as it only comes with 32mb internal, which should be enough for maps in your local area, but for me I wanted to expand the map coverage to the surrounding states. I also wanted to make full use of the PDA and install some palm apps. I think a 128mb card would be good, but I use a 256mb.
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br /As far as the navigation is concerned, it's great. Very accurate and never gets me lost. The estimated arrival time is almost always dead on, if not a minute or 2 off.
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br /The battery life is the big problem with this unit (and the reason I gave it 4 instead of 5). It's not something you can really leave on and carry around for while without the battery draining. You also can't change the battery out. It's built in never to be replaced. So if you plan on strictly leaving this in your car (like me) then it's a good choice.
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br /Overall, if this reciever had pre-loaded maps and battery life it would be perfect, but to me those aren't very important. I highly recommend it.

I just love it. The GPS works very well and I am impressed.
br /No problem with the software as was reviewed in the past. I guessed Garmin fixed the problem.
br /The only problem is the short battery life when using the PDA.
br /A must buy for people on the move, it is portable, and a must buy with the auto-navigation kit. The GPS alone is worth the price. However, you must buy the SD card if you want to include a larger regional map. I bought the 1 GB SD card and it was great.
br /Buying from Amazon is also great and quick.
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I bought Garmin 3600 and had problems with it. I finally returned and received a newer Garmin 3600. The problems I had were:
br /1. Car moves out of map and map must be moved; This problem does not exist in my replacement Garmin.
br /2. Batter live short: A little better on the replacement.
br /3. Hang-up and needs reset! About trashed the old one, but the new one I received does not have this problem.
br /4. Slow map loading: A lot faster on the replacement.
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br /I am a Realtor, and this is one of the best investments I have made. They could give better instructions on using the GPS functions. They leave a lot to the trial error method. I am still trying to figure out all the bells and whistles that come with it.

I got the iQue 3600 bundle as i was moving to a new place where i got a job. The first day i got it, i headed out using the GPS to someones place for dinner (did not read the entire user guide), i put they address in the address book and used the iQue to route the way (bad idea). No matter the place i was supposed to go was in the same zip code, the GPS led me 40 miles away from my destination into the woods and pulled me up into dead ends three times. The other reviews about the battery life are also true. After that day i was skeptical in trusting the GPS but, if you route the way by entering each field in the find addresses location, it is 99 percent times accurate. I have been using it every since and is really good. The Automotive Friction Mount as other reviews suggested is also bad, so try others. Over all i think it is a good thing to have, speacially when heading out to a totally new place.

The product was received in a timely fashion and was exactly as advertised. Hardware is top quality. Software is equally so. Only quality which prevented me from assigning the fifth star was the lack of display screen brightness to be seen easily while sitting on the dashboard of a vehicle with a large windshield. Otherwise the unit met my every expectation. PDA software is better than average but the crowning glory of the unit is the quality of the mapping system. It is outstanding in every respect. Not sure how much map data can be loaded into the internal memory but the entire U.S. can be loaded onto a 2.0GB Secure Digital external memory card loaded into the slot on top of the unit. GPS and the navigation voice commands are OUTSTANDING!!! Battery life is more than adequate, provided the brightness level is lowered significantly. When in a cradle (auto or desktop) I run at full brightness.
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br /Would I buy this product knowing what I know after two months usage? Answer is an unqualified YES!

Get a high-speed 2GB SD card and you can load a WORLDWIDE basemap plus the ENTIRE CitySelect V7 DVD (detailed maps) with 200+ MB to spare! Am doing this and it works perfectly.
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br /The iqUE 3600 is beautifully designed and constructed. Highly recommended

I bought the Garmin iQue3600 about three weeks ago, along with a 1GB card, and have used it almost daily since (after loading the maps and reading the directions)both as a GPS and a PDA. My only complaint is battery life: not great as a PDA...even less as a GPS. I'm glad I bought it with the friction mount and car charger. Overall, excellent product.

I will make it short since there are already some nice, detailed reviews.
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br /This unit is good for automotive, plugged-in use only because of its VERY limited battery life. Even when not in use, whether at home or in car, keep it in the cradle. Else, it will drain itself of battery, lose memory and require re-synching! Limited to this type of use, it is a good GPS. But if you want to get a car GPS then perhaps you should get one intended for that purpose because the pen-based interface of this product is cumbersome to use while driving.
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br /If you are hoping that you can replace your normal Palm PDA with this one - forget it (because of limited battery life even with GPS off).
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br /So what's special about this Palm-based GPS? Simply that you can integrate your Palm address list with the waypoints of the GPS.
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br /Good luck.

