Sunday, March 18, 2012

All about barometric altimeters

MT 600 altimeter screen

Barometric altimeter screen on the Garmin Montana 600

For folks who hike and bike in mountainous terrain, tracking elevation gain can be as (or even more) important than trail miles. But while GPS is getting very accurate in terms of horizontal positioning, it is surprisingly weak at determining elevation. While it’s a bit of an oversimplification, let’s just say that it’s primarily due to the geometry of the satellite constellation and any GPS receiver involved. Add in mountainous terrain and the situation can get worse. read more

UPDATED: Early December GPS deals

Click here for our current GPS deals

This deal has expired!

Here is a list of current GPS deals

Last updated Sunday, December 9. Here’s a roundup of some great GPS deals from around the Web. I’ll be updating this post each day this week, with any new deals I come across. These are broken down by category, and most include free shipping:

read more

Deals from Garmin’s own eBay store

Garmin-dezl-560LMT.jpg

Garmin’s eBay store features new and refurbished units

I mentioned this in some deal roundups over the holidays, but it really deserves it’s own post. Garmin has it’s own eBay store, and while most of the items are refurbished, a few are new. One thing I want to clarify though – when you go to a product page you’ll see an offer to buy a warranty. Let’s be clear, this is an add-on; every item sold comes with the full one-year Garmin warranty. It looks like everything ships for free too.

read more

Waypoints — December 1st, 2012

Waypoints_iconWaypoints is a weekly link roundup of (mostly) GPS related odds and ends. To get a few of the biggest stories as they break, follow me on Twitter.

December GPS deals

Bargains we’re tracking in our GPS deals section:

read more

November 2012 best selling GPS

Top-10-GPS-nuvi-50LM-Oregon-450

Our top sellers for November were the Garmin nuvi 50LM and the Oregon 450

Psst, wanna know what our readers have been buying for the holidays? Here’s your chance. The rankings below are based on the number of units sold on GPS Tracklog, through our various partners like Amazon and REI. The Garmin nuvi 50LM retained the top spot on the auto side, but the big news is in handhelds. Not only did the Oregon 450 knock the eTrex 20 from numero uno — the Oregon series claimed three of the top four spots, thanks to some great sales. Speaking of which, keep an eye on our new GPS deals section for more great holiday buys. On to the charts…

read more

Oddball Garmins – nuvi 2455LM and 2555LM

Garmin nuvi 2455LM and 2555LM

Garmin nuvi 2455LM and 2555LM; one-off models for the holidays?

Thanks to sharp-eyed reader “A,” we’ve learned of a couple of oddball nuvi units out there, despite their absence from the official nuvi 2012 series list. read more

Garmin BlueChart Mobile app for iOS released

Garmin Bluechart Mobile app

Garmin Bluechart Mobile app screenshot from iPad

The Garmin BlueChart Mobile iOS app is now available for download from the App Store. This new app will allow your iPhone / iPad to function as a chartplotter using Garmin BlueChart maps. The app is free, while charts are available as an in-app purchase. read more

Magellan eXplorist 510 review

Magellan eXplorist 510

Hands on with the Magellan eXplorist 510

The Magellan eXplorist 510 is a mid-range model in Magellan’s handheld line. Like the eXplorist 610 and 710, this model sports a bright 3.0” color touchscreen and 3.2 MP geotagging camera, along with a microphone and speaker for field notes. All three units have a micro-SD slot for memory expansion, are set up for paperless geocaching, and come with a pre-loaded “World Edition” basemap that features a full road network for the US, Canada, Western Europe and Australia.

read more

Magellan rolls out new models – backup camera bundle, 5″ RV unit and more

Magellan RoadMate 5255T-LM

Magellan RoadMate 5255T-LM with wireless backup camera

Magellan has quietly introduced several new models including one bundled with a wireless backup camera (pictured above) and their first 5″ RV model. Read on for the details: read more

Sportablet connects Garmin devices and Android tablets

Sportablet

Sportablet running on an Android tablet

Sportablet is an Android app that allows you to connect many Garmin devices to Android tablets. Primarily intended for fitness buffs, it gives access to stats, allows you to post to Garmin Connect or Facebook and more. While it’s not designed for Garmin handhelds, it does appear to work with many of their more recent introductions. There is also a smartphone version – the Uploader for Garmin. read more