Archives for April 2010

Motorola MOTONAV TN765t review

April 29, 2010 By Rich Owings 17 Comments

Hands on with the Motorola MOTONAV TN765t

The Motorola Motonav TN765t has a whopping 5.1” display, voice recognition, Bluetooth, lifetime traffic, text-to-speech, lane guidance, and pre-loaded maps of the US and Canada. I’ll get into the details of many aspects of this feature-laden unit shortly, but first let’s look at how the TN765t differs from other models in the current MOTONAV product line…

Filed Under: Auto, Featured, GPS Reviews, Other auto GPS Tagged With: Motorola MOTONAV TN765t

TomTom XL 340M

April 27, 2010 By Rich Owings 3 Comments

UPDATE: This model has been discontinued. For a list of current TomTom models and their features, please see our TomTom comparison chart.

The TomTom XL 340M adds lifetime map updates to the TomTom XL 340-S feature set, and gives you preloaded maps of the US, Canada and Mexico, a 4.3” wide-screen and text-to-speech, so you’ll hear “turn right, Oak Street,” instead of just “turn right.” read more

Filed Under: Auto, Featured, GPS Reviews, TomTom auto GPS Tagged With: TomTom XL 340M

Garmin GPSMAP 78, 78s and 78sc marine handhelds

April 23, 2010 By Rich Owings 5 Comments

UPDATE 2: I’ve now posted my hands on review of the Garmin GPSMAP 78s. I’ve also got a resource/review page up for the GPSMAP 78.

UPDATE – I’m now doing hands on testing of the GPSMAP 78 series, which seems to be the same platform as the forthcoming 62 series.

Garmin has announced three new color marine handhelds this morning, the GPSMAP 78, 78s and 78sc. Updating the 76 series, these units support Garmin custom maps and BirdsEye imagery. The “s” models include user profiles, a tri-axial compass and wireless exchange of data between units. The flagship 78sc includes pre-loaded cartography for the coastal US. And like the 76 series, they float!

There have been rumors of an updated 60 series, but I had doubts due to the supposed 62 series numbering. That is certainly making more sense after today’s announcement. We should know soon.

Manufacturer’s suggested retail price for the GPSMAP 78 series is $299.99, $399.99 and $499.99, with all three units expected to be available in May, 2010.

EDIT:

The Garmin product pages are showing prices $50 ~~less~~ more (oops!) than stated above and in the news release. Somebody goofed one place or the other. They also confirm paperless geocaching capability. Here are the links:

Filed Under: Featured, Garmin handheld GPS, Handheld/Sport, Marine Tagged With: Garmin GPSMAP 78, Garmin GPSMAP 78s, Garmin GPSMAP 78sc

Garmin Connect now rocks

April 20, 2010 By Rich Owings 8 Comments

Okay, I’ve got to admit that I was a bigger fan of MotionBased than its successor, Garmin Connect. I used the former to search for .gpx track files or trails I wanted to ride or hike. I never had much luck with Garmin Connect for some reason. But a blog post from them yesterday caught my eye. Having checked it out, I want to call your attention to a couple of things…

Filed Under: Featured, Handheld/Sport Tagged With: Garmin Connect

Lowrance Endura Out&Back review

April 20, 2010 By Rich Owings 13 Comments

This review was written by Troy Bryan, AKA StarBrand on geocaching.com’s Groundspeak forums. My initial review of the Lowrance Endura Sierra wasn’t exactly glowing, so after seeing positive reports about recent firmware updates, I asked Troy if he’d post a review of his Out&Back.

I got my Lowrance Endura Out&Back just 1 day before my big summer 2009 vacation to Minnesota last August. I had been eagerly awaiting this unit after reading the specs and preordering the unit in Late May. The many delays in shipping were frustrating but I was interested in seeing what this offering could do. After opening the package and briefly reading through the included guide , I was almost immediately disappointed with several aspects of the unit. Dim screen, a bit awkward in size and quirky behavior loading up a few PQs. I dumped it my caching bag with my Oregon 200 and Colorado 300 and took it with me to give it a good workout anyway.

Filed Under: Featured, GPS Reviews, Handheld/Sport, Lowrance handheld GPS Tagged With: Lowrance Endura Out&Back

Garmin Forerunner 110

April 19, 2010 By Rich Owings 2 Comments

UPDATE: A newer model, the Forerunner 210, brings some added pace features, while keeping the 110’s form factor.

The Garmin Forerunner 110 is a new entry-level version of Garmin’s popular GPS fitness / sports watch. It has a simplified menu and drops the touch-bezel interface of recent models, replacing them with four large buttons. It’s available with or without a heart-rate monitor and comes in several colors – Men’s red, Women’s pink or Unisex.

Filed Under: Featured, Garmin handheld GPS, GPS Reviews, Handheld/Sport Tagged With: Garmin Forerunner 110, GPS for runners

Garmin Oregon 450t

April 19, 2010 By Rich Owings 48 Comments

UPDATE: This model has been discontinued.

The Garmin Oregon 450t is one of the newest members of the touchscreen Oregon family, featuring the latest improvements such as better visibility, a tri-axial compass, custom dashboards, advanced track navigation features and the ability to load custom maps and BirdsEye aerial imagery. It also includes pre-loaded 1:100,000 scale topos of the entire US. I’ll delve into those details shortly, but first I want to clarify the differences between the Oregon 450t and some closely…

Filed Under: Featured, Garmin handheld GPS, GPS Reviews, Handheld/Sport Tagged With: Garmin Oregon 450t

Garmin GPSMAP 76

April 16, 2010 By Rich Owings Leave a Comment

The Garmin GPSMAP 76 is probably Garmin’s most popular entry-level marine handheld. This greyscale unit floats and can accommodate up to 8MB of added maps. Its pre-loaded basemap brings marine navigation aids, including lights, buoys, sound signals and day beacons.

Here’s a tool to compare the GPSMAP 76 to other Garmin marine handhelds.

Filed Under: Featured, Garmin handheld GPS, GPS Reviews, Handheld/Sport, Marine Tagged With: Garmin GPSMAP 76

Finally — Garmin City Navigator Israel NT!

April 15, 2010 By Rich Owings 65 Comments

UPDATE: According to Garmin support, this product is only compatible with the nuvi 1xxx models. (Thanks Alex)

In my nearly five years of GPS blogging, I’ve had more requests for GPS maps of Israel than any other country. Hence, I thought this morning’s release of Garmin City Navigator Israel NT warranted a post. The link may throw an error, but the page should be available shortly if it’s not now. The maps cover most of Israel, including Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv, Haifa and Eilat (I’ve included a coverage map below, after the jump). Roads and names can be displayed in either Hebrew or English.

Filed Under: Auto, Featured, Garmin auto GPS, Maps Tagged With: Garmin City Navigator Israel NT

Improved map controls for new Garmin handhelds

April 14, 2010 By Rich Owings 11 Comments

Garmin rolled out several new updates yesterday for the Colorado, Dakota and Oregon series. There were a few fixes, but I want to concentrate on them adding BirdsEye control to profiles. I’m not really sure if you could do this with other map types before; regardless though, I want to point out the granular map controls now available to users of these units, allowing you to easily switch between map types.

Filed Under: Featured, Garmin handheld GPS, Handheld/Sport Tagged With: BirdsEye, Garmin custom maps, Topo maps