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Well, it’s not really that new to me; I’ve had it for more than a month now. But I’m still having fun with it.

Some people who know me believe I hate driving. I don’t. What I hate is being lost while driving, and have to deal with the terribly incoherent (and often non-existent) traffic signs in Portugal (which seem to champion the attitude that, if you don’t know your way around here, you’re a stinkin’ stranger and aren’t welcome anyway — or at least that’s what it feels like), the incompetent, rude, aggressive and impatient Portuguese drivers (some of the worst in Europe, from what I hear) who start honking if you slow down a couple of seconds to consider which way to turn or to read a street name, and the fact that the Portuguese just love to make streets one way for no apparent reason (again, I guess it’s so that the locals can feel superior to those dirty strangers from another part of town — never mind another town).

Due to the above, I get annoyed and irritated easily, and avoid driving unless really necessary. That’s why people easily believe I hate to drive, and I can’t fault them for getting that impression.

Well, if you’re anything like me, you won’t believe the feeling of relief that comes from having a toy like this in your car.

It’s not only the fact that I don’t get stressed out anymore when driving in an unknown place. It goes beyond that. While I used to be extremely conservative and stick to routes I already knew, even if they were not the most efficient ones, nowadays it’s the opposite: I keep surprising myself by being adventurous and impulsive. "Let’s see where this way leads." Or: "Let’s see if I can go this way instead" — even though the GPS is telling me to go another way; I know that it’ll adapt its route and lead me to where I want to go — or, if I’m just exploring, I can use it to get out of there.

Since it was my first GPS, I picked the cheapest TomTom (the brand I already knew about at the time; I’ve since learned about others such as Garmin and Mio), which is so cheap that it’s not even listed on their website. It’s a "One 3rd Edition Light"; the "light" part meaning that it comes with the map for Portugal only. On their site, the lowest model includes all of the Iberian Peninsula (Portugal and Spain), and it’s at least 50 euros more expensive. Mine can be upgraded, though — it’s just a case of buying the larger map.

As an introductory model, this is great. It only does the basics (navigation): no widescreen, no 3D terrain, no MP3 or video playing, no SD card slot, no real-time traffic (although that feature isn’t available in Portugal yet, even for the more expensive models), and no other bells and whistles. Its 512 MB of RAM may not look like much, but when you consider that the Portugal map is only about 1/10th of that, and that extra voices are only about 1 MB each… I don’t think I’ll ever fill that memory space, even if I upgrade to the Iberian map.

Unless you don’t drive, or only drive between a couple of places, or are a masochist who likes to drive aimlessly when you do want to get somewhere, or, even worse, have to (argh) ask for directions , I don’t think there’s a reason not to have one of these toys in your car. And they’re user friendly enough to give to parents or other non-geeky relatives.

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