Bluetooth Handsfree for an extra $1 - Garmin Nuvi 360 Deal
Amazon pricing is all over the place, and today we find the Garmin Nuvi 360 ($327) available for just about $1 more than its sibling the Nuvi 350 ($326). You want a text to speech unit with North American Maps, high sensitivity GPS receiver, and a dead simple interface? Check out the Garmin Nuvi 360. It's only an extra buck.
Google has rolled out a beta for its Google Maps Mobile that allows anyone with a select set of phones to use Google Maps on that phone and get their location. The technology isn’t relying on GPS signals, but instead relying on its mapping and understanding of mobile phone towers. The software will still pull in GPS signals if your phone has them.
In pulling it up this morning on my phone, I was able to get the new 2.0 version of the application (go to www.google.com/gmm) and about 10 seconds after the maps loaded on the screen there I was – a little blue dot on the screen. The only problem is that I was set as an “Approximate Location to within 1700 meters”. Ouch – not bad in the country, but let’s see later what it’s like in the city. Just for reference, I can pull up my location on a GPS +/- about 10 feet. The other issue is that for a while it was jumping around, presumably as it found itself associated with different cell towers. Hey, it’s a beta, and I’ll take it for now.
Update: Just as bad int he city. Sitting in downtown Boston, I get Location within 1700 meters..... and that covers most of downtown; from Cheers all the way to Southie, and from the Aquarium way into the Back Bay. Good luck getting directions that make sense there.
Three Easy Tips to Avoid that New GPS from Being Stolen
With lots of people are getting new GPS units during the holiday season, there will most likely be a surge in GPS thefts as a result. Police in our area near Boston are already talking about thieves hitting crowded malls and picking up a few GPS units that are hanging prominently on windshields left and right. Easy pickings and easy to re-sell them.
Avoid GPS Theft:
1) Take the GPS and its mount off the windshield/dash and stow it.
2) Take the GPS with you for an extra level of pre-caution.
3) Consider wiping the suction cup marks off the windshield with a soft cloth – they can tip off thieves that there’s something valuable in the car.
TomTom recommends that you take your GPS with you, with a little graphic that reminds you when you power down. Garmin has done so far as to offer a feature called Garmin Lock - a PIN code needs to be entered into the unit before it can be used, rendering it useless to thieves (You can also go to your "Home" and the GPS will unlock as a result of being there.)
Don't Forget: Win a Garmin Nuvi 260 from GPS Lodge
Sign up NOW for your chance to win a new GPS in the GPS Lodge Holiday GPS Giveaway. This year, we’ll be giving away a Garmin Nuvi 260, a new slim Nuvi with Text to Speech.
I reviewed the Nuvi 200/250/270 - and really liked it; the Nuvi 260 adds text to speech, which is just a great feature to have.
After reading all the comments and all the emails, we decided to give away a unit that seemed to fit a lot of needs:
Maps of North America
Dead Simple Interface
Text-to-speech (TTS) – says road names
Great customer support
6 Million POI
Flat design to pack light and easy.
So, sign up on our mailing list and we will draw one subscriber’s name on Monday December 17th, so that we can get it out in time for you to drive through the woods to Grandma’s house…..
Already on our Mailing List? You already qualify!
Just put your email address in the box below and hit “Subscribe”. Good Luck!
I wanted to highlight the TomTom GO 720 today – a higher end pick from my Holiday GPS Gift Guide. The TomTom GO 720 was just recently launched and comes in above the TomTom ONE line with some premium features that make life nice. With the $100 off through the TomTom GiveGive program, the price is pretty nice on these units these days (Usually a $100 instant rebate/price rollback).
The TomTom GO 720 offers Bluetooth Handsfree capability, Text to Speech (TTS), in a widescreen unit with a high sensitivity GPS chipset. The TomTom GO also offers the ability to record your own voice for the turn prompts. It will walk you through the 50 or so prompts that you can record, and then use as an added (non-TTS) “voice” to guide you. Very fun and pretty easy. The TomTom GO 720 also has a couple of features that can make it a pretty good bet.
Help Me! is a button that gets you quickly to a list of emergency places with information you may need in case they need to find you.
MapShare is a program that allows you to make minor changes to the maps on your unit and share them with the larger community. The changes are policed and you should benefit from these changes as more and more users come online and connect up to make the world a better-mapped place.
