Welcome to CrunchGear’s Gala Best of 2008 Awards featuring the Best Gear, Gadgets, and Software of 2008. Best of all, we tallied your responses and collated them in the People’s Choice awards. Now that I’m wearing my tux, let’s get right to the awards.

Best Browser
Google Chrome
People’s Choice
Firefox
While we agree that Firefox is probably the best browser out there, we’re talking about the best browser of 2008. Chrome is what a browser should be – speedy, elegant, and easy-to-use. Sadly, it’s not cross-platform so only those running XP or Vista and join in the fun. As web professionals, browsers are important and Chrome gets our vote this year.

Best Console Experience
New XBox Experience
People’s Choice
New XBox Experience

Oh, man, awarding the Best Console Experience to the New Xbox Experience got a whole lot easier after we saw Sony roll out PlayStation Home, which, nearest we can tell, is a boredom simulator. The NXE didn’t change too radically what already made using the Xbox 360 so enjoyable; a spit shine, if you will. We think the avatars are 100 percent lame, but they don’t get in the way of Xbox Live or anything.

Best Game, Cross Platform
Left 4 Dead
People’s Choice
Grand Theft Auto IV

Really, does Valve do anything wrong? You and three friends running for your lives against a horde of debt collectors zombies while The Director toys with your pointless existence. Multi-player gaming at its best.
As for the People’s Choice, y’all sure do like beating up hookers and driving into helpless pedestrians, don’t you? We wouldn’t call the game perfect—really, no analog control of Niko? Mario had that in 1996!—but it’s certainly a fun, mindless romp, at least for a little while.

Best Game, Nintendo Wii
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
People’s Choice
Mario Kart
We award this to Brawl—an actual video game and not some weird Wii Taxes concept—in lieu of any truly big Wii game, like Twilight Princess or Metroid. It’s fun, sure, and now has Snake and Sonic, which is a plus. As a rule of thumb, though, you’re more likely to find us on XBL than playing Wii Fit, if you can even call that a game.
But, hey, Mario Kart is fun, too, especially now with that plastic wheel controller. Online multiplayer helps extend the sell by date.

Best Game, Xbox 360
>Gears of War 2
People’s Choice
Gears of War 2

Some of us may hate the game for no specific reason—Nicholas, mostly—but it’s hard to find a better Xbox 360-exclsuive game than this. (It’s hard to find an Xbox 360-exclusive game, period, but that’s another story.) As sequels go, it paints by numbers with the best of ‘em: running, gunning, ducking, etc. One thing: fix the bugs, Epic.
It seems you guys thought the same thing, too. If nothing else this helps show that, outside of Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo-funded endeavors, on their respective platforms, system exclusivity is dying.

Best Game, PS3
LittleBigPlanet
People’s Choice
Metal Gear Solid IV

Make no mistake about it, this is the reason to own a PS3 right now (outside of its Blu-ray capabilities, should that matter to you). Go ahead, create your own level, or play your neighbor’s. Go ahead, imagine that you’re a sackboy activating levers and going in and out of three planes of existence. Go ahead, actually have fun while playing a game and not worrying about if you have enough ammo or if some 12-year-old kid instantly kills you.
As for MGS IV, we would have picked this, too, if it weren’t for the game’s insufferably long cut scenes and poetical waxing about The Meaning of War & Life. The best entry in the series? We’re prepared to argue that MGS1 was better, but it’s pretty damn close.

Best HDTV Line
Mitsubishi LaserVue
People’s Choice
Sony XBR

HDTVs improve dramatically every year and this year’s batch certainly brings the goods. Our readers overwhelming picked the Sony XBR line and for good reason. They are solid HDTVs that are readily available for purchase. The latest ones feature industry leading 240Hz technology, too. XBRs are great sets; that is until you see in person the Mitsubishi LaserVue. This high-def set, powered by lasers, is astounding and pics cannot do it justice. You might not be able to hang it on the wall but it’s still thin at 10-inches at a 60-inch screen size. The Sony XBR is a great set and might be the best picture most will ever see, but the Mitsubishi LaserVue is our pick for the HDTV of the year.

Best Portable A/V Devices
iPod Touch 2G
People’s Choice
iPod Touch 2G

Apple knows how to make a killer mobile platform and the latest incarnation of the iPod Touch proves it. This little touchscreen device pretty much ensures that owners will never be bored again. There are even reports that state the GPU performance is great than that of the iPhone. It plays music, games, and movies. What more can you want? Larger storage option? Yeah, besides that.

