On 17 Jun 2006, at 18:33, Jim Warthman wrote: > In my experience with Garmin units, you need to run Garmin's Mapsource > application to download maps. I think there are many other > applications that > will let you upload & download waypoints, etc. - but only Garmin > software > can download maps to a Garmin GPS. I believe that's fairly standard > in the > industry, too. > > For the time being, Garmin software does not run on the Mac OS. If Mr Laubenthal is correct in his assertion that it will be running on Mac OS X shortly, tho', a Garmin might be a very good buy. I haven't really looked closely at GPS in a while, but as a paraglider pilot & instructor I used to be quite well exposed to different manufacturers & models. Garmin were always the best - well made with a very easy to use interface. They always had the best features and were a manufacturer of "dedicated" units rather than the Pocket PCs with some mapping software installed you sometimes see nowadays. There used to be alternatives to Garmin's software, and I'm sure you'd find an open-source one if that was your sort of thing. But an old PC might be useful as a stop gap - I have Pentium IIIs here that I don't have the heart to throw away - they'd probably be powerful enough to run Garmin's software as a stop-gap until they release their OS X version and I'm sure you could pick one up on your local Freecycle list <http://freecycle.org>. Stroller.