Hasta La Gadget!

This isn’t just any day, Gearlog readers: This is Rex Manning Day, the best day of the year! So say no more, mon amour, I’ve got some extra-special deals for you today.

1. At this price, yes you can afford GPS navigation. Buy.com is selling the Magellan Maestro 3200 for $69.99. Isn’t that cheap for the peace of mind you’ll get knowing that getting lost is a thing of the past? The 3200 has a 3.5-inch screen; maps of the U.S., Hawaii, and Puerto Rico; a database with 1.3 million points of interest; and an easy-to-use interface. Free shipping makes this an extra-good deal.

2. If you don’t mind sending in for a rebate, I’ve got a great Flash drive for you: Tiger Direct is selling Corsair 8GB flash drives for only $9.99 a piece, after rebate. That’s a lot of portable storage for a small price. Even better, the drive’s rubber casing is easy to grip and water-resistant.

3. A comfortable mouse can improve your productivity and make you happier at the computer. If your current mouse doesn’t fit your hand, try the Logitech MX620. Office Depot is selling this wireless mouse for $19.99, after rebate.

In the increasingly beleaguered world of plug-in GPS navigators–which faces a combined threat from razor-thin margins and cell phone navigation software–manufacturers are looking for a killer feature to push their products out front. Despite the failure of the Dash Express, the first connected navigator, GPS makers are cautiously optimistic that connected services have a future.

This month, TomTom will begin selling the GO 740 Live, a $499 navigator that will offer live Google searches, and Jasper Wireless announced that it’s been selected to deliver the cellular connectivity. Connected navigators use cellular connections, just like cell phones, to send and receive data.

The good news for customers here is that they’ll be able to activate their GO 740 Live navigators instantly, without any registration. Each navigator will come with three months of free service (which is $9.95 per month thereafter). With a cellular connection, drivers will be able to receive real-time traffic feeds, search Google for local businesses, get updated gas prices, and view weather reports.

It’s not quite a flood, but there’s been a steady trickle of Pre news out of CTIA this week, and the latest is this video demo of the Sprint Navigation app. It’s pretty familiar stuff if you’ve ever used the carrier’s TeleNav-powered navigation on a device like the Samsung Instinct, but does have a nice coat of webOS interface sheen to it, and let’s face it — we’ll take all the Pre demos we can get. Video after the break.

Continue reading Pre Sprint Navigation app demoed on video

Filed under: Cellphones, GPS

Pre Sprint Navigation app demoed on video originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Apr 2009 18:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Those sadistic souls over at Lightning GPS are at it again, making the lives of parents and promiscuous children awesome and horrible, respectively. Just in case NavTrac’s RTV10 PND isn’t enough to keep your mind at ease when Johnny (and his track record of poor decision making) is out and about, there’s the newly announced NavGenius. At first glance, this here navigator is about as vanilla as they come, but underneath the shell is a dedicated tracking module which enables the owner to monitor every turn, stop and donut from the web. Heck, you can even re-route vehicles from any connected computer, and the owner can get an SMS should the driver exceed a certain speed or break a customizable perimeter. All that’s required to shatter the last pinch of trust you actually had with your offspring is $599.95 up front and $39.95 per month for the tracking service — which you only pay until they wise up and take a Louisville Slugger to the device.

Filed under: GPS

NavGenius PND looks like a GPS, is really a covert location tracker originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Apr 2009 05:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

The problem with Sony’s previous world’s smallest pistol-grip Full HD camcorder — the HDR-TG1 aka, the TG3E — wasn’t size, it was usability. So we’re happy to hear that Sony’s TG5 counts a tweaked UI among its updates. And although Sony doesn’t say in the press release, the TG5’s touch-panel looks far more sensitive (capacitive maybe?) than that of the previous generation’s finger bender. The other improvements are GPS to geotag your media (assuming your software supports it), Navteq maps, improved image processing, smile shutter technology, and 16GB of built-in storage (up from 8GB) all riding inside a slightly smaller and lighter chassis. Other specs remain unchanged: 1920 x 1080 AVCHD video, 2.7-inch touchscreen display, and a 10x optically stabilized zoom exposing a 2.4 megapixel CMOS sensor. Expensive? Oh most definitely: $1,000 starting in May. Check the video after the break.

[Via CNET]

Continue reading Sony HDR-TG5 makes world’s smallest Full HD camcorder smaller, adds GPS

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Sony HDR-TG5 makes world’s smallest Full HD camcorder smaller, adds GPS originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Apr 2009 01:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments