Magellan announced new firmware today for their Triton series, and a new version of VantagePoint as well. It looks like their acquisition by MiTAC has infused the company with some much needed energy. I’ve been very impressed with the improvements made to their latest auto units and have been hoping they would ramp things up on the handheld side too.
The Triton line has already seen some recent firmware updates, and it appears that these are forthcoming, adding to the improvements previously made. A discussion thread has been started on TritonForum.com.
Read on for the full news release…
SALT LAKE CITY, July 21 /PRNewswire/ — Magellan, one of the leading GPS brands, announces new advancements to its Triton series, including an improved user experience and overall product functionality of all Triton GPS devices and Magellan’s VantagePoint desktop software. Magellan will showcase its enhanced Triton series at Outdoor Retailer Summer Market (booth #25011).
Magellan reinvented outdoor GPS when it introduced the Triton series, empowering outdoor enthusiasts with advanced design and innovative features. The Triton series is the first line of rugged, handheld navigation devices designed with a combination of brilliant color screens and ground-breaking mapping capability on all models, making Triton easier to use and more accessible to an expanding population of outdoor enthusiasts.
“In an effort to continue providing users with intuitive technology, Magellan dramatically upgraded the Triton software to enhance usability, increase performance, and improve quality for the complete Triton series,” said Justin Doucette, Director of Outdoor Products Marketing for Magellan. “We are proud of our latest advancements because we are now offering the best outdoor navigation solution at the best price -providing consumers with the flexibility to customize their device to fit their navigation needs.”
User Experience Improvements
The Triton series features many new improvements, including North American basemaps that provide more roads, more detailed locations, and better map displays. Additionally, advancements include improved communication between a user’s PC and GPS unit; the ability to customize the user experience and gain quicker access to various features with a single click of the enter key; general systems settings are now more accessible on the Setting Menu; the ability to turn various pages on and off; a new elevation and coordinate entry user interface to easily add or modify values using the keypad; and the ability to access the Main Menu from any navigation page.
User-Generated Content
In most devices, the Triton offers the ability to support up to 2000 waypoints, 20 saved trails, and 40 routes; the ability to Start, Stop, and Resume track from the contextual menu; and the ability to Go-To-Next or Go-To-Previous point while in an active route.
More Additional Features
The Triton series offers the ability to: automatically notify the user when the battery is low, reduce backlight to help save battery life, quickly clear the active track line after the user decides to save a trail. In addition, users also have the ability to export and display more than just National Geographic TOPO! Maps. Now users can display Aerial and Hybrid Quads, as well having a single way to activate all National Geographic maps on the Triton or SD card. The upgrade also includes the addition of advanced features including the ability to add custom coordinate systems; and the ability to calculate an area based on active track, saved trails, and saved routes.
VantagePoint Improvements
Magellan’s VantagePoint(TM) software, a powerful desktop application that enables users to customize the content on their Magellan GPS devices, has also been enhanced with a new user interface design, the inclusion of VantagePoint Lite for automatic software update alerts, GPS logging, improvements to map displays, detailed map legends, map layer customization, improved track playback, and the ability to edit tracks.
The new software release is available for free download at MagellanGPS.com. Additional updates will be announced over the following months. Units for review can be obtained by emailing rfinelli@magellangps.com.
About Rich Owings
These are great improvements, and the rumors are out that there are more great improvements to come. It seems that Magellan (thanks to MiTac) are finally getting on the right track.
My opinion is that this unit (T2000) is now at the point it should have been when it was first released.
Still no documented protocol for getting data in or out of these things except via VantagePoint after two years? That’s just sad.
It’s interesting how Magellan went from being one of the most open (they accurately documented their file and protocol formats for 315/330/ST/Meridian era products long before Garmin did – and Explorist was so similar they were supported w/in weeks of them shipping, even before the docs) to being one of the hardest for software guys to work with.
Cause or effect of diminishing market share in the handheld space?
I’ve just received a 2000 review unit, and will be posting my impressions of it soon, along with articles on free utilities for it. So far, no major showstoppers or bugs, unlike early adopters. And with both currently available free utilities, and one that I wrote for it and will release shortly for free, custom raster maps are easy to make, display blazingly fast and pan without hesitations or stutters. I wouldn’t give up my Garmin for it yet, but given the negative publicity it’s gotten, so far I’m pleasantly surprised.
National Geographic topo maps still stink, though.
Cool! I’m really excited to see what you think. Vantage Point has been problematic in the past. Hopefully it is greatly improved.
If you had lots of space on your hard drive I could send you copies of emails between myself and various Magellen support geeks. I have un-installed and re-installed vantagepoint 10 times so far. The moment I connect my triton 500, the software crashes. I suppose I will sell my triton in a garage sale and go back to my old magellan sport trak map and Oziexplorer. My latest email series (today) is from the support geek supervisor. I have also un-installed and re-instaled the driver both from the supplied disk and the website. I am simply writing this note to vent my frustrations, I suppose
Doug Trim
Whitehorse
Yukon Territory, Canada