im thinking of steering away from the comand unit.in light of recent events, and given todays multitude of in car technology i ask myself why follow traditional units that are proven,but .........boring!! comand it seems like anything german seems to stagnate in its past revelled glory and refuses to update and keep up with advancement of user friendly media systems.i saw this new system from a uk company and was amazed.it was like a breath of fresh air,i sound like a salesman but it looks fantastic.id appreciate anyones view on this as it will cost around the same price as one of steves retro fits(bearing in mind everything ill have to do to get it fitted)and ill get peace of mind.
views please..
website www.karputer.co.uk

http://www.karputer.co.uk/docs/karpu...mo_june_04.zip

 

You could just as easily integrate all of that with the comand unit. Big difference is the look of the installation. IMO the comand is a fantastic unit, 7inch widescreen, dvd + tv playback, etc.. These aftermarket units never look right, always have problems, and don't integrate with steering wheel controls; well unless you have the old d2b system, in which case still never works right.

Fazooley

 

One reported problem with Command you are ready to write it off??? And you believed another aftermarket system will be completely trouble-free??? Personally I preferred the convience of complete integration with steering whell, HU and dash display. This way I can focus on driving instead of playing with the head unit.

John

 

Ditto.....

 

...honestly I think that the CD rom based comands ARE infact VERY userfriendly...you should try my clarion nav system for a change

greetingz,

 

Dont forget the Phone integration with the command and cluster/ MFwheel.
For me that is important too..
-kim

 

BTW
If u want to look at more computer solutions check this link
http://www.dashpc.com/
-kim

 

Here's a good alternate to the MB Command:

https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w210/84369-alpine-navigation-ipod-controller-installed.html

 

With respect, I find the UI of the CD-ROM COMAND on my R230 to be quite crude from a usability point of view. Some examples of specific items that could very easily be made much more usable (I hope MB will take these as suggestios for improving the product):

1. In the "Points of Interest" - there is a selection for "Dining". Select it, and then there is a single sub-item, "Restaurants". Much friendlier to collapse that hierarchy and save one click. Similarly, the top-level of the hierarchy does not fit on a single screen, leading one to wish to scroll to see if one of the other categories is more appropriate, then scroll back.

2. Again, under "Points of Interest", select (say) "Grocery Stores", and I get a list with something like 37 entries saying "7-11", another 50 or so saying "Safeway". Basically just an alphabetical listing of every grocery store in the navigation area, with no way to find which one is which. Only after much education do we find the "sort by distance" option, which should be the default, but there is not even any way to make this setting "stick".

3. If you select an item from the "Points of Interest", then you get a cryptic and user-unfriendly menu saying something like "Next Object/Previous Object/Main Menu/Navigation". These entries might be meaningful to the programmer writing the system, but they are very opaque to the user.

4. If you now select "Navigation", you end up having to twice click "OK" on the address of the place (with one intermediate screen for the routing options, I think). Unnecessary clicks are not user-friendly.

5. When navigating, or viewing the "Route List", there is no indication of whether an upcoming turn is a left or right, until the audio announcement. I like to see L on Main Street, R on Elm Street, etc. The Acura Navigation system, for example, shows the next three route instructions in the Nav display, with the turn directions.

6. In general, most operations seem to require at least one and usually two clicks more than necessary, because the software always wants to offer you choices which you very rarely want. A better design would be to make the default choices easier, and provide separate menu options to change them.

7. The menu responses are very slow, even in situations where there is a very limited set of choices that need to be made. This, combined with the excess clicks that the UI requires, mean that it takes a long time to enter instructions, since you have to enter data, click, wait, click, wait, click, wait, click. During this time, you either have to stay parked, or be distracted from the road.

8. Finally, the system is also slow to calculate routes. Quite often, it is not ready to provide instructions until well after I have passed the first one or two decision points after starting a journey on residential streets.

Examples of products I think have good usability are Nokia cellphones. I am also quite a fan of Jakob Nielsen's website usability guidelines: Jakob Nielsen's useit.com website

All that said, I don't imagine I'd want to use the Karputer.