Amazon is certainly kicking off the Holiday Season right with a great deal on one of the best units out there; The Garmin Nuvi 660 - $399. The Nuvi 660 comes with a TMC traffic receiver and the antenna is integrated into the power plug, so there are no extra wires to hang onto or have flapping around the dashboard. The unit comes with 3 month trial subscription on the TMC traffic and it will cost about $60 a year after that (pretty standard). It's optional, so if you don't want it, don't pay the subscription.
The unit is a bright widescreen unit with maps of North America, Text to Speech (TTS), and Bluetooth handsfree mobile phone capability. For more information read my Full Review of the Nuvi 660 .
Amazon has some wildly swinging prices these days as they work through short inventory and a public that is all to happy to gobble up great deals. This won't last for long.
There are several GPS units on sale at Tiger Direct and Tiger GPS. Check out the selection of units including the Garmin Nuvi 260 GPSfor $249, and the DeLorme PN-20 Bundle with Topo Maps and an SD Card and Reader for $299.
I thought I would walk through a few of the models on my GPS Holiday Gift Guide to offer a little more insight into them. Today we look at the Garmin Nuvi 200 and the Nuvi 250, a relatively new line of units from Garmin.
Both are entry level Garmin units, that are thin and flat. Prices online are generally <$250 for these, and reflect the best you can get in a top notch interface and trustworthy unit.
The Nuvi 200 has maps of the continental US + Puerto Rico and Hawaii. The Nuvi 250 has maps of all of North America (adds Canada and Alaska). Neither have Text to Speech, but they do have clear spoken voices and offer accurate turn indications at appropriate distances before the turns.
The unit is quick to calculate routes and grab a satellite signal. It comes in a slim sleek design with no pop-up patch antenna like the older Garmin Nuvi 300 series. The easy interface that greets you with a "Where to?" and "View Map" choices is an easy way to get into the unit and get going. Definitely my pick for easy to use and easy on the pocketbook.
TomTom has a pretty big promotion going on right now. This includes $100 off most GPS units all over the place. Didn’t get $100 off? Well then you’ll be entitled to a $100 rebate. The list of stores giving Instant Rebates is long, so if you bought a TomTom ONE for $125 this past weekend, don’t expect that you will get another $100 off. Valid purchase dates now through 1/5/08; postmarked by 2/6.
TomTom ONE 3rd - I was there at 4:50AM this morning, and could have gotten a TomTom ONE 3rd edition; they were handing out tickets. The woman behind me really wanted one and since it was going to be her first GPS, I let her have the last TomTom ONE ticket. Looked like they had maybe a dozen units. Still onsale; TomTom ONE at Amazon for $149 now, or TomTom ONE 3rd at $169 with a leather carrying case and home charger.
Navigon 2100t – Totally sold out in minutes. They had a couple dozen on hand and they went fast. People were buying more than one, as there were no limits on the amount.
Navigon 2100 Price Match (PM) – I asked the manager about PM on the $179 price I paid last week, and he agreed to. So, I got some money back, but could not get the free traffic option/deal.
Garmin Nuvi 260 – Sold out fast. I wanted to buy one for a gift this year. I was hoping that they would be around longer with the higher price tag, but the units sold out and they couldn’t order any online either. Bummer. I guess I won’t be buying this gift at Staples this year. See Nuvi 260 Amazon has a lower price on them today - $295; down from yesterday.
Magellan 3100 – People wanted these and they sold out. Folks were ordering them at the store for delivery. Guess they didn’t read my review.
Mio C230 - Another strong unit for Black Friday (Not at Staples) - TTS, and a good entry level unit - still $139. Mio C230 at TigerDirect
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How was your Black Friday Experience? What did you get? What did you get locked out of?
Sign upNOW for your chance to win a new GPS in the GPS Lodge Holiday GPS Giveaway. This year, we’ll be giving away a Garmin Nuvi 260, a new slim Nuvi with Text to Speech.
I reviewed the Nuvi 200/250/270 - and really liked it; the Nuvi 260 adds text to speech, which is just a great feature to have.
After reading all the comments and all the emails, we decided to give away a unit that seemed to fit a lot of needs:
Maps of North America
Dead Simple Interface
Text-to-speech (TTS) – says road names
great customer support
6 Million POI
Flat design to pack light and easy.
So, sign up on our mailing list and we will draw one subscriber’s name on Monday December 17th, so that we can get it out in time for you to drive through the woods to Grandma’s house…..
Already on our Mailing List? You already qualify!
Just put your email address in the box below and hit “Subscribe”. Good Luck!
