NaviGadget

It’s been a while since we talked about a phone with GPS feature. Today we have SB-190, which is the latest phone from LG that features an onboard GPS chip. Other features of the SB190 include 1.3MP camera, DMB receiver, and an MP3 player. TFT-LCD screen on this slide phone supports 262K colors with 240 x 320 resolution.

It looks like it’ll only be available in Korea from SK Telecom for a while and it may also hit Europe. Don’t hold your breath if you live in NA.

More info in Korean and an annoying video available here.

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Dutch brand Amaryllo just introduced Purity, a bluetooth GPS receiver for daily use. Not sure what they mean by ‘daily use’ but it has a nice solid look and good specs. It should work perfectly with your PDA or Smartphone or any other bluetooth enabled device that can read NMEA-0183 (version 3.0) data. The Amaryllo Purity uses the the new SiRFstar III LP (Low Power) chipset that can track upto 20 satellites at once. The SiRFstar III LP is the newest version of the highly popular SiRFstar III chipset but has a much lower power consumption than its predecessor. Purity can run about 15 hours on a single charge thanks to its removable lithium-ion battery with 1000mAh capacity. Purity measures 86 x 44 x 13.1 mm and weighs 59 grams including battery.

Amaryllo’s Purity will ship with car charger, AC charger, manual, rubber anti slip stickers and a silicon protection sleeve and will cost about 90 Euros. Available January 2007.

It looks like Amaryllo products are only available in Europe though. Drop us a comment if you know a place that sells these in North America.

InVion is a GPS navigation system maker mostly targeting the European market. One of their products is the GPS- 7v1 XX-IXX (yep, that’s the actual model name), which features a 7 inch touch screen, 400 Mhz processor, MP3 and MP4 player.

The GPS-7v1 also supports Bluetooth connectivity probably to connect to a Bluetooth enabled phone to receive calls however information on this is very limited. It also has integrated RDS / TMC receiver to get live traffic info.

It comes with a 2GB SD card to store its NAVTEQ maps and uses SiRF star III GPS receiver chipset. The only sketchy spec is the battery which is not mentioned anywhere, but Walgreens does say “external Li-Ion battery will last upto 3 hours”. Yikes.

Included in the 500€ ($660) price tag you get the car charger, home charger, headset, mounting bracket, carrying bag and the USB cable.

The only site that sells the GPS-7v1 in the US seems to be Walgreens (for $550), as we mentioned above.

SiRF after acquiring Motorola’s GPS chipset line back in 2005 has become one of the worlds biggest suppliers for GPS receivers for consumer devices. Even though SiRF’s monopoly in the field has seen almost no competition, their closest rivals are Qualcomm and Global Locate. While Qualcomm integrates GPS functionality into some of their chips, Global Locate has come up with a single chip solution to SiRF’s two-chip product.

Just last week SiRF sued Global Locate for patent infringement while TomTom announced that it would use Global Locate as a second source GPS supplier.

Anyhow, SiRFstarIII GSC3LTi is the latest GPS receiver chip from SiRF. Compared to the other models (GSC3LT and GSC3e/LP) in the SiRF Star III series, GSC3LTi is the smallest and the least power consuming. Here is how they measure up:

However, in terms of sensitivity and time-to-fix they all measure the same.

• Sensitivity: -159dBM
• Hot start: <1 s
• Warm start: <35 s
• Cold start: <35 s

Routis EZ100 (aka RoadMentor) is the latest GPS navigation system from Deluo. It comes with NAVTEQ maps of the US (or Europe) preloaded on a 1GB SD Card which also includes over 5 million points of interest. The touch screen measures 3.5″ and supports 2D, 3D display and comes with a stylus. For voice guidance you’ll find the built-in amplified speaker very handy - which can give you door to door directions in English, Chinese, Spanish, or French.

The Routis EZ100 uses a 12 channels GPS receiver (possibly not SiRF) and runs on a 200MHz processor. It measures 129 x 124 x 42 mm and weighs 350 grams. Guess what though! No rechargeable battery. It will have to be plugged in at all times.

Routis EZ100 sells for $375 on Amazon. Doesn’t sound like a good buy.

