Archive for 2009

Tracking Key Pro giveaway reminder

Dec 31, 2009 , ,

Don’t forget our latest contest! This week we’re giving away a Tracking Key Pro GPS tracking system. The device is worth $270 but this one can be yours for free.

It is great little device that can last weeks on a couple of AA batteries and it is sensitive enough to keep tracking your target even when installed under your vehicle thanks to its strong magnet.

All you have to do is go here and leave a comment. It is offered by people at LandAirSea.

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Garmin Oregon 450 and 450t

Dec 30, 2009 , , , , ,


Garmin just yesterday announced Garmin Oregon 450, and Garmin Oregon 450T. This makes the already crowded Oregon series even more crowded; just how Garmin likes it. We already had:

Garmin Oregon 200
Garmin Oregon 300
Garmin Oregon 400c
Garmin Oregon 400t
Garmin Oregon 400i
Garmin Oregon 500t
Garmin Oregon 550
Garmin Oregon 550t

But anyhow, back to Garmin Oregon 450, and 450t. They feature a bright 3″ color display, newly added user-selectable dashboards, enhanced track navigation, and also high-speed USB for faster map transfers.

You’ve still got the photo navigation and the 3-axis tilt-compensated electronic compass which is a must if you’re lost in the wilderness. Of course Garmin Oregon 450 and 450t does feature a barometric altimeter, the necessary software for easier geocaching, and wireless exchange of tracks, waypoints, routes and geocaches.

Both 450 and 450t come with a worldwide shaded relief basemap, but 450t adds a preloaded 100K topographic maps for the U.S. including 3D elevation perspective. They weigh 6.8 ounces, and can last up to 16 hours on two AA batteries. They feature a GPS receiver with HotFix which kinda mimics A-GPS technology. They come with 850 MB of internal memory and a microSD card slot for photos and other optional map data.

What’s different from the 5xx series? These don’t come with a digital camera. MSRP for Garmin Oregon 450 is $400, and for Garmin Oregon 450t is $500.

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Nexus One $530, or $180 with T-Mobile

Dec 29, 2009 , , , , ,


We’ve been quite conservative about our Nexus One coverage here at Navigadget compared to other people. We only talked about it when we first heard of Nexus One, and then again we found out about the specs. We couldn’t skip what we just found though. We now have news from Gizmodo that nexus one will cost $530 with no contract, unlocked, from Google. And a much bearable price of $180 with a two year T-Mobile contract.

A few more facts were also revealed. T-Mobile’s plan is $80/month which gets you on the Even More plan they’ve got going. Nexus One is manufactured by HTC, not Google. We already suspected this. You can buy five Nexus One’s per Google account.

I guess this was their announcement they had scheduled for January 5th. So there, you don’t have to wait for it now.

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tracking a wolf with GPS

Dec 29, 2009 , ,


Bunch of U.S. Geological Survey researchers decided to put a GPS enabled collar around a wolf – which they named Brutus – and tracked him from July to end of November.

During this time they got updates from the animal every 12 hours for a total of 289 location updates. Considering today even cheap GPS receiver can provide one second updates makes us think they were very conservative about the battery.

They’ve discovered a lot about wolves’ traveling habit. For example the wolf traveled about 1700 miles during this time and the longest run was almost as long as a marathon which Brutus finished under 84 hours. However these are all under-estimates since the calculations are based on 12-hour readings and this wolf probably does not walk along a straight line as seen on this map.

Oh, and if you’re wondering to yourself – how did a wolf make it across that giant body of water – you’re not alone. It was all frozen at the time and could be traveled on foot/paw.

You can read more about the research on the arctic wolves of Ellesmere Island on their blog…

Read the rest of this entry »

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Tracking Key Pro giveaway

Dec 28, 2009 , ,


As promised we’re giving away a Tracking Key Pro GPS tracking device. We reviewed Tracking Key Pro couple of weeks ago and liked it very much and it is going to be difficult for us to part with it.

If you haven’t heard about Tracking Key Pro yet – here’s a brief intro: This is a GPS data logger/tracking system that runs on 2AA batteries and carries a really strong magnet so it can hold onto any metallic surface. The good news is that it can get a solid satellite fix even when installed under your vehicle. We tested it for four days and didn’t even get close to draining the batteries.

It costs $270 so it may be a good idea to try your luck here first but if you can’t win look for an online seller.

