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UPDATE: This model has been discontinued, replaced by the touchscreen Garmin Edge 800.
The Garmin Edge 705
Last month, Leszek Pawlowicz of Free Geography Tools hinted at a new project code-named MOAGU. He may ascribe a different meaning to the acronym for legal reasons, but let’s call it what it is — MOAGU is the mother of all Garmin utilities. What Leszek has created is a utility that will place a USGS topo map on your Garmin GPS. Actually, it will put any scanned, georeferenced map on your Garmin. It won’t work on just any Garmin mapping handheld yet; I haven’t been able to get the maps on my Colorado 300, though I’m hoping some of our more technically inclined readers can figure that one out.
I have used it on my Garmin 60CSx and I have to say that Moagu rocks! This really is revolutionary. Handheld users have been asking for 1:24,000 scale USGS maps for their GPS units for years. The DeLorme PN-20 and Magellan Triton series have implemented this, more or less successfully (respectively), but we haven’t had an easy solution for Garmin devices until now.
UPDATE: This model has been discontinued, replaced by the touchscreen Garmin Edge 800.
The Garmin Edge 605 is one of the new mapping models in Garmin’s bike-centric Edge lineup.This is the first Edge unit I’ve had for a hands-on review; I’ve been testing it on my mountain bike for a few weeks now.
It looks like Navigon may be making a marketing push for their FreshMaps service by offering a one-time free map update for current owners. The updated maps will be complimentary with the version 1.2 firmware update, which is reported to have the following release schedule:
MapQuest and Google Maps are both getting new "Send to GPS features" for Garmin devices.
The Google Maps feature, available as of today, allows you to send one location at a time. At MapQuest you can select multiple destinations, though the feature will not be implemented there till later this month.
The Dash Express, the hot new GPS featuring two-way connectivity, has caused a paradigm shift in the GPS industry. We have yet to see how broadly the Dash will be accepted, though they seem to have had a strong launch, with high initial shipments according to the sales rankings at Amazon
There are a couple of key components to two-way connectivity:
While not a benefit of two-way connectivity, Dash’s built-in wifi will also give them the ability to push large map and firmware updates to the units.
Let’s look at the status of other GPS manufacturers as they move (or don’t move) to implement two-way connectivity:
