Routeplanners: SatNav & GPS News

Not one to leave something on the shelf past its best before date, Navman has busted out a trio of new GPS devices to refresh its F-series line.

You’ll need to look closely to spot the differences between them though, with all three sporting the same design and the same 3.5-inch touchscreen, Intel PXA 255-200MHz processor, and the always-popular SiRFStar III GPS chipset. The main differences instead come with the bundled attachments, with the low-end Navman F30 starting things off with a T1 Traffic Pack (seen above), which provides real-time traffic information for a number of European countries.

Taking one step forward and one step back , the Navman F40 Europe drops the real-time traffic info in favour of a cradle that adds Bluetooth support for some hands free mobile phone integration, also adding (as its name suggests) some additional maps of Europe.

Rounding out the lineup, the Navman F50 provides, you guessed it, both real-time traffic info and Bluetooth connectivity, as well as an extra SD slot so you can load it up with maps to your heart’s content. All three are available now for £199, £229 and £249, respectively, or roughly between $390 and $490.

Source: Engadget

Mio plans to release the A501, a Windows Mobile 5-based Pocket PC that features the highly sensitive SiRF Star III GPS chip. Putting aside the fact that it’s not running the surprisingly good looking Windows Mobile 6, the A501 doesn’t stray too far from the year-old A701, though that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Key differences include an improved camera (2 megapixels vs. 1.3 megapixels) and processor. Even though it’s not as big (read: bulky) as the A701, Mio still has the same size screen in there, complete with an iffy 240 x 320 resolution.

The A501 should hit stores in Europe in March. As it turns out, integrating GPS into mobile phones was all the rage at this year’s 3GSM. And since many of those phone run WiMo6, Mio may have to play catch up sooner rather than later.

Source: Gizmodo (Nicholas Deleon)

Nokia also unveiled their Nokia 6110 navigator, their second after the E90 — to flaunt both GPS and HSDPA data. The S60-based 6110 combines GPS and AGPS (assisted GPS) with quad-band GSM/EDGE and UMTS 2100 for up to 3.6Mbps of HSDPA data. This beast brings a 2.2-inch QVGA display 16 million colours, a 2 megapixel camera with sliding lens cover and flash, and MicroSD expansion to augment the onboard 40MB. The handset touts a 3.5-hour (GSM) and 2.5-hours (3G) talk-time or up to 11 days (GSM and 3G) of standby. The 6110 is expected to ship in Q2 for an estimated pre-tax, pre-carrier-subsidy price of Euros 450/$583.

Source: Engadget

Palm has announced the GPS Navigator 3 available for newer Palm Smartphones, including 650, 680, 700p, 700w, 700wx and 750. The unit ships with “The latest TeleAtlas Maps”, which we hope will be the very latest maps that were released to vendors in the last quarter of 2006; these represent the upgraded map sets. While Palm released the navigator 3 bundle, they also announced a sale on Navigator 2 software.

Garmin’s already got a couple of satnav systems for motorbikes, the zumo 550 and zumo 550 Deluxe. Now they’ve been joined by a third, the zumo 400. It’s a more affordable version, suitable for touring bikes and sports bikes.

It’s been designed to be biker-friendly, with left-handed controls and big touchscreen buttons. You get UK and Ireland map data if you buy it here, with points of interest including hotels, restaurants, petrol stations and ATMs

Speed camera information is also preloaded, with audio-visual warnings when you’re approaching cameras, along with a warning if you’re going too fast. Garmin is selling a subscription to download updated information on camera locations too.

The zumo 400’s software is also fully customisable, so you can enter your own points of interest, and download regular trips onto the system. You can also swap routes and waypoints with other zumo owners.

It’s robust, with a locking motorcycle mount and waterproof power and data cable connections. Plus it features Garmin’s Garmin Lock theft prevention system requiring users to enter a four-digit pin. The zumo 400 goes on sale in March.

There’s s not a whole elbow room to be found in the GPS biz, but upstart Map-Star is set to try to muscle its way in nonetheless, unveiling its first and (for now at least) only GPS device. From the looks of it, however, they’re not going to have an easy time standing out from the pack, with self-titled device appearing to be thoroughly average in just about every respect.

Based on Windows CE 4.2, the Map-Star packs a Samsung 400MHz S3C2440 processor, along with a 4.3-inch touchscreen display, SiRF Star III GPS chipset, the usual audio and video playback support, and a 2GB SD card pre-loaded with maps of the US and Canada (and 1.65 million POIs). The company also doesn’t look to be offering any breaks on price, with the device set to demand a relatively hefty $500 (�250) when it’s released later
this month.

Source: Engadget