Archives for August 2011

Garmin Montana 600 review

August 30, 2011 By Rich Owings 129 Comments

Hands on with the Garmin Montana 600

The Garmin Montana 600 is one of three models in Garmin’s newest handheld series. With it’s huge 4” touchscreen, I had initially thought the Montanas were targeted to the motorized crowd (ATV’s, etc.), but after spending over a month with it, I’m convinced that a lot of hikers and geocachers will be attracted to it as well. Before we get into the details, here’s some info on the rest of the series…

Filed Under: Featured, Garmin handheld GPS, GPS Reviews, Handheld/Sport Tagged With: Garmin Montana 600, Garmin Montana series

TomTom GO LIVE 1535 M brings apps to your dash

August 29, 2011 By Rich Owings Leave a Comment

UPDATE: Read my hands on review of the TomTom GO LIVE 1535 M.

TomTom is announcing the GO LIVE 1535 M today which, according to them, is the first PND to feature apps. Now we could quibble over that characterization, but nevertheless, they are debuting a device with Yelp, Trip Advisor, Expedia and Twitter.

Filed Under: Featured, TomTom auto GPS Tagged With: TomTom GO LIVE 1535 M

Garmin nuvi Essential series in stock

August 25, 2011 By Rich Owings Leave a Comment

UPDATE: Read my hands on review of the Garmin nuvi 40. I’ve also posted pages for the nuvi 40LM and nuvi 50LM.

Yes, that’s right; although they were just announced yesterday, the nuvi 30, 40 and 50 series are already available. Not only that, but it turns out that there are more models than we thought. GPS City has apparently beaten everyone to the punch – here’s what they have for you:

Filed Under: Auto, Featured, Garmin auto GPS Tagged With: Garmin nuvi 30, Garmin nuvi 40, Garmin nuvi 40LM, Garmin nuvi 50, Garmin nuvi 50LM, Garmin nuvi Essential series

Garmin nuvi Prestige, Advanced and Essential series announced

August 24, 2011 By Rich Owings 39 Comments

UPDATE: The nuvi Essential series is already shipping.

UPDATE 2: Read my hands on review of the Garmin nuvi 40.

UPDATE 3: The Garmin nuvi Advanced series is now shipping.

UPDATE 4: Read my First Looks – Garmin nuvi Advanced series post.

UPDATE 5: Read my hands on Garmin nuvi 2495LMT review.

UPDATE 6: Read my hands on Garmin nuvi 2555LT review.

UPDATE 7: Read my hands on Garmin nuvi 3490LMT review.

UPDATE 8: Read my hands on review of the Garmin nuvi 3590LMT.

Can Garmin really introduce 15 new models and at the same time simplify the nuvi line? That’s what they appear to be trying to do. Taking a page from Navigon, their recent acquisition, Garmin is rolling out three new series, the Prestige, Advanced and Essential lines. And while we don’t have an estimated street date, they are referring to these as their 2012 line. UPDATE: The product pages are showing a fourth quarter availability date.

Filed Under: Auto, Featured, Garmin auto GPS Tagged With: Garmin nuvi Advanced series, Garmin nuvi Essential series, Garmin nuvi Prestige series

GizzMoVest protective GPS case review and giveaway

August 16, 2011 By Rich Owings 29 Comments

GizzMoVest protective GPS cases are manufactured by a small Goleta, California company. Made of a combination of materials (a soft-knit interior, a high density plastic, and a very grippy exterior) the case shown above gives plenty of protection for the device. I’m not sure it would prevent damage if it were ran over by a truck, but it seems likely to save it against many drops on rock, concrete, etc. Now you would still need a screen protector, and as you can see, the front of the Garmin GPSMAP 62 series case is open, allowing access to the buttons. So while it could always hit a rocky protuberance screen first, a case such as this should dramatically reduce the chances of significant damage from most spills. In fact, the case results in a recessed screen (whereas the 62 series screen on a bare unit is flush), further reducing the chance of screen damage.

Filed Under: Featured, Garmin handheld GPS, Handheld/Sport Tagged With: accessories, GizzMoVest

Goodbye MapSource

August 9, 2011 By Rich Owings 18 Comments

Goodbye MapSource, hello BaseCamp. Alas, Garmin has stopped development on their MapSource mapping program – no further releases are planned. A Garmin developer let the cat out of the bag yesterday in a post on the Garmin forum…

…MapSource has not been worked on in quite a while, and there will be no new releases of that software. You are of course welcome to keep using MapSource, we will keep it on the website for the foreseeable future.

Filed Under: Featured, More GPS News Tagged With: Garmin BaseCamp, Garmin MapSource

Magellan eXplorist and Triton lines get aerial imagery

August 5, 2011 By Rich Owings 2 Comments

Magellan has rolled out a new aerial imagery subscription program for their eXplorist and Triton lines. Like the DeLorme and Garmin services, this one will utilize DigitalGlobe imagery and runs $29.99 per year.

Filed Under: Featured, Handheld/Sport, Magellan handheld GPS Tagged With: aerial imagery, Magellan eXplorist x10 series, Magellan Triton

Garmin Montana – First looks

August 2, 2011 By Rich Owings 21 Comments

UPDATE: I’ve posted my full hands on review of the Garmin Montana 600. I’ve also got pages up for the Montana 650 and 650t.

I’ve had a Garmin Montana 600 in hand for a couple of weeks now and so far I’m pretty impressed with it. I initially thought it was targeted at the motorized crowd (ATVs, 4WDs, etc.) due to its size, but now I’m not so sure. While it does make the Oregon series look positively diminutive, in comparison to the 62 series, it’s shorter, is the same thickness, and weighs just an ounce more.

Filed Under: Featured, Garmin handheld GPS, Handheld/Sport Tagged With: Garmin Montana series

Garmin StreetPilot Onboard iPhone app

August 2, 2011 By Rich Owings 6 Comments

Recalculating! Garmin has done a course correction with their iPhone app, rolling out a version with onboard maps, eight months after the release of their original StreetPilot app that used offboard maps. Considering AT&T’s reception problems in many areas, it’s probably a smart move.

Filed Under: Featured, iPhone apps, Mobile, Mobile apps Tagged With: Garmin StreetPilot app

The king is dead; long live the king?

August 1, 2011 By Rich Owings 10 Comments

Garmin has finally pulled the plug on the venerable GPSMAP 60CSx, officially discontinuing it. Long considered the gold standard, the 60CSx had started looking a bit long in the tooth over the past year or two, missing now standard features such as paperless geocaching.

Filed Under: Featured, Garmin handheld GPS, Handheld/Sport Tagged With: Discontinued, Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx