There are plenty of GPS solutions for iPhone owners, and now iPod Touch owners have one, as well. Dual Electronics, better known for its car stereos, just announced the GPS Navigation & Battery Cradle for iPod Touch (model XGPS300). The cradle provides the GPS reception that the iPod Touch lacks, while a free app downloadable from the iTunes Store provides the interface.

The cradle lists for $179.99, which is steep--but it works away from the car, as well, so you can use it while walking or biking. The cradle includes a rechargeable battery, so it won't drain your iPod Touch. The package also comes with a cigarette lighter charging cable to keep your iPod Touch powered up while driving. The software pronounces street names and the NavAtlas maps are colorful and easy to follow. Look for it to go on sale in late November.

Thought GPS devices were just for navigation? Oh, think again. Satsports, a London-based company, has just debuted Satsports GPS for North America. It's a handheld GPS with apps for a variety of sports.

Satsports GPS comes with three preloaded apps: Satski (providing ski maps from around the world), Pocket Caddy (with 2D and 3D views of golf courses, plus yardage information), and Satsports Log (capturing speed, distance, time, and more for runners, cyclists, mountain bikers, walkers, and hikers).

The device can also be used as a turn-by-turn street navigator with spoken directions with the addition of a $65 miniSD card. The Satsports GPS device is all-weather and comes with a car charger and a bike mount, although not with a car window mount. It's priced optimistically at $490.

The market for portable navigation devices (PNDs, or portable GPSs) will shrink 1% this year after 40% growth last year, then remain more or less flat through 2013. So says market researcher iSuppli Corp, which predicts worldwide sales will remain in the range of 41 million to 44 million over the next four years. All that is music to the ears of PND buyers going back for second, third, or fourth devices. With demand soft and manufacturing costs getting cheaper by the year, prices should continue to drop, meaning more $99 PNDs and lots more really good $250 PNDs. That's our prediction, not necessarily iSuppli's, though it doesn't take a rocket scientist to assume better deals for consumers in times of oversupply, if you stayed awake in Economics 101 and understood the part about supply-demand curves.

TomTom has unveiled the TomTom XL 335S, a 4.3-inch touch screen model featuring text-to-speech capability and Advanced Lane Guidance for $239.95, in what could be a further refinement of the company's Editors' Choice-winning TomTom One 140-S.

The XL 335S hooks into TomTom's IQ Routes technology, which adapts to the driving experiences of millions of TomTom users worldwide when calculating directions. It also features Advanced Lance Guidance, which depicts highway interchanges and exit ramps with lane-specific visual directions.

The XL 335S also includes U.S. and Canadian maps, spoken street names, seven million points of interest, and TomTom's Fold and Go EasyPort mount. No word yet on a release date.

TomTom's Car Kit for iPhone has returned to the UK Apple Store, according to Engadget, with a shipping time of 1-2 weeks. That means it's probably going to hit the U.S. very soon.

Should you be excited? I wouldn't be. There was plenty of back and forth over just what TomTom was including in the package. Unfortunately, it turns out not much, as a disclaimer now spells out quite clearly on the UK store site:

The TomTom app for iPhone is not included with the TomTom Car Kit. The Car Kit dock is compatible with all iPhone models, but the TomTom app only works with iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G.

In other words, it's a mount and a speaker for $120. Add $100 for the TomTom iPhone app, and you could buy yourself a better-performing, Editors' Choice-winning, 3.5-inch TomTom One 140-S with almost a hundred bucks left over.

Garmin's new connected portable navigation device, the nuvi 1690, is now shipping from Amazon for a rather high $499, according to GPSTrackLog.com.

The 4.3-inch Garmin nuvi 1690 is the first PND to come with Garmin's nuLink Services, which provide real-time information delivered wirelessly to the 1690. That means Google Local Search, up-to-date fuel prices, Garmin's proprietary Ciao! social networking service, weather reports, movie times, flight status, and a currency converter in addition to traffic reports.

