Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

One of the hottest gifts this holiday season is going to be GPSs.  Everyone, at some point in their life, has gotten lost multiple times while on the road and owning a GPS these days seems almost as necessary as having a cell phone. 

In case you want a general idea of what to look for in GPSs, you can check out Gadgetell’s Buying Guide for GPSs.  However, if you are in need of a GPS and plan to buy one on Black Friday, then you will want to know what’s going to be sold at a cheap price and where it’s going to be sold. 

We have three different GPS companies to talk about - TomTom, Magellan, and Garmin.  Overall, we have four different GPS models that are going to be sold in many different stores.  First, let’s begin with the TomTom One 125, which is going to be sold at Sears, Circuit City, Office Max, RadioShack, and Navy Exchange - all for the same price of $99.99.  Keep reading for more details.

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The helpful folks at TeleNav shot me out their new Shotgun and here are my first impressions.  If you are planning on buying a GPS device this holiday season, this is one to watch carefully.  I’ve had the device in my hands now for about 30 minutes and already am very excited about it for 3 main reasons.

Excitement reason #1: POIs

TeleNav says it has 11 million POIs.  The local Ikea, for some reason, shows up on no GPS devices that I have tested except my TeleNav phone GPS.  No surprise that the Shotgun finds it easily as well.  So far, the TeleNav’s connected search has always been able to find every location I’ve searched for.  I cannot say the same for Garmin, Navigon and Dash.  Keep reading about what other points make the Shotgun a damn good GPS.

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Normal POIs in GPSs can do only so much, such as letting you know when you come near a place that many find interesting.  This new Sat Nav software takes basic POIs to the next level.  This software will provide audio whenever you travel near a historically famous place in France, and will last about two minutes. 

Developed by RoadTour, the software will work with most GPSs, such as GPSs by Garmin.  For 19.95 pounds, or only about $27, you can get a concise historical background on nearly 620 French attractions.  Many European countries are rich with culture, so a tourist will definitely benefit from something like this.  RoadTour spent over 3 years developing accurate historical information for every piece of audio they have.  Find out even more after the break.

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Say you occasionally like to go boating.  Wouldn’t it be nice if you could grab your standard GPS from your car and use it on your boat?  Recently, Garmin announced 2 new GPSs, which you could use on both land and sea.

The 2 new GPSs are called the GPSMAP 640 and the GPSMAP 620, the main difference between the two is that the latter isn’t going to be sold in the American market.  Both of these GPSs, like the rest of the GPSMAP 600 series, feature waterproof 5.2-inch WVGA touch screens with 800 x 480 resolution.  More specifically, the GPSMAP 640 comes with preloaded maps of North America and U.S. coastal BlueChart g2 charts.  The cool part about the BlueChart technology is that whenever the 640 or 620 are in their special marine mount, they will both immediately start up in marine mode and display necessary information including depth contours, port plans, wrecks, restricted areas, etc. 

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Garmin recently announced a few new GPS series, the Nuvi 7x5 series and the Nuvi 2x5 series. The interesting thing about these GPS’ is that they come with lifetime free traffic updates. This service is similar to Navigon’s, however, unlike the new service from Garmin, the Navigon service does not come with ads.

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The onslaught of new smartphones equipped with satellite-navigation features is becoming a big threat to the dwindling behemoth in the personal navigation, Garmin.

While the beleaguered company blames the weak economy and that consumers seem to be more cost-conscious these days, you can’t dispel the blow created by the wireless industry. Today, personal navigation is no longer a special feature but a must-have for new mobile phones. Combine this with the power of mobile Internet and you will have a potent weapon to grab sizeable market share away from Garmin and other GPS players.

As the WSJ pointed out, this is reminiscent of the downfall of the Palm PDA with the entry of smartphones from companies like Nokia and BlackBerry.

Of course, Garmin is quite determined to put up a fight by release its very own iPhone-clone codenamed the Nuvifone. Unfortunately, we informed you a few days ago that its launch is delayed to first half of 2009 from the original timeline of of Q4 2008. Terrible news, indeed.

Again, this is a constant reminder for electronics companies to monitor the shifting market trends and continue its relentless efforts to improve its products.

Read [WSJ]

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  This is where we call out by names the actions and companies that seem odd, out of touch or just plain straight up smokin crack.  Technology is an odd realm where PR speak doesn’t hold a lot of water if the 1s and 0s don’t line up.  This week sees posturing, positioning and flat out insanity.  Here is what caught my eye this week:

iPhone 3G stock - Apple seems to be going to the Nintendo Wii’s model of avoiding any price deterioration: keep the darn thing out of stock.  Almost 3 weeks after launch and still lines in most stores to pick one up; if they even have the stock.  This doesn’t seem to be settling down; and it is looking like a huge customer grab for AT&T.  Amazing, either demand is just huge or Apple is playing with the supply figures.  Either way, crack is involved.

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In a statement released with Garmins earnings report, the Nuvifone has been pushed back from its original estimate of Q4 of this year to the “first half of 2009”.  Surely, it is not the navigation part of the convergence device that is slowing the team down, or is it?

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Today, Garmin announced two new GPS units that are similar to each other called the Nuvi 500 and Nuvi 550. The interesting thing about these GPS units is that they are both capable of helping when driving, or when outdoors such as hiking. One of the main differences between the 500 and the 550 is that the 500 provides US only maps, while the 550 comes with maps of North America.

Both of these devices sport 3.5-inch screens, full street maps, waterproof touchscreens, as well as handy topology maps. It comes with a swift toggle system to switch between maps, and it also comes with a compass. The topology maps and the compass should both come in handy when outdoors. They also have support to load photos as well as sharing photos. It has something called Route 66 guide, which means it will display special POI’s or landmarks along highways.

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One of the things in this year’s tour that is really making an impression on me is riders choosing to make their bike heavier.  Normally, cyclists (or any endurance athletes) strive to have nothing extra.  No cost is too big, no weight savings too small.  So when you have more and more Tour riders choosing to put a Garmin GPS and a PowerTap hub, it deserves a closer look.

I had the chance to interview Jake Jacobson, Garmin’s Senior Media Relations Specialist, who was actually in France with the Tour riders, the lucky guy.  He was gracious enough to answer my questions despite moving from town to town in the French countryside.

I’ll point out here that saying Garmin’s hundreds of thousands of dollar investment in the Garmin-Chipotle team was a move into a niche market was probably not the wisest of moves for me.  Luckily, Jake didn’t hold against me and was gracious enough to answer anyway.

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