A/V Devices
TiVo HD XL
People’s Choice
TiVo HD XL

TiVo had a killer year and released the monstrous TiVo HD XL equipped with a 1TB hard drive. Sure, the UI is a little dated, but it’s still easily the most complete DVR solution outside of custom built media centers. The large hard drive is great, but the HD and HD XL can also stream high-def movies from Netflix, they allow full access to YouTube, and even play back almost every video file format available (including MKVs). TiVo was the de facto standard for years but feel off the map once cable providers started offering DVRs. The HD XL proves TiVo is in it for the long haul and has a robust platform that’s not afraid of change.

Best Camera
Canon Rebel XSi
People’s Choice
Nikon D90

While you, the readers, loved the Nikon D90 we editors chose the Rebel XSi simply because it’s the best entry level DSLR on the market. Why? Because it’s inexpensive, it’s compatible with a constellation of great lenses, and the automatic setting is as good as any of the manual settings for beginners. But the D90 is pretty damn nice as well.

Best Camcorder
Kodak Zi6
People’s Choice
Canon hf100

As Nicholas said, the Zi6 is the video camera for the proletariat. It’s not as fully featured as the People’s Choice Canon hf100 but it gets the job done, it’s cheap, and it’s fun.

Best Netbook
MSI Wind
People’s Choice
ASUS Eee PC 1000

After spending a good amount of time with both, we’re going to have to disagree here, lovely readers. While the EEE series is arguably the match that set the netbook world ablaze, the MSI Wind has swooped in and shown them how its done. You get just as much bang for your buck, plus a VGA webcam. As a little bonus, the Wind is the most hackintosh-friendly netbook around.

Best Notebook
MacBook Pro
People’s Choice
MacBook Pro

Go to any tradeshow or convention, and sneak into the press room. Look for your favorite gadget blogger. More often than not, they’ll be rocking a MacBook Pro. That says something – and no, I don’t mean that it proves we’re all tools.

Make jokes about the “Apple tax” all you want – for the durability, for the genius bar, and for the ability to boot into OS X or Windows without having to hack a thing, the MacBook Pro takes the title.

Best Phone
T-Mobile G1
People’s Choice
iPhone 3G

We get it, you love the iPhone. So do we. But in the grand scheme of things, the G1 is the start of something great.

Naysayers might scream, but Android (and competing, open source platforms) is the future of mobile. The G1 proved that Android works, and for that, it overcomes the iPhone and Apple’s walled garden. 2009 will be Android’s year, and the G1 paved the way.

Worst Device of 2008
Blackberry Storm
People’s Choice
Blackberry Storm

We wanted it to be great. We were really excited. We love Blackberry. But we don’t love the Blackberry Storm. This device, designed by committee and released too soon, is the antithesis of the iPhone. The UI is wonky, the touch screen is horrible, and all of the features that make RIM products great are notably absent in this device. What could have been an iPhone killer will end up being a blight on RIM’s record for years to come.

Best Device of 2008
iPod Touch 2G
People’s Choice
iPhone 3G

Yes, we know. Apple this and Apple that. But you guys chose the 3G and we chose the Touch 2G. Why? Because these two devices get things right. The UI is responsive, the feature set is nicely refined, and the App Store turns both devices into what we can only call Apple’s real netbook. Best of all, the game Fieldrunners exists on both platforms breathing life into the atrophied casual gaming world.

The gadgetry in the Infiniti EX35 we tested was intense. Not only is there XM Satellite Radio there is a Bose sound system, front and rear curb sensors, and an amazing external viewing system that initially took my breath away. After driving around in a 2000 Beetle for six years, hopping into the $35,000 EX35 was like visiting Epcot Center after riding around on a carnival merry-go-round for most of your life.

My goal in reviewing this car is to talk about how it made me feel as a geek, not a driver. As a car, it got a respectable 24 mpg on the highway and had strong acceleration. It’s powered by a 297-horsepower V6 engine and features all wheel drive. You’ll get about 17 city and 26 highway mpg and a calm, quiet ride without the height of an SUV.

We took a test drive to Columbia, Pennsylvania, taking the car on turnpikes and smaller highways. The drive was quiet and solid with good handling and excellent acceleration when needed – although the car really revved up when you called any of its horses into play.

