Automotive GPS at GPS Gazette

Finedigital, a korean company has released a new GPS navigation system the finedrive 700. What catches the attention at first sight is it’s the huge 7.0 inch widescreen LCD screen. The finedrive 700 besides GPS navigation has some very nice multimedia features. It has an external DVD input that allows you to watch your favorite DVDs on it’s screen, in addition to that it can reproduce mp3 files. So this new GPS device seems like a complete in car navigation and media station. Here is a list of it’s features and specifications:

Just Plug and Drive, no downloading required
Detailed street-level maps for 48 Contiguous States & Canada pre-loaded
Clear & Accurate Turn-by-Turn Voice and Visual Guidance
Voice/Text-based 2D &3D Map Instructions
Large 7.0 inch Widescreen Color LCD Touch Screen
Millions of Point-of-Interests (POI) included
Media Player (MP3, mpeg, avi) with external DVD input
OS : Microsoft® Windows CE.NET 4.2.
CPU : ARM9-300MHz
Internal Storage : 20 GB
External Memory : SD Card (up to 2GB) 1 slot
GPS :
Built-in Hinge Antenna
Frequency L1, 1575.42 MHz
16 Channels, Sensitivity -159 dBm
Acquisition Rate
Hot start 8 sec., avg (with ephemeris and almanac valid)
Warm start 38 sec., avg (with almanac but not ephemeris)
Cold start 45 sec., avg (neither almanac nor ephemeris)
Reacquisition 0.1 sec., average (interruption recovery time)
Input : Touch Screen
Display : 7.0″ Color Wide TFT LCD / 480X234 / 65K True Color
Sound : 1W x 2 (Stereo, 8 O hm)
External Video Player : Yes
Power : DC12V/1A (Working DC voltage range : 10~16V)
Physical Characteristics: 7.45″ (W) x 1.25″ (D) x 4.75″ (H)

Technorati Tags: gps, device. receiver, finedigital, finedrive, 700

Pocket-lint has posted the first review of the Sony NV-U70T GPS receiver and they conclude that Sony did much better with this receiver than with their fisrt Nav-U units. However they point out that it is still behind in the competition.
You can read the whole review here

Since our first post about the Lowrance iWay 350C a couple of mini reviews have been posted from people that have bought this GPS receiver.

GRC in his comment on our previous post writes:

This is a great device for the price range. It DOES have the ability to read street names. When you turn is near it will say the direction and the street name where you will be turning. Also, the FM modulator works very well with the radio. MP3’s and photos are easily loaded via the included USB cable. MP3’s and photos can be loaded on the hard drive (not recommended) or on a MMC or SD card. The 350c’s screens can be totally customized. You have the ability to have a transparent or non-transparent background behind the customizable information. The device is very user friendly, acquires a signal quickly (as long as you are not moving) and appears to be very accurate. I am very satisfied with it.

There is also another mini review from “Testingcar” at the forums of GPSpassion. You can read the review and the whole thread here

Technorati Tags: gps, gpspassion, lowrance, iway, 350c, review, consumer

Cobra NavOne 4500 is an in car GPS receiver with a stylish design that will fit the interior of most vehicles. It is quite large and heavy (1,28pounds), but that is the price you have to pay for a 5″ color display. The 5 inch color display has a resolution of 320×240.


Some of the main characteristics of this GPS receiver include:

5 inch touchscreen
Navigational Text/Voice Languages: English, Spanish, French
North America Street Level Detail Maps Installed
3D and Terrain Maps
Real-Time Traffic Ready
Traffic Receiver Included
7.6 million Points-of-Interest
Automatic Route Navigation
Go Home’ Button

Cnet has posted a review of the NavOne 4500 to day and gave it an overall rating of 8,3 out of ten. They write that the strong points of the NavOne 4500 are the large display, and the accurate and fast receiver. You can read the whole review at CNET

Garmin’s streetpilot i series bring GPS receivers closer than ever to the average consummer. All three models (i2, i3 and i5) are affordable but full featured GPS choises. Cnet has reviewed all three models and the bottom line as reported was

Don’t let its diminutive size fool you–the Garmin StreetPilot i series is a powerful, feature-rich GPS system with an extremely user-friendly interface.

All three models received an editor’s rating of 7.7 out of 10 (Very Good)

You can read the reviews for all three products here

Teletype has announced a new 3.5-inch color touchscreen automotive GPS navigation system, the WorldNav 3000 XL. The 3OOOXL following the current trend is also capable of playing mp3 files from SD or MMC cards.
Some of its main features are.

High resolution touch screen (3.5″ TFT LCD 320×240)
GPS guidance with voice prompts
12 Channel High Sensitivity GPS
Intel XScale processor
MP3 Player
512 MB internal storage
Secure Digital/MMC slot
USA maps (50 States)

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$

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

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

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