Asus’ newly announced R710 portable navigation device features an optional Heads-Up Display, or HUD, that helps you keep all eyes where they should be... on the road. The directions, speed and all other pertinent information is projected on the windshield. The device has the tradition touchscreen like most other navigation devices out there, as well as an enhanced Bluetooth 2.0; cementing this device as the it machine for the safety conscious.
A light-sensing chip optimizes the HUD’s visibility; making it easier on the eyes. While the microSD card slot supplies media playback that makes everything seem easier.
Asus has not announced release or pricing information, and no specific maps are available for North America, only worldwide. Russia, China and Taiwan navigation support have been mentioned so far.
Read more!
Friday, October 10, 2008
Asus Newest Navigator has your Safety in Mind
Monday, October 6, 2008
Seafaring Just Got Easier - Thanks to Garmin
Mariners rejoice, today Garmin announced a newly enhanced GPS receiver to aid in decking out your dinghy this upcoming season. Serving both practical and frivolous purposes, you can pick up this newly announced unit without the guilt associated with buying a device that only serves to entertain… if that kind of guilt affects you.
Garmin is towing the line, with the GPSMAP 640 touchscreen portable. It comes preloaded with comprehensive street and marine charts, but with a major change in the form factor. Garmin was looking to merge the look and usability of their popular Nüvi series with this highly specialized, albeit dated looking, GPSMAP portable.
For this refresh, Gamin has slimmed down the case, ditched the antenna, and beefed up the screen. The end product looks striking similar to every other PND out there, but boasts an intuitive, waterproof, 5.2” touchscreen display, with an 800 x 480 resolution, surrounded by a much thinner beveled case, and tons of tidbits for the sailor.
The docking cradles, that compliment the system, are specific to the application. Dock the unit in the marine cradle and the GPS starts up in marine mode, and vise versa for the car. This certainly beats scouring the menus to change modes.
Data presented on this meticulous monitor could save you some major headaches. Garmin’s BlueCharts has been upgraded to include shaded depth contours, port plans, wrecks, and restricted areas. Upgrade again, to BlueCharts g2 Vision, and get automatic chart plotting.
Seafarers will find endless uses for this detailed navigational information presented on the GPSMAP 640, but add the optional XM radio/weather satellite receiver, and you’ll be good to sail the seven seas endlessly - without incident or running out of tunes.
Press Release
Read more!
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Garmin Says: Get Out There
Some of us fight it - but let’s face it - summertime is best spent outdoors, not mouse clicking. Garmin wants to help us get out there this summer. Their new Oregon series of handheld GPS receiver is specifically designed for some serious trekking and adventurous fun.
Designed to suit the demanding needs of outdoor, marine, and fitness enthusiasts the new Oregon series handhelds retain the rugged engineering of their predecessors, the Colorado series, while adding simplicity of use via a bright responsive touchscreen.
Maybe your buddy has some data on his Colorado or new Oregon you like to grab? Good thing these directionally enlightened devices wirelesses exchange tracks, waypoints, and geocaches between other Oregon units and Colorado models.
The new series has five distinct models to choose from –this way you only pay for the maps and info you’ll use. All model sport an SD card slot for having their mapping data updated. Model breakdown after the break…
“The Oregon 400t gives hikers preloaded U.S. topographic maps in state-of-the-art 3D elevation perspective. The Oregon 400i offers anglers shoreline details, depth contours and boat ramps for U.S. inland lakes and navigable rivers. The Oregon 400c is a saltwater specialist, providing chart coverage for the coastal U.S. and Bahamas. The Oregon 300 features a worldwide basemap with shaded relief. The Oregon 200 provides a basemap that can be easily supplemented with additional mapping or charts for your adventures on land or at sea.”
Read more!
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Clarion MAP780 using iGO My Way 8
Clarion's two newest Personal Navigation Devices the MAP680 & MAP780, from Clarion's German site, reverberated through the vascular system that is the blog-o-sphere by way of Navigadget on Tuesday.
These impressive GPS units, that were announced in April and include iGO 3D mapping software, have also made their there way to Youtube. Showing the device in action, the video demonstrates a no-joke navigator with mad 3D rendering skills provided by iGO's My Way 8 software, a 3D map rendering application designed for portables.
This upgrade gives you access to so much terrain/building mapping data you may never have to look at the road again. Well, there's still that bit concerning other cars and people getting in your way. Although, these units will have you wanting to keep them in front of you.
Clarion has included all the functionality you'd expect from a high-end PND, but they also added some you might not.
These knowledgeable navi's boast SMS (texting) capabilities, and can connect to a streaming audio service. The differences in the units are mainly disc space and what maps are loaded on those flash memories.
