WalMart Black Friday GPS Deals Out - TomTom 125 SE and XL325 SE
So WalMart let go of their iron grip on their Black Friday circular and revealed a TomTom centric day at their stores, at least as far as GPS units go.
While both units sport the "SE" moniker, they should perform quite well. Usually, these special models add or delete a small feature. For WalMart, TomTom may have just added the signifier to offer them the unique model and best price in the land.
Garmin has put out their 2009 Holiday GPS Commercials, and they are pretty good. Plenty of fun to be had in these short ads. Featuring the new connected Nuvi 1690, the Nutcracker finds things to do on his night away from the store window display. The Nutcracker will grow on me, but I still like going back to the "Got a Unibrow" ad and the "Bugs in her Grill" ad from last year.
Garmin also has the multi-product ad out featuring a Knight heading out to slay a dragon, but I like the Scot golfing only to find a squirrel playing a mandolin, which is a great little throwback to CaddyShack. I'm telling you the "pool, the pond, the pond would be good for you." Anyway, enjoy the ads, they're on TV for a short time, but a lot longer here and on YouTube.
If you want to learn more, check out the Garmin Blog for information about the making of the ads and some of the Nutcrackers for the Michigan Ave store in Chicago.
In a surprise hip, cool move, Magellan has launched an App for the iPhone adding their two cents to the party of Apps at the iTunes App store. I happen to be cruising over to the Magellan site for another reason, and saw the information on the App itself. It incorporates Magellan's One Touch menu - an easy way to get to several basic items with the touch of a single button, Text to Speech (Says street names), Highway Lane Assist (See what lane to be in at intersections), 3D landmarks, control of your tunes from inside the App, a pedestrian mode and more.
Not only did Magellan release the App for that navigation itch of yours for your iPhone, but the App will work with your iPod Touch, when you use the App and Magellan car cradle together. The Car kit is coming soon and will be able to grab the GPS signal, offer amplified commands back out, and also operate as a Bluetooth noise canceling speaker phone. In a stroke of genius, the car kit will work with any navigation application.
The application is available now, for a "Sale Price" of $79, which may head to $99 in the near future. The car kit will be priced at $129 according to Magellan.
From their website, they appear ready to launch segments of the US in modules - East and West, as well as a European App. This approach is interesting as it reminds me of when RAM memory was expensive and GPS makers had to price GPS units in the many hundreds of dollars as a result. The European market got a jump start on the US because the units were cheaper there due to the fact that they could be sold less expensively with smaller "regional" mapsets that required less memory. Maybe size and affordability will play into buying just US East or West? The All US one is about 1.3GB now.
BestBuy is selling the Magellan SE4 GPS for Black Friday as an exclusive item, making comparisons hard to the rest of the RoadMate line, but we'll walk through the features and the comparisons to map out what's going on for you. From comparing the Magellan SE4 to the Roadmate line, I believe the SE4 is based on the Magellan Roadmate 1420.
Magellan SE4 - 48 State + Hawaii+Puerto Rico, Text to Speech, 6 Million Points of Interest, One-Touch command, Multi-destination routing, and a 3-hour battery - More at BestBuy
Magellan RoadMate 1420 - 48 State + Hawaii+Puerto Rico, Text to Speech, 6 Million Points of Interest, One-Touch command, Multi-destination routing, and a 2-hour battery - also offers AAA Club Tourbook and AAA Roadside Assistance - More Info at Magellan's Roadmate 1420 Product Page
TomTom Upgrades iPhone App - Text to Speech, Lane Guidance
TomTom has upgraded its iPhone App with some good solid additions to the capabilities - it's a Free upgrade for current users. The new additions include advanced lane guidance, text to speech - it will say street names, and a Help Me button - to help you out when you are in trouble. Full list and the press release are below. All good news and all free upgrades - like that. It should show up in the App store in a dew days.
Users of TomTom's popular iPhone navigation application will soon be able to enjoy even more advanced features, with a free update ensuring users always have the best navigation experience.
