GPS

PocketMap Navigator 2010 Released

Space Machine, the makers of Pocket Map navigation software for PNAs and Windows Mobile, have released Pocket Map Navigator 2010. This release doesn’t add any major new features, but rather the big news with this release is that they’ve included the newest updated Navteq maps and they’ve improved some of their routing. PocketMap Navigator has been a long-time favorite of mine on the Windows Mobile platform due to its excellent interface. You can read my review of PocketMap Navigator here. PocketMap Navigator is available from the PocketMap store. The price is now only$59.95 for the full USA version.

News

Is GPS Becoming Information Overload?

Do you have a GPS in your car? I do, and sometimes it gets to be too much in traffic; between stop and go, lights, construction, and the sound of my GPS droning away, it can become a bit overwhelming. I’ve even been known to threaten to throw the yappy thing out the window a few times when it all becomes too much. According to a Tech.view column in the Economist, it might not be me. Apparently, we can only process so much information at once, and beyond that, the brain simply cannot take it all in clearly. So as…

News

OnStar Connects Children to Santa with the Push of a Button

NORAD partnership provides location information for subscribers; Santa’s sleigh gets fitted with OnStar technology DETROIT –Santa Claus is getting a technology upgrade this Christmas season. This Christmas Eve for the first time, OnStar subscribers will have the ability to follow Santa’s journey around the world using their OnStar system thanks to a new partnership with The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). Starting at 6:00 a.m. EST on December 24, drivers with an active OnStar subscription will be able to press the blue OnStar button in their vehicles and request a “Santa Update.” From there, an OnStar advisor will share…

Reviews

Amber Alert GPS Keeps an Eye on Your Child’s Location

Amber Alert GPS is a tiny matchbox sized GPS device used to track the movement of your child. According to the manufacturer you slip the GPS into your child’s backpack (or other article that stays with them) and can then track their location for up to 24 hours. There’s also several interesting features like speed, temperature and remote audio monitoring that are offered as well. For the last few weeks I’ve been putting this to the test and using it to track my kids. Here’s what I found. The normal pricing for this Amber Alert GPS is $279 though I…

Reviews

Review: MapQuest Navigator for iPhone

Last week, I took a look at MotionX GPS Drive. The hits just keep coming, and this week a big player stepped into the ring. MapQuest comes to us with a new off-board (maps are loaded over the Internet on the fly) navigation app which they have kindly allowed me to test drive. With the iPhone Navigation market getting quickly populated, I was curious to know how a big player like MapQuest would do in this space, especially given their long experience in mapping and route navigation. So let’s take a look!

News

Amber Alert GPS provides remote location tracking of youngsters

The new Amber Alert GPS is a handy (albeit costly at $279 plus monitoring fees) device for parents wanting to keep track of their children. Slip the GPS into a backpack or other secure location. Throughout the day you receive text messages that show you exactly where your child is. Safety zones can be setup so if for example they were to wander away from school during the day you would automatically receive an alert. Once you’ve received an alert you can log into a web site to show the exact track that they’ve taken (requires unlimited service plan). There’s…

Reviews

Review: MotionX GPS Drive

I’ve been looking at iPhone GPS navigation applications for a while now, and some products need more work, and I’ve seen highly-polished products. One thing that continues to surprise me is that more companies keep jumping into the competition! One of the new entries is GPS Drive from the folks at MotionX. They were kind enough to send me a code for their $2.99 program (which comes with 30 days of live voice guidance) just in time for my semi-annual road trip to visit my mother – about a 1000 mile long trek. So lets take a look at how…

Gear Bits

CoPilot Live 8 for iPhone (North America)

I’ve been doing a series of reviews of navigation software for the iPhone. The folks at ALK (the makers of CoPilot) have released CoPilot Live into the market for a very nice price of only $34.99 (for the North America version). At this price it will appeal to many people. Here I’m taking a first look at CoPilot Live (with a full review to follow) and give some initial impressions. So let’s get to it!

Reviews

iGo My Way 2009 (North America) Review

Over my writing career, I got to review a lot of different navigation programs. They were especially popular on the Windows Mobile platform. Among them, one of my all-time favorites was iGo (released in North America as OnCourse Navigator). Now iGo is available on the iPhone. It’s been modified a little, keeping in line with their “My Way” PNA (personal navigation appliance/assistant) devices. It’s grown a little, changed a little and been fitted to take advantage of some of the iPhone’s features and characteristics. Although it’s been largely ignored by a lot of reviewers, especially in North America (where the…

Reviews

Navigon MobileNavigator for iPhone Review

A few weeks back I got a chance to take a look at the “Lite” version of Navigon – a version without turn-by-turn routing. Now I’m back to take a look at the full North American version of Navigon MobileNavigator. Navigon, as one of the world’s leading navigation software companies, has a leg-up that is perhaps only matched by a few competitors like iGo (especially in Europe) and Tom Tom (who have yet to relase their iPhone product). In the past, I’ve worked with Navigon on Windows Mobile, so let’s take a closer look now at the iPhone version!

