Jinsun Park of the Samsung Art & Design Institute designed the Maptor, a portable GPS unit with a built-in projector. Maps downloadable via Bluetooth; zoomable via control switch, all in a flashlight-style form factor.
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MobileCrunch reviews the Navigon MobileNavigator North America iPhone sat nav app, and likes it a lot. The reviewer took it on a long trip, and everything worked well GPS-wise. The app accepted destinations from the contact list, displayed nice signposts along the way and was “amazing”.
Unfortunately the review does not get into some of the other aspects of the Navigon app such as responsiveness, accuracy, performance in urban areas, pedestrian mode and the handling of incoming phone calls…maybe in a future more detailed review.
iPhone App Review: Navigon Mobile Navigator for iPhone – MobileCrunch, August 17 2009
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After a long-ish year-and-a-half delay from when it was first announced, and after an alliance with Asus, Garmin’s GPS-enabled phone, the nüvifone, is finally here … or at least in Taiwan.
General availability (later this year) of the nüvifone should be a good thing for Garmin. Although Garmin’s nüvi line of portable navigation devices has sold very well, the future of in-dash and stand-alone PNDs does not look bright, as iSuppli and others are saying that the future of GPS and satnav is on phones, both smart and regular cell varieties.
Despite the requisite 3G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chips, web browser and 3MP camera, the Garmin-Asus nüvifone G60 seems to be marketed mainly as a portable navigation device. The device is touted as having a location based services (LBS)-centric resistive touch screen, millions of preloaded POIs, turn-by-turn directions and is even “optimized for automobile use with included car mount“.
The Linux-based nüvifone G60 (there’s also a smaller model M20) is larger and a bit heavier than the Apple iPhone 3GS, and has a smaller screen. Expensive at 16990 TWD.
Garmin-Asus nüvifone™ Available for Purchase in Asia – Garmin press release, July 24 2009
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The Bushnell BackTrack is a minimalistic GPS device with a compass-like form factor. Shows distance and bearing to your car, campsite, etc. Looks to be handy.
$74.95
Bushnell BackTrack
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Nice of Blaupunkt to splice together a GPS navigation system with a video camera, plus traffic sign recognition, a DVB-T TV receiver, voice control, web-access via WLAN, hand-free phone calls, music via Bluetooth, speed-camera warnings, and an integrated Traffic Message Channel (TMC … must be a Europe-only thing), into one handy mashup. Here’s a simulated demo movie of the Blaupunkt TravelPilot 700 in action. $740.
Nice, but…
…there’s no lane departure warning system, collision avoidance, accident recording, black ice detection, radar detector, still photography with face recognition, hi-def video recording, iPod dock, or sharing of music with other TravelPilot vehicles! …guess we’ll just have to wait for v2.0!
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Garmin enters the cell phone market with the nüvifone, a combination phone, web-browser and GPS device with a 3.5 inch touchscreen.
Not many specifics are available for the nüvifone, but it does seem to out-iPhone the Apple iPhone in at least a couple of areas: 3.5G connectivity and GPS. Geo-tagged photos will be courtesy of the included GPS and Google local search integrates with the built-in maps.
Some, such as Daring Fireball, are geo-tagging the nüvifone as vaporware, because of Garmin’s use of mockups, lack of details such as what OS will be used, which carrier and how the user interface works, etc. D/F might well be right, but except for the stock price, Garmin is doing well, is looking to expand out of dedicated GPS devices, plus the nüvifone is somewhat reminiscent of the Nvidia Quark Touchscreen Phone platform, which Garmin might have been able to leverage so as to be faster to market.
Garmin® nüvifone™ Takes Personal Navigation and Communication to the Next Level – press release, Jan 30 2008
If you’re too cheap to buy a car with a built-in GPS system or even a phone with same, then MotoNav might be for you. The new Motorola T815 device uses a Motorola service called MotoNav to deliver GPS Sat Nav info to your smartphone via Bluetooth.
If you can’t even afford a smartphone, then you’re looking at the mod T805, which is a kind-of assisted GPS and maintains POI and other data on a central server.
Motorola Handset-based Navigation System - Motorola Press Release, Feb 12, 2007
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