So what of all these gadgets? First, you have the sound system. It’s a Bose-branded system with CD, optional hard drive Music Box, and iPod/component input for external devices. The model we tested included XM Radio. All of the features are controlled by a touchscreen and set of buttons on the dash and there are a few basic controls on the wheel which changed inputs, volume, and track/channel while driving. I had mixed emotions about the touchscreen/button combo at first. For example, there was one button marked Status and another marked Info. What did they have to do with each other? What was the difference? In many situations, both would fall back to a “status” screen with current track information as well as some other info. The center dash info screen offered the same odd situation. The center OLED read-out could tell you the outside temperature, the miles left on the tank, and your fuel efficiency – but never at once. You also had control over this read-out in a settings menu that offered more oddness. I didn’t want to read the manual so we fumbled our way through and found all there was to find: in short, you’re dealing with a complex car system that has been dumbed-down in UI in order to improve efficiency.

The audio itself was fine – the XM radio sounded better than the music on the iPod but that could have been the bit-rate on both sources. The dedicated iPod cable in the center compartment, between the two seats, connects your iPod and shows all of your tracks on the screen and allows for easy browsing of the iPod while driving.

The car also included built-in GPS that, in its out-of-the-box configuration, stops responding to input while driving. This was, in short, infuriating. It often got a strong signal while driving, but this limitation was unnerving.

Finally, there is the Around View Monitor. This is honestly what sold me on the car’s value as a family crossover. The Around View Monitor consists of multiple cameras – some in the rear view mirrors and two in the front and back – that creates a 360-degree view of your surroundings. This is an amazing addition to a fairly low-priced car and it was a great help while parking in our tight driveway or on New York streets. The system basically creates an extrapolated, fish-eye view of the world and shows you what you are facing and what’s behind you. You can see folks walking around on all sides and the distance sensors tell you how close you are to walls and other obstacles.

All together, this gadgetry package adds quite a bit of pep to what would otherwise be known as a family station wagon. The back trunk is a bit cramped but by pulling down the seats you have enough room to haul almost anything you need – as you see in the photos we were able to lie a buggy flat in there with room to spare. We wouldn’t recommend the Music Box feature – it’s just a hard drive – but the iPod connector was great.

As a vehicle, the EX35 was strong, handsome, and the gorgeous deep brown paint job – a color verging on scarlet – was striking. As a rolling gadget trove the EX35 was something else entirely. It is a road-hugging crossover with acceptable gas mileage with an internal computer system that will keep any geek happy for miles.

There are lots of GPS units out there, talking to lots of drivers.  Some people may even enjoy the voices produced by their GPS units. But only the Mio Knight Rider GPS can speak to you in the voice of William Daniels, the original voice of KITT from the Knight Rider television show.

Sure, it’s gimmicky, but it’s also a lot of fun to hear Daniels’ voice giving you turn-by-turn driving directions. I’ve been using this GPS for a short while now, and even once the novelty of pretending to drive KITT wears off — especially when your car doesn’t respond when you say “Kitt, I need you pal!” into your wristwatch — the voice of KITT is surprisingly pleasant and enjoyable.  If for some reason you do grow weary of William Daniels giving you directions, you can select the generic Male and Female voices.

The unit itself is extremely light.  The plastic case is shiny, and not uncomfortable to hold.  It slips easily into shirt and jacket pockets, as well as the back pocket of your pants.  It’s not bulky or awkward, so it’s easy to take the Mio Knight Rider GPS with you when you exit your vehicle.  In addition to a power button on the top, there’s also an SD slot so that you can load new maps.

The user interface is easy to use, and the touch screen is responsive.  I never felt the need to stab the screen to make it recognize my input.  Battery life is acceptable, though not stellar, which is to be expected from a device that is intended to be plugged into your car’s power outlet for most of its use.  Satellite acquisition is reasonably fast, as is route calculation, and most of the routes it plots are acceptable.  It doesn’t usually take me the way I would choose to go to some of the destinations I selected, but it never led me astray.

You can select from four screen modes: 3D, 2D, route, and turn-by-turn (thelast two only available when you’ve actually defined a destination).  Several preset zoom levels are available for quick use, as well as manual incremental zoom.  You can have the top-right widget display the distance to go, time to go, speed, estimated time of arrival, or just a plain old digital clock.  The bottom right widget can display a compass, battery life, satellite signal strength, or a speaker icon telling you whether you’ve muted the voice or not.