I bought it as Christmas gift for my gf, and she loves it. It generally works fine, but with a few problems. Other reviews talked about most of the good things about it, and I agreed. So here I will only talk about the few flaws. Overall, it's a usefull tool; but don't rely on it too much and it's always wise to still keep a copy of paper map in your car.
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br /The system sometime couldn't find the signal, but a soft reset will solve the problem. I once waited for 20 minutes and it still couldn't find the satellite signal, but after a reset, it founded the signal within one or two minutes.
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br /I couldn't have it figure out the fastest way. Even though I selected that option, it always gives a seemingly to be shortest way. I KNOW these are slower than some alternatives. It just doesn't know about traffic information.
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br /Voice prompt sometimes inaccurate. When she says keep left, you may be turning left or even turning right. The maps is right most of the time, though. It's always a good idea to have somebody sitting in the passenger seat to double check with the map, or look at the screen yourself. The big screen makes it relatively easy if you position it well.
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br /The "Find" function works some time, but not all the time. Sometime it puts stores in wrong categories. For example, I couldn't find a StopShop store in "grocery shopping" but it's in some where else. The weird thing is that I was able to find another StopShop store in grocery shopping category.
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br /The maps are ok, but I couldn't find a pretty large mall in South Boston, even though the mall has been there for more than 3 years. The whole area in the map is just dark. btw, I've loaded the detailed map of the whole New England.
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br /One great thing about the iQue is the mp3 player. However, it's pretty hard to organize the songs. We have a 1G SD card in it, about 200MB maps and 500MB mp3. There's no playlist function in the palm, and all songs appear in the same directory. I hope they will provide a firmware upgrade that support sub-directories.
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br /When playing mp3, we once experience terrible high volume sounds. After turning down the volume, the problem was gone. The same song plays great on my PC. I guess it's probably the problem of the palm audio output, too easy to get saturated.
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br /The palm cannot remember where you were when palying mp3. Everytime it starts from the very first song when turned on. If you don't want to listen to the first few songs for many times, don't turn it off.
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br /The speaker of the car kit is terrible. Fortunately I have a cassette through which I can play the palm sound output using the car audio system. Now the car kit speaker is just a cumbersome junk which cannot be removed because it's made into the car charger. The friction mount works great, though.

Ive had this PDA for about 2 months and over all it has been very useful. The 2 drawbacks are that the battery life if poor if you dont turn the back light to a low brightness level and that the SD slot is not SDIO compatible so there is no chance of using a wifi 802.11b card to surf the net. The M3, M5, and ique 3200 are all SDIO compatible but the 3600 isnt for some reason.
br /It does however vibrate which is an option that most PDA's dont have.

The iQue 3600 GPS with the auto bundle is a can't do without item.
br /The palm feature is a great plus to having handheld/mobile GPS with all the bells and whistles. The 3600 works as it was described. I removed the auto mount from the beanbag feature that it is shipped with. I mounted it diretly in my vehicle with velco. It is perfect. It appears like a factory installed unit. Great graphics and graphics size for easy viewing. I would strongly recommend this item for anyone needing PDA and GPS. The Palm software interfaces flawlessly with the GPS functions. Great purchase.

My company car has a built-in GPS unit and I have gotten to like it, sort-of. I have gotten lost in a rental car trolling around Silicon Valley enough to get a portable GPS unit. After some research, the Garmin iQue 3600 is what I ended up with and I paid about $700. The unique feature of this portable GPS unit is that a PalmPilot comes integrated into the package. I use a PalmPilot, so this GPS unit replaces my PalmV. Installation was quite awkward, and getting it up and running was a chore. I got the thing synced up and some maps loaded and have been using it for several months now. It does do the job, fitfully, and has several glaring issues. Most irritating, the Palm function and the GPS function are not seamlessly integrated. If an address is entered in the Palm part and then route to this address is selected, the iQue 3600 makes you find the location. But the address from the Palm section doesn't transfer cleanly into the find section and you must retype the address. I'm left-handed and graffiti has NEVER worked for me all my letters are drawn backward. The GPS can be engaged as soon as it recognizes where you want to go, but my unit takes a good 5-10 minutes to find the satellites when first exposed to sky. This means that I must have a good idea what to do for the first 5-10 minutes. Sometimes I just drive randomly until the GPS locks in and starts to issue navigation orders. Also, the antenna must be deployed to get any GPS reception and must be forward enough in the windshield to see sky. This is OK, except that the iQue 3600 doesn't tell you that the antenna has not been deployed.
br / The iQue 3600 does not work propped up on the passenger seat so a 5 pound holder is necessary to hold the unit on the dashboard. If the antenna is not deployed, the iQue 3600 simply doesn't navigate and doesn't tell you why. Worse, it acts stupid by going into a dangerous and unhelpful simulate mode. If I ever figure out what that means, Ill tell you in a future post. I figured out the antenna problem the hard way in an ice storm outside of Ottawa. I'm a fan of GUI design, and I must say that the UI here is very, very bad. Not the worse I have ever seen, but very bad: non-intuitive, inconsistent, and arbitrary. The FIND function/button has an entirely different function in the GPS section from the Palm section. Of course, the same icon is used. I cannot imagine grandma using this thing to navigate. What little there is of the very pretty documentation is atrocious. About 10 times more information is needed here. It shuts down randomly on occasion for no apparent purpose (Battery savings maybe?).
br / The secure digital card is too small (max of 256MB), so you can't put more than a few California counties in the memory. Maps storage is managed with a rather hostile GUI. This is not fatal, but is irritating. I would rather put a 1GB SD card in the iQue 3600 and be done with it.
br / The iQue 3600 burns too much power to be used as a portable, so it must always be tethered to the car or resting in the cradle. I don't find the power issue to be a problem. I understand that to get clear, bright screens it is necessary to use power. I agree with the tradeoff here.
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This is a great PDA and GPS receiver in one. I have been using this for 3 weeks and I love it. The only problem is that it requires a soft reset atleast twice a week (pda crashes). It provides routing and voice prompts. It does provide optimal routing 75% of the time. Overall good product.

