NaviGadget

Garmin just today announced that together with BMW Motorrad they have developed the new BMW Motorrad Navigator IV. This is a new GPS navigation system for motorcycles that is based on Garmin’s zūmo 660. The new BMW Motorrad Navigator IV takes Garmin’s navigation technology and adds BMW specific features such as customized mount, preloaded BMW dealer database, unique audio and Bluetooth handling capabilities.

Take for example the custom hardware which is a four-button motorcycle mount with quick-key functions for extra control and usability. The mount and GPS device are vibration-tested, waterproof (IPX-7), and designed to withstand fuel sprays and UV rays.

The rest of the specs should be pretty similar to zumo 660, such as the 4.3″ glove friendly touch screen, millions of POIs, and turn-by-turn, voice-prompted directions to the final destination. In addition BMW Motorrad Navigator IV’s A2DP Bluetooth wireless technology makes it possible for riders to pair their phone to a Bluetooth enabled helmet or handset so that they can safely talk on the phone or listen to MP3’s without having to remove their gloves or helmet.

BMW Motorrad Navigator IV is expected to be available third quarter of this year from authorized BMW Motorrad retailers in North America and Europe. No word on pricing just yet.

Garmin Dakota 20 is Dakota 10’s bigger brother. Announced at the same time Dakota 20 has pretty much the same appearance as Dakota 10 but when it comes to specs it hides a lot inside.

Priced only $50 more than Dakota 10, for a total of $350, you can expect the same impressive 20 hours battery life from Dakota 20. It also has a microSD card slot to store more stuff, like maps, a 3-axis compass tilt-compensated electronic compass, and a barometric altimeter. Also don’t forget about the wireless connectivity feature that lets you share waypoints, tracks, routes and geocaches wirelessly with Dakota, Oregon, Colorado and Foretrex devices.

If you’re looking for something bigger and more expensive you should check out Garmin Colorado or the Garmin Oregon series.

Wait until September for Garmin Dakota 20 to come out.

Garmin Dakota 10 is one of the latest outdoor GPS handheld devices from the company. Compared to the Garmin Oregon series, the Dakota 10 is a lot cheaper and lower end.

Garmin Dakota 10 has a 2.6″ color touchscreen, weighs 6.75 ounces, and runs up to 20 hours on two AA batteries. It is also built rugged, and is waterproof (IPX7). It has worldwide basemap pre-installed and comes with 850 MB of memory, which can store 1,000 waypoints, 50 routes, 2,000 geocaches and an active tracklog of 10,000 points and 200 saved tracks. We doubt you’ll run of space.

You can expect to get yours hands on a Garmin Dakota 10 starting in September for about $300.

In addition to Foretrex 401, Garmin also introduced its little brother today: the Garmin Foretrex 301.

Foretrex 301 is quite similar to 401, except that it lacks the electronic compass, and the barometric altimeter. In addition it is slightly has a lighter color and supposedly will last up to 18 hours (instead of 17) with only 2 AAA batteries.

Garmin Foretrex 301 is rugged and waterproof, boast a sensitive GPS receiver with HotFix that quickly acquires and maintains satellite reception. It keeps track of where you’ve been so you when turn on the TracBack feature, it will retrace your path right back to where you started.

Foretrex 301 feature dual-position readout so that you can view your current location in multiple formats, including latitude/longitude and an alternate position format of your choice.

Also no wireless sharing your tracks and waypoints on 301. Only 401 has this feature.

Garmin Foretrex 301 can store up to 500 waypoints, 20 routes or a tracklog of up to 10,000 points and 10 saved tracks.

UPDATE: Pricing info has just been released and Garmin Foretrex 301 will go for $200.

Here are some more specs:

• Unit dimensions: 2.9″ x 1.7″ x 0.9″ (7.5 x 4.3 x 2.3 cm)
• Display:1.4″ x 0.9″ (3.6 x 2.3 cm)
• Resolution: 100 x 64 pixels
• Display type: Black and white LCD
• Weight: 3.1 oz (87.3 g) with batteries
• Waterproof: yes (IPX7)
• Floats: no
• Interface: USB

Just as we promised the Garmin Foretrex 401 has been made official by the company today. And just like we talked about Garmin did mention the military personnel as one of their target markets.

