GPS Gazette - GPS Reviews

Aving reports that Dae Kyung is about to release a new 7″ DMB navigation unit called XPIN CX700. The highlight of this device is that it features a technology called NIP(Navi in Picture). NIP allows users to split the screen and use the device both as a DMB and for navigation simultaneously. The 7″ screen with a resolution of 800×480 pixels should provide enough real estate for that as you can see in the screenshot (click to enlarge). Other features of the device include AV in/out, rear monitor camera connection, FM transmitter, and SD&CF card slot. Pricing has not been announced yet.

More pictures and information at Aving

Wonde Proud GPS-BT760 is yet another bluetooth GPS by a Taiwanese manufacturer. To be honest I have never heard about this brand in the past but after some searching it appears that its products are distributed under the XAIOX brand in Europe. This latest GPS device is a standard bluetooth GPS receiver that is equipped with the 20 channel SiRFStar III GPS chipset. However, its biggest selling point is battery life. According to the manufacturer a single charge of its built in 2400mA/h battery can give you up to 55 hours continuous use to stand-by time up to several weeks. No word on pricing or availability yet but since Wonde will be at this years CeBIT we may be able to learn a bit more.

Haicom released a new Bluetooth (v1.1) GPS unit with an SD interface. The unit features a standard miniSD to SD adapter that allows users to use a miniSD card of any size. The unit is equipped with a 20 channel, high sensitive SiRF StarIII GPS module and doesn’t need a battery since it is powered by the device it is attached to. This hybrid of Bluetooth GPS and SDIO GPS has the benefit that it doesn’t tie up the SD slot of your device. The main disadvantage that this unit might have is the fact the it main drain the battery of the device that is attached to very quickly. Of course that is just speculation and we will have to wait for the first reviews to see if this is a better format than the traditional Bluetooth and SDIO GPS receivers or not. Finally, the device with the use of some optional cables can be transformed to regular GPS mouse.
For more information you can visit the Product Page

The Haicom HI-505SD is expected to start shipping mid-February with a price of $109.95

Amaryllo Trinity is a stylish Bluetooth GPS receiver that can also receive real time traffic information as broadcasted via TMC same as the Globalsat BTT-100 that we have posted about before. Trinity was introduced mid January and it features the 20 Channel SiRFstar III LP (Low Power) chipset and has a built-in patch antenna while its removable lithium-ion rechargeable battery (1000mAh) allows it to operate for about 11 hours on a single charge. Of course the reason that sets it apart from the current competition is the fact that it receives real time traffic information. However, if you want to take full advantage of this feature you need to have a compatible navigation software installed. At this time the Amaryllo Trinity is compatible with the Smart2Go software by Gate5 that was acquired by Nokia last year. The suggested retail price of Trinity is 129 Euro and it should now be available in Europe. Amaryllo products are not distributed in the USA but according to their website they are looking for distributors, so it isn’t unlikely for Trinity to make an appearance in the USA as well.

Announcement

Map-Star is a new GPS device and a new company entering the increasing competition of the navigation products market. It is powered by the Samsung 400MHz S3C2440 and uses Windows CE 4.2 as an operating system. The navigation software used is Odyssey by Infogation and it uses probably the most popula GPS chip in the market today, the SiRF star III. Some of the other notable features and specifications include the 4.3″ color touch screen, voice guidance in 6 languages (English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Korean), preloaded maps of the US and Canada with 1.65 million POI on a 2 GB SD card and of course the multimedia capabilities that are present in almost all the latest GPS devices that allow you to play your favorite music, watch movies, and view photos. Finally the unit dimensions are 158.8mm x 84.2mm x 30.3mm, it weights 300gr and uses a Li-ion 1540 mAh battery.
The Map-Star GPS is expected to start shipping this month (February) with a price of $499.99

Via

Akihabara has posted about a new PMP with DMB and GPS features the Fusion soft 7star ODD-I. The unit features a 7″ Wide display (QVGA), a SiRF III GPS, WinCE 5.0, and a 40 or 80 GB hard disk. The processor powering the 7Star is the MAGICEYES MMSP-2 (Dual Core). Some of the other specifications are:

• RAM : 128MB SDRAM, 64MB NAND Flash
• Dimensions: 190mm(W) × 125mm(H) × 28.8mm(T)
• SD card slot
• FM Transmitter and infrared remote control input
• Turn-by-Turn voice guidance
• Audio: MP3, WMA, WAV, OGG and AC3
• Video: MPEG1, MPEG4, Xvid and Divx 3.X/4.X/5.X (720X480, 30 frame max), WMV7/8/9 (320X240, 30 frame max)

u-blox the Swiss manufacturer of GPS chips has announced that they will present a new GPS chip at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, the u-blox 5. This new chip will be Galileo-ready and will feature acquisition and tracking sensitivity of -160 dBm, a 50-channel engine and a power consumption of less than 50 mW. According to the press release the u-blox 5 features an acquisition performance of less than one second. The specs look really good, I guess we will have to wait to see the first devices that will be using it.

Press Release

After a report yesterday and quite a bit of press coverage TomTom issued today a press release verifying that a number of TomTom 910 manufactured between 9/2006 and 11/2006 were infected with a virus. However, they state that

The viruses that were detected present an extremely low risk to customers’ computers

Press Release

Technorati Tags: TomTom GPS, GO 910, GPS, Virus

VNUNET has posted a review of the ViaMichelin X-980T, the latest and higher end GPS device by Viamichelin. The X-980T offers traffic information in real-time 24/7 with its integrated RDS TMC receiver as well as exclusive content from the Michelin guides. Another feature that a lot of people might find handy is the Bluetooth hands-free phone function. The main technical specifications of the device are:

• Screen: 4.3″
• GPS: Integrated GPS receiver (SiRF Star III technology)
• Processor: Intel 416 MHz
• Operating system: Windows CE.net 5.0
• RAM: 64 Mb RAM / 256 Mb ROM
• SD cards: 2 Gb
• Map display: 2D or 3D
• Size: 150 x 82.5 x 26.8
• Software: ViaMichelin Navigation DVD-Rom Europe
• Weight: 260 g
• Battery: Lithium-ion / Battery life: 3 hours

Overall the reviewer gives it a 3 out of 5. You can read the whole review here

Technorati Tags: Viamichelin, Viamichelin x-980T, gps, review

BEOND is a company from Hong Kong that is entering the GPS market. They presented their new line of GPS devices at the CES this year but I wasn’t able to find a lot of information about that. It appears that they started releasing their newly created army of GPS devices. First in line is the BO-A410 which is powered by the Samsung 400MHz, S3C2440A processor, uses a 20 channels SIRF III GPS Module and has a 4.2 inches 65K colors TFT display touch screen while the OS used is the Microsoft WinCE.NET 4.2. Besides the Navigation capabilties it also has (surprise surprise) multimedia functions [supports MP3 audio playback and voice record, (MPEG4 video playback and voice record (optional) )]

Pricing and availability will probably depend if a distributor bring them to Europe and the USA