UPDATE: Read my hands on Garmin Dakota 20 review. I also have a dedicated Garmin Dakota 10 page.
Rumors have been showing up online for awhile now about a new handheld series, and today it’s official – the touch-screen Garmin Dakota 10 and Dakota 20 have been announced.
The Dakota series seems to be filling the eTrex niche. They are rated as having a 20 hour battery life (vs. 16 for the Oregon series) and they will not come with pre-loaded detailed maps – only a basemap. Screen size is 2.6” (diagonal) vs. 3” for the Oregon series. Both Dakota models support paperless geocaching, but not Wherigo cartridges. One interesting thing – they both will store up to 200 tracks compared to the Oregon’s 20!
Features found on the Dakota 20, but not the entry level model include:
- Micro-SD card slot
- Electronic compass (3-axis)
- Barometric altimeter
- Wireless data transfer with compatible units
Availability is listed as 3rd quarter, with prices of $299.99 and $349.99.
Here’s the news release.
About Rich Owings
Last call for ideas – ESNC deadline 31 July 2009!
Only a few days left to register for the ESNC 2009. The winners get the possibility to realize their ideas with the help of the selected regions and with technical and financial support of the sponsors.
The European Satellite Navigation Competition awards the best ideas for innovative satellite navigation applications. It is open to companies, entrepreneurs, research institutes, universities and individuals.
Beside the main prize for the overall winner of EUR 20.000 and six-month incubation programme in the favoured region to realise his idea, there are special topic prizes on offer for:
– Applications for use in the public and health sector (T-Systems)
– Advanced applications for industry and public (DLR)
– The most promising EGNOS application idea (GSA)
– The best business plan for using global navigation satellite systems (ESA)
– Navigation and location-based services for mobile devices (NAVTEQ)
– Applications for support of life (Communidad de Madrid)
– Safety and security in the logistics and transport sectors (SatNav MIT BW)
– Dynamic earth observation data in combination with GNSS (GMES)
For detailed information please visit http://www.galileo-masters.eu/.
So take your chance and register before 31 July 2009 at https://esnc.galileo-masters.com/!
Love the unit, but sometimes when I go to save a recent track it shuts off. Is there a driver update to fix this?
This was caused by the most recent firmware update. I expect Garmin to issue a fix soon, or you can roll back to a previous version.