Win a Garmin Nuvi 260 - GPSLodge.com Holiday GPS Giveaway
Sign ups start tomorrow for the GPS Lodge Holiday GPS Giveaway. This year, we’ll be giving away a Garmin Nuvi 260, a new slim Nuvi with Text to Speech.
I reviewed the Nuvi 200/250/270 - and really liked it; the Nuvi 260 adds text to speech, which is just a great feature to have.
After reading all the comments and all the emails, we decided to give away a unit that seemed to fit a lot of needs:
Maps of North America
Dead Simple Interface
Text-to-speech (TTS) – says road names
great customer support
6 Million POI
Flat design to pack light and easy.
So come on back tomorrow and sign up for your chance to win a brand new Garmin Nuvi 260 from GPSLodge.com.
Happy Thanksgiving folks - Black Friday deals are coming early this year.
Lots of deals around the web TODAY!
Best Buy has a couple of GPS Units at BF Prices online NOW - check out the Nuvi 200 - $169, and the Nuvi 660 - $399, the SP C550 - $329, and the TTOne LE - $119 ("Coming Soon").
Circuit City has a T-Giving Sale right now - including the Mio C220 at $99, and the TomTom ONE - $129 among others
Amazon has been dropping prices randomly - may happen again today. One reader wrote in that they had TTOne for $124 yesterday (back up to $149 now), but it seems that they are doing their best to hang with the big discounts.
After taking a look at the models available for Black Friday, I have to say that there are a few good deals and a few bad deals. A deal isn’t any good if the GPS stinks, so know what you are buying. I mean things are so GPS Crazy, my local GROCERY STORE is selling a GPS for $99 on Black Friday! (Visco VSC-N530A - Ouch; see better ones below)
I know there are different objectives out there; so, here’s a quick rundown of the best deals on some of the better GPS units. Read my reviews to know what you are buying... please. Figure out what's important to you, read the reviews and then head on out to buy.
Take a look at all of the Black Friday GPS Deals if you want to see the full list. I recommend that you check the circular for positive identification of the model that you are going out after before waiting in line.
Update: As other stores drop prices on GPS models, Amazon is following the prices down so check out the Hot Selling Amazon GPS Models for great prices. You might just skip the lines!
Best Deal Under $100 - Mio C220 GPS or Navigon 2100
Mio C220 - An entry level GPS with a standard 3.5-inch screen and a SiRF star III chipset. Does NOT have Text to Speech (TTS). I like th eunit for its solid entry level capabilities. Interface is a bit rough to use, but I think that the data entry on the Navigon is just plain tough.
Navigon 2100 - $99 at Staples. Has Text to Speech and the potential for free traffic at Staples all for $99. The unit comes with some downsides, so please go read my Full Review of the Navigon 2100. Tough interface and one that will frustrate some users. Know what you are buying; read the review.
Step Up Entry Level – TomTom ONE 2nd or 3rd Editions or Garmin Nuvi 200
TomTom ONE - Again, Entry Level GPS, no Text to Speech, but an easier interface than Mio. North American Maps.
Widescreen - Rock Solid - Garmin Nuvi 650 - $299 Costco
Not even a Black Friday event; you could have already bought one of these. It's a great deal. See my original post on the low price where I cover its features.
Not to be outdone too much by Costco, Amazon is now offering, or has been offering the Garmin Nuvi 650 for $309. Bit of a wait, but this is again, an insane price for this very bright, widescreen Garmin navigator.
Garmin Nuvi 650 is a widescreen unit with North American maps and Text to Speech. Very Good buy. You can read my Full Review of the Nuvi 660 for an idea on the unit performance. The difference is that the Nuvi 660 adds Traffic and Bluetooth capabilities, as well as the FM transmitter, that the Nuvi 650 does not have.
Not t be left out of the fun, Amazon is getting into the Black Friday madness. They are not going to line you up at midnight and hand out numbers or anything.
How it Works: Amazon is going to offer new deals every hour starting at 6AM Pacific time running throughout the day until 6PM Pacific time.
Don't know if you get a new GPS in these deals, but I am going to kick myself if I get a better deal sitting on the couch after getting up at 4AM to go find a deal at a cold store near me.
You might as well stop by now and sign up for the Amazon $10,000 shopping spree sweepstakes. That will buy you a lot of gifts for friends and family!
So Magellan won a couple of awards ahead of the CES 2008 trade show scheduled for just after the new year in January. The annual trade show brings out the best of the best and is the big electronics show to kick off the New Year. This year, the Magellan Maestro 4250 automotive unit and the Triton 2000 handheld unit are being honored with Innovations Design and Engineering Awards. Clearly their partnerships with AAA and National Geographic are big players in the award as Magellan has worked hard to include data from third parties to bolster the sometimes-anemic information that is usually a part of a standard offering.
