New Golf Guru 4

[dmartin1976]

I got mine today, can't wait to try it, they were out of hats, no biggie, but for some reason I only got 1 screen protector, I paid for it, but I was expecting two since they said they're giving one for free, I can't wait for the nav to come out. I hope they don't get too back logged and are able to get the aervu maps out. I like the screen and lay outs, have to try some movies and music, although I doubt I'll use that very much, I also like how they list distances to the courses loaded. It would be really neat if the nav software had golf courses loaded on the maps it comes with, just locations, not the golf guru maps, since it's made for golf it would be cool to be aware where golf courses and/or driving ranges are where ever you are.

[dmartin1976]

I got mine today, can't wait to try it, they were out of hats, no biggie, but for some reason I only got 1 screen protector, I paid for it, but I was expecting two since they said they're giving one for free, I can't wait for the nav to come out. I hope they don't get too back logged and are able to get the aervu maps out. I like the screen and lay outs, have to try some movies and music, although I doubt I'll use that very much, I also like how they list distances to the courses loaded. It would be really neat if the nav software had golf courses loaded on the maps it comes with, just locations, not the golf guru maps, since it's made for golf it would be cool to be aware where golf courses and/or driving ranges are where ever you are.

[dmartin1976]

I got mine today, can't wait to try it, they were out of hats, no biggie, but for some reason I only got 1 screen protector, I paid for it, but I was expecting two since they said they're giving one for free, I can't wait for the nav to come out. I hope they don't get too back logged and are able to get the aervu maps out. I like the screen and lay outs, have to try some movies and music, although I doubt I'll use that very much, I also like how they list distances to the courses loaded. It would be really neat if the nav software had golf courses loaded on the maps it comes with, just locations, not the golf guru maps, since it's made for golf it would be cool to be aware where golf courses and/or driving ranges are where ever you are.

[tlputer]

I have a Clic Cart that has the umbrella mount on the top of the handle. I took a piece of 1/8 inch plastic about 2 by 4 inches, heated it up a bit and bent it up at a 30 deg angle or so and drilled a hole in the end, mounted with a wing-ended screw from Home Depot. Some adhesive Velcro on the back of the G002 and plastic and you're good to go. I rounded off the end towards the mount a bit with a scroll saw to keep my hand from bumping into it.

 

The screw is a standard thread - too many Stolys ago to remember the size. :man_in_love:

[PsychoMike]

Golf Guru 4 Review

 

I took the Guru 4 out today for a round along with the Guru 2 to compare both.

 

I echo many of the other reviewers that stated the user interface is sub-par and requires improvement. Recording the advanced stats were frustrating to the point of throwing the Guru 4 in the garbage can.

 

Read on if stats are important to you.

 

Entering stats in the Guru 4 is a crap shoot. A scroll wheel (similar to Blackberry) added to the side of the Guru 4 would have made this Win CE interface work.

 

Positives:

1) Bright screen and very easy to read.

2) Distance is spot on compared to the Guru 2

3) Music and video player all work fine.

 

Negatives:

1) User interface is awful.

I doubt the user interface was tested thoroughly. So frustrating to scroll and choose stats after each hole. Scrolling is cumbersome and inaccurate. Gave up recording stats after the 3rd hole

2) Battery life.

I had the the Guru 4 fully charged the night before. By the 17th hole, I had only one bar left. Screen brightness was set to the highest with 30 sec timeout. Forget about playing two rounds.

3) Bulk. For those that are used to carrying the Guru 2 in your pocket, the bulk will get in the way. I often need to do this for holes when it is cart path only due to wet conditions and have to carry additional clubs to the ball location.

 

Conclusion: I'll probably return the Guru 4 and keep the Guru 2 until the user interface issues have been corrected. The battery life on the Guru 2 is also superior. Played two rounds and still had 3 bars left.

 

I am also considering Golfshot GPS for the iPhone as a backup golf GPS product. Waiting for 3GS to arrive. The interface of that app was done well according to many reviewers and appears to be compelling since the aerial maps are free. I'll still keep my Guru 2 though.

[tlputer]

This battery thing is pretty concerning. It's not a surprise considering the brightness of the screen, but also considering how thick the thing is, it should have three times the battery of my G002. After GTakics insight and background, coupled with the CE OS and Chinese manufacture, it's starting to make me wonder.