This GPS is not without its faults, of course.  The user interface is a little sluggish, especially when typing in location names as it tries to provide a list of auto-complete matches for you.  If you keep this sluggishness in mind, you won’t have any problems.  If, like me, you forget the sluggishness, you’ll type in extra characters and find yourself pressing the backspace key a lot.

My other big gripe about this unit is the mechanism for finding locations nearby.  The destination search screen has three big buttons: City/Area, POI Name, and Search Nearby.  I know where I want to go, so I usually press the POI Name.  This takes me directly to a text input window, where I can start spelling out the name (and pressing the backspace key a lot, because I’m impatient).  That searches the entire state though, so when looking for Wal-Mart the first suggested match is in Akron, Ohio, rather than Columbus, Ohio, where I am.  What I need to press is that “Search Nearby” button, and then press “Search by name” at the top of the following screen: then I can start spelling out my destination and get the list of Wal-Marts in my city.  I’m sure a lot of time was spent deciding that that button configuration was best for the Mio users, but it just doesn’t make sense to me.  It’s aggravating that I need to press an extra button to move past an extra screen to start typing my destination name.

Finally, it took me a while to get the AC power adapter properly settled in the windshield suction mount in such a way that I could easily and quickly dock the GPS in order to charge it.  This is hardly a reason not to buy the device, but it’s worth knowing about, in order to be prepared.

Overall, I enjoyed using the Mio Knight Rider GPS.  It’s not a top-of-the-line GPS, and it’s not a bottom of the barrel, either.  It works well, does what it purports to do with no other fuss, and the included software is perfectly adequate.  All in all, a decent product.  Now, if only someone would get Peter Cullen to record a GPS voice, so I could live my fantasy of riding around inside Optimus Prime…

Bottom Line
Great fun with some good functionality. A must for KITT fans.

Navigon made waves not long ago by introducing GPS units with free map upgrades for a one-time fee, unique among entry-level GPS units. The 2100 Max is an inexpensive in-car GPS add-on with many high-end features, including text to speech, comprehensive POI database, and upgradable maps.

The Good Stuff

The 2100 Max has a 4.3-inch touchscreen that does the job well enough. It has a sturdy feel to it. The overall unit design is quite nice, it’s minimalistic, with only a couple of input buttons to worry about, notably the power button.

There’s an SD card slot on the right hand side that comes pre-loaded with Navigon’s 1GB map-filled card. It also has an antenna mount on the back for a more robust GPS antenna if that’s your thing, but it worked fine without one.

It’s powered by an internal battery and charged via the USB port on the bottom, we always like USB chargeable devices.

The GPS unit comes with a suction cup-style windshield mount that I must say works perfectly fine. Even when I gave the mount’s arm a vigorous shake it stayed stuck to the window. In other GPS units this can be a problem, but not with the 2100.

The 3D-aspect maps work quite well, and refresh time is close to real time. It’d be hard to get lost with this guy as a guide. That said, the map itself is fairly sparse; if you’re used to Google Maps and its outlines of buildings and parks you may find yourself wanting with the built-in maps. I, though, appreciated the un-cluttered look.

One neat trick the device does is it will track your speed, and it has an optional warning when you go a specified number of miles over the limit where you’re at. If you’re heavy footed like yours truly, this is a blessing.

The re-routing works quite well, though it’s not the fastest I’ve seen. I missed a turn getting onto the West Seattle bridge and it took me a way back around I hadn’t known about and now love.

Not so good

While the interface is simple, it’s not intuitive. When I’m getting directions, I want to be able to just input the address or name of the destination. I guess I’m used to the ease of use of Google Maps, but the Navigon UI wants me to put in my city first, followed by street, then number. I’m not sure why, but that’s how it works. It’s very offputting, but not a deal breaker.

The interface itself is sluggish. It sometimes takes one or two seconds for a screen tap to register and return with data. The unit could benefit from a snappier operating system for sure.

Because of these two problems, you should really allow your passenger to do the work with the GPS, or pull off the road. Doing it while driving is far too distracting, even on an empty roadway.

It took me several minutes of configuration before I could start using the device, and all the hoops seemed redundant. A consumer unit should be ready to go out of the box.

While I did like the feature to string multiple destinations into one trip, the lack of interesting points of interest seemed like a waste. Sure, restaurants and gas stations are listed, but many other things, like my local bowling alley, aren’t.