To participate you need to subscribe to our feed and leave a comment below with an email address we can reach you at.

We will ship this out to a U.S. address only. Sorry rest of the world. Also duplicate entries, emails, IP addresses will be disqualified.

We’ll close this article for comments a week from today and after that we’ll announce the winner.

Good luck.

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Solar Powered Bluetooth GPS receiver

Dec 28, 2009 , , ,


We’ve seen our share of solar powered GPS devices here on Navigadget – so why stop. We present you Solar powered bluetooth GPS receiver from fTech.

You might wonder what if I want to know where I am in the middle of the night? Well do not worry because just like most other GPS devices out there this one also comes with rechargeable batteries and the solar panel is just to extend the life of a single charge. They claim it can last up to 30 hours when the solar panel is activated.

Some of the other specs and features of this solar powered bluetooth GPS receiver include 51 channel MediaTek receiver, 1Hz max update frequency, -158dBm sensitivity, and 45mA power consumption.

We haven’t seen this here in the U.S. yet but if you have seen it at on online retailer re-branded under a different name do let us know.

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Magellan iPhone App gets update

Dec 27, 2009 , , , , ,


The Magellan Roadmate iPhone App just got an update last week – which is currently going for a promotional price of $60. Maybe with the money you save you can now afford the Magellan Car Kit we’ve been talking about which brings its own GPS receiver into the mix.

But anyhow back to the upgraded iPhone App from Magellan It now adds iPod touch 2nd Generation support, customizable speed warnings, interactive POI on map which allows you to route there or call the POI, multi-destination routing, improved music player support, ability to plan a trip in simulation mode with up to 16X FF, rewind, etc, and many other UI improvements.

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hack OnStar GPS

Dec 26, 2009 , ,


You’ve got OnStar enabled GM vehicle and don’t use it? How about we told you that you could hack into to GM’s controller area network – which they call GMLAN – and make use of the GPS data?

Yeah we know – a simple USB GPS receiver is cheap and is easy to use; but who wants to do that when you can pull your car apart and access what’s already yours? See this as a way you sticking it to the man!

sprintf(nmea,”%u,N,%03u%02u.”,latminsint,longdeg,longminchar);
printf(“%s”,nmea);
for(k=0;k<8;k++)
{
checksum = checksum ^ nmea[k];
} //end for

If any part of this makes any sense to you follow this link to hackaday and get started!

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Sygic covers the globe with its apps and maps

Dec 25, 2009 , , , ,


Sygic – makers of mobile apps for various handsets including iPhone and Android devices just added a bunch of new regions and countries they cover.

Their latest additions are Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan and apparently the maps are localized into various dialects of Chinese for both interface and input language.

The package is fully localized into Chinese – Chinese instruction voices (Mandarin, Cantonese and Taiwanese), Chinese user interface languages (Traditional and Simplified) and Chinese text input (Zhu Yin and Pin Yin). All street names are in Chinese, names of restaurants and other points of interest are in Chinese. Road signs are localized as well.

Just recently they had also added Colombia and various Arabic countries to their list as well which included Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.

Just to be clear, Sygic does not produce their own digital maps but licenses maps from other map makers. For example all their Gulf region maps are from TeleAtlas, and the Colombia maps are from Satrack.

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GPS confirmed for Google Nexus One

Dec 24, 2009 , , , , ,


Yes, we were almost certain Google Nexus One would have GPS but it is still good to see it in writing. Engadget revealed some more details about Nexus One just yesterday.

As far as location awareness goes Nexus One will be utilizing an A-GPS receiver, cell tower and WiFi positioning, a digital compass, and an accelerometer. Pretty much just like T-Mobile’s myTouch 3G.

Again as expected it will be good for T-Mobile’s 3G frequency but you’ll be able to use it with any other carrier as long as you’re OK with EDGE. There are also rumors that the Nexus One will initially be available via invites from Google starting as early as January 5th and then T-Mo will start retailing at a later date.

Here are some other features:

  • 3.7″ WVGA AMOLED display
  • Android 2.1
  • 11.5mm thick
  • 512MB RAM, 512MB ROM, 4GB microSD in-box expandable to 32GB
  • 5MP camera with mechanical auto focus and LED flash
  • 1400mAh battery
  • 1Ghz Qualcomm QSD 8250 processor

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