NaviGadget

Raytel - the American partner of German Funkwerk - will be showcasing the EGO Drive at CES 2008 next month in Vegas. This GPS navigator has a great design and comes with a remote controller knob that makes sure you keep your eyes on the road the whole time.

EGO Drive offers 3D maps, bluetooth capability for hands free calls, and a sharp 4.3″ touch screen that comes with a stylus. Ego Drive is a high end device and the features offered prove it. The on-board text-to-speech engine reads out your text messages for you, and it even has a light-sensor to adjust the illumination of the screen. It has internal memory - but in addition it supports SD cards up to 2GB.

Here are features offered just for the bluetooth function:

• Voice recognition (speech-to-text, no training required)
• Complies with all hands-free laws
• Integrates and mutes car’s stereo system
• Supports all Bluetooth mobile phone voice commands
• DSP technology for noise and echo suppression
• Reads out text messages (SMS text-to-speech)
• Shows text and picture messages (SMS and MMS)
• Accommodates up to 10 different user profiles
• audio streaming (A2DP and AVRCP)

We have no information on pricing just yet. We’ll keep you posted.

UPDATE: Well the PR people for EGO Drive got in touch with us and this is what they wanted to share with us:

EGO DRIVE is priced at $799 and will be available late Feb/early March ‘08.

Amazon today announced a long list of products in their “best of 2007″ list. The only GPS navigation system that made it to the list was Garmin’s Nuvi 350 in the ‘most loved’ category which included items that were reviewed most positively by Amazon.com customers.

Nuvi 350 still has a suggested retail price of $482 by the manufacturer but you can get it from Amazon for $300, and that includes free shipping.

Oh yeah. You can get a location fix on your Amazon Kindle. This is not done by using GPS satellites the traditional way but with the help of cellular networks. So there’s no integrated GPS receiver in the Kindle but there is a DTEV-Dual module by AnyData which uses CDMA technology by Qualcomm. DTEV-Dual (pdf) has support for gpsOne, a technology developed by Qualcomm that allows for accurate, widely available position-location technology to be used on mobile devices.

gpsOne creates a synergistic relationship between wireless networks and Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites to create a precise positioning service that is available even in traditionally “invisible” areas.

Amazon’s Kindle uses Sprint’s network which was the first telecommunications company to use gpsOne technology which currently is utilized by many Sprint phones and as known as A-GPS. So that’s how Amazon Kindle knows where you are… read »

Becker continues to confuse people with numbering of their models, but don’t you worry, we at Navigadget are on top things. Today we have Becker Traffic Assist 7827, not to be confused with 7927, 7928, or the 7934.

Becker Traffic Assist 7827 - which will be showcased at CES 2008 - will have maps of North America pre-installed on a 2GB SD card; and will also include POI data for continental U.S., Canada, Alaska and Puerto Rico. You can expect to see your driving directions assisted with Reality View on a sharp, wide, 4.3″ touch screen, and even have the correct lane you’re supposed to be on thanks to the highly detailed freeway data.

Other features include the dynamic route guidance with free real time traffic, MP3 player and picture viewer, and the ability to display speed limits. We have no info when it’ll be available in the U.S. but the European version of 7827 can be found on Amazon for £250 ($500).

GIGA-BYTE Communications today announced GSmart i350 in Italy. GSmart i350 has a 2.6″ touchscreen, miniSD card slot and a 2MP digital camera.

This sleek phone supports quad band GSM/GPRS networks, offers WiFi, bluetooth, and runs on a Marvell PXA270 CPU. Not finished here though, GSmart i350 also has embedded SiRF Star III GPS chip.

Powered by SiRF Star III chipset, GPS Navigation helps users get to destinations with optimized route. With the Track Recognition feature i350 lets users save and recall the best routes to places they have been to. GSmart i350 is bundled with GARMIN Mobile XT Navigation software, providing high quality navigation experience and making it your best partner for finding the best route.

GSmart i350 will sell for 500 € in Italy and we have no info if/when it would ever make it to U.S… read »

Uniden will be coming out with a new GPS navigation system, possibly expected to debut at CES 2008 within a few weeks. What makes this new system - MapTrax 430 - unique is that it will have integrated radar detection capabilities.

MapTrax also offers other high-end features like text-to-speech, bluetooth, and 2GB of internal memory. The maps are from Navteq and will switch between day and night modes automatically… read »

Korean Reigncom just announced a new GPS navigation system called W7. Only expected to be available in Korea, W7 will have a 4GB and an 8GB version which will cost 238,000 KRW ($250) and 288,000 KRW ($305) respectively.

W7 features a 76.2mm (3″) wide LCD touch screen and comes with an electronic dictionary, flash, CSD viewer, and SRS WOW HD. There is also a W7 Car Kit sold separately for 99,000 KRW ($105) which includes a GPS cradle, power supply, dock, miniSD memory card, and a mini SD adapter.

Magellan Maestro 4250 got 4 out of 5 from the editors of PCMag.com on a recent review. Maestro 4250 really excels in terms of voice control which doesn’t need any training and can easily direct you to the nearest gas station or a coffee shop when not actively in a route.

The maps on Maestro 4250 are quite up-to-date:

The street-level-detail maps showed recently opened roads and a new New Jersey Turnpike exit ramp. The large POI database also came in very handy. I was curious to see whether the database had an entry for my local “Zap Lube” oil change shop, and there it was, as were several other shops I searched for.

Another positive side to Magellan 4250 is its super slim body that measures 3.25 x 4.88 x 0.7 inches making it the thinnest personal navigation device on the market.

The only negative side to the Maestro 4250 is that it didn’t read the contact off the phone when tested and failed to pair up with the phone when returned to the car after an initial setup.

Maestro 4250 currently sells for $357 on Amazon… read »

The same GPS technology that helps millions of people everyday with driving directions is also utilized in this autonomous (and RC) helicopter with a lot of fire power.

In the fully-autonomous mode it utilizes a GPS system, where the operator uploads a flight plan to the killer machine via a laptop, using GPS waypoints.

In this mode, the operator “starts the AutoCopter, engages the Flight Control System, commands the AutoCopter to takeoff and turns all flight operations over to the FCS.” The operator can regain manual control of the AutoCopter at any time by going back to the semi-autonomous mode. If the AutoCopter flies out of RC range, it will turn around and come back within range. If it runs out of gas (it’s gasoline-powered), a parachute will automatically deploy and guide the AutoCopter back to the ground slowly and safely.

It is nice to see the use of GPS in applications other than driving directions but we still would prefer to see GPS technology help cure cancer somehow then create a deadly weapon… read »

This little device automatically tags your photos with GPS information (geotag). The concept of ATP Photo Finder is a bit different. The way this machine syncs with your camera is very simple. First you set the time of your camera and the time on your ATP Photo Finder to the same time. Then you activate your photo finder and take your pictures as you normally would. After you finish taking pictures, simply insert your memory card into the Photo Finder’s card slot and the GPS data will be synchronized and added to all the pictures on the card. Then you use a GPS compatible software such as Picasa2 or Google Earth and then you can track the exact location and time of where your pictures were taken. And that’s why ATP Photo Finder will work with almost any digital camera on the market today.

It costs $130 but we don’t think it is available at big retail stores just yet… read »