Garmin iQue 3600 GPS Auto Bundle

by Garmin

Product Details

Product Manual [2.65mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 6 x 9 x 3 inches ; 3 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 5 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B0001DB6LS
• Item model number: 010-00264-11
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #76,755 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: January 21, 2004

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

With the power of Palm OS 5 and the dependability of Garmin GPS technology, this super PDA redefines multitasking. Its integrated software not only allows you to look up appointments and contacts, it also locates and routes you to them with voice-guidance commands. Feature highlights include: GPS receiver, MP3 player, voice recorder, infrared communication, and vibrating alarm.

System
The Garmin iQue 3600 features the new Motorola DragonBall MXL ARM9 microprocessor, and boasts 32 MB DRAM. This handheld is powered by Palm OS 5, which offers the processing power to take on the most demanding mobile computing tasks, together with advanced multimedia and the wireless connectivity and security that enterprises require.

Display
The iQue 3600 delivers brilliant images with its 2.16-by-3.24-inch display. It has a 16-bit color display with 320 x 480 pixel resolution.

Expansion
Expand your iQue 3600 via its Secure Digital slot.

GPS Performance
The GPS receiver is a WAAS-enabled, 12-parallel channel GPS receiver that continuously tracks and uses up to 12 satellites to compute and update your position. You'll be able to access satellite data in approximately 15 seconds when the iQue has been on for a while, and in approximately 45 seconds when first turned on. The antenna is a flip-up, adjustable GPS antenna.

Software
The iQue 3600 comes with the following Garmin Que applications: MP3, GPS Clock, Address Lookup, Electronic Mapping, Track Log, Trip Computer, Automatic Route Generation, and Turn-by-Turn Voice Guidance, as well as these Palm OS 5 applications: Address Book, Calculator, Date Book, Expense, Mail, Memo Pad, Palm Reader, and To Do List. In addition, it includes these third-party applications: Astraware Game Pack, Documents to Go, powerOne Personal Calculator, StarCaddy, SplashPhoto, and Vindigo.

Included in the box
iQue 3600, protective display cover, metal stylus, USB HotSync cradle, A/C power/charging adapter, quick start guide, installation/application, CD-ROM with manual, and choice of MapSource configuration with full unlock certificate: either 1) North America City Select CD.

Product Description

The iQue 3600 is the first PDA to include integrated GPS technology. With the power of Palm OS(R) 5 and the dependability of Garmin(R) GPS technology, this "Super PDA" redefines multi-tasking. Our integrated software not only allows you to look up appointments or contacts, but also locates and routes you to them with voice-guidance commands!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

90 of 90 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great as a PDA and a GPS, August 30, 2004

By 

S. IYER "iQue" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Garmin iQue 3600 GPS Auto Bundle (Office Product)

First the important: Do I recommend it? Yes
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.
I recommend that you buy this unit with car mount and 512MB SD card.

Pros:
(1) All Palm functionality works fine straight out of the box, including the virtual grafiti2 as this has Palm OS 5.2.1r2
(2) iQue 3600 is stylishly built including the its sync cradle
(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
(4) Allows saving a route if you want to travel the same route later
(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.
(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.
(7) Turn-by-turn voice instructions along with pop-up on the maps are extensive with an option to turn off the voice instructions.
(8) You could also preview the turns at any time for an active trip
(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.
(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.
(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.

Cons:
(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.
(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.
(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.
(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.
(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.

Overall, I am quite excited and happy in the first week of using this unit.

71 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Product But Has Some Quirks, November 7, 2004

By 

Richard A. Birdsall (Jacksonville, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Garmin iQue 3600 GPS Auto Bundle (Office Product)

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.

**A bright, clear display large enough for even 55-year old eyes to see map details easily.
**With the 256-MB memory card plenty of memory to download 3 or 4 state maps.
**Excellent point-to-point map routes.
**Quick recalculation.
**Tied to the address book it offers routing to all your friends' houses, businesses, clients, etc.
**good sync routine to sync up PC and IQUE databases and maps.

The bad news:

**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.
**When driving into the sun the display is difficult to see.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mind Blowing, December 15, 2004

By 

Mr. GPS - See all my reviews

This review is from: Garmin iQue 3600 GPS Auto Bundle (Office 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.

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.

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.

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.

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)