Rating: 
Summary: Better than expected
Review: For biz travel, I quickly became addicted to the convenience and efficiency of the NeverLost system. The iQue is sleeker, more precise and user friendly. Our family was so impressed, we immediately bought stock in the company. If Garmin wins the contract(s) to factory equip major auto mfg's... look out.Per other reviews, the auto kit and minimum 256K card are essential. The manual is sparse (and conflicts with the CD and online guides.) The product itself is better than advertised. Practicals- not just geeks, will enjoy and use frequently.
Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic
Review: I would give it 5 stars if I hadn't had a broken pin in the power adapter port. The internal pin broke off when plugging in the AC adapter. They replaced it overnight. This is a business tool and I love it. I don't like Pocket PC and prefer Palm OS. I travel 1000 miles plus a week over 4 states and the GPS has eliminated my need for road maps. This is a 5 star device really.
Rating:
Summary: Great! ... but ..... (maps in dire need of updating)
Review: Immediately updated the OS to Release 2 upon receiving the unit. Have not experience any hard resets so far. Had a Tungsten T before getting this one and the 320x480 does give you a lot more room for the things you use most often. Calendar, Addressbook, To Do. Garmin extends the original Palm interface and adds a quick launch toolbar at the bottom of the screen (no need to buy Facer 3.0). Even the graffiti area is in the display area and you see your strokes much like Jot! but I have to tell you that the graffiti response time is slow. As far as navigation is concerned, there are no problems when navigating along major roads. I have had 2 instances where I used the Que Find, to search for an address and in both locations, it sent me to the other side of the freeway! The first time, it exited the freeway 2 exits early and used a parallel route to the vicinity of the destination but on the other side of the freeway. The unit cannot get me home without recalculating since my address is not indicated properly in the map. The street name is there but is about 1.5 miles off course and the correct street has another name on it.
Rating:
Summary: A very good product
Review: I decided to get the Garmin iQue 3600 since I needed a new Palm anyway and liked the idea of having a portable GPS for hiking and travel. Here is a brief summary of my two-week experience:
Price - very reasonable for such a bundle.
Convenience of use - very good.
Memory - an SD card is a must. The internal RAM will get you nowhere since it is all taken up. I bought a Panasonic 512 MB SD and I don't regret it. Now I have plenty of room for maps, MP3 music, third-party Palm products (including memory hogs such as dictionaries and e-books).
GPS performance - as good (or as mediocre) as you can expect from a hand-held GPS. Very good when holding horizontally outdoors, reception lost when putting in you pocket, lost when going indoors, reasonable on a car dashboard.
Software - well, you know Palm OS with all its quirks and inconviences, but this is Palm, nothing to do about it. Unfortunately, Garmin's device-specific software (Que) is no better. Worthless documentation, unhelpful Help, and some quirky procedures (most notably in Tracks and Audio).
Most troublesome point - absence of external battery pack. What is the use of a portable GPS if you can't take it on a decent half-a-day hike? Palm's own Power-to-Go is incompatible. I got Power Runner (look for it on the Web) and it is excellen t on all accounts, except for being a bit heavy.
In summary, iQue 3600 is the best of its kind, simply because it is the only device of its kind at the present (for this reason it is also the worst ...). Be prepared to spend $... on the unit,another $... on a SD card, then another handful of dollars on Power Runner, then perhaps another handful on a Car Kit, and you are ready to go.
Rating: 
Summary: Great GPS - Poor Virtual Graffiti
Review: The GPS function is awesome and it's size is easy to carry. If you're looking primarily for navigation purpose this PDA is great. If you're looking for PIM primarily, you might be disappointed by it's poor graffiti input. The ique 3600 seems to suffer from normal speed graffiti text input compared to other palm os 5.2.X devices. It has difficulty recognizing "K"s, "4"s and most of my "O"s appear as square in the virtual graffiti input area. Overall text entries respond with noticeable delays. I'm still very happy with my purchase and I will continue to use it on travels but it was necessary for me to purchase another PDA, Palm Tungsten E, for my daily PIM's.
