Garmin is surprising the aviation crowd with the GPSMAP 696. The aviation GPS unit seems to have everything pilots would want in a portable GPS unit: huge, 7-inch screen, victor airways, XM Satellite Weather, jet routes, MEA and major visual references like points of rivers, state boundaries, highways, and railroads. Generally, Garmin announces these aviation models in the summer months, but the company must feel this $3,295 unit is going to make its way onto some pilots holiday wish lists and wanted to capitalize on the sales. 

PR & Garmin Blog

This GPS device from Garmin, the Nuvi 510, isn’t intended for your fancy Ford Crown Victoria, but rather your fancy Vespa. (It seems to be Europe-only at the moment, and Barcelona was nothing if not filled with guys on scooters.) That explains the extra large icons, weatherproofing and 8-hour battery life.

Like every other in-car (or in-bike, as it were) GPS device, it comes with the relevant built-in maps—here, maps for Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Spain, Portugal, Greece and Italy.

It’s around $380, but since it’s Euro-only Real Americans can safely ignore it for now.

The J.D. Power and Associates just released the 2008 Portable Navigation Device customer satisfaction rankings with Garmin taking the top seat and TomTom following closely behind. These scores are a composite of six factors that include: ease of use, routing, system appearance, speed of system, voice direction, and navigation display screen. 

Garmin ranks highest among portable navigation device manufacturers, performing particularly well in the display screen, ease of use and appearance factors

TomTom follows Garmin in the ranking, performing well in the routing, speed of system and voice direction factors

Personally, I have never been a big fan of Garmin interfaces; who am I though but a lowly gadget blogger.

JDPower via GPSTracklog

Ah, Black Friday. After working at Circuit City from 2000 to 2006, I don’t care how good the deals are, I’m sleeping in that day. This year is shaping up nicely though if the $99 GPS and $149 Blu-ray player rumors are true. Reportable, the GPS units are going to be top tier units from Garmin, TomTom, or Magellan and the Blu-ray player should be the Samsung BDP-1500. Still, I don’t care how cheap I can get a gizmo or widget, there is no way in hell its worth getting up at 3:00 A.M, only to wait outside in Michigan’s freezing November temperatures; my mother-in-law disagrees though.

Prices for portable GPS devices seem to be dropping like people’s pants at a pants store where there’s some sort of insane pants sale, except you really want to try the pants on before you buy them because you can’t return them due to the insanity of the sale prices. Take the Garmin nuvi 350, for instance. Amazon’s got it for $180, which Navigadget says is down from its selling price of almost $500 last year.

The nuvi 350 is smaller than it looks and can be used to listen to audio books and MP3 files, effectively making it double as a portable audio player. It’s got 700MB of on-board storage, which can be expanded via SD cards.

Battery life is good for 4 to 8 hours depending on how you’re using the device and the display is a 320×240 resolution touchscreen.

Garmin nuvi 350 [Amazon.com]

The latest addition to Garmin’s vast range of GPS options is geared towards outdoors types. Think of the 600 series as a-go-anywhere, waterproof GPS unit that features both marine and automotive GPS functions by sensing the type of vehicle through the mount and then showing to the appropriate function. So when the 640 is in the car mount, it will function a lot like Garmin nüvi with road maps and such, but when snapped into your boat, navigation maps along with underwater 3D bathymetric contour perspective appear. In addition, there is XM radio access including the WX Satellite Weather data and XM NavTraffic with an accompanying subscription. All this convergence comes with the international 620 model going for $999 and the U.S. destined 640 carrying a $1,199 MSRP. 

You might want to consider adding these VHF radios to your economic apocalypse gear and as your going to need to communicate with your fishing buddies as you’re fleeing the Wall Street zombies. The two new models, the VHF 100 and VHF 200, both sport the classic Smokey the Bandit radio look, but are equipped with the latest radio tech. The entry level 100 model transmits via 25 watts of power and offer Class D DSC capabilities while the upgraded 200 offers NMEA 2000 compatibility. If you opt for the higher-end $399 model, you gain a wired fist microphone and a remote that offers full radio control. Or you can just get the basic model for $249. Whatever way you go, they’ll help you evade the yacht-piloting zombie CEOs.