The Clarion MAP680 includes regional map information only, the region in this case is Germany so that includes four countries on it's 1GB internal storage. The MAP680's partner in 3D map rendering touts quite a bit more mapping data, 43 European countries are stored on it's 2GB Memory. Both devices can be expanded and accept SD cards.
No word on when Clarion will grace us with an American version of these mapping moguls but the software is available, a manufacturer just needs to bring it to market in the US.
Panasonic Strada CN-GP50U Portable Navigator w/ 5" Screen
Pioneer AVIC-S2 Portable Smart GPS Navigation with 3.5" Touch Display
Uniden GPS402 Portable In-Vehicle Navigation System features: 4" EZ Touch display
Read more!
Thursday, March 27, 2008
The Portable Aviation GPS, Fully Realized
Aeronautical GPS navigation just got a booster shot, from none other than Garmin. Garmin unleashed the first aviation GPS portable to combine satellite weather data with color moving maps and terrain alert with the GPSMAP 396.
Now, the newest member of the GPSMAP fold, the GPSMAP 496, comes fully decked out with access to more information than 00 can get their hands on.
SafeTaxi which offers position diagrams for 650 US airports can help you make your taxi less hectic. An airport directory featuring details like the phone numbers of fuel services and ground transportation, as well as information on thousands of airports in the US, Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean give you the tools to meticulously plan your trip or the ability to make it up as you go along.
Quicker, higher resolution graphics and more visual reference information such as terrain, obstacle, and private airports sites serve to provide the aviator with the peace of mind that most emergency can be successfully avoided, and if encountered can be dealt with effectively.
Weather satellite data is collected by the GXM30 antenna which as the name suggests uses XM weather feeds to display weather maps. The antenna can also receive XM radio programming; this entertainment option adds a lighter side to the usually strictly business GPSMAP 496.
Since pilots will be toting around the unit once on the ground, Garmin figured they might as well integrate City Navigator NT and TIS traffic alerts for their earth bound ramblings too. This comprehensive GPS’s highly developed since of direction, and bevy of useful features means it could truly be, “The worlds most highly evolved aviation portable”.
Read more!
Monday, February 4, 2008
Nüvifone Set to Topple Apple's iPhone
Garmin’s latest announcement introduces us to the nüvifone, the company’s ambitious first foray into the mobile phone market. Obviously, any phone carrying the Garmin brand will be heavily skewed towards navigation and geo-tagging functions, and the nüvifone delivers, in theory. Success in this realm, for Garmin, will depend on how well they pull off the integration of the GPS enabled functions with the rest of the phone’s capabilities. On paper, the nüvifone meshes internet browsing, navigating, photographing, messaging and actually carrying on a conversation with style and functionality.
The phone is reportedly 3.5G capable, this basically means with the right network support the nüvifone would have the fastest download speeds ever experienced on a phone. At first glance the 3.5” touch screen and similar overall size makes the nüvifone look like a bootleg iPhone. Looks can be deceiving and in this instance they are. As fundamental to the phone’s operation as music playback on the iPhone, the nüvifone takes navigation seriously, while still remembering it’s mostly a toy at heart.
Some geo-tagging options are all fun and games like the automatic picture position tagging. A photo taken with the built-in camera will be appropriately geo-tagged; you could then send the photo to a friend just to let them know where you’re at. If they happen to have a nüvifone as well, they could then navigate directly to the photo’s position. Presumably you’d stay there to meet up with them. This isn't any better than just telling your mates were you’re at, but loads more fun.
Another, more plausible, example of the seamless navigation integration would be going from walking and talking; to driving, navigating, and conversing hands-free. As soon as the phone snaps into the car mount cradle the audio transfers to the speaker phone and the navigation function automatically activates.
Nüvifone also tags your position as soon as you take the phone off the car mount. This promises to make locating that out of the way parking place much easier. Plus, it took you an hour to find an open spot, you don’t want it take that long or longer to find your way back to it.
Garmin has built a huge database of points of interest, but they also realize that many folks use and trust Google to search points of interest. Using Google, the Garmin accesses all the resources of the web, including user generated ratings, to sort points of interest search results. They’ve also geo-positioned landmarks within the POIs database and linked them with sightseeing photographs from Google’s Panoramio, thereby enhancing those travels to unfamiliar destinations.
Added as more of a side note, the phone also plays movies and music, but I wouldn't throw out your iPod just yet.
If Garmin successfully completes this ambitious undertaking, the big question then becomes which carrier would offer this phone? AT&T would do well to keep their bid in front of the Garmin decision makers; having the two most feature-rich phone offerings would certainly boast profits, and maybe bring plan costs down. Well, one can dream, can't one?
