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Updated August 11th, 2009 After failed attempts by Dash in 2007 and Best Buy in 2008, and a "scaled down" (compared to Europe) GO740 for TomTom, it seems Garmin are about to launch their own "connected GPS", the nuvi 1690.
Little is known about this new device for the time being other than what's been shown on the FCC's site, a good source for "leaks" but the upcoming IFA show in Germany might shed more light on this project...Having used the TomTom GO740 for almost a year now I can say a "connected GPS" is nice since there is nothing you need to connect to get "live" services, but what really makes the difference is the "content" and so far this has been "unimpressive", at least to justify paying for a monthly subscription. With Garmin's current assocation with MSNDirect for the x8x models, there is some speculation that they may beef up that aspect with content from the recently launched BING...You can use the Garmin nuvi 1690 Connected GPS - "Leaked" topic of the "Garmin nüvi forums" to discuss.
Updated November 3rd, 2008 - Major news coming from Dash today, they are getting out of the consumer market to focus on the B2B market with targets being cellphones and car two-way car systems. The full press release is here on the Dash site. This is sad news but not totally surprising as they had been struggling both on the market with their pricing model and in the field with routing issues. Ironically I had asked them during a meeting in July 2007 at their new Sunnyvale offices why they hadn't tried to sell their groundbreaking traffic technology to other GPS companies...
Updated August 7th, 2009 This is the "GPS week" for the Apple iPhone with yet another full "turn by turn" navigation solution announced and released, ALK's CoPilot with a UK and European version for €34 and €80 respectively. With ALK being headquartered in the US, a North American version can't be far.
What's new here are the Live services, which make perfect sense for a connected device like the iPhone, and that are really lacking on the other GPS apps so far. No traffic though which is the type of "live" info we really need. You can use the CoPilot Live UK/Euro for iPhone available topic of the "PDA and Smartphone Road Navigation Software" forums to discuss.
Updated October 22nd, 2007 - The release of ALK's CoPilot v7 is noteworthy for at least two reasons, first it marks the premiere of their new graphics engine that provides for an amazingly smooth map display (it is rated at 10FPS) and also because it signals the revivals of sorts of standalone software for mobile devices after years of decline in favor of AIOs (All in One systems). Over the years we reviewed v3, v4, v5, v6 and...
Updated August 5th, 2009 It's now iGo's turn to become available on the Appstore as "iGO My way 2009 for iPhone", both in North American, Western European and Western+Central European versions for $80/€63, $90/€70 and $120/€90 respectively.
Screenshots looks promising but some testing will be needed to see how well the port to the iPhone platform works and if any features of the PDA/AIO versions are missing as is the case on Navigon for the iPhone. You can use the iGo for iPhone available - USA and Europe topic of the "PDA and Smartphone Road Navigation Software" forums to discuss.
Updated July 14th, 2009 - Hot on the heels of the announcement at long last of "Full GPS Assisted Navigation" for the iPhone at the Apple WWDC 2009 show in early June with TomTom, other editors have been releasing navigation software...while TomTom Navigator remains unavailable. No word on what is causing the delay, but chances are the "Active Mount" (Power, loudspeakers, GPS receiver) is proving difficult to produce. Anyway let's see in the [GUIDE] Road Navigation Software on the Apple iPhone what is available as of today, "on-board" (maps stored on the iphone" and "off-board" (maps streamed from a server) wise...
Updated July 30th, 2009 As expected, Garmin have released the third quarterly map update under the nuMaps Lifetime program and it's called "CityNavigator NT 2010.20". These new maps are likely based on the Navteq Q1/2009 release.
Updated May 8th, 2009 - Garmin have just made their new CityXplorer maps avialable for download in the content download (Travel Guides, MAD Maps, Garage, etc...) section of their site. These new CityXplorer maps are based on Navteq's Discover Cities offering and are designed specifically for the nuvi 1xxx range of systems as they can take advantage of their unique pedestrian/public transit system mode...
Updated July 28th, 2009 CSR/SiRF have just announced the SiRFstarIV GSD4t architecture specifically designed for general consumer electronics (phones, cameras, gaming consoles, etc...) as it has optimizations for that type of platform : always on, micro power, RF interference "anti-jammer".
First thoughts: We'll have to see how it performs in the field, but it is certainly very exciting, first with the intrinsic performance of the new GPS engine rated at -163dBm (if the less sensitive -161dBm SiRFAtlasIV engine I started to test, see this comparison, is anyting to go by) and also with the specific enhancements for mobile platforms, an area where GPS performance has been seriously lagging, case in point the Apple iPhone. It's generally accepted that GPS performance on diminutive mobile devices is degraded by a tiny antenna, strong RF interference (i.e. "GPS Jammer") and battery life constraints. With SiRFstarIV GSD4t, SiRF have an answer for all these problems : a powerful GPS engine, an active jammer remover (filters out RF interference to feed "clean" GPS signals to the GPS engine) and advanced power management (SiRFaware) that mimics the standby/talk modes we are used to on mobile phones.
This looks perfect on paper and based on SiRF's track record (SiRFstarII "started" mobile navigation in 2002 and the high-sensitivity SiRFstarIII made GPS "easy" after 2005) there is no reason it won't play out in the field, let's stay tuned for more! In the meantime we can use the SiRF 2009 Platforms : Prima, AtlasIV, SiRFstarIV to discuss.
Posted July 6th, 2009 - It's been nearly 5 years since the breakthrough SiRFstarIII GPS chipset was first shown inside the Leadtek 9553 Bluetooth GPS at ION GNSS 2004 and now the first AIOs based on the new SiRFAtlasIV platform are available, the Takara GP30/53/54 or Navigon 3300/4300 in Europe and the Nextar Q4-MD in the US. In the process we've moved from a "simple" GPS Chipset to a full platform with an ARM11 CPU...