PR

I have no doubt these custom voices for your TomTom or Garmin GPS cease to be entertaining after, oh, about three blocks, but if you’ve got money to burn, go for it.
Most are groaningly bad, but they have their functions:

GlaDOS: good litmus test for whether people you’re with are huge nerds.
Pimp or sexy lady voice: good test for whether you’re a raging misogynist (or closet prostitute).
Yoda: Eh, why not?

If you’re curious but poor (or care to exercise good taste, like me), you can listen to samples, so at the very least you can laugh at W saying “arrived at destantination. Mission accomplished,” which is funny even though the Bush imitator is only passable.

Crutchfield has a pretty good deal going on the Garmin nuvi 205 GPS device. It’s normally $199 but there’s currently a $30 price break, which brings the price down to $169. You can then use coupon code 3A825 to get another $20 off. So that’s $149 when the dust clears, plus free shipping. Not bad, eh?

The device itself has a 3.5-inch touchscreen, preloaded maps of the US, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico, microSD slot, a rechargeable battery, and pedestrian mode which allows you to get out of the car and walk around with it.

Garmin nuvi 205 [Crutchfield via DealsPlus]

Guarantee you say…

Here’s how I see it. A guy puts a guarantee on the box ’cause he wants you to fell all warm and toasty inside. Ya think if you leave that box under your pillow at night, the Guarantee Fairy might come by and leave a quarter. The point is, how do you know the Guarantee Fairy isn’t a crazy glue sniffer? “Building model airplanes” says the little fairy, but we’re not buying it. Next thing you know, there’s money missing off the dresser and your daughter’s knocked up, I seen it a hundred times. Because they know all they solda ya was a guaranteed piece of shit. That’s all it is. Hey, if you want me to take a dump in a box and mark it guaranteed, I will. I got spare time. But for right now, for your sake, for your daughter’s sake, ya might wanna think about buying a quality item from me. 

Starting on October 15, 2008, owners will have access to a new map as long as their unit was first used and registered after August 17. Just so you don’t read more into this, all the nüMap guarantee does is ensure that when you buy a Garmin, the latest map is installed. After 60 days, you’re on your own to buy newer maps.

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Garmin makes more GPS units than I would care to count, but when the firm update two of their mainstream lineups, I take notice. Both the nüvi 2×5 and the 7×5 models were updated with the former of the two receiving lifetime NAVTEQ Traffic alerts and Bluetooth calling features. Pricing and availability for the 265T, 265WT and 275T should be out soon.  

The higher-end 7×5 series receives familiar tech updates. Something about the new features of Lane Assist and 3D buildings makes me think back a few days to the NAVIGON 7200T announcement. Moving on though, the Garmin units now have lifetime NAVTEQ traffic too, with the 785T receiving MSN Direct treatment. (think gas prices, weather reports, new…stuff like that) These models have already been priced with the 755T clocking in at $499, $599 for the 765T, $799 for the 775T and $699 for the 785T. No word on availability but we’re sure they will be out soon if the pricing is already out.

7X5 PR & 2X5 PR

Coinciding with the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, Garmin this week announced a Harley-specific version of its zūmo GPS device. The Road Tech zūmo is available at the massive rally and at Harley-Davidson authorized dealerships.

The zūmo line is specially designed for motorcycle riders. The unit is waterproof and built with gloved users in mind by utilizing oversized buttons.

The unit is Bluetooth enabled and allows for hands-free usage. Points of interest can be directly accessed via the interface. Navigation voice prompts can be sent directly to your headset and optional traffic alerts are available in some select cities.

The branded Road Tech zūmo comes pre-loaded with locations of Harley-Davidson dealerships, but of more interest is the ride planner that will be available at Harley-Davidson.com. Riders will be able to share rides with others via the special program, or with the removable SD card. Garmin also has a ride-sharing program here.

As part of its quarterly earnings report, Garmin announced delays for its first mobile phone. While they had previously announced the Nuvifone would be available sometime during the fourth quarter, don’t expect to see one now until the first half of next year.