<..via press release..Garmin StreetPilot C340 In-Car GPS Navigation Receiver
Garmin Nuvi 200 Personal Travel Assistant/GPS
Garmin GPSMAP 376C
Nokia E65 Unlocked GSM Quadband Phone
Samsung X830 Unlocked GSM Triband Bluetooth Phone (Black)
Read more!
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Hybrid Devices Able to Handle More Tasks
iriver W7 & Pioneer AVIC-F500BT
Multitasking portable devices aren’t a new concept. Most new GPS units offer the option of media file playback through an SD card slot or some other means of transfer. The option is added as more of a side note to the primary function, so less attention gets paid to things like the interface and sound quality. These two devices, announced at CES, have fully embraced this prevailing wave of device integration while maintaining their individuality. A trick the iPod touch knows well.
Pioneer AVIC-F500BT
Pioneer has realized their hybrid concept by taking the voice-recognition capabilities of and in-dash GPS and combining them with the flexibility of portable navigation. This system, equipped with USB and SD card playback, can act as a standalone media player and portable navigation device or it can connect up to the car audio system via the AUX input. The main advancement here is the inclusion of newer VoiceBox software. This software is designed to recognize more natural, ‘conversational’ commands; rather then systematic commands and controls both phone calls and iPod interface. No working models exist as of today, yet release is set for March at a price that is yet to be determined.
iriver W7
iriver is known for superior sound processing in their media players. So, their version of a hybrid device is skewed towards the Media player side of things; the GPS isn’t built in. The W7 gives you the option of adding a GPS antenna that slides on to the back and also mounts to a cradle. All the add-ons you’d expect from iriver, like an FM tuner, voice recorder, large touchscreen, music, video, text, and photos are included along with an electronic dictionary, SD expansion slot, and Flash games; this makes the iriver W7 one versatile portable navigation device. The release is set in the US for spring of this year…This ship date shouldn’t be a problem considering Koreans have been rockin’ these since November.
Say tuned in to find out more about iRiver W10 with GSM phone built in.
Read more!
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Magellan's New Lineup, iPhone Inspired?
Magellan Elite 2370
Magellan, seemingly taking a play from the iPhone play book, has announced that a borderless 3.5” touch-panel display will adorn one of their latest PND, the Elite 3270 (not pictured). By removing the traditional beveled plastic case, Magellan hopes that the resulting form will be considered more “elegant and high-tech” by users, thus setting them apart in a crowded PND market.
Along with its new edge to edge flat screen, touch sensitivity is also enhanced. If brought to market today the Elite 3270 would be the industry’s most compact PND standing 3.24” tall and 0.7” thick. The model will ship with all the necessary accessories for easy installation into your vehicle. Alas it’s not out yet. The list price is $499.
Maestro™ Elite 5340 (pictured above)
Improved processor speed and a dedicated graphics accelerator are good reasons to choose the Maestro™. But, if display size is a driving factor in your GPS purchase decisions, than you might be interested in the 5” screen that beautifies this newest flagship model of Magellan GPS.
For the majority of us this alone is not enough to make the sale. So what other goodies does Magellan have up their sleeves?
Besides giving you 35% more viewable area, Maestro™ is a highly customizable device. With the “One touch” interface you can identify and store your favorite destinations, like which chain restaurant you like to eat at or what superstore you like to buy underwear from. Then, with one touch the Maestro™ instantly accesses directions to the nearest store in that chain from your present location. This would be great for traveling through unfamiliar territory. One touch is also touted as a safety feature minimizing driver distraction by streamlining access to destinations and POIs.
Further contributing to driver safety is the SayWhere™ voice command. Simply speak the destination address and Maestro™ calculates the appropriate route in seconds or search POIs with voice commands like, “Nearest Indian Restaurant”. The Maestro is equipped with a dual microphone to decipher your voice, and for Bluetooth® enabled phone calls. After you tire of your selected voice telling you where to go, switch over to the media player with built in FM transmitter to broadcast your MP3s through the car stereo.
Traffic data isn’t over looked either. This subscription based traffic update also makes alternate route calculation based on historical traffic data taking into account the time of day. The smartness of this traffic data system might make it worth continuing the subscription after the three month trial period expires.
General Packet Radio Service (GPRS)
Is too much information every really *too* much information? We don’t think so. Magellan is betting most of their information age demographic feels similarly. To that end, Magellan has partnered with Google to provide their Maestro Elite 5340+GPRS with the uncanny ability to provide overly comprehensive location specific information through Google local search, "simply type in what it is you're looking for and Google displays relevant results around the your current location or a specified location". List price 1,299.