Rating:
Summary: i find it indispensable, and i love it
Review: I've had mine since middle of August. I'll starte with the issues. In that time I've experienced the glitches mentioned elsewhere, but not enough to give up on it. I had 2 hard resets with data loss (static electricity I now realize), many soft resets with no data loss (mostly when syncing), a few times the speaker noise problem (soft reset fixed), and short battery life when power isn't nearby. That's most of the bad, and most of this is fixed with v2 of the software now available on Garmins downloads site.
Since the sw upgrade to v2, no hard or soft resets, no lost communications on syncs anymore. I've loaded many new applets and none of them have given me any problems. Be SURE not to use any that aren't specific for OS5!
What's great?
- the screen is better than anything i've seen, more bright, more resolution, and is worth the tradeoff in battery life
- the speed, fast processor to speed autorouting makes it fast for everything else, too
- the integration with contacts and calendar for waypoints is very useful, really leverages the PDA/GPS into much more than the sum of its parts, more than what other (separate) packages can
- so far it's robust, i've dropped it and still works fine
- maps are very good. i took it to europe for 3 weeks of driving, including in italy (even rome), and it was painless with this device. it has every road in the country, like where i live. the system in my brother's car that cost $2K has no roads off the freesay where i live - useless. it is truly FREEING to drive along and see all the possible roads you can take around you, updating in real time, if you're like me and like to explore. truly great.
I could go on for a month, I love it that much. So I'll switch to how to overcome it's shortcomings:
- get the car kit, period
- get a 256 MB SD card, i paid under a hundred, with that, i can put most of california, for most of a US region or to have room for MP3's, get a 512 card.
- if you're not using it, cradle it. if you're in the car, put it on the car kit cradle whether using GPS or not. with these habits, i never have problems with battery life. and it charges very quickly, too. the v2 sw puts the default brightness at 50%, which is enough 90% of the time. i use about 30% when inside, and it's still brighter than many other and completely usable. don't enable waas, no satallites anyway and 20 feet is close enough for me, and helps battery. turn off IR receiver. set auto off to 30sec. it's instant on anyway. with these changes, battery life isn't an issue for me.
- i got the small sync cable with the travel kit, but the aftermarket sync cables will also charge from the USB so might be better, check it out, targus and belkin, among others.
- get a protective case. i got one for a toshiba pocketpc that's leather with belt clip. fits perfectly, and now i don't worry about dropping it
- the antenna works best when the FLAT top face is toward the sky, NOT when it's end is pointed at the sky. used this way, it locks under a minute even when moving for me, and never loses when moving after lock unless i'm in a sea of 3+ story buildings.
- i got the external antenna, and now i can take it off the car plate to use it and it still keeps the satellites, this is a nice to have but is not very expensive
- people have said the maps are worth $100. in reality the autorouting map sets are $300. i know, i bought it for Europe, but i DO NOT REGRET IT.
- sometimes it fails to find things that are in the database, but this is rare. r2 sw may have helped but haven't tested yet. there are a few map bugaboos, like a small break in the road that i routes you around, but these are rare.
- don't load any apps that don't say OS5 compatible
- use screen protectors - the ones for Sony Clie NX70's fit perfectly (don't get sony brand, too expensive)
- upgrade the OS to v2 immediately
- have patience if you've not used a PDA or Palm before, you will get through it. the downloadable PDF manual is very good. there are dedicated sites like palmgear with lots of useful info on getting along with your PDA, as well as software reviews and downloads.
- they have posted track log and waypoint conduits now, as well a map loader update. Garmin is seriously supporting this device, don't give up on it.
Bottom line is Garmin has realized the market for these is bigger than the combined market for all of their other products. So I do believe they will support the product, and will come out with even better ones in the future. But bottom line is it works great for me, it was a bargain considering what it does, and I wouldn't wait for an upgrade and have to live without it. It's a great GPS, and with the v2 upgrade, a great PDA. it's definitely the most useful device in my life today, moreso than my computer. i'm the kind of person that never gets lost, but i never leave the house w/o my ique now. it's fun, it's useful, and it makes life easier.
