GPS Reviews at GPS Gazette

Volker Weber over at vowe dot net has posted a review of the Navman iCN 520, Navman’s upgraded version of the iCN510. Some of the key features of the iCN include:
iCN 520 key features:

· 3.5’’ high definition colour touch screen

· Downloadable speed camera locations

· Portable & user friendly

· 3D door-to-door navigation

· Voice-guided directions

· Rechargeable battery

Volker Weber reports:

What I am missing most is an advance A-B routing. How long would it take from point A to point B and how long is the distance. This feature has only been added to TomTom more recently so maybe Navman has something like this coming up.

Summary for now: Much better than expected. I will keep an eye on updates and new devices as they become available.

However, Navman at the iCN’s 520 page claims:

SmartST™ also provides deliver ongoing journey information including ETA (expected time of arrival), Distance to go for journey, Distance to go to next turn, Time to go and Miles/Km to go.

Technorati Tags: gps, review, navman, iCN520

Mavromatic has posted a review of the Trackstick. The Trackstick is a USB GPS Tracker that records its own location, time, date, speed, heading and altitude at preset intervals. The information it collects are stored in its internal memory and can be outputted to the following formats:

RTF (Detailed text file with .html map links)
XLS (Microsoft Excel spread sheets)
HTML (Webpage with graphics and maps)
KML (Proprietary Google Earth file)

Here is what Mavromatic writes

I think the TrackStick is a very cool gadget — and it works!. At about $300, it’s a bit pricy, but the small TrackStick, the impressive logging software and Google Earth integration make it worth it.

Technorati Tags: trackstick, review, gps, receiver, tracker

Garmin Nuvi is one of the most talked about GPS receivers, and a number of reviews have been written over the past few months.

PC Magazine Review: PC Magazine has give the Nuvi 350 a rating of 4,5/5 and named it Editors’ Choice as the best in it’s class.

GlobalPositioningSystems Review: Global Positioning Systems in their review conclude “Take my word for it – this is quite simply the greatest in-car GPS you get at the moment.
It’s just brilliant.”

Signal Vs Noise Review: Signal Vs Noise review title is “Garmin Nuvi 350: Insanely recommended” I think the title says it all.

Walter S. Mossberg Review: Walter S. Mossberg concludes in his review “As slick as the Nuvi is, I consider it too expensive for the value it delivers, at least for mainstream, casual users.”

GPSInformation Review: GPS Information writes: “It is not the least expensive, but overall it performs very well. NuVi is ideal for a portable unit for a traveler.”

BusinessWeek Review: The review over at BusinessWeek is titled “The Easiest, Smartest GPS Yet”. Once again the title says it all.

Neowin Review: The reviewer writes “The Garmin Nuvi 350 is getting closer to my ideal GPS device. If you can afford it, this is the best GPS unit I have found and suites most of my needs.”

ZDNET Mini Review: The editor concludes “The Garmin Nüvi 350 is the ultimate traveler’s tool, and if it weren’t for its high price, we’re sure the gadget would appeal to a large number of travelers.” There are also 19 user opinions that rate the Nuvi 350 8,6/10.

Amazon User Reviews: There are already 26 users that have reviewed and rated the Nuvi 350. The average customer review is 5/5

PopGadget Review Another review of the Garmin Nuvi 350, this time by PopGadget.

The conclusions are yours.

Garmin Nuvi 350 Images

Technorati Tags: garmin, nuvi, 350, GPS, Receiver, reviews

SurfSki.info has posted a review of the Garmin Forerunner 305 and reports:

The unit really looks the part of a new generation – the case feels far more robust and the screen has a far higher resolution than that of the 301.

The heart rate monitor strap also has the appearance of much better quality; it’s softer and more comfortable too.