The nuvi 1690 comes with two years of nuLink Services built into the device; after that you have to pay an unspecified amount of money each month. The nuvi 1690 also features six million built-in POIs, 2D and 3D maps, current road speed limits, Bluetooth, and ecoRoute for finding the most fuel efficient way to get somewhere.

Are the connected services worth the extra cash? Stay tuned for a full review.

Well, that didn't take too long or anything. After almost two years of delays, Garmin and AT&T have announced that the nuvifone G60 will be available in AT&T stores and online at www.wireless.att.com beginning October 4th for $299 with a two-year contract and after a $100 mail-in rebate.

That sounds expensive, considering the iPhone 3GS in the glass case next to the nuvifone G60 will be cheaper. But check this: the nuvifone G60 integrates an actual Garmin GPS navigator with a 3.6-inch touch screen and a full-blown voice, data, and mobile Web-capable device. It comes loaded with millions of points of interest (POI) as well as maps for U.S. and Canada. In another first, the company is also bundling a dashboard and windshield mount in the box.

The nuvifone G60 includes text-to-speech capability for speaking street names, and offers one-step navigation to address book contacts. It also includes what the company calls "a real GPS receiver with Garmin's HotFix technology and assisted GPS," which should hopefully mean that it locks down even in the middle of nowhere. Be assured that I will test that.

Other cell phone-like features include a 3-megapixel auto-focus camera, an HTML-capable Web browser, 3G and Wi-Fi radios, and a touch-screen virtual QWERTY keyboard. Nuvifone Premium Connected Services add real-time traffic, white pages, weather, movie, local events, and fuel price comparisons for $5.99/month on top of that. Stay tuned.

TomTom has unveiled the 4.3-inch XL 340S LIVE, a portable navigation device (PND) that includes an AT&T-powered data modem along with the company's new LIVE services, building on the capabilities of the existing XL 340S. The new unit delivers Local Search from Google, real-time traffic information, a fuel price service, weather reports, and what the company calls QuickGPSfix, which locks onto your current position faster than prior units.

Like other TomTom PNDs, the XL 340S LIVE uses the company's IQ Routes technology, which optimizes trips based on historical speed measurements for different times of day and different road segments. The unit receives traffic speed and incident reports every two to five minutes.

The new LIVE services require a subscription; TomTom includes three free months in the box. In addition to the usual millions of POIs loaded into the device, LIVE features Local Search powered by Google--which seems a little redundant at first glance. It will be interesting to see how the unit distinguishes between the two databases in testing.

The Suzuki SX4 is a low-end economy crossover with some pretty advanced tech built-in, including a removable Garmin navigation system with the same robust feature set you'd expect from a regular standalone PND. However, that doesn't mean the two manufacturers thought everything through. As Edmunds.com found during its long-term test, the unit lets you issue voice commands, and can also stream MP3s from an SD card through the stock car stereo.

So far, so good. But it's not so simple; first, the unit can't play anything imported in the default iTunes AAC format and only works with MP3s. Not only that, but you must navigate through many submenus to get to the MP3 player. That's still not the end of the world--until you cue up a song.

Once you motor away from a stop, that's it; the system locks the Garmin down into "Safe Mode," which is intended to prevent you from controlling the GPS while driving. Except that it also takes away control of the MP3 player! Plus, if you choose a song and then set out, it will only play that one song--it doesn't move to the next one automatically. And it won't let you re-establish control of the MP3 player unless you stop the car, or pull the unit out of its housing and reseat it. Priceless. (Thanks to Warren W for sending this in)

Harman International announced at this week's Intel Developer Forum that it will use the Intel Atom ultra-low power microprocessor to create infotainment systems for 2012 BMWs and Mercedes-Benzes. Obviously, this means one more victory for Intel in moving into the car as the PC industry suffers slow growth. For the car-buyer, it has the potential to drive down the cost of information and entertainment. Today, it's possible to spend more than $7,500 on audio, video, Bluetooth, and navigation in a high-end. Half that cost could evaporate if automakers used standardized components but with unique interfaces.

