Waypoints – March 1, 2008

Waypoints is a collection of GPS news shorts from the past week…

CeBIT

The U.S. has its Consumer Electronics Show; Europe has CeBIT, which is happening next week. While we only have a couple of announcements so far, we do expect some new units to be announced next week by some of the top GPS companies, so do stay tuned.

• Nav N Go’s iGO 8, which features 3-D imagery, is being demonstrated at CeBIT.
• Also at CeBIT, U-Blox will demo Galileo reception.

The business of GPS

• Nuvio sues Garmin. At first I thought, okay, it’s a similar name. Big deal. Then I found out that Nuvio’s HQ is four miles from Garmin’s. You would think they would have known better! But why wait till the nuvifone to sue; why not sue over the name nuvi? One blogger points out that Garmin may have been smart to use the umlaut in the name.
• Garmin supports racing. Um, wait. maybe that’s not how their PR folks meant for it to be taken.
• Maptech slashes marine chart prices and then gets put up for sale.

GPS firmware and software

• Magellan released new firmware for some of the Triton series, then promptly pulled it down. Sigh.
• Magellan has posted details of the map and software upgrade (v2) for the CrossoverGPS and the Roadmate 2200T. Via Allory.
• Navigon has released new firmware for the 2100, 5100 and 7100. Via GPS Lodge.
• Garmin has posted new firmware for the nuvi 660 and for the StreetPilot c530, c550 and c580.
• Garmin has also posted a new version of their POI Loader and a new beta version of Training Center for Mac.
• Garmin’s Communicator Plugin has been updated.
• CourseMapper lets you add rudimentary maps to the Garmin Forerunner and Edge 205/305.
• GlobalMapper v 9.02, a sophisticated mapping program, has been released.

GPS hardware

• Getting to know the Dash Express.
• A hack to add wi-fi to the HP iPaq 310.
• The Pharos Drive GPS 250 gets a respectable review from PC Mag’s Craig Ellison.

Maps and data

• Amateur cartographers may be interested in the US Forest Service Geodata Clearinghouse, which has raster and vector data
  available. If you spend much time on USFS lands, you should check out
  their 1:24K scale maps which include boundaries and road numbers. Via Using Google Earth.
• California ski lift data sets.
• Hi-res Mexican road maps.

Cell phones

• A review of Nokia Maps 2.0 (beta), complete with screen shots.
• A reminder that 911 calls from cell phones usually don’t carry that accurate of location data.

Odds and ends

• The problem with GPS in fast growing regions like Austin, Texas.
• Hmm, this looks familiar.
• Crowd-sourcing war.

Virtual globes

• NOAA weather data in Google Earth.
• Some how to’s for more complex Google Maps mashups. Via Mapperz.
• Neighborhood info has been added to Google Maps.
• Google Maps "Bike There" wants bike routes on Google Maps. Via All Points Blog.

Updated GPS reviews

• Garmin Forerunner 305 review – Addicted to Running has posted a two-part review. Looks like there may be more to come.
• Garmin nuvi 350 review – Here’s a brief review on Flixya.
• Garmin nuvi 750 review – GPS Magazine says the nuvi 750 hits the price / performance sweet spot.
• Garmin nuvi 760 review – Here’s a short, personal review.
• Garmin nuvi 780 review – Scott, over at GPS Lodge, has posted a detailed review of this unit with MSN version 2 services.
• Garmin StreetPilot c530 review – Even kayakers like highway GPS units!
• TomTom GO 720 review – Here I’ve linked to two new reviews, one from About.com and one from ConnectReviews.