Almost every aspect of the unit has been improved. Major changes are:

The positioning and sensitivity of the antenna. The unit is designed for runners and the antenna is placed at an angle below the screen so that it faces upwards when worn on a runner’s wrist. Of course when you mount the unit on a surf ski, the antenna faces the floor. But this didn’t seem affect reception on the two occasions that I tried it.
Removal of the USB port.
The addition of “Course” functionality that allows you to record a particular downwind run for example and to compare subsequent runs against it (or against each other).

Read the whole review at SurfSki
Technorati Tags: review, GPS, Forerunner, 305, Garmin

The Register has published at the end of last year a review of the Asus MyPal A636. Not a newly published review but still helpful. Over at the Register they report:

Asus MyPal A636 is a worthy alternative to GPS-integrated PDAs from the likes of Mio and Acer. It’s less successful as a PDA than the others, if only because the hardware has so clearly been designed with satellite navigation usage in mind. As a GPS platform, it’s impressive, with a good, flexible antenna design and a powerful receiver. It’s let down a little by the bundled software, but there’s nothing to stop you switching to a better app later on.

Technorati Tags: gps, pda, asus, mypal, a636

Technology Evangelist has reviewed the Magellan Roadmate 800 and reports:

Violet’s (Roadmate’s 800)improvements on the basic 700 platform are amazing. I have now sold my Victoria (Roadmate) 760 to a friend, and she will continue to be loved by others. But Violet (the Roadmate 800) is simply amazing. Trust me, if you travel in unknown cities in USA, Canada and even Europe (with a map upgrade) get your own Magellan Roadmate 800, your own Violet.

Technorati Tags: gps, magellan, roadmate, 800, review

While I was searching for more information about the Garmin Nuvi 350 I came across another review. This review was posted a while back in December by Signal Vs Noise and is titled Garmin Nuvi 350: Insanely recommended so I guess you can guess what the conclusion was. Jason at Signal Vs Noise writes

And there’s more… But really, this is such a fantastic product. I can’t remember the last time I’ve been so satisfied with an electronic purchase. If you’re in the market for a mobile nav system for your car, bike, motocycle, or just for exploring a new city on foot without getting lost, you simply can’t go wrong with the Garmin Nuvi 350.

Technorati Tags: garmin, nuvi, 350, gps, review

MobileTechReview has published a review of the Asus MyPal A636, Asus Windows mobile pc with GPS capabilities and they report:

Convergence devices generally make concessions. For GPS enabled PDAs this means the PDA portion may be lacking in horsepower, a recent OS revision or wireless connections. The ASUS A636 is one of the first GPS Pocket PCs we’ve seen that rocks in both departments. The PDA portion’s features, power, performance and connectivity are top notch and the GPS hardware is excellent as are the maps. For the price, you’re getting an excellent machine, that lacks only in the looks department.

Technorati Tags: gps, asus, mypal, a636, review

Suunto is a wristwatch created for outdoor sports enthusiasts. It is equipped with GPS, a compass, chronograph, altimeter, and barometer. The Digital Lifestyle Magazine reviews the Suunto X9i GPS enabled watch and reports:

With the Suunto X9i, you’ll be able to have several key instruments right on your wrist. This unit, ideal for outdoor sports enthusiasts, integrates a clock and chronometer, GPS, Altimeter, Barometer, and Digital Compass in one tight package. Even better, the instruments are integrated to take the guess work out of common tasks by cross checking data internally.

Read the whole review at DLMag

The Magellan Roadmate 800 is a portable auto GPS receiver with multimedia capabilities, including an MP3 / WMA music player and a photo viewer. The flagship of Magellan’s Roadmate line was reviewed by Personal Computer World. The editors of PCW report

The Roadmate 800 looks very similar to Magellan’s previous systems – a chunky grey slab with a large (3.5in) colour touch-screen on the left and a series of buttons arranged in a circle on the right.

The difference with this particular Roadmate is that it has its own hard drive. We’ve seen hard disk-based GPS devices before, but this piece of kit has a whole 20GB - 5GB of which is available to store pictures or music.

Read the whole review here

Technorati Tags: gps, magellan, roadmate, 800, review