GPS reviews, news, tips, tricks and deals
The T-Moble Garminfone is Garmin’s first Android smartphone released in North America. Produced by the Garmin-Asus partnership, it includes many of the goodies you would find on a nuvi, including North American maps, junction view, lane assist, Where am I?, tracklogs and multi-destination routing.
The Garmin GPSMAP 78s
But patience has its rewards and Garmin did well not to rush things. With the 78 (and the forthcoming 62 series, which shares the same interface), Garmin has married the best features of the 60/76 models, with many of the advantages of the Oregon line. Before we get into the details, lets look at some closely…
UPDATE: This model has been discontinued. For a list of current TomTom models and their features, please see our TomTom comparison chart.
The TomTom XXL 550TM
The 550 series includes preloaded maps of the US, Canada and Mexico, along with over 7 million points of interest (POIs). Additionally, you’ll get Advanced Lane Guidance, IQ Routes, Map Share and the EasyPort mount. I’ll go over those features in detail, but first let’s look at some other closely…
Ever had the itch to make your own maps? Wished that you had access to the same cartography tools used by Garmin? Well, your dreams may be coming true. A new MapSource Product Creator page on Garmin’s developer site offers you the opportunity to…
Create custom maps that can be easily loaded into Garmin devices with the MapSource Product Creator (MPC). The MPC can create everything from full country topographic maps to maps for specific industry, military or research applications.
UPDATE (June 17, 2010): Sad to say I received this from Navigon’s PR manager today:
I came across your blog post about the NAVIGON 70 showing up at FCC and wanted to clarify that we are not planning to launch new PND’s in the U.S. at this point. NAVIGON has reallocated its resources in the U.S. from the PND to the software business in the smartphone and automotive field. The reason why the NAVIGON 70 landed at the FCC is that we will have an AAFES version of this product in Germany for U.S. soldiers stationed there. Since the military bases in Germany are considered U.S. ground, our products need to go through the FCC.
Well it sure does look that way, since several models just sailed through the FCC. It all seems to indicate that the Navigon 70/71 Plus, Premium and Premium Car models are heading back to this side of the pond. Perhaps the Portable Navigation Device (PND) market isn’t dead after all.
UPDATE: The nuvi 2×5 series has been officially discontinued. For current recommendations, see our auto GPS buyers guide.
The Garmin nüvi 295W
UPDATE: Check out my hands on review of the Garmin GPSMAP 62s. I’ve also got pages posted for the GPSMAP 62 and GPSMAP 62st.
UPDATE: GPS City is showing an estimated stock date of July 23.
As expected, Garmin has announced a successor to their most popular handheld, the 60CSx. The new GPSMAP 62 series marries the best capabilities of the Garmin Oregon line with much of the functionality of the 60 series. The three models announced this morning include the:
Done a map update lately? If so, you may want to check your nuvi and see if it’s ready to head south of the border. The screenshot above is from my nuvi 765T after the latest map update. From GpsPasSion:
The so-called Forest Defenders is a group (or more likely, an individual) conducting a “personal war against Letterbox and Geocache littering in eco-sensitive areas.” This drives me absolutely crazy; it’s people like this that give environmentalists a bad name. If you want to limit impact in natural areas, a good start would be to ban people and trails period. But hey FD, in case you haven’t noticed, humans are part of the ecology too.