This update*, which is being submitted to Apple for review today and will be awaiting their approval, will bring significant and advanced additional features that TomTom fans around the world have come to appreciate. These are:
- Advanced lane guidance giving drivers extra clarity when navigating difficult junctions. For the first time this is in both landscape and portrait mode.
- Text-to-speech helping motorists to keep their eyes on the road by enabling street names and places to be read aloud as part of the spoken instructions.
- "Help Me" providing direct access to emergency numbers and directions to the nearest emergency providers.
- Updated map and safety camera database**.
- Customizable audio warnings when approaching safety cameras or driving over the speed limit, increasing driver safety and saving money.
- iPod player control ensuring drivers can conveniently control their music from within the application.
"The TomTom app for iPhone is a priority for us and we are committed to both its long term development and everyday improvements," said Benoit Simeray, TomTom's senior vice president, On-board Mobile. "Current and future customers of our application for the iPhone can count on more great updates from TomTom for free."
Staples is always an interesting place for Black Friday and they usually have some great deals on GPS units. The inventory this year looks good, and the deals start at a very nice $99 for a widescreen TomTom XL 330. Depending what we are also going after, there is a pretty good potential that GPSLodge is heading out to Staples - we'll see you there.
Navigon adds Live Traffic to iPhone App - Now Available
Navigon has released their traffic capability for their iPhone navigator application adding another feature to their already high end iPhone application. The traffic capability will cost an extra $25 per year, on special for the first few weeks at $20. With increased bandwidth, the traffic information quality will be much better than the over the air FM based TMC systems, offering finer slices of each roadway's actual traffic situation instead of a broad average across long stretches. The purchase can be made in the App itself.
"By including real-time speed data from drivers on the road, we are adding a next generation traffic service to our app that goes beyond traditional traffic functions which work with radio transmitted messages only. This is clearly raising the bar for iPhone GPS applications," said Gerhard Mayr, Vice-President Worldwide Mobile Phones & New Markets at NAVIGON. "Providing the driver instantaneous traffic conditions, and offering efficient, alternative routes to the congestion, saves time, fuel and money. The ability to know and navigate around gridlock is a crucial function and we are thrilled to be the first major GPS company to announce this critical, and sought after service for an iPhone navigation app at a flat fee."
The App will be using a crowd sourced + probe traffic gathering solution that has about 1.3 million probes out in the market. The App is also designed to monitor traffic data and send back anonymous reports from your traffic conditions too.
Users receive immediate on-screen alerts via iconic warnings indicating
accidents, construction and other incidents that can cause congestion along
the current route.
Provides detailed information regarding the severity of the incident and
the speed of traffic flow.
Based on the real-time traffic warnings and the excellent mapping
functionality the user can determine an efficient, alternative route or stay
on the course.
The software automatically adjusts estimated time of arrival.
It's that time of year, and we have some more deals hitting the stores than normal. Thought I would post a few with some references to online for your consideration or browsing. Don't forget to check out the BLACK FRIDAY deals and sales post that I an updating on a regular basis.
Garmin Nuvi 265WT - $199 at staples,$191 at Amazon - Widescreen plus traffic capabilities and Text to Speech - says street names.
Garmin Nuvi 1490T - $399 at Staples, huge 5-inch screen with lifetime traffic included and bluetooth handsfree.
BestBuy
Insignia NS-NAV01 - $79 - my reco is to skip it. Admittedly haven't used it but have heard and seen first hand some disappointing reviews and emails about BestBuy's house brand GPS.
TomTom XXL 540S - $269 at BestBuy, $256 at Amazon - large 5-inch screen with maps of North America including Mexico. Has lane assist and text to speech.
Magellan RoadMate 1440 - $169 at BestBuy, $163 at Amazon - widescreen with lane assist and multi-destination routing. Has Text to Speech.
Magellan RoadMate 1445T -$199 at BestBuy, includes widescreen, lane assist, text to speech and adds traffic capabilities.