Reviews

Track Your Trips in Real-Time with GPSed for iPhone

If you have the travel bug and enjoy sharing your adventures with your friends and family on Facebook, Twitter, etc., then GPSed is definitely for you. If you are a hiker, runner, or biker and just want to track your journeys in real-time, then GPSed is for you. In fact, just about anyone needing to show their location via GPS, archive their trips, or keep a log of their where they’ve been on GoogleMaps will likely find something useful with the many features in Shape Services‘ GPSed.

Reviews

Where GPS for Android OS Review

I reviewed Sherpa yesterday. While it was very good, it was slow as molasses. Where GPS, or what most of my friends just call Where, is an app that does a lot of what Sherpa does and more. It does it very fast. At the core, Where utilities your phone’s GPS in almost every aspect of its operation. You can manually change to any location by entering in a Zip code, so you can use this for trip planning as well. When you first launch Where, it asks if you are still where you were the last time you ran…

Editorials

G-Map for iPhone vs. Mio – Fight!

iPhone owners have anxiously awaited the ability to run turn by turn GPS applications. AT&T has introduced a subscription solution, Tom Tom has announced a version coming soon and Navigon released their North American version last week. G-Map from X-Road (read Chris G full review from April here) is yet another option and is notably less expensive than the others. G-Map downloads maps directly to the phone so, unlike AT&T’s offering, a data connection is not required. Price points vary as there are several purchasing options. $34.99 buys either a U.S West or U.S. East version. Six regional versions are…

Gear Bits

Navigon (Lite) for iPhone with North America Maps

Other than AT&T Navigator, Navigon probably has more presence worldwide in GPS Navigation (especially through it’s stand alone products) than anything we’ve seen so far. First they released their product for the European market a few weeks ago, and now they have released a “Lite” version sporting North American maps (full version coming soon). Let’s take a quick look at this offering from Navigon. Of the current iPhone navigation choices for the iPhone I’ve seen so far, this one has the most pleasing user interface yet. The graphics are clean, sharp, and the color choices are pleasant. That said, this…

Reviews

First Look: AT&T Navigator for iPhone

Now that iPhone/iPod Touch OS 3.0 is out, we are seeing a number of navigation apps appear. Add to that mix AT&T Navigator, from Telenav – a title that also appears on a variety of handsets (with GPS support) out there. Dan and I will be taking an in-depth look at this product in a review very soon, but here are a few first impressions we had:

Editorials

Pro’s and Cons of Integrated GPS and Cameras

It all started innocently enough when Christopher Gavula e-mailed the team about the Mapquest on iPhone article. Wayne responded with an email on how much he liked the Palm Pre’s navigation program and wished standalone GPS makers well because from his point of view the Pre’s included turn-by-turn Telenav software/GPS combination all but put the nail in the standalone automotive GPS coffin. And it all spun off from there. Join us in another behind the scenes look at the Pro’s and Con’s of integrated devices.

News

GPS Shoes for Alzheimer’s Patients

Footwear manufacturer Aetrex Worldwide and GTS Corp are teaming up to develop what seems like a “why didn’t they make these before” product. It’s a pair of shoes with an embedded GPS. They’ll use the GPS shoes with Alzheimer’s patients, 60 percent of who tend to wander at least once during the progression of the disease. Using the GPS coordinates the patient is tracked to within 30 feet of their location and perimeters are set so the instant they’ve wandered outside a preset zone an alert is sent. If the cost was affordable I’d buy a pair for each of…

Reviews

Qstarz BT-Q1000X GPS / Data Logger Review

While most people use either a car style GPS, a handheld style GPS or a phone with integrated GPS, this is a device that’s a little different. Like the Visiontac VGPS-900, the Qstar BT-Q1000X is a data logger device primarily, but can be used as a navigation device via bluetooth or USB. A data logger GPS primary function is to log where you have been. It is not as concerned with presenting data during your trip, but it’s more for creating a travel log of the places you have been.

Reviews

Telenav Shotgun is an all-in-one Internet connected GPS for business travelers

The following is a review submitted by Nan Palmero – Chief Inspiration Officer at SalesBy5. Telenav, as most of you may know, is the software behind many of the branded GPS applications found on AT&T Navigator and Sprint Navigation. The Telenav Shotgun is their first entrance into the crowded stand alone GPS space. Fortunately, though, Telenav has a few tricks up their sleeve to differentiate their device from the sea of other GPS devices out there.

Reviews

Clarion Mind Review: Media, Internet, and Directions All-In-One? Not Quite

For some time now, there has been a gap between PDA/phones and notebook computers, various form factors have been introduced to fill this void, but until the ASUS eeepc, none have been particularly successful. Of course, with the Asus, we were given the device which we now know as the netbook, and finally that gap began to close. Some devices, however, started at the other end of the spectrum, trying to fill the gap up from PDA/phones. Chief among them has been the Archos Internet Media Tablet and the iPod Touch. Well, now we have another newcomer to this gap-filling…

Reviews

Samsung Epix Review

I’ve been a Blackjack user (on and off) since May of 2007. I absolutely love the form factor, 320×240 screen, QWERTY keyboard, and (nearly) one handed operation. I liked it so much, that I used it for well over 9 months, which for me, is an eternity. I change devices about every 7 months on average. So how does the AT&T/Samsung Epix (sometimes called the Blackjack 3) stand up? Let’s take a quick look and see… The Epix and the BJ 1 – The Epix has a bigger screen and slightly more compact keys

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