The 55-mile route from my house to the Lakewood, NJ, baseball stadium came up as 125 miles on the car navigation display. Why? I made a mistake programming the route. Can you see above what the mistake was? Me, neither, for the longest time. Now, look at the Toll Roads button in the lower left corner. If you look carefully, you'll see the icon is a slightly different shade of gray than the others.
That means I hadn't selected the option "allow toll roads." So it tried to route me North, West, South, and then East to avoid the Garden State Parkway toll road to reach my destination that was to the Southeast. Maybe responsibility for this gaffe should be shared: me for not initially seeing the nuance of shading, the interface designers for not thinking clearly. Fortunately, I did catch the error before leaving the driveway, but it took five minutes of head-scratching.
On Wednesday, Garmin issued a mandatory software update for several GPS models that had been plagued by a software glitch that caused them to ask for a software update, then spontaneously shut down.
On Tuesday, the company had said it was aware of the problem, apologized, and said it was working on a fix. A day later, Garmin said that the new firmware update may now be downloaded
using Garmin's WebUpdater, and will fix the update issue that may affect the Garmin nüvi 7x5 series, the nüvi 800 series, the nüvi 8x5 series, the zümo 660, and the GPSMAP 620 and 640.
For those nüvi 7x5 customers who alrwady have a GPS that shut down and cannot be restarted, Garmin recommends that they access this FAQ for advice, or, in the worst case, send their units back for a free repair. If the 7x5 turns on, but cannot access a GPS satellite, Garmin recommends that users download the firmware update.
Additional updates may be provided via the WebUpdater, Garmin said. Users who have registered their device will be apprised of such updates via email.
"We know our customers rely upon their Garmin GPS device(s), especially
during the summer travel season, and we regret any inconvenience this
situation may have caused," the company said in a statement. "We are committed to developing products that
are known for their quality and reliability and will continue to work
diligently to earn the trust of our customers."
What to do when your navigation product costs almost as much as a cheap portable navigation device but requires a laptop for use in the car? Bring out a version with a simpler, USB key GPS module. That's Microsoft Streets & Trips 2009 with GPS Locater. It's just over $50 street price, vs. $65-$90 for the same software with a GPS module on a long USB cable.
The software works just the same as on other versions of Streets & Trips 2009 that we've reviewed earlier in the year. It's a great convenience on a laptop and has some benefits over online trip planning software. It also has some quirks that have crept into recent versions of S&T. For instance, zooming is much less precise than in versions from the middle of the decade: Now, you press + or - keys to zoom, rather than grab the area with your mouse and zoom to the precise size of the bounding box.
Would you let this man direct you from Point A to Point B?
Homer Simpson is the latest "celebrity" voice to join the TomTom GPS voice lineup, the GPS maker announced on Tuesday. Users can visit the TomTom site and download the voice for $12.95, or €9.95 in Europe.
As you might expect, the voice of Homer (actually voiced by Dan Castellaneta) provides some occasional commentary, such as: "Take the third right." "We might find an ice cream truck! Mmm...ice cream."
TomTom already offers seventy official voices for its navigation devices, although user-based uploads can add more.
"Celebrity voice downloads are one of the many features TomTom offers to our customers to personalize their driving experience," said Jocelyn Vigreux, president of TomTom, in a statement. "With Homer Simpson's voice helping them to navigate their trip, TomTom customers will not only travel safely and with less stress, but will also be highly entertained along the way."
The voice was licensed by Locutio Voice Technologies and Twentieth Century Fox Licensing & Merchandising (Fox Licensing).
In-car GPS navigation systems are undeniably useful. But at $1,500 and above, they're pretty overpriced to begin with--especially when compared with today's $150 portable GPS units and $10-per-month cell phone GPS services. So it's usually no fun to find out you need to shell out another few hundred dollars every time you want to update the maps in your car.
To take at least some of the pain out of the process, Volvo and Navteq have unveiled MapCare, a free map update program, for the automaker's full lineup of cars. The program will offer two free map updates to buyers of any new 2010 Volvo C30, S40, V50, C70, V70, XC70, S80, XC60, or XC90 with a navigation system. The program is available to all North American buyers, as well as several countries overseas, beginning this month. Hey Volvo, while we're at it, how about we drop the price of the navigation systems, too?
Pioneer has unveiled three in-dash navigation systems at its Road Show in Long Beach, Calif., today. The flagship $1,600 AVIC-Z110BT offers simultaneous map and route guidance info, iPod and iPhone connectivity, Bluetooth, HD and satellite radio, and voice control, all with a 7-inch motorized LCD screen. With an optional MSN Direct tuner, the unit gives updated traffic, weather, and local event info.
Meanwhile, the 5.8-inch, $900 AVIC-X710BT and $1100 AVIC-X910BT are mid-range units and include three sets of RCA outputs and a 50 watt x4 amplifier; the X910BT includes 3D landmark icons in the display and a built-in MSN Direct tuner. The low(er)-end, $599 4.3-inch AVIC-U310BT is a 2-DIN unit with voice-controlled turn-by-turn navigation, wireless Bluetooth, and iPod and iPhone control.
Apple today kicked off its annual World Wide Developers Conference in San Francisco with a keynote presented by the company's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, Philip Schiller. The company used the occasion to announce refreshes across various product lines, including the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, OS X, Safari--and most hotly anticipated, the iPhone.
Schiller kicked off his address by welcoming the 5,200 or so developers from 54 countries who had descended on San Francisco's Moscone West for the week long software-focused event. After highlighting the upward trending Mac OS X, Schiller quickly changed gears to announce the release of a handful of refreshed MacBook laptops.
