Hasta La Gadget!

TomTom felt the need to out its new GO lineup at IFA earlier this month, but evidently these critters didn’t quite make the cut. The new XXL range is comprised of the XXL 530S and XXL 540S (shown above), both of which pack 5-inch touchscreens and the outfit’s own IQ Routes technology (which surveys a variety of factors in order to get you from point A to point B in the quickest fashion). Both units also include full maps of the US and Canada, Map Share, a ‘Fold and Go’ EasyPort mount and a refreshed user menu that we’ve been badly longing for. The 540S ups the ante with advanced lane guidance, maps of Mexico, a sleeker design and seven million POIs. Both PNDs should splash down next month in the US and Canada for $279.95 and $299.95, respectively.

Filed under: GPS

TomTom intros 5-inch XXL 530S and XXL 540S navigators originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Sep 2009 10:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here lately, all of the buzz surrounding TomTom has been focused intently on the outfit’s iPhone app and accompanying car kit. But over in Berlin, the company seems entirely more interested in showcasing some new wares that fall into its core product category. Making its debut at IFA, the GO x50 lineup is comprised of the GO 950, GO 750 and GO 550, all of which tout the company’s IQ Routes technology to get you from point A to point B in the very least amount of time. The trio promises to calculate routes faster than ever before, and they also include the planet’s largest collection of historical speed profiles. Once you’re on your way, the units can tap into RDS-TMC services in order to take current road conditions into account and get you from point A to point B in the least amount of time. Also of note, these three now feature voice command and control, and each ships with an active dock with integrated RDS-TMC information. The x50 lineup is scheduled to ship this autumn for undisclosed amounts, with the GO 950 packing maps for the US, Canada and 45 European nations and the GO 750 / GO 550 offering maps in select regions of Europe only.

Filed under: GPS

TomTom unveils GO 950, GO 750 and GO 550 with IQ Routes at IFA originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Sep 2009 07:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The connected PND, by most accounts, is a dying breed. Dash couldn’t pull it off, TomTom’s execution was downright pathetic and no one even remembers that Insignia made one. But considering that Garmin’s nüvi range has always delivered, we’re going to let the nüvi 1690 ship before passing judgment. Said navigator, which just slipped into the FCC’s database a fortnight ago, didn’t have too many details attached to it, but a recently discovered user manual reveals that although Garmin’s local-data service will be powered by Google, the company has branded it with the virtually-unpronounceable name “nuinfo.” Yeah, we have no idea, but we’re definitely interested in finding out what the ultimate plan is — the shots of the device in the manual lead us to believe that local weather information will be on tap in addition to the usual waypoint searching and so forth, but unless Garmin throws these so-called “connected services” in gratis, every smartphone owner on the planet will simply laugh and move on.

[Via GPS Tracklog]

Filed under: GPS

User manual for Garmin’s connected nuvi 1690 reveals “nuinfo” service branding originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TomTom told us that its long-awaited iPhone navigation app and in-car mounting kit would be landing “this summer,” and at least on our watch, summertime is quickly drawing to a close. If a pre-order listing over at Handtec is to be believed, it looks as if the outfit is exceedingly close to finally having both the software and hardware ready for shipping. The £113.85 ($194) asking price includes a suction mount for your iPhone as well as the mapping software, though there’s no indication of exactly how much the app and hardware will run by themselves. Of course, until the iPhone supports multitasking, using it as a dedicated PND is still a risky move; one stray call during a pivotal moment in your travels and you can consider yourself lost. Oh, and then there’s the fact that this thing has a TomTom logo on it — if the iPhone app functions anything like the company’s high-end GO 740 LIVE, we’d say you’re better off asking Mr. Gas Station attendant (or buying a different brand).

[Via DaniWeb]

Continue reading TomTom’s iPhone car kit and navigation software priced overseas

Filed under: Cellphones, GPS, Peripherals

TomTom’s iPhone car kit and navigation software priced overseas originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Aug 2009 04:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TeleNav has already launched its subscription turn-by-turn navigation service for the G1, so it stands to reason that official myTouch 3G support would be close behind — and sure enough, the company has announced that its GPS Navigator app will be available for download to T-Mobile’s second Android device starting tomorrow, August 5. The app features all of the goodies that TeleNav users have come to know and love, including traffic and incident monitoring with automatic rerouting, gas prices, business information, and a choice between 2D and 3D maps; additionally, you’ve got automatic day / night coloration, carpool lane and tollroad avoidance, and speech recognition for destination input — a big plus when you’re on the road and you need to keep distractions to a minimum.

We’ve been playing with a cut of GPS Navigator on our myTouch recently, and it delivers a totally usable car navigation experience — a perfect complement to the comprehensive pedestrian capabilities of Google Maps. Most of the warnings from our G1-based review of the application carry over here — you need true GPS reception, not merely cellular triangulation, so your phone will need a view of the sky to have a shot at picking up satellites (this also means that getting a location lock is a more time-consuming process, though it typically didn’t take longer than a few seconds to do its thing). We’re not digging how the colored lines that convey traffic information on highways flash; we’d rather they just stayed a solid color, the way most GPS systems handle it. We also found that the menus are a little wonky — bringing your finger in contact with a menu item and swiping up or down to scroll would occasionally trigger the first item you touched, which ends up being a fairly annoying bug in practice. All told, though, if you can justify the expense, your $10 a month is going to net you a genuinely reasonable way to consolidate all of your help-me-I’m-lost needs — whether by foot or by car — into a single device.

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds, Transportation

TeleNav GPS Navigator comes to T-Mobile’s myTouch 3G originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Aug 2009 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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