7. Finding A Restaurant (Searching for POIs)

Figure 50: Searching for a Point of Interest

In GPS speak, a "Point of Interest", or POI, is a business address saved on the GPS. You can think of the POI database as a pre-loaded yellow pages on the GPS. Most modern GPS devices come pre-loaded with a Points of Interest database, allowing you to find nearby businesses, such as restaurants, gas stations, hotels, and more.

The nuvi 1390T ships with relatively large POI database of around 6 million entries. During my testing, the nuvi was able to find just about every restaurant or nearby business I could think to throw at it.

To search for a "Point of Interest", tap on Where to? -> Points of Interest.

Figure 51: Telling the nuvi Where to Search

By default, the nuvi searches for Points of Interest (POIs) close to your current location. If you want to search for a business near a specific address, along your planned route, or near your destination address, tap "Near..." to access the "Search Near..." screen, shown below.

Figure 52: Search Near

The Search Near menu provides six different options for telling the nuvi where to search for POIs:

• Where I Am Now - Searches for businesses close to your current location
• A Different City - Searches for businesses in a city (you will be prompted to enter the city name)
• A Recent Destination - Search near a recently found destination
• A Favorite Destination - Search for POIs near a saved address (you'll then be prompted to select a stored Favorite address to search near)
• My Current Route - Searches for businesses along your current planned route (you must be navigating to a destination for this option to be selectable)
• My Destination - Searches for businesses near your destination address (you must be navigating to a destination for this option to be selectable)

Figure 53: "Where To?" Menu

Restaurants, gas stations, parking garages, and other businesses are listed in the Points of Interest database. To search for a restaurant, tap Where to? -> Points of Interest.

Figure 54: Selecting the Search Category

In this example I'll be searching for a restaurant, so I'll tap on Food from the Points of Interest page. I could have also chosen any of the following other available Points of Interest (POI) categories:

• Fuel
• Transit
• Lodging
• Shopping
• Bank/ATM
• Parking
• Entertainment
• Recreation
• Attractions
• Hospitals
• Community
• Auto Services

If you're not sure what category a given business would be found under, but know the name of the place you're searching for, tapping on Spell Name allows you to search the entire POI database for a specific name.

Figure 55: Choosing A POI Sub-Category

Some POI categories have sub-categories. For example, if you choose "Food" as the main category, you can enter a sub-category (in this case, a cuisine type). If we wanted to find the closest Mexican restaurant, for example, we could choose Mexican as the food sub-category, and the nuvi would limit the results to just Mexican restaurants.

If you don't want to narrow the results by cuisine, choose All Food to list all restaurants in the search area you specified.

Figure 56: POI Search Results

The POI search results list displays each restaurant in order of closeness to our current location, along with the exact street address, distance, and direction relative to your current position.

Figure 57: POI Details Page

Tapping on a POI in the results list displays the POI on the map, and gives you the option to save the destination into the address book, or begin navigating to the destination by tapping the large green Go! button.

Touching Press for more displays information about the route, such as estimated travel time, fuel usage, and more.

8. Saving Your HOME Address

Figure 58: Setting the Home Address

The Home address is a special saved address that provides quick, one-touch access to the address you'll probably most often use: home.

The first time you touch Go Home from the Where to? menu, the nuvi prompts you to enter your home address, as shown below.

Figure 59: Entering a Home Address

The nuvi 1390T lets you save the Home address using any of the following methods: your current location, a recently found place, or by entering a street address.

Once the Home address has been set, it can be changed anytime by tapping on Where to > Favorites > Home > Edit.