Here’s what the press release said:

The nuvifone will not be available in fourth quarter as previously announced. While we had hoped to have carrier launches in the fourth quarter, we have found that meeting some of the carrier specific requirements will take longer than anticipated. We remain pleased with carrier interest in the device and are working toward making necessary design changes to meet their requirements. We anticipate launching the product during the first half of 2009.”

Here’s the company’s full quarterly report, if you’re interested.

Garmin has combined features from several outdoor and automotive navigators into the nüvi 500 series. The rugged and waterproof units have the capability to transition between driving, bicycling, boating or walking mode. The ability to download geocaches is provided for hiking, and while on the water optional software can provide detailed chart-specific information, including locations of wrecks.

The nüvi 500 is pre-loaded with both road maps and U.S. topographic maps, while the nüvi 550 has comprehensive street map coverage of the U.S. and Canada. An optional receiver is available for tapping into Traffic Message Channel or MSN Direct. Access to the MSN Direct network allows for traffic conditions, fuel prices, weather reports, movie listings, headline news, stock updates and local events.

These look pretty nice. Garmin’s new GPS line, dubbed Oregon, is all touchscreen (possibly troublesome for rugged button-lovers), kind of chubby, and comes in three basic flavors:

• The 200, which has only the base map and is missing some cool features like an altimeter and compass ($480)
• The 300, which has a worldwide map and those other things but no details or topos($530)
• The 400, which has a worldwide map “with imagery,” and detailed maps of either coastal waters (for boaters), inland lakes (for fishers), and one with US topos and 3D views (for me.)(all are $640)

Well, if you’re rich and get lost easily, these are probably a good solution. They’ll be available starting in August.

If you are an avid hunter that uses hunting dogs the DC 300 GPS dog tracking Collar from Garmin might be the new toy your looking for. You simply attach the collar to your dog and it communicates with your (if you happen to have one) Astro 220.

The device tells you your dog’s position ever 5 seconds for 17 hours. You can improve the battery life by setting it to broadcast every 30 seconds, resulting in the battery lasting about 35 hours. Supposedly the DC 300 can tell you if your dog is pointing, siting, or moving (not sure how it knows). It can also tell you how fast you dog is going and how far it traveled.

I am not sure how many hunters read CrunchGear but this could still be useful if you were in to designer dogs. That way when your $1000+ dog runs away you can find the little bugger.

Microsoft will be the main kit sponsor of the Seattle Sounders FC MLS expansion team. A “kit,” for you Yanks, is the name for the uniform footballers wear, of which a logo of Microsoft’s choosing will be on the front. Right now, it looks like the Sounders will be wearing the slogan “Xbox 360 LIVE” on their shirt, for which Redmond has to pay $4 million.

The Seattle Sounders is partly owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

In any event, Microsoft joins a long list of technology companies that sponsor football (soccer) teams. Samsung sponsors England’s Chelsea FC (above); Garmin’s got Middlesbrough FC and Spain’s Real Betis; and Best Buy sponsors fellow MLS outfit Chicago Fire.

GPS sales have been booming. Last January’s CES saw just about every manufacturer under the sun dumping out unit after unit, some with millions of points-of-interest and whatever else they can dream up to differentiate themselves in a crowded market. Alas, the party is over and everyone who wanted a GPS now has one, resulting in a slowdown in sales.

GPS devices are like 20-inch rims — you buy them once and pretty much ignore everything else out there until they break. Because they sit quietly in your car and, unlike dubs, don’t spin wildly at 90 mph, they tend not to break. And, like a, road atlas, the routes rarely change so… you don’t buy new GPS devices. Unlike kicking stereos, you rarely upgrade.

So now we’re seeing GPS device prices falling and commidity players like Navman and Mio dumping units on the market at lower-than-low prices. Once every mom in Anytown, USA has a GPS, the big guys like Garmin and TomTom are going to lose market share and the kids are just going to pull up Google maps. The result? Get out of the GPS market as soon as you can.

Last week when Nicholas, John and I were at the Garmin press conference they showed us a couple of videos with the Nuvifone in action. Well, as “in action” as you can get since the units were probably running simulations. In any case, the following videos will give you a better understanding of what the Nuvifone is capable of.
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