Sunday, March 18, 2012

Archives for June 2009

Geomate.jr review

UPDATE: This product has been discontinued. Here are my current geocaching GPS recommendations.

The Geomate.jr is designed solely for geocaching, but more than that, its designed to make geocaching drop-dead easy. The Geomate.jr is pre-loaded with 250,000 caches, covering the entire U.S.

read more

Garmin Dakota 10 and 20

Garmin-Dakota-20

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!

read more

Garmin nuvi 1490T review

Garmin nuvi 1490T review

UPDATEThis model has been discontinued. For current recommendations, please refer to our auto GPS buyers guide.

Hands on review of the Garmin nuvi 1490T

The Garmin nüvi 1490T offers a 5” wide screen and multi-destination routing, features not found on any of the nuvi 12xx or 13xx models.

UPDATE: Now available bundled with lifetime map updates as the Garmin nuvi 1490LMT

read more

Garmin Foretrex 301 and 401

Garmin_Foretrex_301

UPDATE: I’ve posted a Garmin Foretrex 401 resource page with links to hands on reviews

Apparently there is still money to be made in the entry-level handheld GPS market – the Garmin Foretrex 301 and 401 are being announced this morning. These two wrist-mounted units update the Foretrex 201, adding a high-sensitivity receiver and USB interface.

read more

Magellan RoadMate 1475T with lifetime traffic

magellan-roadmate-1475t

Magellan has announced the RoadMate 1475T, their first product with lifetime traffic. The 1475T is identical to the RoadMate 1470 I recently (and favorably) reviewed, with the addition of the traffic receiver. It carries a suggested retail price of $299 and will be available immediately.

Garmin CityXplorer review

CityXplorer-MARTA

I went to Atlanta this past weekend, armed with a nuvi 1490T and the Atlanta edition of Garmin’s new CityXplorer maps. And I have to say, I was quite impressed. I’m blessed with a good sense of direction (though I find it much easier to lose N, S, E and W in the city), but I’m not a real urbanite. I can probably count the number of times I’ve ridden a subway / light rail on one hand. So I had some nervousness about leaving my car behind and venturing into the city via MARTA, with only a nuvi to guide me. It turns out that my fears were misplaced. Quite simply, CityXplorer rocks. Read on for the details…

read more

Magellan RoadMate 1470 review

Magellan-RoadMate-1470 The Magellan RoadMate 1470 is one of several new models introduced by the company in the spring of 2009. This 4.7” touch-screen unit offers Magellan’s new One Touch interface, AAA TourBook, Highway Lane Assist, exit POIs and multi-destination routing.

read more