These are said to be scheduled for release sometime in the first quarter of 2008.
Read more!
Monday, December 17, 2007
Blackberry Owners Get Even More Spoiled
As if owning one of these objects of an email addict’s desire wasn’t pampering yourself enough, Mapquest has launched their newest application, Navigator 5.0, which turns your GPS enabled BlackBerry into a multi-function personal navigation device. Now, you never have to look up from you phone again. Seriously though, for a small monthly subscription fee you get all the features of a stand alone PND, with one big advantage, no extra device to lug around.
Mapquest Navigator 5.0 enables your Blackberry GPS to track your position on a 3-D map, give voice guided turn-by-turn directions, provide real-time traffic reports, watch gas prices, and bestow city specific restaurant information from AOL. If this concept gets you excited, act fast, if you sign up by the end of the year you get a promotional rate. If you're an owner of a Windows based smartphone don't throw it out just yet, Mapquest will be adding support for other phone models throughout the new year.
Read more!
Monday, November 5, 2007
Blaupunkt TravelPilot Lucca 3.5 (to be 'round' or not to be 'round')
The Germans invented the limited access highway...the Autobahn (a.k.a. the interstate to us in the U.S.). They arguably make the most refined automobiles available anywhere mainly to deal with the speeds at which they are driven. Point being they take their driving pretty seriously. Plus, they’re German; they’re kind of serious all around. So who better than Blaupunkt Travelpilot to tell you how to get where you are going and how fast you should drive to get there.
Blaupunkt TravelPilot Lucca 3.5 Edition GPS is no square. Why did they go round? Well…not being present at the design meeting, one can only speculate, but my opinion is the round design serves to better mesh with the round display features that are present on most cars like the speedometer or tachometer. Also, in the crowded GPS market it stands out, on several blogs people are talking and debating about why it’s round. Simply put, in terms of free press this is a stroke of genius. The practicality of this round design is questionable. It needlessly takes up space.
Enough with the fluff let's get to the nuts and blots of the device. Its specs aren’t groundbreaking 400 MHz processor, 64MB SDRAM, 3.5in screen, 1GB on board memory that is expandable through MMC/SD/SDHC card slot 256MB - 4GB. It has preloaded in the flash memory all major European roads and detailed maps of UK/Ireland. There are some more impressive things about the Blaupunkt. You can use the card slot to play music or view pictures while still getting guided navigation. The device comes with a DVD loaded with detailed maps of 21 European countries (most of the time you have to pay separately for this information). It is also touted for being forgiving to bad spellers when typing in a destination.
The Blaupunkt TravelPilot Lucca 3.5 (round) Edition is a square in the sense that it doesn’t like speeders. It knows the speed limit and will warn you audibly and visually when you foot gets too heavy. One would assume this has got to be an optional feature. It uses TMS for live traffic rerouting even if you’re not using the GPS to calculate your route. So as Blaupunkt points out, “Rest assured: the round TravelPilot will always keep you on the straight and narrow.”
For drooling purposes only not available in the US…yet. We’ll keep you updated.
..Via..Navigadget
Read more!
Monday, October 15, 2007
JVC Revisits PND with the KV-PX701/KV-PX501
JVC was turned off to the whole portable GPS thing earlier this year, citing that the market was driven exclusively by price and was over saturated with new manufactures jumping on the GPS bandwagon. JVC, despite this earlier proclamation, is set to drop two new Personal Navigation Devices, the JVC KV-PX701/KV-PX501, in the UK by the end of the month. Apparently, the market stabilized a bit. Their plan back in May, stick with in-dash systems. Not a bad idea. Makes me wonder what market research changed their minds. Integrated in-dash multi-systems would seem to be the way the market is going. Read Death of PND. I mean, who really wants a bunch of wires going every which way, cluttering things, and suction cups that don’t hold well breaking their PND. Not to mention the attentiveness of thieves to cars with left behind units in them. JVC has demonstrated their change of heart by releasing the JVC KV-PX701/KV-PX501 the pricier model, the JVC KV-PX701 is tricked out with a 4.3in screen, 400Mhz Samsung processor, SiRF StarIII chipset (according to the chip maker this chip will “provide location awareness under dense foliage or urban canyons” and uses less power to do it), Traffic Message Channel (TMC), and will run you $565. The lower of the two boasts a 3.5in screen, a MediaTech Chip, same processor and the TMC is built into the car mount. This makes sense since you only need this info while driving; this unit will run you $495. No word on a U.S. release. Via.
Read more!
Posts