Dads are supposed to be quirky; it's in the rulebook of life. Whether it's smearing zinc oxide on their noses and pairing tube socks with Tevas at the zoo, or pouncing on 2 A.M. Ginsu knife offers, fathers have been making their teenage children groan since the beginning of time. And if your dad's a geek, well... that just doubles the fun.
Father's Day is a day to embrace all those personality quirks, so here's a list of goofy tech toys for your goofy old man. Check them out after the jump.
Research in Motion has confirmed that it quietly acquired Dash Navigation for an undisclosed sum, according to Boy Genius Report. Late last year, Dash announced that it was ceasing production of its well-liked Dash Express hardware navigation unit and pulling out of the hardware business entirely. At the time, Dash laid off several employees, and said that it would focus on software licensing for the time being.
The move gives Research in Motion an in-house GPS mapping solution that could improve the software bundled with future BlackBerry smartphones, many of which run TeleNav-powered GPS navigation under various names (such as Sprint Navigation and AT&T Navigation).
The acquisition was first reported by GPS Business News and later confirmed by Research in Motion.
GPS accuracy may plummet over the next decade like a satellite crashing to earth, if the parties in charge of maintaining it don't step up the job. That's according to recent studies, which state that the GPS system, which is based on the orbit of 24 to 32 satellites, will likely suffer if that minimum number can't be maintained.
There's a decent chance it might not be, either. Part of the issue lies in the fact that there isn't a single committee overseeing the system. Also at issue is that many of the satellites we rely on for GPS are upwards of 19 years old. The launching of new satellites has fallen behind schedule. The next one is set to launch this November, three years after initially planned.
As TidBITS points out, however, given how dependent the military is on GPS, it doesn't seem likely that it would let the accuracy drop so significantly.
We haven't seen anything new from Mio in the U.S. since parent company MiTAC purchased Magellan in December, 2008. Last we heard, in fact, was in April, when the company responded to a GPS Business News article that it was leaving the U.S. market by insisting that no, it wasn't. Today we see proof of that, as Mio releases two new navigators for North America.
The Mio Moov S401 will offer a 4.3-inch screen, a 4 million POI database, and list for $179.99; the Mio Moov S501 will have a 4.7-inch screen, a 12 million POI database, and go for $199.99. Both will offer the company's new Spirit software which is designed to make search and navigation simple. These two can navigate to geo-tagged photos and will support keyword POI search, for when you don't know a destination's exact name.
These look like smart additions to the lineup, offering big screens and useful features at bargain prices. Buyers have shown they're mostly interested in low-cost GPS navigators. While the U.S. market has grown increasingly competitive (Navigon just pulled out of the U.S. due to shrinking margins) we predict these units will find plenty of buyers when they're released in June.
We may have seen a working model of Garmin-Asus' Nuvifone GPS smart phone at Mobile World Congress in February, but apparently it wasn't working well enough. Engadget tipped us off to an unfortunate delay announced in Garmin's investor conference call on May 6, where CEO Cliff Pemble told analysts that "we would anticipate that some devices will hit the market in various locations throughout the second half." The phones are going through carrier certification right now, he said.
"We certainly haven't performed to our expectations, but we believe we have a very unique device and we still have a lot of interest in the device from carriers," Pemble said in a transcript on SeekingAlpha.com.
Garmin first announced their Linux-powered nuvifone in January 2008. This April, we heard it might come out in June. Obviously, that won't be happening.
Garmin still expects to sell $100-200 million in Nuvifones this year, CFO Kevin Rauckman said on the conference call.
Fare thee well, gentle friend. Those of us who cover GPS devices knew something was up: Navigon PR visited New York City on April 20th for three days of press demos, but unexpectedly flew back to Chicago that night, cancelling most appointments. The inside word was that something big was happening, but no one was saying what.
That question was answered this morning when Navigon announced it was leaving the PND (personal navigation device) market in North America. Speaking to GPS Business News, Navigon's CEO Egon Minar said, "Due to the difficult economic environment and the aggressive pricing we have decided to withdraw from the PND business in North America for the time being. We are however not closing down our Chicago office which will continue to serve our automotive and mobile phone businesses in North America."
It's a surprising end for a company that made a big splash in a short time. Navigon entered the North American market in September 2007 and quickly muscled its way into the number four spot thanks to attractive designs and envelope-pushing features.
North American buyers have increasingly gone after bargain-priced bare-bones GPS devices rather than premium models, and profit margins have become increasingly thin. As cell phone navigation picks up this summer, with turn-by-turn directions coming to the iPhone and Garmin finally releasing the Nuvifone, PND makers will have to battle for a shrinking audience.
Asthma inhalers are great and all, but you know what they're lacking? The latest consumer technology, of course. No, we're not talking about Wi-Fi or an MP3 player (not that we'd really be opposed to either)--we're talking GPS.
SiliconSky has just introduced what is very likely the first asthma inhaler with built-in GPS tracking. Why would the world need such a thing? According to its inventors, the GPS would be use to "allow tracking of asthma inhaler use trends, including exact time and geographic location of uses."
The AGPS-enabled asthma inhaler was created with the participation of University of Wisconsin researcher David Van Sickle.
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What to do when your navigation product costs almost as much as a cheap portable navigation device but requires a laptop for use in the car? Bring out a version with a simpler, USB key GPS module. That's Microsoft Streets & Trips 2009 with GPS Locater. It's just over $50 street price, vs. $65-$90 for the same software with a GPS module on a long USB cable. 
