Garmin's free lifetime traffic service comes with a catch: ads

It's not exactly a shocker, but it looks like Garmin's promised free live traffic information for life on its new nüvi 7x5 and 2x5 navigators isn't exactly the completely free ride some may have hoped it was, with it instead supported by, you guessed it, ads. According to PC Magazine, its review unit arrived pre-loaded with ads for BP, Walgreens, and Wells Fargo, which always appear at the bottom of the screen when you access the traffic menu, and occasionally pop up on the map view screen (but not when you're in motion). Naturally, when you tap on the ad you get a POI search of all the nearby locations and, no, you can't disable the ads. Not exactly an unreasonable trade-off, but Garmin could be a bit more up-front about it.

[Homeboy @ Sep 5th 2008 1:02PM]

I guess we were all naiv for thinking traffic information would be 100% free.

[alexmueller @ Sep 5th 2008 1:40PM]

Well they need to recoup their costs somehow.

[Rai @ Sep 5th 2008 2:27PM]

Woot i love ads... now I have even more reason to look at my GPS and not the road while driving through rush hour traffic!

[rob @ Sep 5th 2008 4:56PM]

why would you even have to look at your gps during rush hour traffic?

[sk8rpro @ Sep 6th 2008 2:13PM]

Yay! Free ads! :)

[NeoDarkSaver @ Sep 5th 2008 1:03PM]

I'm sure there will custom firmware or just hacked OS for it.

[Kyle @ Sep 5th 2008 1:04PM]

Seems pretty fair to me, as long as the ads are small and dont pop up while I am driving, free traffic is still free traffic.

[NHAnimator @ Sep 5th 2008 1:28PM]

Naw, they won't pop up when you are driving. Just when you're at a standstill stuck in... oh, uh... wait a minute.

[Leindurstit @ Sep 5th 2008 1:07PM]

A two-part resource-hogging flash ad-deploying blog complaining about other ads on a service that's actually useful? Funny.

[7on @ Sep 5th 2008 2:10PM]

I don't see any ads on engadget...

[Kiwi616 @ Sep 5th 2008 2:42PM]

HAHA, just use Adblock Plus with Firefox

[Marvin Quach @ Sep 5th 2008 3:05PM]

Woah, you know what's weird? When I turned off the AdBlock, the picture for this article showed up...

[Hellaphunt @ Sep 5th 2008 1:12PM]

I can live with that...

[nxtiak @ Sep 5th 2008 1:22PM]

I'm jealous. I have a Nuvi 250w..

[Frun @ Sep 5th 2008 1:22PM]

A piece of electrical tape will fix that.

[Mike K @ Sep 5th 2008 1:25PM]

Based on the number of ads on PC Mag's web site I'm not sure they have the right to complain about it.

As long as the ads aren't in the way I'd probably be willing to trade free traffic for a few ads. As long as they don't make them more invasive with firmware updates or map updates.

It is a nice review (although short) comparing side by side to show how their software has evolved is helpful.

[Hellaphunt @ Sep 5th 2008 1:32PM]

If it's anything like that line of text "Walgreens - Blah blah blah" on the bottom nav bar then I can definitely live with it.

[Dan @ Sep 5th 2008 7:30PM]

Agreed, I don't think this will be a big deal if the ads are small...

[Eric Linenberg @ Mar 11th 2009 6:27PM]

GPS Fail.

[SCOTT @ Sep 5th 2008 1:52PM]

I can see it already...15 sec ad....traffic report...."traffic is bad where you are, if we didn't show the ad, we could have kept you from taking that route."

[Jason @ Sep 5th 2008 1:59PM]

You can't get somethin' for nothin'.....

Even if something's "free" you still lose your innocence. Just like when I was 10 and the man in a black mask in the unmarked van said "Hey little boy, do you want some FREE candy?"....

[andy @ Sep 5th 2008 2:23PM]

so how long before hackers remove these ads? im guess two weeks

[Ben @ Sep 5th 2008 2:31PM]

I'm sure they'll also think of a way to redirect your GPS route to the stores that are advertising.

[Spooka @ Sep 5th 2008 2:36PM]

I "HATE" MY YELLOW TEETH

[Graham @ Sep 5th 2008 6:30PM]

Then go to a dentist.

[Loban @ Sep 5th 2008 2:53PM]

I have no problem with ads on any device as long as they're unobtrusive, and don't get in the way when I trying to do other things.

[HalfJoey @ Sep 5th 2008 3:21PM]

I completely agree, I have no problem with this as long as the ads are that small near the bottom of the screen.

[maryland157 @ Sep 5th 2008 4:16PM]

Turn right in 1 mile or you might want to turn right in 500 feet to eat some Mcdonalds and try the new south west chicken sandwich.

[rob @ Sep 5th 2008 5:01PM]

ya. i hate ads. i wish we could get rid of ads in every media platform all together. let's make the internet subscription based via your isp. the isp redistributes part of the subscription fees to websites based on share of visits. how much would we have to pay to use the internet then?

while you're at it, get rid of magazine, tv, and newspaper ads too. i don't mind paying $20 for a copy of maxim mag and $15/month to watch network television ad free. who's with me?

lol

[AJ in the East Bay @ Sep 5th 2008 6:27PM]

I say it's a fair trade for free traffic reports. Gimme!!

[Michael Chastain @ Sep 5th 2008 10:59PM]

One step closer to my prediction of Google buying Garmin. You heard it here first, folks--this is only the first step.

[egytrix @ Sep 26th 2008 1:24AM]

http://www.egytrix.com
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[egtrix @ Sep 26th 2008 1:31AM]

http://www.egytrix.com
اغانى - فيديو - برامج - تبادل زيارات - ترفك - اخبار - افتصاد - مواقع كليات - افلام عربى - اجنبى
http://www.egytrix.com
اغانى - فيديو - برامج - تبادل زيارات - ترفك - اخبار - افتصاد - مواقع كليات - افلام عربى - اجنبى