 

Is there ANYONE out there that has received the G004 upgrade that hasn't kept every piece of packaging and left the protective screen plastic on until you have several rounds in?

 

It I do keep it, it's only because it feels like a $200 investment. But at the same time, I keep looking at the G002 sitting next to it and losing a bit of faith. I have put that unit throught hell and it's never never let me down. Another thing that bothers me is the lack of hazard marks compaired to what uPro seems to show.

 

I think I'll leave this post for a while and visit the uPro posts a bit.

 

Mildly Disillusioned in Denver

[tlputer]

ChoppingBroccoli asked for some photos of the mount I have on my cart so I thought I would post a few:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cmegolf]

You can adjust the light delay all you want turn it down as dimm as you can ,to still be able to see and one round of golf is all you get WILL BE RETURNIG Now which GPS do i go with?

[Rickochet]

You can adjust the light delay all you want turn it down as dimm as you can ,to still be able to see and one round of golf is all you get WILL BE RETURNIG Now which GPS do i go with?

 

Maybe the G4 is a battery hog or they did not put in a battery with enough capacity. My friend leaves his color Golf Buddy Pro on full bright (dim turned off) and he gets multiple rounds with no problems. I find it difficult to believe that the engineers did not factor in a battery at least capable of full brightness operation for at least 6 hours. I have not decided if I will keep mine or not. I never play multiple rounds in one day but on occasion I do forget to recharge my GPS or get an impromtu round before I recharge. The iGolf Neo I had would recharge from a round in less than 30 minutes. The G4 takes a couple of hours if you are down to the last bar.

 

I will definitely be emailing GG.

[PlaneMaker]

My G0002 is the best golf purchase I have made in a while.

 

I am a bit disappointed by the initial reviews of G0004.

 

Make me wonder if having to many functions is a good thing. Maybe they would have been better off sticking to a golf specific unit.

 

However, based on my experience with G0002 unit I am willing to bet that they will eventually get all of kinks worked out. Still I am not jumping on G0004 unit at this time.

[cmegolf]

Had the 02 and loved it just wanted the aerial view,color,road navigation

Now with all the problems of the 04 ,support says it could be 2 months before i can get another 02 But would still have to return the 04 within the 30 day policy

Not able to down load aerial views on any of my courses

If the battery would last i could over look the glare issue and touchy pad in the score card section,i believe that will be fixed anyway

As one said in a post ,great customer service as far as call back and response but not able to resolve the problem

I just do not know what to do at this point! Hopefully customer service will ease everyones mind with some info on how they are going to fix these issues so that will will have a gps that works as advertised on their web page

[GoToTheJoe]

I have a Clic Cart that has the umbrella mount on the top of the handle. I took a piece of 1/8 inch plastic about 2 by 4 inches, heated it up a bit and bent it up at a 30 deg angle or so and drilled a hole in the end, mounted with a wing-ended screw from Home Depot. Some adhesive Velcro on the back of the G002 and plastic and you're good to go. I rounded off the end towards the mount a bit with a scroll saw to keep my hand from bumping into it.

 

I use this on my Clicgear...just need to put the attaching button on the back of the unit and it attaches where the umbrella does. Has been working great for me but need to try it with the G4 still.

 

http://www.backyard-putting-greens.com/Pro...ELAID=318770928

[m4michigan]

Just an update from my previous post.

 

I went out again today with the G4 and placed the dimmer delay on “30sec”and brightness on 100%. I didn’t use it to keep score or stats but got yardage for almost every shot for two players. Used the mark feature a few times and it worked well. The battery lasted very well and pressing the screen when I needed a reading was really no big deal. As a matter of fact it still has two bars left after a five hour round. I’m really surprised that it made that big of a difference but it’s the only thing I changed. So it appears that if you manage your usage on the G4 you could get two rounds on one charge or two rounds in a day. I think if you used the score and stat features it would decrease this time but you should be able to get a full round in no problem.

 

PS Still no word from GG about the mapping issues.

[Rickochet]

Just an update from my previous post.

