It looks like Magellan wanted to announce this first… We’ll have to wait a couple of more days it looks like.

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Magellan eXplorist GC

This truly is a multi talented car kit. First off it has its own GPS receiver. What does that do you might ask? Faster satellite fix, and the ability to use your iPhone as a GPS navigator when no cell towers are around to help you out. Secondly it has an amplified noise canceling speakerphone. It has bluetooth to pair up with your iPhone and of course charges your iPhone too. Oh it also plays well with your case whether it’s hard shell or silicon.

The best part is Magellan iPhone car kit can be used with any GPS navigation app for the iPhone. You don’t have to buy Magellan’s own app but when we reviewed them as a combo we were quite pleased with it.

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giveaway: Magellan iPhone car kit

While you can use the device with any navigation app on the iPhone, we were particularly fond of the Magellan RoadMate app. You’ll notice quite a difference when comparing speed and functionality of the Magellan RoadMate app to the iPhone maps app that comes standard with the iPhone. The Magellan RoadMate app is fast, specific and highly customizable. We were surprised how quickly – in an instant, really – our location appeared on the map. And, the GPS signal was constant; we didn’t lose signal at all while testing.

Now, let’s get back to the Car Kit, the subject of our review.

A couple practical features of note:

• In addition to the easy assembly and install, the mount itself is adjustable, easily swiveling from portrait to landscape display and back again. And, once you have found the magic spot for placement of the device, you can make any final adjustments for ideal viewing by tightening the retaining ring.
• Where the iPhone meets the Car Kit, the “plug,” for lack of a better term, rocks forward and back making it easy to place and remove the iPhone.
• The cradle has an adjustable retaining arm and back support block, keeping your iPhone or iPod Touch securely in place.

As you can see, the device lives up to its claim of fitting a variety of hard shell cases and silicon skins. The folks at Magellan managed to create something that holds the iPhone very securely, while at the same time not making it extremely cumbersome to place/remove the phone quickly. Let’s face it, the phone will potentially be in and out of this cradle multiple times a day; the Magellan Premium Car Kit makes this process about as easy as it could be.

In addition to these practical features, the Car Kit boasts a couple of functional features we should also mention. These include:

• Built-in Music Player
• Noise-cancelling speakerphone; Powerful amplified speaker
• Audio output
• Bluetooth pairing
• And, of course, in-car charging, which solves another problem for iPhone/iTouch users

The built-in music player is actually a feature of the Magellan RoadMate app which offers in-app music control. Still a fun feature worth mentioning for iPhone/iPod Touch users who are constantly looking for better and better integration. Songs are easily imported to the app for creation of driving playlists!

This leads right into review of the speaker on the Magellan Premium Car Kit. We tested this feature using speakerphone, through the app’s built-in music player, and, of course, through the use of the Magellan RoadMate app for iPhone/iPod Touch. This little gem of a speaker is surprisingly good quality, given it’s placement on the device (on the bottom or end, depending on portrait or landscape display choice). Even at full volume it performed well. Also important to note that the speaker packs a punch. I have a rather noisy car and yet I could hear “Susan,” (my chosen personality for navigation in the app) very well, even at low-mid level volume.

The device also has an audio output for marrying the device to your car stereo. An attractive feature (and one that should probably be standard on devices like these) if you have an audio input in your car’s dash.

Bluetooth pairing allows the device and your iPhone/iPod Touch to communicate in a more efficient manner. Syncing the Car Kit with your iPhone or iPod Touch doesn’t take more than a second and, thankfully, once they are paired they continue to find each other every time they are in range. Once synced, another iPhone-in-the-car issue is solved – when a call is made or received, you can tell the phone with one touch that you want to utilize the Car Kit for your conversation. This nearly hands-free solution to making calls is a bonus of the device; phone stays in cradle, GPS navigation continues and no one is getting a ticket for talking on their cell phone in the process. Safety first!

Overall, the Magellan Premium Car Kit is a device that resolves a number of in-car issues for iPhone/iPod Touch users. Not the least of which is in-car charging. It is worth noting that the charge continues working even after the car is turned off. We love that the combo of iPod Touch + Magellan RoadMate app + Magellan Premium Car Kit creates a stellar GPS tool and car accessory. Aside from the price, which seems a tiny bit inflated, this device (especially when working in tandem with the Magellan RoadMate app for iPhone/iPod Touch) is an extremely useful, highly functional solution to your car adventures. We will miss having this handy device in the car but, lucky for you, it could be yours! We’ll be doing a giveaway with this sample soon. Stay tuned for an opportunity to win!

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magellan iPhone car kit review

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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Magellan iPhone App gets update

Here is what you get with Magellan’s car kit:

• works with most cases or silicon skins
• it has its own GPS receiver for better reception
• carries its own amplified speaker
• charges your iPhone
• noise cancelling hands free speakerphone

two more pics…

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Magellan car kit for iPhone

Since there’s no GPS receiver on your iPod Touch, the car kit – as expected – will bring it is own GPS receiver into the game. And with the help of the built-in speakers you’ll be able to get some decent driving directions out of your iPod while charging it too.

In addition the car kit is fully adjustable so it will work with any skin or case, rotates for both portrait and landscape use, has a noise cancelling speakerphone, does handsfree bluetooth calling, and works with any GPS navigation or location based app.

Magellan’s site does not say how much it will cost but we’re guessing $129. It is coming soon. Oh and one more thing – it will work with iPhone too.

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Magellan car kit for iPod Touch

It is a one time purchase and there are no monthly fees involved. In addition to text-to-speech feature Magellan’s iPhone app also provides highway lane assistance, in-app music control, pedestrian mode, and onboard maps so you can use it without any data service.

You can already download Magellan RoadMate App for iPhone for US and Canada (iTunes) and on the way are other versions which include just Western US, Eastern US, and Europe.

Magellan RoadMate App for iPhone costs $80.

Thanks Allory.

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Magellan RoadMate App for iPhone

Magellan SE4 is a GPS navigation system with a 4.3″ screen, preloaded with Navteq maps that includes 48 contiguous states, Hawaii and Puerto Rico, text-to-speech, 6 million points of interests, and multidestination routing.

How much? $180.

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Magellan SE4

We had first talked about the RoadMate 1412 back in January of 2008 so this is not a very recent hardware – but you can’t beat the $99 for a GPS navigation system with a 4.3″ screen.

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Magellan 1412 for $99

What’s different about Magellan RoadMate 1700 is that it has a huge 7″ touch screen display – compare that to most other high end GPS navigation systems which offer a 4.3″ screen. But there is a downside to having such a big screen: the battery only lasts for one hour – tops.

The current price of this RoadMate is $300 and is expected to arrive somewhere between Sept. 14th and 21st.

Here is the full set of features for RoadMate 1700:

• Preloaded base maps
• Backlit 7″ color WVGA touch-screen display
• Text-to-speech and turn-by-turn voice prompts
• 6 million points of interest
• AAA Tourbook
• Highway lane assist
• Route planning
• Multidestination routing
• OneTouch favorites menu
• Built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery
• Automatic rerouting
• WAAS-enabled GPS receiver
• “Where am I?” feature
• microSD media card slot
• PC connectivity
• Protective pouch

via

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Magellan RoadMate 1700