Figure 25: Garmin Nuvi 660 Mounted on the Windshield

Figure 26: Turning off Safe Mode

The first time you try to use the Nuvi 660 while driving, the screen shown above appears. "Safe Mode" makes it so you cannot use the nuvi while the vehicle is in motion. I find Safe Mode annoying, so I answered yes and disabled it. Apart from the need to re-calculate a route, or enter a new address, the passenger may want to use the GPS. So I found it best to leave Safe Mode disabled.

4. Using the Garmin nuvi 660

Figure 27: System Information

The Nuvi 660 I'm testing is running version 2.0 software, as shown above in the "System and Copyright info" screen.

Figure 28: Map Info

The nuvi 660 comes pre-loaded with City Navigator North America NT v8, which includes full map coverage of North America.

Figure 29: Main Page

Figure 26 shows the Main Page screen on the Nuvi 660. This is the screen you see when the nuvi 660 is powered on. From here you can view the battery life, GPS signal strength, view the map, enter a destination, or use the Travel Kit.

Figure 30: The Map Page

This is the nuvi Map Page. This is the screen shown during normal navigation. Touching the plus and minus icons zooms in and out on the map. The purple line indicates the route you should follow. The lower-left hand corner of this page displays the estimated arrival time. Touching the arrival time opens the trip information page. Touching the blue button just to the right of arrival time brings up the main menu. Touching the blue note icon brings up the integrated MP3 player, and touching the "Turn In" box brings up the Next Turn page.

Figure 31: Trip Information Page

The Trip Information page shows your current speed, along with various other statistics. Not sure how useful this feature is (unless you want to find out how fast the Mrs. was driving while you were asleep on that long drive), but I suppose it could be fun/interesting for long road trips.

Figure 32: Next Turn Page

You can manually bring up the Next Turn page at any time to view your next maneuver by tapping on "Turn In" from the map view".

This is also useful if you want to repeat the last navigation prompt. While I liked having this feature available, I sometimes found the nuvi was too slow to render the map display. Also, I wished there was a way to set the feature to automatically appear shortly before a turn (Magellan's interface does this).

5. Finding Addresses

Figure 33: Where to?

Entering a destination address on the nuvi 660 is a simple process . From the main menu, tapping "Where to?" brings up the destination menu (shown below).

Figure 34: Choosing a destination address type

After tapping on "Where to?", the nuvi 660 prompts you to choose whether you'll be entering a street address (Address), going to the saved Home address (Go Home), searching for a point of interest (Food, Hotels...), choosing an address from the list of recently found destinations (Recently Found), choosing a saved address from the address book (Favorites), routing to a cross street (Intersections), or a city center (Cities). The Extras icon is for loading additional future custom POIs, such as speed camera locations, and other additional data Garmin may make available for purchase via their website.

Figure 35: Choosing a destination address type, page 2

Tapping the more icon (the down-arrow on the bottom right corner) brings up additional choices for entering a destination address. Notice the two additional icons in figure 35: Browse Map and Coordinates. Browse Map allows you to select a point on the map as a destination to route to. Coordinates allows you to enter longitude and latitude coordinates.

Figure 36: Entering an Address - Selecting the State

Selecting "Address" as the destination type brings up the State selection screen, shown above. By default the nuvi asks if you want to use the State you're currently in. To choose a different state, tap "Spell State".

Figure 37: Choosing the city

The next step is selecting the city. If you know what city your destination address is in, you can enter it here. If you're not sure what city the destination address is in, you can choose to search all cities and have the nuvi product a list of all cities that have street names that match your destination address.