GPS navigation units started with 3.5-inch screens, grew to 4.1-, 4.5-, and 5-inches, and show no signs of stopping. Magellan has just announced the RoadMate 1700, with a 7-inch display.

Now, a 7-inch display isn't for everyone. It's huge. Put it in a SmartCar and you won't be able to see the road. But in an RV or a commercial truck it's great. It's also a boon for people with vision problems that make it hard to read small type. The RoadMate 1700 doesn't put more information on the screen, it just makes the existing information bigger.

Besides standard navigation for all 50 states, Canada, and Puerto Rico, you'll get AAA TourBook information, Magellan's OneTouch interface, and lane assistance. The RoadMate 1700 is on sale now for $299.

Pioneer has unveiled an iPhone app designed to work with two of the company's new in-dash navigation systems. The AVIC FEEDS app links an iPhone to the AVIC-U310BT (pictured) or AVIC-Z110BT head unit, letting iPhone owners find points of interest or search for destinations on the phone or access them via Bluetooth from the nav system.

The idea is to eliminate the need for finding something at home, or manually having to key in address information on the navigation screen. Another nifty touch: the app also grabs iPhone photos taken with the camera that are geotagged with geographical data and saves them as POI entries.

While the head unit provides voice-enabled, turn-by-turn directions, iPhone owners can do other things--like drive, I would hope. The AVIC-U310BT costs $599, while the flagship AVIC-Z110BT costs $1,599. The app is free, though it does nothing without one of the two head units.

Back in June, Pioneer announced three home theater A/V receivers with comprehensive iPhone and iPod touch integration.

Shipments of organic light emitting diode (OLED) screens could increase eightfold by 2013, according to iSuppli, to over 240 million units--providing they can make the transition from passive matrix to active matrix technology.

OLEDs consume less power, offer higher contrast, a wider viewing angle, and very fast response time compared with regular LCDs.

Currently, OLED screens are found on cell phones, MP3 players, and even some flat panel TVs and digital TVs. Early screens could only display one or two colors, but manufacturers have made significant steps in the last year to bring the technology to much larger, full color panels. The report also mentioned the Nokia N85, an OLED-equipped smartphone with a 2.6-inch panel, as an example of the next wave of OLED devices.

Bob Dylan, the musical voice of his generation, could the voice of your next car navigation system or portable navigation device (PND). He said so himself this week on his BBC satellite radio program, that he's negotiating with two automakers to be the voice behind their navigation systems. Take that, James Earl Jones. Dylan certainly has enough lyrics to his credit that, with several decades hindsight, foreshadowed the GPS revolution: "how many roads," "no direction home," and "there must be someway out of here." (Be sure to post any we forgot below in feedback.)

Worried that Bob Dylan's sellling out? Not to worry. If it happened, it was long before the navigation opportunity. As the Washington Post noted, he's done commercial work for Cadillac, Pepsi, and Victoria's Secret. In a 2007 commercial for the Cadillac Escalade, Dylan asked, "What's life without the occasional detour?"

We always get a kick out of Art.Lebedev products around here, and this latest one is no exception. The Russian designer has unveiled Navigarius, a GPS device concept that uses a round screen in place of the traditional rectangular one.

Navigarius also features includes touch screen controls, a USB port, a microSD card reader, and a power adapter for a car's cigarette lighter, as Coolest Gadgets reports. In addition, there's a tiny curved mount that's smaller and much nicer looking than the gargantuan ones often bundled with these things (and that still fall off the windshield anyway, despite their over-engineering).

There's no word yet on whether this thing will even make it into production, much less a release date or price. But I can think of a number of car interiors (think Audi TT or Mini Cooper) that this would fit right into in terms of design--which I'm sure is the point. One more pic with the mount attached after the break.