GPS reviews, news, tips, tricks and deals
UPDATE: Garmin UK has confirmed that the eTrex 20 and 30 will support BirdsEye imagery.
UPDATE 2: Read my hands on reviews of the eTrex 10 and eTrex 20.
Garmin has announced three new models this morning, the Garmin eTrex 10, 20 and 30, updating the popular eTrex line with paperless geocaching and other new features. The new eTrex models sport up to an estimated 25 hour battery life and are expected to hit store shelves in the third quarter of 2011.
UPDATE: It’s now live and available, and I’m enjoying the hell out of it!
UPDATE 2: How to transfer Garmin map downloads after your subscription expires.
Yesterday morning, I noticed there was a new product, Garmin BirdsEye Topo US and Canada, on the Garmin website. Pretty sweet – for thirty bucks, you can load USGS and NRC topos to newer Garmin handhelds for a year. I’ve been expecting and wanting this for awhile, so I subscribed right away, thinking I’d put it on my 62s and grab a few screenshots for this post. It didn’t quite work out that way, but let’s go over the product details before I get into my experience with it…
Most topos for handheld GPS units are vector maps; they are made up of lines and points, and look nothing like the USGS topos we know and love. BirdsEye maps are different. These are raster imagery, actual image files, that put USGS topo map images right on your Garmin. Up till now, you’ve had to use Garmin’s custom map process to do this, which can be a hassle, and then there’s that limit of 100 tiles (images) too.
REI has the Garmin GPSMAP 62S GPS on sale for $279.99 through May 30. This is a great price, a full $70 lower than the best deal we’ve seen before. Don’t let that end date fool you though; the last time they had a great sale (on the Oregon 450), they sold out.
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.
Garmin is announcing a new handheld line this morning, the Garmin Montana series. Three models, the Montana 600, 650 and 650t, make up the line, which feature the ability to rotate between portrait and landscape orientations and give turn-by-turn directions.
The Magellan eXplorist 310
The Garmin Forerunner 610
UPDATE: Here’s a sixth reason – Garmin BirdsEye Topo.
Still rocking a Garmin 60CSx or maybe an eTrex? Have you wondered what the new units offer? Here are our top reasons to pony up for a new Garmin:
A little over two years ago, MiTAC purchased the consumer products division of the old Magellan Navigation company. The latter went on to become known as Ashtech, continuing to sell professional grade GPS receivers under the MobileMapper brand. I don’t know if there was a two-year non-compete clause or if that doesn’t apply in this case, but MiTAC’s Magellan GPS is back in the game as of today, announcing the Magellan eXplorist PRO 10.
Garmin has quietly rolled out TOPO Alaska Enhanced, which includes 1:24,000 and 1:63,360 scale topo maps, routable roads, urban and wilderness points of interest, and public land boundaries.
UPDATE: DeLorme tells me that SPOT units have been tested and sorted, and that “any new package from DeLorme heading to retail will have a blue sticker on the bottom of the box as the indicator it is a new or tested good unit.”
I received an email overnight announcing a recall of SPOT Communicator units sold with the DeLorme PN-60w. Apparently there is an issue with messages not being sent when temperatures are below 40 degrees F. Affected units include all those with an ESN number range between 0-2000000 and 0-2019999. To make amends, the company is offering a six-month extension on service plans. Hopefully, the company discovered this issue without it impacting any emergency situations. This just goes to point out that there is no substitute for good old-fashioned wilderness preparation.