OfficeMax - offers the Nextar Q4 for $79 - I would recommend spending money now on something else from a name brand that you (and I ) trust, or wait until Black Friday deals to get what you want.
Similarly CVS is offering a $79 GPS for dummies - yes you'd be a dummy to buy this. Spend your money on something you hardly need a manual to use like a Garmin or a TomTom - Black Friday offers a good chance to get high quality at the same price.
Starting the whole holiday shopping early? WalMart hopes so, and is offering the Garmin Nuvi 750 on sale for $169. The widescreen unit (4.3-inches) has text to speech - it says street names, North American Maps, the ability to advance plan routes ahead of time from point A to B.
INRIX and ALK Technologies, announced that INRIX will power real-time traffic data in ALK Technologies popular CoPilot® Live™ v8 GPS navigation app for Apple iPhone, Google Android and Windows phones in North America. CoPilot is one of the Top Grossing Apps at the iTunes App store in the US at the pretty amazing price of $35.
This release also represents a milestone in that it will be powered by the in application purchase ability - allowing you to buy the App, then add-on the traffic option from within the application itself. The price for traffic service is $19.99 a year at the Co-Pilot site, and I would imagine that would also apply for in-app purchases. That's pretty cheap for some best in class traffic coverage and capabilities.
More on the news release below after the jump.
More info at ALK - Co-Pilot and Inrix
It's time once again to start looking for those Black Friday GPS Deals. We've made it a tradition of scouring the net to find Black Friday information about what kind of deals will be available for you to jump on and grab a great deal on that GPS you've had your eye on.
Updating this Post
We will be updating this post on a regular basis right through Black Friday - book mark it and come back.
MSN Direct, the service that offers traffic, weather, movie times and more to some GPS units, including Garmin Nuvi 780, 880, 885, will go dark on January 1, 2012. The announcement was made with the backdrop of other technologies coming forward, namely the slow promising crawl of broadband connected devices. The service is a step up from the FM based TMC traffic, and has more capability to deliver other services directly to the unit while you drive.
Google Navigation - Free Mobile Phone Navigation App
In what could be a death blow to those $50+ mobile phone navigation applications, the NYT reported that Google is launching a turn by turn navigation application for free. Google plans on launching the application to mobile phones with an ad supported model. The convenience of the application that may be pre-loaded onto smart phones could make the millions of smart phone users owners of a pretty solid mobile navigation application. Recently I reviewed the TomTom application for the iPhone and thought that the overall user experience was pretty good on my iPhone. The convenience of having the application in your pocket, ready to go at any time is pretty good. I firmly believe that free and already on my phone can beat $150 stand alone GPS and in my other car. Granted not everyone has a smart phone right now, but many do.
Gauging from the fact that Google is creating their own maps, and that their traffic data is pretty impressive in the road coverage, Google may in fact be prepping an impressive offering. Google is offering the beta application for Android phones already. With the application, you can give the device voice commands, and see the route in satellite view - viewing the road ahead with a satellite picture of the world around you. With the Street View option, you can get a look at the street ahead, what lane to be in and the view of your building when you arrive. Pretty amazing. We'll see if the package really delivers the user experience that they promise.
Garmin Downloads - Halloween "Vehicles" for your Garmin GPS
Garmin has their Halloween Boo Bundle out for the season. Packed with seven vehicles for you to put on your Garmin and enjoy. Check out the Garmin Garage for the Boo Bundle and more. The easy directions on how to download and use the vehicles on your compatible Garmin are available there too.
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WalMart Black Friday GPS Deals Out - TomTom 125 SE and XL325 SE
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- Widescreen plus traffic capabilities and Text to Speech - says street names.
INRIX and ALK Technologies, announced that INRIX will power real-time traffic data in ALK Technologies popular CoPilot® Live™ v8 GPS navigation app for Apple iPhone, Google Android and Windows phones in North America. CoPilot is one of the 
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