 

COMAND is a pretty solid system. As with any device of this nature, it's going to have it's pros and cons. Some usability aspects make sense and are helpful, some may seem a little more complex or unclear. Either way, I think in the case of COMAND, the pros outweigh the cons, and that it is superior to other units out there. Especially positive about the unit is the look it provides in the vehicle. After all, COMAND was designed for Mercedes-Benz vehicles. It's going to look much better in Mercedes-Benz vehicles than most aftermarket options out there (at least without any major modification/work).

I personally like the system, but I can see how not everyone will feel the same.

ToonArmy: I do agree about the default settings issue in particular. There should be a way to save customized settings in that regard. It does make sense that sort by distance be the default setting. This is like I said -- the unit has pros and cons, this being one of the cons. It doesn't really make the unit any less functional but it can prove to be frustrating at times.

 

Orcberg,

Just to clarify, I certainly agree that COMAND is the best choice for a MB, being the best fit from both an aesthetic and functional integration standpoint.

However, I was trying to provide some constructuve suggestions to MB to help improve the usability of future systems - the current COMAND has, in my opinion, lots of room to improve. I would hope that MB would strive to provide an excellent product for their customers, not rely on the fact that they have the "default" market position advantage over after-market providers.

While I have not used any aftermarket products, I have used the Acura OEM system, and I have to say that the designers of that system appear to have paid more attention to the UI and usability, and the system is, to my mind, easier to use as a result.

While that in itself would not be sufficient reason to alter the choice of vehicle for many people (as opposed to all the other positive qualities), a designer of great automobiles (which MB is) should aspire to be top-notch in all aspects of design.

Just my opinion and philosophy of prodct design.

 

9. When in "Points of Interest" - any submenu: One should be able to browse using the number pad similiar to dialing a phone number by letters. For example, I want to skip to the restaurants that start with "K" - hit 5 twice. You could also skip all the "Safeway" listings by navigating to "T" by hitting 8.

 

I've actually never used Acura's OEM nav but I've heard a number of positive things about it. A friend of mine has a TL with the nav. Sometime I'll have to hijack his ride and mess with the nav

 

Good point - there are other places where the keypad could be used to advantage in data input, too. House numbers on a street, for example. Much easier to keypad enter these rather than twist the knob back and forth repeatedly.

 

Agreed. However, your main point in #1 does not occur on the European COMAND... hmm.

Yes, the MCS in the M-class doesn't have this issue. Actually, the interface in the MCS is better in many ways than the COMAND. Which is kind of cool, because in the newer DVD-based COMANDs, most of the best stuff from the MCS has been incorporated.

I would argue that this is a training issue.

The MCS, having a similar Alpine system as the Acura, has the small arrows listed next to the street. Same as the DVD COMAND, I believe. However, CD COMAND will give you the direction of the next maneuver in your center console, or on the screen of the COMAND if you have that mode selected.

Agreed, but now fixed on DVD COMAND. Please note that this system was first offered in 1998 and hasn't changed much since then.

Hmm, that's why I go through the hassle to get a Nokia in my cars... but then you should understand why I don't care for S-E phones... but who is getting one of those?

-s-

 

It's a fair cop

I was very reluctant to switch away from Nokia, but I had to get a new phone, and there wasn't a Nokia 850/1800/1900 MHz phone available with a decent form factor and calendar/addressbook syncing. I waited as long as I could using my old 8290 after the 6100 took a dunking, but the Nokia 6230b (the most reasonable choice) just wasn't making it over here, so eventually I had to settle for the S-E 637. It's clearly not as good as Nokia on the UI usability, but it is usable (unlike a Motorola).

And I'm told it integrates better with the COMAND than the Nokias do :-) So at this point I'm probably sticking with it until the next-gen Nokias (series-60 or successor) are available in a small form-factor.

Back on topic: glad to hear the newer COMAND systems have made improvements. I was somewhat surprised that a 2003 release of a brand-new model carried over the older units. And also surprised to hear about MB having maintained separate MCS systems in parallel with COMAND.

One small point regarding the direction of the next manouever - I believe it only does that once it starts to announce the manouever (prepare to turn right) - until that point it just shows a straight arrow with the distance to the next manouever. This is from memory, so I'm willing to stand corrected on it.