 

I went out again today with the G4 and placed the dimmer delay on “30sec”and brightness on 100%. I didn’t use it to keep score or stats but got yardage for almost every shot for two players. Used the mark feature a few times and it worked well. The battery lasted very well and pressing the screen when I needed a reading was really no big deal. As a matter of fact it still has two bars left after a five hour round. I’m really surprised that it made that big of a difference but it’s the only thing I changed. So it appears that if you manage your usage on the G4 you could get two rounds on one charge or two rounds in a day. I think if you used the score and stat features it would decrease this time but you should be able to get a full round in no problem.

 

PS Still no word from GG about the mapping issues.

 

Thanks for the info. I will be playing 18 on Sat. and Sun. and will use the same settings. I emailed GG this morning over my concerns about the battery capacity and have not received a reply back yet.

[corosario]

Went out for the first time today with the GG4. Made the request yesterday to have Aervu for one of the courses that I regularly play, but went out anyways using the simple map. My only prior experience with a GPS device is with a Sonocaddie V300 from a friend that I use when we play together.

 

I missed the overview of the hole layout since I got so used to the V300 when planning a shot. The GG4 did provide info regarding hazards, such as distance to the center of the water, distance to clear water, distance to sand bunkers, etc.; but I still want to try the Aervu map to make a final decision if I want to keep it or not. As of right now, without the Aervu, I would return the unit to get a V300.

 

The GG4 was very helpful when planning the approach shot. It was great to be able to move the pin location. Granted...if the green was small there wasn't much of a difference on distance, but when the green had an irregular shape or when it was a large green it was great to get a more accurate measurement. I used the same setting as m4michigan: 100% brightness and 30 secs and at the end of the round I still had 2 bars left. I did not use the score card and only used the mark function once. I'm still trying to get used to the interface..is not that user friendly (compared to the Sonocaddie V300).

 

Hopefully, I can get the Aervu map for the course soon to try it out a couple of times before I decide if I want to keep it or not.

[pflogger]

I broke down and purchased the Guru 4 since I said I'd get a color device if someone came out with a unit that would do road navigation. Still waiting on that part, but knowing how well they have supported my G002 unit, I ain't too worried yet.

 

As a life long technician in the semiconductor industry, I have no problems pulling things apart to see what makes them tick. After reading about the battery life issues, I thought I'd do a little checking. I have been able to get about 6-7 hours out of the Guru 4 with the dim setting off, and full brightness. I haven't tried the dim settings yet, but I opened up the Guru and did a little checking on what this thing does when it's running, and when it's charging. Here's what I found:

 

The battery is a 3500 mAh battery. That's a big battery for a handheld device. With the lcd on full bright and no dimming, the device draws about 310 mAh of current. The battery quits charging at 4.15 volts. Starting at that level, I let the Guru sit until it shut off on its own. It shut off right at 7 hours, and indicated a voltage level of 3.45 volts. I did this twice, and both times I got about the same amount of time before it quit.

 

With the screen in the dim mode, the current draw dropped to around 170 mAh, a little more than half of what full bright draws. Since full voltage is 4.15 and cutoff is around 3.45, this would give you about 2200 mAhs of useful life. Using simple math, this equates to the 7 hours I observed in real life. I didn't wait around to see how long it would last with the dim setting on all the time, but from the math perspective, it should go around 12.5 hours or so.

 

Since it seems that the Guru should get at least 7 hours running at full bright all the time, and I have been getting around that in real life, that brings up a couple of points about lithium-ion batteries in general. The first point is, NEVER TRUST THE BATTERY STATUS INDICATOR! Why? Because MOST li-ion battery fuel gauges (battery indicator) do not look at the actual battery voltage or current levels. Take my word for this as it's pretty technical, and we don't want to get too descriptive here. Rather, these indicators (called accumulators) are looking only at the time current is flowing into the battery (charging), or out of the battery (draining). It is very easy for a battery level indicator to lose calibration with the actual state of the battery. I'm going to cut this off and move on to the advice here.

 

DO NOT CHARGE YOUR GURU 4 USING THE USB CABLE AND A COMPUTER USB PORT as you could do with previous Guru models.This cable will not work for charging. The Guru 4 is using a non standard usb configuration for charging. Use only the wall charger or car charger that came with it. These chargers are supplying voltage on an extra pin, and standard usb cables don't do this. It would take at least 80 hours to charge a dead Guru on a usb/computer port combination. It will indicate a charge, so don't be fooled.