This new SD GPS receiver from Spectec - SDG-810 - is probably the only such device that can provide GPS function through an SD slot while allowing you to use an microSD card in the same space. This will be very useful for those who have limited memory available on their handheld devices and only one SD slot for the maps. If you get the SDG-810 you can copy all your maps onto a microSD card and stick into the side of your SD GPS receiver and you have yourself a GPS navigation sytem.

SDG-810 uses the SiRF Star III GPS chipset and can support all microSD cards upto 2GB. We’ll be sure to check this out at CES 2007 next month.

The price is not yet announced however you can pre-order from here.

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StreetPilot 2820 is not new however a nice short review came out today on PocketGPSWorld with lots of pics. To sum up:

The Garmin StreetPilot 2820 is a very capable unit, with a clear screen and more configurable options than I care to mention. The default routing appears to pick the same routes that I’d choose myself if I didn’t know a particular area. Maps are available for other countries, both from Garmin and Third Party mapmakers.

The one confusing aspect with the remote control is that it has the Zoom In and Zoom Out buttons reversed to what is on the actual unit’s screen. The only negative points I can really think of are the size and weight of the unit, and the lack of internal battery. In my opinion, this last item is a real oversight on Garmin’s part.

The StreetPilot 2820 with Bluetooth sells for $710 on Amazon. It is ideal for motorcyclists since it will let you connect your Bluetooth-enabled headset or helmet to the StreetPilot 2820 to talk hands-free or receive voice guidance to your destination.

GPSTuner is an off-road navigation software for Pocket PC devices. While regular navigation systems maybe able to get you to the beginning of the trail, GPSTuner gives you the ability of navigation where the roads end. GPS Tuner is designed for hiking, geocaching, boating, flying, driving and many other sporting activities. The software costs $34 for Standard (1Year Free Upgrades),
$24 for Basic (no Upgrades), and $48 for GEO (Area calculation plus 1Year Free Upgrades). There’s a really nice review on MobiliySite if you are looking for such a software.

The only downside which most users might be concerned about is the lack of bundled maps. While there is a global map provided, it is a very low resolution picture, and should only ever be used to confirm that your GPS reflects you are located in the correct country. You can of course zoom-in to confirm your location relative to your city’s approximate location, but herein lies the another downside to the program: because the map is a raster image (just a JPG picture), it pixelates more and more the further you zoom in, where as a vector-based map would provide more and more details the further-in you zoomed.

Atlantis GPS X-380 is a simple GPS navigation system from JJC Communications of New Jersey with a 3.5″ touch screen and an SD slot for maps (1GB card and a DVD with maps included). The navigation software provides 3D view with pan and zoom functions, automatic rerouting, day/night mode, POIs, and an MP3 player.

The Atlantis X-380 speaks 18 different languages when it comes to giving directions through its integrated speaker. It runs Windows CE.Net 4.2 on a 300MHz processor and comes with 64MB of RAM. The onboard battery has 1400mAh of capacity which should last about 4 hours before it needs to charge.

You can pick up the Atlantis GPS X-380 from Amazon for $450.

Transystem i-Blue 757 is a solar powered bluetooth GPS receiver. What makes the i-Blue 757 unique is its space saving clamshell design. Manufactured by Transystem of Taiwan, these devices contain the 16 channel Nemerix GPS receiver and also have an embedded rechargeable 1000mAh Li-Ion battery. Without seeing any daylight it should run for about 30 hours, and upto 100 if you can harness the power of the sun.

Permanent Standby - Now this is a very, very smart feature. At the expense of an itsy bitsy consumption of battery power the Bluetooth stack on the i-Blue 757 is kept alive even when no connection is active. As soon as your PocketPC or Smartphone or Notebook establish a Bluetooth connection the 757 will wake up the GPS receiver part, and thanks to the chipset’s sensitivity will regain a fix within a few seconds. Once the Bluetooth connection is terminated the GPS module goes back to sleep. via

We couldn’t find any sellers for i-Blue 757 in the U.S. after a short search. If you know a site that sells these please leave a comment (you don’t have to register to leave a comment).