GPS

Garmin's start to the smartphone business was a rocky one, with numerous delays and a poor introductory device, and though the company's second handset, the Garminfone, was a vast improvement, the outlook for Garmin's smartphone unit isn't a rosy one.

In an interview with Reuters, Garmin Chief Financial Officer Kevin Rauckman said sales of its Nuvifone handsets have not met company expectations and that it will examine the business over the next couple of quarters and decide whether to continue to invest or exit the smartphone market altogether.

"We're pragmatic. If we end up … Read more

Urban dwellers and tourists exploring a new city now can get improved walking directions thanks to Google Maps for Android. Available on the application's 4.5 update, Walking Navigation offers many of the standard Google Navigation features, but tailors them to pedestrians.

Walking Navigation will use more than city streets to guide you on your way; it also will take into account pedestrian pathways and malls that can't accommodate cars. What's more, since pedestrians stick to sidewalks, it will send you on the most direct route regardless of one-way streets. And if you're interested in stopping … Read more

There are a lot of good reasons that GPS manufacturers have given for sticking with resistive touch-screen technology for their devices, despite the fact that most smartphone manufacturers have made the jump to capacitive. The most common reason is the ability to use the unit in a cold car while wearing gloves. Lately, we've been seeing a wave of capacitive-screened portable navigation devices, offering the advantages of multitouch and requiring less pressing force to register an input. The latest is the new European-market TomTom GO Live 1000 series.

The 4.3-inch TomTom GO Live 1000 brings with it a … Read more

We recently awarded the svelte and lightweight Garmin Nuvi 3790T our prestigious Editors' Choice Award. However, we have always considered the 3790T to be a co-flagship model to the more fully featured Garmin Nuvi 1690 with NuLink. Not content to let the series rest on its laurels, Garmin has just updated the 1600 series with the new Garmin NuLink 1695.

One of the first things you might notice is the new moniker. The official title has been changed from "Nuvi" to "NuLink!"--complete with the exclamation point. The change in name emphasizes the importance of the … Read more

Garmin has announced two new Nuvi lines, the 2200 series and the 2300 series, aimed at the entry-level GPS market.

The 2200 series consists of three new models: 2200, 2250, and 2250LT. The Nuvi 2200 features a 3.5-inch display, Garmin's ecoRoute fuel-efficient routing and driving tools technology, and a feature called MyTrends that remembers your favorite destinations and can automatically offer routes and travel times. For example, if you head to work everyday at 8 a.m., eventually the Nuvi will remember and automatically set work as your destination when you hop in the car.

The 2200 comes … Read more

Sony's just busted out two new car stereos that feature built-in TomTom satellite navigation.

The Xplod XNV-L77BT and XNV-L66BT in-dash head units feature 7-inch and 6.1-inch displays respectively and take advantage of a wealth of TomTom Live services you don't get with bog-standard sat-navs.

Those with a head for speed should find the HD Traffic and Safety Alerts features particularly useful, as they help drivers avoid traffic jams and provide advanced warnings about speed cameras and accident black spots.

Both devices also include TomTom's Local Search with Google--a service that lets users find and interact with … Read more

Garmin designed the Nuvi 3790T to be the thinnest, lightest portable navigation device ever and to go toe-to-toe with the iPhone in a fashion show. Though we're not certain that the Nuvi would win such a "Zoolander"-esque walk-off, by setting its standards so high Garmin has essentially solidified the 3790T's spot as the sexiest dedicated GPS device you can buy.

Is this Nuvi just another pretty face? Well, no. With free traffic updates, Bluetooth hands-free calling, and an innovative voice command system that is truly hands-free, the 3790T crams a lot of function into its … Read more

Digital map maker Navteq is launching a service designed to add the human element to GPS navigation, the company announced Thursday at IFA in Berlin.

Dubbed Natural Guidance, the service ditches traditional GPS navigation instructions and provides users with directions that they would otherwise receive from friends or family. Rather than say, "turn right in 150 feet," as current GPS devices do now, Navteq's system gives directions based on landmarks. The instructions will include "turn right after the yellow shop," or "turn right at the traffic signal," the company said in a statement. … Read more

A few months before its five ski resorts open for the season, the Colorado-based Vail Resorts has unveiled a preview of something called Epic Mix, a set of Web and mobile apps based on skiers' activity as logged by radio frequency (RF) readers around its resorts.

It'll go live when the first of Vail's resorts, Keystone, opens for the season in early November. Vail Resorts' season passes and lift tickets are already RF-enabled, but with Epic Mix, interested skiers can unlock "pins" in the manner of Foursquare badges, get ranked on a vertical-feet leaderboard, post all manner of ski-related updates to Facebook and Twitter, and--via a mobile app--see their friends' activity on the slopes in real time so that it gets way easier to meet up for beers at the lodge. There's also a kid-oriented site for children under 13, which limits sharing to the kids' parents and has its own set of kid-friendly pins.

A skier can turn off RF functionality entirely if he or she so chooses, the company explained.

Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz said in a New York press event Monday that the company had ruled out partnerships with existing "check-in" companies, or an emulation of those services, because of the fact that he said they did not want to require any additional behavior to participate--"We don't think that works while you're on vacation," he said.

… Read more