Verdict: Versatile

With a suggested retail price of $549.99 (street price of around $450), Magellan's CrossoverGPS is the first rugged, IPX-4 waterproof device designed to provide both turn-by-turn driving guidance and navigation for outdoor adventures in the wilderness or on water.

The CrossoverGPS ships preloaded with street maps and topography maps, and additional memory cards can be purchased with maps of lakes and fishing-hot-spots, marine charts, and additional hiking topography maps.

This week I put the CrossoverGPS through the usual rigorous testing criteria and see how the CrossoverGPS stacks up against the competition.

Continue reading "Magellan CrossoverGPS Review" »

Posted by Fletch at 12:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (49)

I'm not sure what's going on over at Magellan, but they've been releasing new GPS units about once every 2 months for the past 12 months straight! After releasing the RoadMate 3000 and 6000T last year, and the RoadMate 2000, RoadMate 2200T and CrossoverGPS within the past 6 months, it looks like Magellan is set to update it's product lineup again. Not yet officially released, Magellan's Maestro series GPS units started appearing on TigerGPS' website today and were promptly removed a few hours later. Nevertheless, the specs look promising: all three Maestro units (the 4000, 4040, and 4050) will have a 4.3" WQVGA color touchscreen display, feature a new updated interface, SiRF Star III chipset, and NAVTEQ mapping data. Here are the details on each of the units:

Continue reading "Magellan About to Release Maestro 4000, 4040, and 4050 GPS Devices" »

Posted by Fletch at 7:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

This year's winner of the Japan Design Foundation's design competition is a "hand-held robotic GPS companion." They named it Dandella because it was inspired by the idea that young sunflowers always point towards the sun. According to the press release, Dandella works by combining GPS and robotic technology. Here's how it works: you get 2 "Dandellas" and program them to track each other. From that moment on, their buds respond by pointing towards one another.

Continue reading "Dandella Hand-Held Robotic GPS Shows You The Way, E.T. Style" »

Posted by Fletch at 9:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sure, it may not be the slimmest watch I've ever seen, but this thing packs a SiRF Star III LP GPS receiver, Bluetooth, digital heart rate monitor, speed, distance, and temperature sensors. Powered by a rechargeable Li-ion 400mAh battery, the MG-90 is waterproof, shock resistant, and totally awesome.

Continue reading "MainNav's MW-705 Makes Your Breitling Look Like Ladies' Jewelry" »

Posted by Fletch at 5:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Garmin has announced the release of Garmin Fleet Management Interface. According to Garmin’s press release, Fleet Management Interface makes it possible for fleet operators to track vehicles using certain StreetPilot, nuvi, and zumo navigators.  You can download daily delivery stops, track the location of vehicles, and even text message drivers.

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Posted by Fletch at 1:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For those looking to add some serious unfair competitive advantage to their golf game, SkyKap brings you the Advisor line of GPS enabled gold caps and visors. According to the company's website, the system is completely controlled by voice recognition, and allows the golfer to get yardage data, enter and track scores, pace of play timing functions and many other capabilities.

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Posted by Fletch at 1:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Verdict: Editor's Choice 2007

Last year the Garmin nuvi 660 was my Editor's Choice for the well-heeled GPS shopper. Garmin announced the 660's successor, the nuvi 680, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) on January 2007. The nuvi 680 is identical to the 660 in every way, except for the addition of MSN Direct.

Unlike the nuvi 660, which uses ClearChannel's TMC service for real-time traffic data, the 680 leverages MSN Direct for real-time traffic data, local gas prices, movie listings, and weather information. The nuvi 680 has a suggested retail price of $1071, and will be available for purchase by March 2007. Improving the already excellent nuvi 660 is a tall order.

Read on to see how the nuvi 680 stacks up.

Continue reading "Garmin nuvi 680 Review" »

Posted by Fletch at 2:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (78)