Rating:
Summary: Software Upgrade worth the time
Review: I upgraded the software. It was relatively painless to do- but follow directions carefully. Sonce doing so I have not had any soft or hard resets. In addition, it appears that the HotSync works faster also. Reading the fixes involved in this update; some of them are minor improvements that probably would not be noticed by the average user, but in my opinion it made a good product even better by getting rid of "first gen bugs"
Rating:
Summary: DID YOU TRY THE NEW RELEASE TWO OF THE SOFTWARE
Review: It appears that Garmin has responded to the criticism and released an update (not patch 1, but a later update). The list of fixed problems seems to include many of the issues commented upon here. It would be helpful if users after this would only provide feedback after they have tried this update. Otherwise, we are basing our opinions on out-of-date information. Amazon's software required me to post a rating. Frankly, I just found out about the update myself and am interested the response of more experienced users who had problems with the old software to this information.
Rating:
Summary: I'm holding on to my old GPS...
Review: ...but I did give away my old Palm after trying out the iQue for a few weeks. Having used a GPS and Palm for three years, I was excited about consolidating into one unit. I'm in agreement with most of the earlier critiques regarding battery life and design issues (the antenna is simply impossible to lift out without some sort of mechanical aid). Two big concerns: First is satellite acquisition time. The only reference point with which I have to compare the iQue is my Magellan handheld, which seems to find my position after about 20 seconds. The iQue seems to take upwards of a minute with a clear shot to space--what's more annoying is that much of this delay happens AFTER it locks on to three satellites (black bars) and it still takes its time translating the position. All this is standing still--I tried acquiring a signal while moving (no overhead obstructions) and got nothing by the time I reached my destination ten minutes away. The good news is that once it does eventually lock on, the iQue recovers the signal far more quickly than my Magellan after going through tunnels, under trees, in the city with taller buildings, etc. I've only road-tested the routing function in areas I'm familiar with. Initial directions are as good (or bad) as anything you'll find through Mapquest, although calculation can be sssslowwwwww. After going off-course, the route recalculation rarely catches up with my actual position by the time I got to my destination. To use this effectively, you may have to pull over and stop for a few seconds. The other major issue is that I seem to do at least one soft reset a day, usually while attempting to multi-task. Sometimes it just freezes, other times there is bizarre squawking coming from the internal. Bottom line--if you can build a minute or two into your trip to wait for satellite acquisition (when you really need it, most of the time I know where I'm going), it's a serviceable GPS with advanced routing capabilities. Otherwise, the database accompanying the maps and MP3 player puts it a step above most other handhelds. I look back on my iQue purchase as having spent maybe $150 more than I would have for a similarly-equipped handheld without GPS. The GPS functionality you'll get for that price difference is well worth the money.
Rating:
Summary: Color, Sound directions!
Review: I don't know how I lived without this unit, well, after I figured it out anyway. I was amazed how the Ique 3600 worked in my car, boat and on my desk, it's even a Palm Pilot too. Now I plan my vacations, not by computer/web maps, but on my Ique 3600. OK, it did take me about 1 hour of fast reading to figure it out well enough to get me to work and back the same day. Now I can navigate at nite and in unfamiliar territory. When I go off-route on purpose or accidentally, it will w/i one block reroute me generally w/o sending me back to the old route and often picks a better route.
The manual is a little sketchy and vague, like no description of the location of the on/off button! But otherwise written so a computer geek would understand. I am still struggling with it.
Garmin has a help line and e-mail which helps too. For example I did not know how to keep my location on the screen without constantly dragging the map with the stylus. Now I just hit the black triangle (lower center) and the map now always shows my location in the center of the screen. Garmin has new software updates for the maps and the Ique system on their web site.
The voice command is the main selling point for me since my wife can't read maps too well, now I have another female voice in my car saying: "In .2 of a mile turn right." Shortly thereafter the female voice says: "In 200 feet turn right." At the same time at the top of the screen, it says: "Turn right on 5th Street." Wow, how do it know?
This device also gives you the time of arrival at your destination, altitude, and many other geeky items we need to know and wish we had know all these years. So far I am just practicing, but next week it's off to unfamiliar Seattle and a fun adventure with my new toy. Oh, it also is programed with restuarants, hotels, etc, not only their locations but their phone numbers as well! Get the extra memory chip, you'll need it and the auto navigator kit for your car/boat. I give it a 5+.
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