 

For gosh sakes, throw it on the charger overnight! This is a big battery, but it will still fully charge in 6 to 7 hours. Don't stand over the battery indicator waiting until the level reaches full. Remember, your indicator may be lying to you. Allowing it to charge the full 7 hours (at least), which will insure that your battery level indicator is in sync with the actual battery condition.

 

Don't let the battery run down fully. Li-ion batteries last longer and behave much better if you charge them before they get to the point where the device dies. Charge them often, and leave them on the charger when not in use. A good charger design will not overcharge the battery. I have three year old iPods that are running strong that never come off the charger, when so many folks out there complain of short battery life. I'm coming off my technician soap box now. From what I've see so far, I'm very happy with my Guru 4. My family has all the mp3 players and nav units around here, and I've just never been inclined to get them. Now, for the price of a color golf gps unit, I can have them all. Sorry this was so long, but hopefully it will help some to get the max time out of their batteries.

[GTakacs]

I played 6 holes tonight (had to cut my round short due to family emergency). I have used the Guru 4 and I loaned my G002 to my buddy for the day. Bottom line is I missed my G002. The Guru 4 just felt weird and heavy in my pocket. I had it set on 30 sec delay for the dimmer and 100% brightness and I came home with 3+ bars, so I think the battery will last a while in this mode.

 

I usually keep score, stats and use the mark feature on my G002 all the time but today I got so frustrated with the interface that I didn't. The place where it shows "To Mark:0" actually gets covered by the soft buttons so you constantly hide and show these buttons as they're needed to push the Mark button but then you have to hide it to actually see the Mark display. Totally aggravating. After a while I just said "screw it!"

 

Entering my score is usually a "right,right,right,down,right,center" with the joystick (triple bogey,3-putt) on the G002. On this unit it's "touch menu open, touch strokes, touch right, touch right, touch putts line, touch right again to fix my strokes that just decremented instead of the cursor jumping to the Putts line, touch putts line again, touch right arrow, touch SAVE". "GAH!" "Screw this!"

 

While the Guru 4 gives you advanced stats, there is just no way I'll be touching, page flipping, fixing screw-ups for all those lines. I didn't even bother with them that is how frustrated I got after trying to enter my score. I just used a pencil instead to track my stats! On the G002 everything is just intuitive with the joystick and works like it should. If they would port the advanced stats feature onto the G002 I might be inclined to even use them.

 

All in all today's outing just cemented in my decision to return the Guru 4 and keep my G002. I have also played with my friend's iPhone at work and there are $30 apps that would blow the pants off the GUI of the Guru 4. I'm not buying an iPhone any time soon, I'd have an Android long before that, but after seeing that screen and that GUI it was just too much contrast for one day.

 

If you ride on a cart, keep the unit on a holder and not in your pocket, have to have the bigger screen, you don't want to use the scoring and stats feature and don't mind tapping the screen every time you want to take a reading, the Guru4 might be for you. I for one will stick with my G002 and hope that some of the features of the Guru 4 will make it onto the G002 as well.

 

As for the Guru folks, I have sent them my original "review" and a list of actual concerns such as custom club lists, historical marks that work without the GPS syncing and are downloadable and organizable and mapping feature on the Guru 4 that actually work on Tuesday at 15:30 Central Time. As of now I've heard nothing but the crickets chirping...... I can only hope they're too busy fixing the things that they don't have time to respond......

 

Oh and I have requested an AverVue map on Monday night for the course I have just played which still shows pending......