Garmin announced that Volvo Cars Corporation has selected the Nuvi 760 (See My Full Review of the Nuvi 760) as a customized navigation solution for select Volvo cars, including the new Volvo C30 and Volvo XC70. The Volvo specific Nuvi 760 will be available at dealerships across Europe and North America.
“Garmin is delighted to work with Volvo to offer its customers a high quality satellite navigation system. Volvo and Garmin are passionate about safety, engineering and quality, and we believe customers will appreciate the design of this navigation solution,” said Roger Jollis, Garmin’s director of OEM & mobile marketing. “This transaction strengthens Garmin’s growing position as a recognized supplier to the automotive industry.”
The Nerds are running a special with an extra $20 off any purchase over $250. This brings some units, like the Nuvi 350 pretty darn close to Black Friday deals - sleep in and get the deal now?!?!?
Google Checkout must be used along with the coupon code AFFGOO20 to get the discount. This coupon is good for all customers and there's no limit on how many times it can be used. This coupon will go live Monday morning at 9am and stay active until Tuesday at midnight.
The Magellan Maestro 3100 and 4100 series was introduced a while ago and in the meantime the Magellan 3200/4200 series has been introduced, bringing a fresh face and a few more features to make the line more enticing. A lot of readers have asked for a first hand review of the Magellan 3100 series from me, as they are showing up in increasing numbers at great prices and ahead of the holiday shopping season, I thought I would get some thoughts down to help people decide what to buy in this complex market.
The maestro 3100 has 48 state maps and has verbal instructions, as well as 750 thousand POI (NOT a lot), and some basic features that come on Magellan units these days like QuickSpell. The unit is based on the SiRF star III chipset and a 3.5-inch screen. I picked the Maestro 3140, which adds North American NAVTEQ-based Maps, has 4.5 million POI, Bluetooth, “AAA” Points of Interest information and Text-to-speech. The units are not tiny but small enough to fit in a shirt pocket, as they have a compact flat form factor. The units are touch screen based, and have no external buttons except for the power switch and a reset button. The Maestro 3100, and 3140 are coming in at some pretty compelling prices, so, are they worth it, and will they get you from here to there with ease and confidence? I was not overly impressed with the previous incarnation of Magellan’s flat form factor product, the RoadMate 2000 unit, and thought it was dated in its interface’s design components. The Maestro has a lot of improved features, so let’s check things out.
Navigon has stormed onto the US GPS scene in the past month or so with the launch of their new line of GPS units, the 2100, 5100 and 7100. The Navigon 2100 is especially hot right now as it appears to be one of the big Black Friday Units for 2007. The 2100 and 5100 being standard screen, 3.5-inch units and the 7100 a widescreen unit. Navigon is taking an approach that is in the minority in the GPS world, in that they are offering TMC traffic with the 5100 and 7100 including a lifetime subscription to the service that usually costs around $60 per year. At the heart of the Navigon offering in my opinion is a beautiful design on the exterior and a different approach to design when it comes to the interface. With animated menus and icons, the unit takes on a decidedly "flash based website" feel that is more up to date than other units.
With all of the requests made to me over the last week for a review on this specific model, I went out and grabbed one to see what the Navigon 2100 was made of, and see how it will do in this very competitive market. I will have to say that many of the people writing in for this review of the Navigon 2100 called it the Navicon 2100; so for those folks, this is the Navicon 2100 review!
Also just a note that the Navigon 2100t is a Navigon 2100 with traffic installed. So while I do not have the traffic option turned on for this review, the other attributes will apply. Who knows if I hit Black Friday right, I may be posting more on this as a Navigon 2100t review.
Big discount on the Nuvi 650 widescreen unit at Costco. Garmin Nuvi 650 is $299 after a $150 "coupon" that redeems at checkout online. Offer is "While Supplies Last." and through 11/26.
Great price on a great product. Not a Costco member? You pay 5% more; not bad. The current price of the Nuvi 650 at Amazon is about $365.
Garmin Nuvi 650 is a widescreen unit with North American maps and Text to Speech. Very Good buy. You can read my Full Review of the Nuvi 660 for an idea on the unit performance. The difference is that the Nuvi 660 adds Traffic and Bluetooth capabilities, as well as the FM transmitter, that the Nuvi 650 does not have.
Thanks Al for sending this in.
