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Garmin BirdsEye Satellite Imagery coming

January 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Garmin-BirdsEyeEDIT: I’ve learned that Garmin decided not to support BirdsEye imagery on the Dakota 10, due to its lack of an expansion card slot.

It looks like Garmin is getting ready to announce a BirdsEye satellite imagery subscription program for owners of the Colorado, Dakota and Oregon handheld series. Similar to DeLorme’s Map Library, the BirdsEye program will let you transfer an unlimited amount of satellite imagery and aerial photos to a compatible Garmin handheld for $29.99 per year. Imagery will be locked to one device per subscription; you’ll need Garmin’s free BaseCamp software (version 3.0.0+, yet to be released) and a myGarmin account. I hope to update this post soon with details on when the program will be up and running.

Filed Under: Aerial imagery, Garmin, Garmin handheld GPS, Handheld/Sport, The business of GPS Tagged With: , , ,

Hey Garmin – WTF?

January 5, 2010 By 8 Comments

Question mark small Garmin has apparently already made all their CES announcements. Lets see, we have a new golf GPS, a motorcycle GPS, a tool for high-tech grease monkeys and an app to make your nuvi curse like a sailor. The country’s biggest electronics show and this is all they have? WTF?

Well, actually, that’s a rhetorical question. I have some answers…

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Filed Under: Auto, Garmin, Garmin auto GPS, Garmin handheld GPS, Handheld/Sport, The business of GPS Tagged With:

Garmin Oregon 550

January 3, 2010 By 30 Comments

Garmin Oregon 550

UPDATE: It appears that newer production runs of the 550 series models are now getting the brighter screen first introduced in the Oregon 450 series.

UPDATE 2: This model has been discontinued and replaced by the Oregon 650.

The Garmin Oregon 550 is one of Garmin’s top of the line touchscreen handheld units. It comes equipped with a 3.2 megapixel, 4x zoom, geotagging camera and tri-axial compass. Also included in the package is a battery charger and two AA NiMH batteries.

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Filed Under: Featured, Garmin handheld GPS, GPS Reviews Tagged With: ,

Garmin Oregon 450 and 450t announced

December 29, 2009 By 12 Comments

Garmin-Oregon-450t
UPDATE: I’ve posted a hands on review of the Garmin Oregon 450

Garmin just couldn’t wait until the Consumer Electronics Show to start releasing new models. In a blog post this morning, they announced the touchscreen Oregon 450 and 450t handhelds. The only significant difference between them is that the 450t adds preloaded 1:100,000 scale topo maps for the entire US, rather than just the basemap found on the 450. These new units add a tri-axial compass to the feature set found on the Oregon 400t, so you don’t have to hold it level while navigating the wilds. The 450 series lacks the geotagging digital camera found in the 550 and 550t. At this point, those appear to be the major differentiators. The 450 series includes the recent firmware improvements that brought custom map capabilities to other Oregon models. I’ll update this post with product links once those are available. DONE! Thanks to @doc_nl:

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Filed Under: Garmin, Garmin handheld GPS, Handheld/Sport, Hardware Tagged With: ,

Garmin Oregon 550t review

December 1, 2009 By 35 Comments

Garmin Oregon 550t review

Hands on with the Garmin Oregon 550t

UPDATE: It appears that newer production runs of the 550 series models are now getting the brighter screen first introduced in the Oregon 450 series.

UPDATE 2: The Oregon series is compatible with Garmin’s new BirdsEye aerial imagery.

UPDATE 3: This model has been discontinued and replaced by the Oregon 650t.

The Garmin Oregon 550t is the top of the line unit in Garmin’s touchscreen Oregon handheld line, adding a 3.2 megapixel, 4x zoom, geotagging camera and tri-axial compass to the Oregon 400t’s feature set. It also comes with a battery charger and two AA NiMH batteries.

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Filed Under: Garmin handheld GPS, GPS Reviews Tagged With: ,

Garmin international topo maps

November 4, 2009 By 1 Comment

Garmin-international-topos A lot of new topo map products have shown up on Garmin’s website. Some of these may have been available for awhile, but most appear to be new. I’ll also note that they seem to be different than the offerings from Garmin’s long running third-party MapSource developer program. In addition to the U.S., Canada, Great Britain and Australia, I’m now seeing:

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Filed Under: Garmin, Garmin handheld GPS, Handheld/Sport, Maps Tagged With:

Garmin Dakota 20 review

October 27, 2009 By 87 Comments

Garmin Dakota 20 review

Hands on with the Garmin Dakota 20

The Garmin Dakota 20 is a smaller version of Garmin’s successful Oregon models. It appears poised to replace the eTrex series, bringing all of the Oregon’s touch screen goodness while retaining the eTrex’s small form factor, light weight and long battery life.

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Filed Under: Garmin, Garmin handheld GPS, GPS Reviews, Handheld/Sport, Hardware Tagged With:

Two new tools for making Garmin custom maps

October 23, 2009 By 13 Comments

Garmin-aerial-Raleigh I didn’t think this would take long. Some of the more technically adept GPS enthusiasts among us have put together some great tools for creating custom maps for the latest generation of Garmin handhelds. Here are two new ones released in the last day or so. Both allow you to create maps without manually calibrating them in Google Earth.

G-Raster

Created by Lester Pawlowicz of Free Geography Tools, G-Raster allows you to create maps from imagery freely available online. The following formats are supported:

  • GeoTIFF
  • MrSID
  • NOAA BSB (.kap)
  • ERDAS (.img)
  • USA PhotoMaps Big JPEG
  • UTM world file images
  • World file images for other coordinate systems

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Filed Under: Aerial imagery, Garmin, Garmin handheld GPS, Handheld/Sport, Maps Tagged With:

Garmin Oregon 200

October 16, 2009 By 17 Comments

Garmin Oregon 200 left

UPDATE: The Oregon 200 has been discontinued. For current recommendations, check out our handheld GPS buyers guide or our Garmin handheld GPS comparison chart.

The Garmin Oregon 200 is the entry level model in Garmin’s touch screen Oregon line, offering a great backcountry navigation and/or paperless geocaching solution at a reasonable price. It doesn’t have a barometric altimeter or electronic compass, nor does it come with pre-loaded detailed maps. The latter is not a huge issue, given all the free maps available for it. You’ll want a micro-SD card for the maps though, as the 200 only has 24 MB of internal memory. The 200 also leaves out the ability to transfer data wirelessly between units.

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Filed Under: Garmin, Garmin handheld GPS, GPS Reviews, Handheld/Sport, Hardware Tagged With:

Imagery sources for Garmin custom maps

October 13, 2009 By 8 Comments

Garmin-custom-map-DC There are a lot of new map makers out there now that Garmin has opened the door to custom maps on their latest generation handhelds.

And the results are cool. Just don’t expect those people standing around the Jefferson Memorial to be in the same place when you visit!

The process for adding aerial photos and topo maps is simple enough, once you find the imagery. To get you up and running faster, I’ve posted a list of sources for aerial imagery and various types of maps below. But first, let’s look at some of the acronyms and terms you’re bound to come across as you delve into this…

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Filed Under: Garmin, Garmin handheld GPS, GIS, Handheld/Sport, Maps Tagged With:
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