[cmegolf]

In response to the battery life Good info learned something new

But still does not help the fact that you have to limit the use of the gps

 

When out side in full sun light you have to turn the light all the way to see,their is a serious glare issue I am trying to buy anti glare strips to see if that helps

 

The web page states 12 hrs give or take an hour i know,but when try to use the GG4 as compared to GG2 or V300 such as score card ,stats,markings etc. it does not compare. I had the GG2 and could do all these features in three rounds of golf where you are saying 2 rounds maybe if i limmit all functions i can just use the gps No not for $350.00 this unit is not sub par to others in that price range maybe $200

 

GG2 is user friendly last multible rounds and has no wher near the glare issues with the GG4

 

Still not able to get any AerVu courses and time is running out before the 30 day trial ends, would be nice to use on several courses to truly see how it works

 

I would love to keep this unit if i could use it as intended with out all these limitations just to get in a round of golf im focusing alot on the gps battery ,light than i am having fun enjoying the game

 

By the comparison chart it is 1# above all and thats why i am waiting on Guru support to let us know how and when these issues will be resolved and not after the

30 day trial

 

Just would like to hear from GG support they have always responded quikly within hours now its been days

[Rickochet]

The battery is a 3500 mAh battery. That's a big battery for a handheld device. With the lcd on full bright and no dimming, the device draws about 310 mAh of current. The battery quits charging at 4.15 volts. Starting at that level, I let the Guru sit until it shut off on its own. It shut off right at 7 hours, and indicated a voltage level of 3.45 volts. I did this twice, and both times I got about the same amount of time before it quit.

 

With the screen in the dim mode, the current draw dropped to around 170 mAh, a little more than half of what full bright draws. Since full voltage is 4.15 and cutoff is around 3.45, this would give you about 2200 mAhs of useful life. Using simple math, this equates to the 7 hours I observed in real life. I didn't wait around to see how long it would last with the dim setting on all the time, but from the math perspective, it should go around 12.5 hours or so.

 

Since it seems that the Guru should get at least 7 hours running at full bright all the time, and I have been getting around that in real life, that brings up a couple of points about lithium-ion batteries in general. The first point is, NEVER TRUST THE BATTERY STATUS INDICATOR! Why? Because MOST li-ion battery fuel gauges (battery indicator) do not look at the actual battery voltage or current levels. Take my word for this as it's pretty technical, and we don't want to get too descriptive here. Rather, these indicators (called accumulators) are looking only at the time current is flowing into the battery (charging), or out of the battery (draining). It is very easy for a battery level indicator to lose calibration with the actual state of the battery. I'm going to cut this off and move on to the advice here.

 

DO NOT CHARGE YOUR GURU 4 USING THE USB CABLE AND A COMPUTER USB PORT as you could do with previous Guru models.This cable will not work for charging. The Guru 4 is using a non standard usb configuration for charging. Use only the wall charger or car charger that came with it. These chargers are supplying voltage on an extra pin, and standard usb cables don't do this. It would take at least 80 hours to charge a dead Guru on a usb/computer port combination. It will indicate a charge, so don't be fooled.

 

For gosh sakes, throw it on the charger overnight! This is a big battery, but it will still fully charge in 6 to 7 hours. Don't stand over the battery indicator waiting until the level reaches full. Remember, your indicator may be lying to you. Allowing it to charge the full 7 hours (at least), which will insure that your battery level indicator is in sync with the actual battery condition.

 

Great info flogger. My jaw dropped when I saw that the battery was 3500 mAh. I have been tinkering with electric RC aircraft using Lipos for several years.

I have few questions about the battery:

 

1. Did it have any part numbers on it?

2. Does is have a plug or is it hardwired?

3. Is there any room in the unit for a larger battery?

 

Also I would caution everyone to only use the OEM supplied chargers. Some varieties of lithium batteries can explode and start fires if improperly charged. Use the supplied chargers and you will be ok.

 

Great info on the chargers as well. The unit has a yellow light when charging and it goes green. Regarding the accuracy of the charge indicators are you suggesting that the yellow/green light may also not indicate a full charge? After a round with full brightness and dim off mine took about two hours to get the green light to come on using the wall charger. In my earlier post I did not overnight charge it and only charged it a couple of hours until the green light came on. I will be playing tomorrow and give it a good overnight charge.

 

Thanks for the great posting.

 

Rick

[ChoppingBrocolli]

Kudos to pflogger for a great explanation of the battery. As a non-Technical person, I found it educational and useful and I could follow his explanation.

 

And to GTakacs, I laughed at your "right,right,right,down,right,center" with the joystick (triple bogey,3-putt). I am in that club too.

 

What is ironic is....here we are with a unit that we have had for a whole week, and are analyzing milliamps and button strokes, but NO ONE has used the AerVu function yet (and given a review on it). That is the reason I bought the unit. Otherwise the G002 is fine for me. (My home course has had a "pending" AerVu map since Monday.)