Now, it should be noted here that there’s an upgrade to the built-in maps, but it requires an activation code that my demo unit didn’t come with. It’s possible that the new maps include more things. I know an update is in order because it thinks there’s still a Burger King on Capitol Hill, even though it’s been gone for three years.

Conclusion

If you’ve never had a GPS unit before, this is a great way to start. The price point is great — generally under $250, sometimes on sale for less than $200 — and they’re very useful to have if you travel a lot. But if you’re looking for a way to upgrade the one you have now, look elsewhere. Though it works just fine, the sluggish interface and lack of destinations will make current GPS owners annoyed at best.

Score: 7/10

It’s not every day that I find a product that threatens to completely change an entrenched, mass-market segment. Perhaps the Kindle and the iPhone are two recent examples, but in mass market terms those two devices are oddities, two exquisite outliers that will change the way we read and make phone calls in the years to come but in terms of market penetration will probably maintain a low profile for years to come. Dash.net’s new Dash GPS device, however, comes at us out of left field and promises to change the things we value in a standalone GPS device. I’ve been following these guys for almost two years now as they inched closer and closer to launch and today I’m glad to announce that you can finally buy the Dash device at Amazon and a number of other retailers.

So what makes this thing so special? In short, it is the first GPS device that is more than a digital version of the ratty old road atlas in the trunk of your car. Sure, it gets you from point A to point B but, commuters will love this, it also tells you about traffic spots and connects with your PC through the Internet for quick address updates and searches. In short, it gets you from point A to point B on time and helps you avoid traffic at all points in between.

UPDATE – Fixed price and a few small points regarding GPS data.

The map portion of this device isn’t as fully featured as some GPS devices we’ve used. There are no waypoints, for example, so a long trip from San Fran to New York will give you the shortest route without stop overs in Las Vegas and Scranton. The hardware itself is quite large compared to similar devices and the processor is a bit aged. It does have gesture-based map redrawing, so you can slide your finger across the screen to look at the terrain. However, the redraw speeds are quite slow and sometimes disconcerting. This is 1.0 hardware, however, so I’ll forgive it its minor problems and talk about what really makes it good.

The Dash unit constantly reports your speed and position — hopefully anoynmously — to their servers. It also uses Inrix data for some cities but focuses on fresh data from other Dash drivers. Dash’s servers also send out real-time traffic updates and sometimes estimates based on activity on that particular road at any particular time. For example, if there is no historical data for a road, it will probably remain dead. If there is some data — either taken from a third-party provider or a Dash customer who travelled that way perhaps a week or day ago — it is a colored dashed line. Finally, if the road has been recently driven and there is current data, it will appear as colored solid line. The traffic readout is fairly simple: red is bad, yellow is OK, green is super great.

The biggest problem? The Dash is a flocking device. This means that many people have to own Dash devices for the service to make sense. This number doesn’t have to be big, however. Los Angeles and parts of New Jersey have about 40 beta testers each wandering the roads and even with one beta tester in Brooklyn — who I suspect was actually Erick Schonfeld — gave me some info on the expressway that always seems to be clogged at the Battery Tunnel.

Dash is for commuters. it is not for the family of 5 in an RV road-tripping across America. Every time you choose a route, it offers at least two possibilities and ranks them based on estimated time. If the highway is clogged, for example, it will route you around the traffic. That, friends, is a lifesaver.

This minor point — that the GPS device can talk to other devices and servers — is the key to this brave new world of directional devices. Sure, you cellphone can do this as well, given the right software, but cellphone GPS hasn’t quite taken off. Folks like mom and grandma don’t want to be squinting at 3-inch screen. They want something big, that talks to them, and that can route them around accidents. That the Dash can also do Yahoo Local searches (type in “plunger” or “hamburger” and get lists of hardware stores and diners, respectively) is just icing on the cake. You can also right click an address in most browsers — on Windows or Mac — and send it to the Dash over the air. You’ll never need to bring your device in for map updates or software improvements again. Best of all? It gives local gas prices for nearby gas stations and you can build little “itineraries” i.e. waypoints that you can visit in order. The example Dash gave was an Entourage collection of points in Los Angeles. Yes, you too can eat at the places Ari ate.

All of these features are accessible via the Dash.net website.

In terms of usability, the Dash’s interface is actually simpler than most other GPS devices. Because so many devices now add in Bluetooth and “POI” support, their menu structures are complex and messy. The Dash, because of its fairly narrow focus, has none of that. It is considerably larger than most other GPS devices but it comes with a comically large dashboard mount that actually worked better than most other mounts I’ve used.

