The Return of Waypoints

Between the holidays, a baby in the house, a trip to Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show and a cross-country move, I’ve let Waypoints slide since late last year. We’re settling in nicely in our new digs now, and I’m actually finding time for a link roundup. Many thanks to all our loyal readers for their patience.

Top stories

• Dash delays shipping the Dash Express by a month. And GPS Review covers has a new Dash video.
• Garmin has released new firmware (v 2.40) for the Colorado series. Here are the links — 300, 400t, 400i, 400c. Changes include improved backlight, NiMH battery, geocaching, and custom POI support. There is a discussion thread at Groundspeak. In case you missed it, here is my Garmin Colorado 300 review.

Auto GPS news

• Garmin has released firmware updates for the nuvi 750, 760, 770 and 5000. Before you install though, note that there are reports of problems with the nuvi 700 series firmware upgrade.
• TomTom releases new maps based on the TeleAtlas 2007.10 build.
• Ford comes out with an OnStar competitor.
• CNet’s
  take on the best five auto GPS systems include the Garmin nuvi 660, HP
  iPaq rx5900, Magellan Maestro 4250, Mio C520 and TomTom GO 720. I could quiblle with their choices, but I will note that three of the four I’ve reviewed are in our current top ten list.
• MioMagic is a POI manager.
• OpenStreetMap finshes incorporating U.S. TIGER data. C’mon Leszek, try it out and let us know how it works.

For backcountry GPS enthusiasts

• Garmin has released new firmware for the Summit HC and Venture HC.
• TeleAtlas to provide map data for USGS 7.5 minute topo maps. This reminded me of an AnyGeo piece on next generation USGS quads.
• HeyWhatsThat, which I’ve written about before, is a 2008 NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge semi-finalist with a mobile phone prototype entry.

Cell phone GPS

• A devastatingly bad review of Garmin Mobile XT. Good thing this isn’t what they’ll be using on the nuvifone.
• Cell phone GPS helps rescue lost hikers.
• Magellan’s MobileMapper 6 is based on the Triton platform, as can be seen in this video.
• SportsDo offers sport tracking for you cell phone.

The business of GPS

• Garmin steps up its efforts to serve Australia and New Zealand.
• Mio enters the Indonesian market.
• Garmin had their best quarter and best year ever, but it didn’t help their stock price.
• TomTom followed by reporting a good quarter, but the stock dropped on concern of declining margins, dragging Garmin down even more with it.
• The video interview below suggests that Garmin may focus on the nuvifone instead of coming up with a connected PND:

Miscellany

• Garmin has posted version 6.13.7 of MapSource.
• Geopainting a glyph.
• Cheap DIY GPS tracking.
• There’s an informative thread at Groundspeak about using the nuvi for geocaching.
• Can thunderstorms impact GPS performance?
• National Geographic has a new "map of the day" page, showing lots of cool historical maps.
• There’s a new imagery update for Google Earth.
• A review of the ATP Photo Finder.
• U.S. spy satellites to be used for domestic law enforcement. Via Slashgeo.