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

<p>Filed under: <a href="http://www.engadget.com/category/gps/" rel="tag">GPS</a></p><div align="center"><a href="http://gpstracklog.typepad.com/gps_tracklog/2008/09/garmin-lifetime.html"><img hspace="4" vspace="4" border="1" alt="" src="http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.engadget.com/media/2008/09/garmin-traffic-ads-09-05-08.jpg" /></a><br /> <div align="left">It's not exactly a shocker, but it looks like Garmin's promised free live traffic information for life on its new <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2008/08/27/garmins-new-nuvi-7x5-and-2x5-navigators-live-and-in-person/">nüvi 7x5 and 2x5</a> 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.<br /></div> </div><h6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"></h6><a href=http://gpstracklog.typepad.com/gps_tracklog/2008/09/garmin-lifetime.html>Read</a> | <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/05/garmins-free-lifetime-traffic-service-comes-with-a-catch-ads/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.engadget.com/forward/1305716/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a> | <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/05/garmins-free-lifetime-traffic-service-comes-with-a-catch-ads/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry">Comments</a> <p><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/weblogsinc/engadget?a=teYq5S"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/weblogsinc/engadget?i=teYq5S" border="0"></img></a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/weblogsinc/engadget?a=gYlHl"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/weblogsinc/engadget?i=gYlHl" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/weblogsinc/engadget?a=T3Tpl"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/weblogsinc/engadget?i=T3Tpl" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~4/384355789" height="1" width="1"/>

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