All is not completely rosy with the Dash device. It costs $399 and $9.99 a month for service. This is considerably better than the original $599 they were about to charge, but the service charge might be a little steep for some. For commuters, however, it is a lifesaver. If you spend any time in your car, the Dash’s features wlll woo you immediately.

Is Dash the iPhone of the GPS industry? No, but it is the Kindle. The package isn’t perfect, but it is powerful and intelligently built and it is, in short, the future.

Most GPS devices are car-centric. They assume their owners will be glued to a steering wheel for hours a day, requiring turn-by-turn directions to new destinations at a moment’s notice. Apparently their ideal consumer is a mafia hit man or traveling salesman because their products are geared towards going from point A to the New Jersey marshlands via highways and byways and not over woodland trails.

That’s why it’s so refreshing to see the Trimble Outdoors GPS pack. This three-application kit is focused on the perambulator. The pack, which costs $6.99 a month for service, includes AllSport GPS Platinum, a sports tracking system, Geocache Navigator, and Trimble Outdoors Platinum. All are aimed at getting you from point A to the New Jersey marshlands with nary a combustion engine.

Features

The entire package is focused around outdoor activities. For example, the AllSport GPS program allows you to graph your athletic performance and watch your training history while you run. You can also measure distance, time, speed, as well as elevation and calories burned. You can store and playback routes and even share routes with friends.

The “Outdoors” application is for hikers and outdoorsmen and includes GPS mapping, trip journal software, and Google Earth interaction. For example, you can plan a hike and then follow the built-in compass to stay on track as you wander, taking and tagging pictures as you go. Like AllSport, the UI is fairly sparse but acceptably rich in features.

Finally, there’s the Geocaching application. While I can’t say that I’ve ever geocached, it seems like a great use for mobile GPS. The geocaching application gives you a list of local caches and sets you loose. It’s so simple to use that almost anyone can take up the exciting yet fairly nerdy sport of putting stuff in a hole in the woods.

These applications run on Symbian and Blackberry smartphones and cost $6.99/month for service, including maps and sharing systems.

Pros

This is one of the few downloadable applications for pedestrian GPS tracking, which makes it a unique product. While I can’t imagine many folks carrying their Blackberries into the deep, dark woods, it’s definitely a useful tool.

The software essentially replaces several dedicated GPS devices and works on your phone, thereby lightening your load considerably.

Cons

Downloading the applications is slightly complex, although they are available at Handmark.com. The monthly subscription might put off all but the most dedicated outdoorsmen.

Value

As someone who owns a GPS watch for running, the Trimble products make for an interesting package. While I’m a bit leery of the subscription service, the training tools and desktop interface are quite complete and very compelling. While I wouldn’t stake my life on the accuracy and usefulness of a Blackberry in the wild, day hikers and tourists will enjoy the ability to track their progress and get directions without asking for advice about how to get onto the nearest interstate.

I tested the service on the Blackberry Curve and it essentially turned the smartphone into a standalone GPS device. If your training gear allows for a smartphone to be tucked snugly in a pocket or on a belt, this is a great way to go.

I’ve had a couple weeks to fiddle around with TeleNav’s Bluetooth GPS receiver and there isn’t a whole lot to review other than the fact that it works great. It immediately synced with my T-Mobile BlackBerry Curve which is sans GPS via Bluetooth and I was on my merry way. Of course, it didn’t work while in NYC, which is sort of a given so I had to wait until I was outside of the city. I also tested it extensively while in Philadelphia for the Star Wars exhibit and then again in San Diego last week.

The interface is clean and very easy to use. Those of you on AT&T already know how easy and useful TeleNav’s app is since it’s readily available. T-Mobile does not have the service available to its customers, but TeleNav is currently offering the service. Say what you will about Google Maps and it being free, but it hardly ever locates me correctly. It’s also slow and takes forever to load, but you can sync it with the GPS receiver over Bluetooth. I tried both TeleNav’s service and Google Maps and found the TeleNav app to work a lot smoother. Everything is laid out so even luddites can figure out what’s going on.

Battery life is rated at 11 hours of continuous use and while I didn’t have it on that long, I can safely say that your mobile phone will die before the receiver ever will. It’s also small enough that I even care it with me in my pocket. It’s no different than having a pack of gum and measure in at 3.23X1.68X0.53 inches. So take heed T-Mobile users and try the service out and pick up the GPS receiver.