Nuvi 680 - $480 Costco
Reader John writes in that there is a special at Costco stores on the Nuvi 680 also. Unadvertised, and there for the asking. Often not on the floor, just as for SKU #249583 and pay for it; they have them in the cage in back. Compares favorably versus the Nuvi 680 at Amazon.
I used the Nuvi 680 when it came out and liked the unit a lot for its MSN direct features (Traffic feeds, gas prices and movie times). Read my Full Review of the Nuvi 680 for more information.
Inrix Traffic Prediction Capability on deCarta's LBS Platforms
Inrix announced a partnership with deCarta that should speed some predictive traffic capability to end-users (you and me). This would allow us to take a look at what traffic patterns WILL BE not what they are now, when you want to travel. So it takes into consideration historical information and cuccrent conditions to predict that traffic will be slow in the rain this afternoon at the middle of rush hour, instead of the naïve idea that road speeds will be the same as the posted speed limit (how most GPS units run right now).
The Inrix data will be available on deCarta’s Traffic Manager on their Drill Down Server platform…. I’ll try to let you know when this makes it to an end user product.
Garmin Walks Away from TeleAtlas - Agreement through 2015 with NAVTEQ
Garmin announced today that they have signed a 6-year extension to the agreement with NAVTEQ to obtain maps and build innovative map related services. This allows them to have access to maps through 2015, with an option to get a 4-year extension. This ends Garmin’s bid for TeleAtlas. Looks like TomTom just bought itself a mapmaker. In my mind, with this agreement sewn up, it allows Garmin to move forward in an economical way that keeps costs low: 1) No expensive acquisition costs, 2) No employee and company assimilation costs, and 3) No change over from NAVTEQ to TeleAtlas platform related costs.
I would imagine Wall St. will love this, their stock is up almost 20% in pre-market trading activity.
What I am excited about is the collaboration on new mapping capabilities. Garmin has scale to push through new ideas, and they certainly need an answer to MapShare.
Finally, TomTom is going to get the mapping company that they wanted; I assume. The advantages are that they can streamline innovations like MapShare. The downside of all of this is that with this bidding war, Garmin just pushed TomTom to offer about $2 billion more for the TeleAtlas acquisition.
Sirius Satellite Radio Traffic Services - "Travel Link"
Sirius is getting into the data feed game, and will provide traffic feeds to new Ford and Lincoln vehicles under the name Travel Link. Not only will you get real time traffic fed to the device, but you will get weather, sports scores, fuel prices and movie information.
Might not seem like a lot, but this is definitely a change; more availability of traffic information means more demand for better services. I think that traffic information is the next level of excellent after navigation for an in car GPS. The issue right now is that the data distribution system (TMC and MSN Direct) has limited bandwidth. With more bandwidth comes more data, and after talking with key traffic data providers, there’s plenty of data to be had. I’ve written a lot on traffic capabilities, and have laid out some key advances that are needed and what a traffic service may look like with better technology. Increased bandwidth is one of the pillars of this capability.
Look for Sirius Traffic Link on Ford and Mercury vehicles equipped with 8-inch touch screen navigators in the 2008 model year. The vehicle comes with 6-month trial subscription to the service.
Going Green with an E85 vehicle? I know a lot of new cars and trucks are coming out with E85 compatible systems, burning the 85% ethanol, 15% gasoline blend. While you can still use regular gasoline, why not have a set of custom Points of Interest (POI) that will tell you where all of the E85 stations are in the US?
So it looks like the big litigation battle is over, and as I suspected the lawyers got together in a big lawyerly pow-wow and hammered out a deal. The terms are not disclosed, but I would imagine a lot of bottled water was consumed and a lot of paper shredded in the process.
The settlement resolves all of the pending intellectual property litigation including cases in the UK, Netherlands, Wisconsin, and Texas.
Bluetooth Handsfree for an extra $1 - Garmin Nuvi 360 Deal
Today we look at the 
has been dropping prices randomly - may happen again today. One reader wrote in that they had TTOne for $124 yesterday (back up to $149 now), but it seems that they are doing their best to hang with the big discounts.
Continue reading: 
Garmin announced that Volvo Cars Corporation has selected the Nuvi 760 (See My Full Review of the Nuvi 760) as a customized navigation solution for select Volvo cars, including the new Volvo C30 and Volvo XC70. The Volvo specific Nuvi 760 will be available at dealerships across Europe and North America.
Going Green with an E85 vehicle? I know a lot of new cars and trucks are coming out with E85 compatible systems, 