 

Hopefully, this afternoon I will use it on a course (one of the few) that have the AerVu capability. Hold on to your milliamps for my review. :golfer:

[bigblue]

I sent mine back yesterday. I am sticking with the guru 3. I have other devices to do the other things. If they come out with a golf gps only with a touch screen that feels good in your hand I will get one of those, but I did not like how the guru 4 felt to hold.

[GTakacs]

I sent mine back yesterday. I am sticking with the guru 3. I have other devices to do the other things. If they come out with a golf gps only with a touch screen that feels good in your hand I will get one of those, but I did not like how the guru 4 felt to hold.

 

Sounds like folks who're waiting for refurb G002s will have a long time to wait......

[phil75070]

Based on all of the early reviews, it doesn't look like I will upgrade from my G003! I am very disappointed in the new product release from Golf Guru, especially if they do not plan to continue to offer the G002 and G003 other than refurbished units. It looks like this was going to be their "flagship" product and for it to have so many issues that could have been caught during beta testing is unfortunate. Of course, since it looks like they are not the ones to actually build this unit, they may not have designed it either and thus don't have the "control" to make certain changes. It appears they have made the mistake of trying to make a golf GPS out of a product designed as something else by just running their software on it. That was the same mistake SkyGolf made with the SG3 and SG4 which were modified Magellan Explorer devices.

[PsychoMike]

2nd update and some clarification:

 

I took the Guru 4 for another round yesterday. I really want to like this product. I see the potential.

 

Here's the synopsis:

 

I was able to enter statistics fairly well by moving the page up/down, arrow strip to the left side of the screen. This made it much easier to select the statistic in question with the right thumb and then select yes, no, etc. with the left thumb on the strip using the arrows and page up/down. One usability item that still drives me crazy is that FIR is toward the bottom of the screen and when you select Yes or No the screen jumps up to the top. The ordering of the stats doesn't make sense either. I would think you would want to enter stats as the shots occur, i.e. FIR, then GIR, then SAND, CHIP, Putts, etc.

 

Currently the GIR stat is before FIR causing unnecessary scrolling when entering stats.

 

Battery life again was poor. It was in red depleted status by the 17th hole and I was only getting yardage to the green. I did notice the yellow LED never went off or green the night when I was charging it connected to the PC.

 

I just saw the posts above about charging the battery with the wall charger. Doh. I was using the usb port on the PC. The Guru folks should have stated this clearly in the quickstart guides.

 

The user manual for the Guru 4 stating the above should be released sometime today and an update will be posted next Wednesday to fix the mapping issues according to tech support.

 

I am leaning more toward keeping the Guru 4 if the battery life works out.

 

With their awesome customer service, I hope the usability issues will eventually be worked out.

 

One more bug to report. It's probably an issue with the website though, but the Guru folks are now aware of it. When uploading your score/stats the date of play is not reflected properly and incorrectly reflects a date of 11/30/1999. I hope this is fixed as well soon.

[BlackDiamondPar5]

Based on all of the early reviews, it doesn't look like I will upgrade from my G003! I am very disappointed in the new product release from Golf Guru, especially if they do not plan to continue to offer the G002 and G003 other than refurbished units.

 

Phil, I certainly hope they continue to offer the G002. Were you told they aren't offering the 002 or 003 anymore? I have sent a request to customer service about "new" G002 availability because I have a few friends interested. I'd be disappointed to hear if they were to discontinue the 002, because that device is simply outstanding.

 

GTakacs, You have stated that the software running on the G4 looks like a ported version of the previous guru software. If that is the case, then I wonder if the next logical step would be to have a software only version from Guru that would run on a Blackberry, iphone and other popular devices?

[colonel]

Aervu and guru4 comments.

 

I played my first round with the new guru4 yesterday and thought I would throw in my two cents regarding the AerVu feature as well as the device itself.

 

First, let me state that my expectations were pretty lofty. After reading all of the praises for the G002 and G003 on this and other threads, I was genuinely excited to try this thing out. Ease of use, accuracy, and user interface were items that I thought would definitely meet, if not exceed my expectations. I was also anxious to see the AerVu application in action.

