Archive for April, 2006

The first reviews of the new TomTom devices have started appearing on the web. TomTom 910 has been reviewed by the the Laptop Magazine.
A little background info about TomTom’s features and specification:

4.0 inch widescreen WQVGA screen (480×272 pixels, 64,000 colors)
CPU 400 MHz
RAM 64MB
Lithium-Ion battery (4 hours operation)
20Gb Hard disk
High sensitivity SiRF Star 3 GPS chipset
Preloaded maps of Europe, USA and Canada

The editors of the Laptop Magazine report

Despite the outdated POI data we encountered and the high price, the TomTom GO 910’s remarkable ease of use and plethora of useful and fun features help it blow away the competition.

Read the whole review

Technorati Tags: TomTom 910, GPS, review

Tokai is another brand than decided to enter the GPS market with their new Tokai Nav 101. The Nav 101 is expected to be released in May and it will be a portable navigation solution with multimedia capabilities. Some of its most important features include:

• Samsung S3C2410A 266 MHz processor
• 3.5″ 65,000 colors TFT screen (240 x 320) resolution
• 32MB/64MB RAM
• Windows CE.net 4.2
• SD card slot (up to 2 GB)
• Mini-USB port
• 1000mAh lithium-ion battery
• Navteq Cartography 2005 software
• MP3 playback

Via UberGizmo
Technorati Tags: GPS, Tokai, Nav 101

Pioneer is about to release its first GPS receiver with integrated Bluetooth, the Pioneer AVIC-S1. The AVIC-S1 will be powered by Windows CE and will use the SiRFstar III GPS chipset. Some of the other features include:

· CPU: Intel 400 Mhz

· 3.5″ TFT,LCD screen 240×320 pixels
· 64 MB RAM
· 2 GB ROM
· SD/MMC Port
· USB 1.1
· Dimensions : 10,7 x 9,9 x 2,2 cm
· Preloaded maps of 26 European Countries (Teleatlas)
· Optional TMC module

Update: According to GPSAndCo the Pioneer AVIC-S1 is expected to start shipping at the end of May, start of June with a price of 600 TO 650 €.

Via CarAudioVideo

Magellan Roadmate 6000T has also been announced today along with the Roadmate 3000T and 3050T. The Roadmate 6000T will be the first in the Magellan line of GPS devices that will offer hands-free calling with Bluetooth enabled phones. It will have the same new design and similar features with the 3000T and 3050T like the integrated music player and photo viewer, but in addition to those it will also have a built-in real-time traffic receiver. It will also be able to “speak” the name of the road for upcoming maneuvers using Magellan’s SayWhere(TM) text-to-speech guidance.

The Roadmate 6000T is expected to start shipping in July, no information about pricing yet.

Technorati Tags: Magellan, Roadmate 6000T

Magellan besides the Roadmate 3000T, has also announced another model in the Roadmate series the Magellan Roadmate 3050T. The features of the Roadmate 3050T are similar with those of the 3000T and no major differences are reported in the press release. However, the 3050T will be a little more expensive than the 3000T (50$) since its expected retail price is 649$. Probably because of a bigger harddisk? Just speculating here.
Some of the features include:

3.5 inch color touchscreen
2-D or 3-D bird’s eye view
Preloaded maps of the USA
Music player
Photo viewer
SmartDetour(TM)
QuickSpell(TM)
Optional traffic module

The Magellan Roadmate 3050T is expected to start shipping in June with a price of 649$

Magellan has officially announced the Magellan Roadmate 3000T that we have previously talked about. Not a lot of information have been disclosed at the press release about the specifications of the 3000T and Magellan hasn’t yet created a page at their official website about this product. However our previous report about the Magellan Roadmate 3000T seems to be accurate. So some of the features and specification of this new device include:

3.5″ hi-resolution anti-glare color touchscreen
4GB hard disk
Integrated MP3 Player and Picture Viewer
Preloaded maps (Navteq) of 50 USA states, Canada and Puerto Rico.
3D bird eye and 2D map views
Turn-by-turn visual and voice guidance
Over 6 million POIs
SmartDetour
Auto Re-route
Automatic night view (The displayed map background color switches to night view at sundown)
SmartVolume™, the volume automatically increases at speeds over 45 MPH
QuickSpell (sorts, searches, and checks spelling for rapid address entry with minimal keystrokes, accelerating your data entry by matching letters to the available destinations.)
Optional traffic module

As we have reported in our previous post the Magellan Roadmate 3000T is expected in April with a retail price of 599$.

Press Release

Technorati Tags: Magellan, Roadmate 3000T, GPS

The Samsung SCH W399 is one of the first if not the first mobile phones that offers GPS navigation with voice guidance. The Samsung SCH W399 is a GSM+CDMA 1x phone with an integrated 1.3 MPl camera, a 2.2″ display with a resolution of 176 x 220 pixels (260k colors) and a clamshell design. Some other features include:

57MB of internal memory
MP3 player
Bluetooth
USB connectivity
Full HTML browser

Expected price for the Samsung SCH W399 is 600$

Via PhoneyWorld