Birthday

[pne]

Thank you all for your birthday wishes yesterday!

Stella gave me a navigation device for my birthday—quite a surprise! And I was surprised by how small those things get these days.

So now we won't have to rent one when we rent a car, or borrow my father's device when we borrow my step-mother's car.

Incidentally, what are those things called in everyday speech? In German, they're usually shortened to "Navi".

Comments

[owl]

One of those little boxes that speak directions to you? Satnav.

[pne]

Yes, one of those. Thanks!

[ewx]

“Satnav” is a pretty common term in the UK.

[pne]

Thanks!

I got a couple of responses for "GPS", from Americans, but "Satnav" seemed to dominate from UK users, so that's probably what I'll go with.

[ewx]

I think “GPS” would be widely understood in the UK too. Personally I'd take it to mean a wider class of things, i.e. not just GPS devices intended for car navigation, but I don't know if this is typical.

[pne]

To me, "GPS" as a count noun just sounds odd. (*"I got a GPS for my birthday", *"The GPS keeps telling me to do a U-turn; I wonder why?")

[sophie]

I tend to use "GPS receiver" myself; GPS is the name of the system as a whole.

[pne]

GPS is the name of the system as a whole.

*nods*

Just this morning, I came across an entry in another community talking about "entering an address into my GPS". Odd for me, but *shrugs*