The GPS is pretty good. I am easy to get lost in a new place. But the GPS is really a good assitant for me to arrive at my destination easily and timely. It's pretty accurate. One shortcoming of it is the sound of reminding is not loud enough to hear when driving.

Realize that this unit is discontinued and probably with good reason: it just doesn't hold up. My first one lost the ability to find any satellite signals. To Garmin's great credit they replaced it even 'though it was several months out of warranty. No argument, didn't even have to ask, they just did it which leads me to believe that they knew they had problems with the design of this unit. My second one has just failed the same way about 10 months later and this time Garmin want $150 to repair/replace it. I wouldn't mind the charge so much but the fact that it has happened twice makes me think I'll only get another year out of it so why bother?
br /The maps were out of date when this thing was new and not just for new roads or developments. A major road near here has been a divided highway for ~20 years but the iQue database knew nothing about that.
br /Disappointed that my ~$500 investment has only lasted me 2 years. Agree with the others about poor battery life - you could NEVER use this unit for walking for example and somewhat of a compromise as a PDA. Should have stuck with separate units but tried to save money.

This is a terrific device. I am a long-time palm user, and this upgrade (adding the GPS and mapping) is awesome.
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br /- Simple to use.
br /- Directions are usually quite accurate.
br /- Extremely accurate regarding my location.
br /- And even the palm features are an upgrade from my most recent palm pilot!
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br /I would not recommend owning it without the auto kit. The charger includes a bigger, better speaker. And, of course, the charger includes a charger!

The accompied CD does not work. I had to call a friend to get a copy. I finally installed. It worked OK excpet that it had been no sound since after a couple of months.

I love Garmin GPS products and the PDA function of this device is great also. As long as you keep it charged and do not let the battery die it is a great product. I do not like the dash mount that does not suction cup to the window. I had this product for 3 years now and it slides across the dashboard. I had to purchase the suction cup with makes it 100% better. It also fits right into my purse for easy travel. I do not leave it in the car to prevent it from being stolen.

It works great, and I can use it on my boat (including the fishing calculator that's built in!) Would be neet to be able to choose a man's voice instead of the woman's though. Most women are always getting lost!

I've owned my Garmin IQUE for over a year, and it is now going back to Garmin again for repair for the 2nd time. The GPS works fine, however the internal memory is way underserved. It is imperative to have additional memory to download the maps. The screen has gone completely dead on me for the 2nd time, and I have handled the system with kid-gloves. I would not buy this unit again, nor recommend it to a friend. The only other user of a Garmin IQUE unit that I know, has also returned his unit for repair. They do not seem robust enough to handle the daily job of being a handheld PDA and a useful GPS system. Customer service is good, when you can get them on the phone; hold-times are ridiculously long...could be over an hour.

For the first week I wanted to throw this thing under the wheels of my car as it made me feel stupid 'cause I couldn't figure out how to make it do what I wanted it to do. I perservered and now I love it. Just hang in there, keep messing with it and eventually you will get it.

I was shopping for a GPS last year. I did a lot of research and considered this one, but ultimately decided upon the Meridian Color by Magellan. In my opinion the Meridian Color is a superior product with superior software, and it retails for about half the cost of the Garmin. I have used the Meridian Color in the US and in Europe and am very happy with my purchase. I would urge you to at least check out the Meridian Color before buying the Garmin.