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Archives for January 2007

Garmin zumo 450

January 4, 2007 By 4 Comments

Garminzumo450UPDATE: Check out our Garmin zumo 450 review.

Garmin today announced a second model in its zumo line of GPS navigation devices for motorcycles — the Garmin zumo 450. Basically, this is a stripped down version of the zumo 550, offering all of its features except for Bluetooth, XM satellite radio compatibility, and text-to-speech (the ability to call out street names).

Here’s a link to the the full press release announcing the Garmin zumo 450, which is expected to be available in March 2007, carrying a sure to be discounted suggested retail price of $799.


Filed Under: Garmin, Hardware

Garmin nuvi 680

January 4, 2007 By Leave a Comment

Nuvi680weather
Garmin today announced the Garmin nuvi 680, a new flagship GPS navigation device in the nuvi line. As expected, this new nuvi (couldn’t resist) offers dynamic content from MSN Direct, including traffic, weather, gas prices and movie times. Offering content in 100 U.S. markets, 12 months of MSN Direct service will be included with the nuvi 680. After that it will cost $49.95 a year or $129.95 for the lifetime of the device. MSN Direct service is delivered via an FM signal, and the 680 comes with a receiver for it.

Otherwise, the nuvi 680 seems to be identical to the nuvi 660. Here’s the press release announcing the Garmin nuvi 680 and Garmin’s other new MSN Direct connected device, the  Garmin StreetPilot c580. The nuvi 680 is expected to be available in the first quarter of 2007, at a sure to be discounted suggested retail price of $999.99. I’m including a few screenshots as we get our first look at the nuvi 680.

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Filed Under: Garmin, Hardware, Location based services

GPS Wish List

January 3, 2007 By Leave a Comment

The items presented here may not rear their head in 2007, though they aren’t so far fetched as to be out of the question. In addition to features listed in yesterday’s 2007 GPS predictions post, my wish list includes:

Personal locator beacon

A personal locator beacon could become a very popular feature for handheld (or even auto) GPS
receivers, with many a worried spouse ready to shell out big bucks for it.

Voice commands

Voice recognition has made major advances in the past couple of years, but the auto environment is inherently noisy, with extraneous sounds coming from the
exterior and interior (music, audio books and conversation). Pioneer and others are trying this out, but don’t look for mass adoption yet.

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Filed Under: Hardware, The business of GPS

GPS predictions for 2007

January 2, 2007 By Leave a Comment

2007 is here, and since we just reviewed 2006, it seems appropriate to prognosticate a bit on 2007 (and beyond). Though there is not always a strong line of demarcation between the three, I’m going to break this up into three posts over the next few days, covering GPS predictions, my GPS wish list, and GPS fantasies. Today we’ll look at…

GPS predictions

2007 will see major gains in several areas:

Connectivity

Dash Navigation is leading the way here, with their upcoming release of GPS navigators that use (supposedly) anonymous cell phone data to ferret out live traffic conditions. Their challenge will be getting enough users to achieve critical mass.

TomTom already has connectivity via cell phones through their TomTom Plus services. Look for them to expand the capabilities associated with this program and push it more heavily.

Garmin is taking baby steps with their nuvi 670 and 680, but they are bound to be working on something bigger than that. The question is, what will their major connectivity play look like?

With WiMAX a ways away, and users with cell phone data plans being far from ubiquitous, GPS manufacturers are limited in what they can do right now. This is a year for them to get their feet wet and try some things out.

With connectivity comes security risks though. Look for some major holes to appear as navigation software engineers face a steep security learning curve.

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Filed Under: Hardware, The business of GPS Tagged With:
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