Long story short, Foretrex 401 is a lightweight GPS recevier/navigator designed to be comfortably worn on your wrist. Device comes with a highly sensitive GPS receiver, keeps track of where you’ve been by using bread crumbs so you can always get back to your camp site or vehicle or whatever. It also includes a trip computer, sunrise sunset hunting and fishing information, electronic compass and even a barometric altimeter.

It works on 2 AAA batteries which should last up to 17 hours.

Press release does not mention the price but we suspect it’ll be around $250.

UPDATE: Foretrex 401 is now up on Garmin’s site. Suggested retail price is $249.99.

Apparently Garmin is coming a with new Foretrex called Garmin Foretrex 401. We didn’t think Garmin would continue with this series after coming up with products such Forerunner 405CX and even Forerunner 310XT, but they must have seen the market for it. Specially the DoD market: Militarytimes got their hands on a final prototype and the specs for the new Garmin Foretrex 401 looks quite impressive.

First off Garmin Foretrex 401 is about 20% smaller than the original 201, and 101, but do share the same size (1.4″ x 0.9″) screen. It has a 2-axis digital compass, barometric altimeter, and a USB port to hook up to a computer. It even has some sort of wireless waypoint sharing option.

Up to this point everything is OK. But then you get to some other set of features which makes us think Foretrex 401 was designed for those who regularly jump off planes:

There’s even a “Jumpmaster” function for static, HAHO and HALO jumping that will let you set data points for under-canopy guidance to an LZ. It’s got options for forward throw, windspeeds at altitude and HARP to get you to the right place. Garmin also improved the GPS sensitivity so it will pick up a signal faster once out of the aircraft, but it’s still best as a backup to your backup altimeter.

Garmin Foretrex 401 runs on two AAA batteries which can last up to 24 hours and if you really need this to be with you on a mission you can get the optional pouch that was designed with the help of Navy Seals and will make it easier to mount the 401 to your gear or rifle. Huh.

Really? Did Garmin really design and is about to announce a military grade GPS receiver for only $250? Wow. Expected to release date is June 16th.

No, not for all their devices. They’re smarter than to rely on only one supplier for their GPS chipsets. But apparently Garmin is going to use and have been doing so for a while – the new all-in-one MediaTek MT3329 GPS chipset on their GPSMAP 60 series.

MediaTek MT3329 is very sensitive at -165dBm and consumes very little power as well as boasting rapid time-to-first-fix (TTFF). Also listed as a feature is the ability to provide positioning even under slow movements like hiking or mountain climbing.

Garmin and V-Dub just recently announced their “click and ride” integration solution which lets you get rid of your windshield suction cup and power cable.

The integration kit is simply a glued on power port that lets you easily mount and unmount a Garmin Nuvi 7×5 series GPS navigation system which has a 4.3″ touch screen, text-to-speech, traffic updates, and an SD card slot.

In the workshop of your Volkswagen Partner, the integration kit is positioned on the dashboard to the left (for right-hand drive vehicles: to the right) next to the steering wheel and glued in place. Advantage: if you are switching to another car, the integration kit can be removed and reused without leaving any visible traces. Fitting of the kit should always be carried out in the workshop by a specialist who will connect the system to the radio and route the cables under the dashboard.

We prefer the BMW and Garmin solution better but any integration is better than no integration.

We at Navigadget always keep an eye on the latest movies and try to bring you relevant news from the GPS world (first part was a big lie…) With the opening of the new Star Trek movie you may be interested in being a part of the action by adding some Star Trek voices to your Garmin StreetPilot or Garmin Nuvi.

The video is from 2007 and there really isn’t that many voices in it but it is still better than nothing. Installation instructions.

nuviphone G60 should just get the most delayed smartphone award. What a tease. We’ve been talking about the nuviphone G60 since January of 2008 and just this last week we got the news that the launch is now further delayed to the second half of the year.

COO Cliff Pemble:

“Smartphones are complicated and bringing one to market that’s built totally from the ground up on a custom Linux platform is not an easy task.”

According to TWICE the device is now in certification process and cell phone carriers are still interested adding the new Garmin phone to their lineup.