Archive for December, 2005

The Lowrance iWay 350C is a new automotive satellite navigation system that has some really attractive features. Besides it’s navigation capabilities it is also an mp3 player and an image viewer. This cool little gadget has won the “Best New Mobile Electronics Entertainment Product for 2006″ award at SEMA 2005 Show.
Some of it main features include.

16-channel GPS+WAAS precision
Built in antenna
3.5” diagonal TFT 16-bit color display
4GB hard disk drive
Prealoaded with US and Canada NAVTEQ detail (more that 5 million POI)
Touch screen menus
Turn-by-turn audio and visual cues
Automatic re-routing for missed turns
Full-featured stereo MP3 music player
Built-in FM modulator
15 hours of battery life

Lowrance iWay 350C is expected to ship in a few days and has a price tag of about 500$

The i-Blue PS-3200 is a Bluetooth GPS receiver that has one unique feature that sets it apart from the competition. It is equipped with a technology that it enables it to determine if a bluetooth device such as a PDA or Laptop is present and active and if there isn’t one it automatically falls to sleep mode increasing battery life. In addition to that whenever a bluetooth connection becomes available again the i-Blue PS-3200 wakes automatically.
A small extract from the manufacturerweb site:

When you use i-Blue PS-3200 for the first time, just power it up and place it under the windshield in your car. Anytime when you bring aboard your PDA or laptop computer with Bluetooth connectivity, i-Blue PS-3200 will enable itself for your navigating usage. Once you leave your car and take the PDA with you, i-Blue PS-3200 will go into sleeping mode. Assume a user uses i-Blue PS-3200 2 hours a day, he need not charge the i-Blue PS-3200 for two weeks. (Charging only takes 3 hours!) Users can also charge the i-Blue PS-3200 by DC cigarette lighter adapter.

i-Blue PS-3200 is so smart that using a wireless GPS receiver becomes easy and convenient ever than before!

Wireless News factor has published a review of the Garmin StreetPilot I3 GPS. The Streetpilot is an inexpensive automotive GPS with quite a lot of features for its price. Here are some of its features.

* WAAS-enabled, 12 parallel channel GPS patch antenna with MCX-type connector for optional external antenna
* Unit dimensions: 3.00” W x 2.74” H x 2.15” D
* StreetPilot i3 display: 1.7” W x 1.3” H, 220 x 176 pixels, 32k-color sunlight-readable TFT with backlight
* Weighs only 5.3 oz. (without batteries; includes vehicle suction cup mount)
* Audible and visual navigation instructions and warnings
* Includes 128MB TransFlash card for loading detailed maps from the included MapSource City Select North America NT v7 DVD
* Features scroll wheel with click-to-enter, making it quick & easy to navigate
* Offers a three dimensional mapping perspective, or 2-D overhead view
* Battery life: up to 6 hours typical use on two AA batteries (7 hours maximum)
* Includes removable 12-volt power adapter cable for external power while in your vehicle
* Includes a vehicle suction cup mount which allows for easy adjustment and quick release
* USB Interface

And here is the conclusion of the Wireless News factor review

Pros: Easy to install and operate.

Cons: No touch-screen capability; lack of text-to-speech Latest News about text-to-speech feature.

Verdict: The StreetPilot i3 is good choice for first-time GPS buyers looking to get accurate directions while on the go.

Rating: 4 out of 5

You can read the whol review here

Here is a raving consummer review of the Garmin Nuvi 350. Read it here

Sorell has announced a new handheld gadget called NF1. This little device tries to be an all in one solution since it plays movies, mp3 and it is also a fully functional GPS device. The Sorell NF1 has a 2.2 inch 260.000 colors screen. It is also equipped with 1 GB of flash memory. However that amount of memory seems insufficient for such a gadget that is supposed to be a portable media player and a GPS.

PC Magazine has posted a review of the Garmin nüvi 350 GPS device.

Features

Type: Automobile, Portable
Turn-by-turn: yes
3D View: yes
Display Type: Touch
Dimensions: 3.87 x 2.91 x 0.87 inches
Hard Drive: no
Additional Memory Type: SD/MMC
Preloaded maps: yes
Waterproof: no
Speaker: built-in
Power: Adapter, Battery
MP3: yes
Multi Segment Routing: no

Pros

Small, lightweight, and easy to use. Preloaded with map and Points of Interest data. Great GPS receiver sensitivity. Fast satellite-acquisition time. Good battery life.

Cons

Optional Language ($74.99) and Travel ($75 per region) guides make the total package fairly pricey. No playlist support for MP3 player. Not currently available in the U.S. (as of October 2005)

You can read the full review here

Garmin Nuvi 350 Images

Pocketgpsworld has posted a review of the iNav iGuidance 2.1.3

You can read the rest of the review here

Technorati Tags: gps, software, review, inav iguidance

Navman has introduced a in-car satellite navigation system the Navman iCN 320.

According to Nvman some of its key features include

* Portable & user friendly
* Door-to-door navigation
* Voice-guided directions
* Rechargeable battery
* No PC connection required

Its lightweight design allows you to use it even outside the car as a handheld GPS device.
In addition to the above the price of the iCN 320 which is currently 410$ (at Newegg) make it look really tempting.
However a review from Pocket-lint is quite disapointing

VERDICT

With full functioning GPS units only a fraction more than this unit, Navman have cut too many features for us to really make this worth considering.

The small screen and lack of a decent sized map meant that at one point we actually had to consult a paper map to see what was going on (not good).

What makes it worse is that the replacement for the map is neither here nor there. If you are going to have arrows then Navman, in our mind, should have made them bigger and ditched the map all together, after all it is so damn small there seems little point in it anyway.

If you don’t like the idea of a distracting map in front of you, this might be the solution (after all Mrs Pocket-lint loved it for its simplicity) however for us, spending £279 we expected less corners to be cut.

You can read the full review here

Technorati Tags: GPS, navman, iCN320, review

Although Sony hasn’t been really successful in the past with it’s first GPS units the the people at Sony seem determined not to withdraw from the GPS market.
The two new models announced are the NV-U50 and the NV-U70T. The first one is the entry level unit and some of it’s features include.

• 3.5 inch touch screen
• 80 degrees viewing angle
• Preloaded maps of the UK, Ireland and Paris
• TomTom like design
• Two way speaker system

The NV-U70 has similar features but is also equipped with 1GB of RAM and Traffic support, a feature that is optional for the NV-U50.

A big plus is that is Sony is offering lifetime (of the product) Traffic support

These two new models are expected to hit the market in January 2006.

Technorati Tags: GPS, Sony, NV-U50, NV-U70