 

The AerVu function was, in my honest opinion, a flop. I was really let down, especially knowing that GG was going to charge $9.00 for any additional AerVu courses. There is a map of the hole, a fairly accurate map, but that is it. The "shot plan" feature really becomes a distraction once you have hit it left/right/near/far of your original landing spot. I know you can change the plan after your teeball, but who has time for that? Distances to the hazards on the AerVu map are not shown. Marking points to the hazards are indicated in red, but no yardages on the AerVu screen for hazards. You have to scroll to another "view" to see them, which is a real inconvenience; especially if you want to return to the Aervu screen before you tee off. I won't be spending the money for any additional AerVu courses at this time.

 

User interface on this device is horrible. I was playing in a threesome following a foursome, so needleass to say, we had some waiting time between shots, but I was still having trouble entering my data without holding up play. I was so frustrated with recording my score and stats, that I stopped after the 4th hole. I was using the provided stylus, but I still had lots of trouble getting the score/stat value to go in the direction I wanted (up or down, left/right, yes/no). Then after scrolling down to the additional stat categories per hole and entering a value for the 1st stat listed on the 2nd page, the device would unexplicably jump back up to the 1st screen! Very frustrating, and like I said, by the 4th hole, I just gave up.

 

Size. If you are marking each shot, then you need to carry the device with you. Right? I mean you can't drive the cart to the greenside bunker if you happen to miss the green. You must carry the device to the green if you want to mark your approach shot. The guru4 is really a tad too large to easily slide in and out of your pocket. I cleared my pocket of everything else, but I still had trouble getting the unit in and out of my pocket. Again, frustrating, so I gave this up by the 6th hole. I marked my tee ball all day, but that was the only distances that I bothered to record. I know that you can place the device on the ground while you putt or hit a chip shot, but what about if the ground is wet, or there is a slight rain falling. It's just more practical to be able to put a GPS in your pocket, and the guru4 is too large to do this without aggravation.

 

Reliability. Overall, the yardage was spot on, but I had two different occasions that I got a really funny number. Example: I have played hundreds of rounds at the course that I used the guru4 on, so I know that the yardage for this particular shot is @ 125-130 yards, but the guru4 is telling me that it is 97 yards to the middle of the green. After 45 seconds, the yardage has moved up to 105 to the middle of the green. I compromise, deciding to trust this unit that I've just spent $350 for, so I play the yardage as 115. I hit it good and came up 5 yards short. This happened on one other occasion yesterday on a different hole.

 

The green view screen is usless. Moving the pin placement to the extreme front or back of the green never varied the yardage by more than two yards. A totally non-functioning or useless feature if you ask me.

 

All in all, this device seems to be a pretty reliable GPS for providing distances, but the bells and whistles just weren't all they were cracked up to be. I plan on calling GG to see when the will have a G002 in stock and give it a whirl. I'll play a few more rounds with the guru4 before I make a final decision, though.

[dougsmithsr]

I sent mine back yesterday. I am sticking with the guru 3. I have other devices to do the other things. If they come out with a golf gps only with a touch screen that feels good in your hand I will get one of those, but I did not like how the guru 4 felt to hold.

 

I sent mine back yesterday as well. The unit is just to big and bulky to be usable on the golf course for me and I don't know about everyone else but I just could not see the thing very clear in bright sunlight. And trying to manipulate all of the screens on the course was frustrating and darn hard to do for me. I am sure the G002 and G003 are great products, but the G4 is just not ready for prime time right now. I went out and got a Sonocaddie V300 on clearance and just love it.

[GTakacs]

GTakacs, You have stated that the software running on the G4 looks like a ported version of the previous guru software. If that is the case, then I wonder if the next logical step would be to have a software only version from Guru that would run on a Blackberry, iphone and other popular devices?

 

The original G002 and G003 is using an Atmel processor and an LCD screen that the Guru people have sourced themselves and built the interface for it themselves in-house. I don't know what kind of development environment they have used for this Atmel chipset and if the code was written in C/C++ or something else. I'd suspect C/C++. They probably had to write their own APIs to talk with the GPS, Display and button interface. I'd think the only difference between the G002 and G003 software is the Display API and the color background and color flags and markers. So any change they have made to the G002 would be pretty much identical to the G003 unless it was a b/w LCD or color LCD API specific change in which case they had to write the fix twice, once for each unit or only once if it only affected one display and not the other.

 

With the new G004 they went to a different platform that has a different GPS, Display and user input device. These APIs had to be rewritten from scratch. Since there are no real buttons on the G004 they also had to emulate them with software buttons on the touch screen. Whoever wrote that API for the Guru 4 should be shot. It looks and feels like a dirty fix. If the GPS unit in both the G002/G003 and the G004 use NMEA protocol then they did not have to rewrite that code much. For example the G002 and G003 GPS units will report which WAAS locations are used in the Differential GPS mode while the one in the G004 does not. Their GPS status screen was not updated to remove "Satellites Used" from the debug screen even though the Guru 4 does not provide this information. But overall they are probably very similar and use the aforementioned NMEA 1083 protocol.

 

For them to provide a full blown software solution for blackberry, iPhone and Android it would require them to:

1) Get familiar with the specific APIs of each unit's display, gps and user input devices.

2) Write all these from scratch and use the same core software.

 

The issue I'm seeing with this is that:

1) they probably don't have the manpower to port these software hooks to all these APIs.

2) their software and user interface was optimized for a 6 key, 1 joystick device, with a black and white screen not a touchpad device with full color display (I never understood the allure of the G003, it gave you nothing extra over the G002 except the 200 course memory). This is why the G004 looks so terrible and behaves so terrible. I would not recommend them trying to compete against GolfShot on the iPhone in their current incarnation, they just don't stand a chance.

3) It's a lot more profitable to import a GPS device with Windows CE 5.0 Core with a basic core shell application from China for $120, putting your software executable on it and selling the unit for $360 than selling a golf app in the iTunes App Store for $29.99. The biggest issue with these iPhone apps though is the lack of WAAS that is required for the accuracy we need on the golf course. They haev some other kind of weird augmentation system from the cell towers but their accuracy is still questionable.

 

If you look closely, Golf Guru folks probably have more background in legal practice, patent law and electrical engineering than software programming. Their guys are not programmers. They are EEs who designed very nice hardware for the G002 and G003. The G004 is their first real entry into developing a pure software product onto someone else's platform. So far I'm not impressed.

 

Their patent on Golf GPS reminds me of SmartParts, a paintball gun manufacturer who was started up by two brothers who happened to be patent attorneys and had the brains to patent the electrical trigger system for paintball guns then went on to sue every single paintball gun manufacturer for patent infringement. The little ones folded and the big ones ended up paying them fat licensing fees. Everyone in the paintball industry was outraged and pissed at SmartParts and the two slimy lawyers who made the smaller mom and pop manufacturers close up shop. But (luckily, or unluckily I'll leave it up to you) we live in a country that still protects intellectual property via the law.

[hacker1]

Based on all of the early reviews, it doesn't look like I will upgrade from my G003! I am very disappointed in the new product release from Golf Guru, especially if they do not plan to continue to offer the G002 and G003 other than refurbished units.

 

Phil, I certainly hope they continue to offer the G002. Were you told they aren't offering the 002 or 003 anymore? I have sent a request to customer service about "new" G002 availability because I have a few friends interested. I'd be disappointed to hear if they were to discontinue the 002, because that device is simply outstanding.

 

GTakacs, You have stated that the software running on the G4 looks like a ported version of the previous guru software. If that is the case, then I wonder if the next logical step would be to have a software only version from Guru that would run on a Blackberry, iphone and other popular devices?

I was told that as soon as the G002 starts coming in on the "upgrade exchange" they would have some available. 30 days from GG4 shipment is what they told me. And another retailer told me they are going to eventually phase out production of the G002. That is, if they can get the GG4 to eventually sail. Not sell...sail. I would guess 30 days to get some in + time to refurbish them = 2-3 months. Just estimating by how things at GG have been going.

[m4michigan]

Hi all!!

 

Has anyone heard from GG since recieving the G4? I still haven't heard a peep and it's been 5 days. They are usually very quick to responed. They must be overwhelmed but I would think they could send out a general email to all G4 users to let them know what is going on. Time is running out on all of us that took the leap of faith. I don't mind being a beta tester but at least keep me in the loop.