GPS Technology Reviews for news, guides and reviews of GPS hardware, software and services including Handheld GPS, Outdoor GPS, GPS PDA, GPS Phones and Auto GPS Navigators

The Navman S90i is the premier model of the Navman S series of car GPS navigators. It has recently been nominated for the 4th Pocket-lint Gadget Awards 2007.

The Navman S90i has an attractive, smart look with a silver casing finish with generously curved edges, slim form factor (20mm) and a widescreen LCD touchscreen set in a black border. Navman claim that the S90i is 25% lighter (198g) than any other sat nav in its class.
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Technorati Tags: Navman S90i, car GPS

The ASUS MyPal A636N is a GPS enabled PDA which comes with the bundled car kit. The 3.5 inch touchscreen can be orientated horizontally or vertically on the dashboard. The A636N has a pedestrian mode so once you’ve parked the car you can take it along for those final directions to your destination. This unit is not the thinnest of the ASUS GPS enabled PDA range as it has a fold out swivel patch antenna which is used to improve GPS satellite reception.

The front face of the ASUS MyPal A636N has a 3.5″ TFT LCD with 65k Full-Colors, 16-bit Display and QVGA (240X320) resolution touch panel positioned above a horizontal row of three circles containing a speaker, five-way navigation control and a cluster of four application launch buttons. The screen is the same size as many dedicated car GPS units and is anti-glare for improved visibility when dash mounted for car navigation.
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Technorati Tags: ASUS MyPal A636N, GPS enabled PDA, 3.5 inch touchscreen, pedestrian mode

The ASUS MyPal A696 GPS enabled PDA has the premium look that ASUS have sought to bring to the market. The A696 has a very smart looking stainless steel casing and at (157 mm) is the thinnest of ASUS’s GPS enabled PDA range. ASUS have achieved the slimming down by having the GPS antenna embedded in the casing as opposed to a protruding swivel patch antenna of other Asus GPS PDA models such as the MyPal A639 and MyPalA636N.

The front face of the ASUS MyPal A696 has a 3.5in, 240 x 320, 65k colour LCD positioned above a horizontal row of three circles containing a speaker, five-way navigation control and a cluster of four application launch buttons. The screen is the same size as many dedicated car GPS units and is anti-glare for improved visibility when dash mounted for car navigation. . The A696 has a pedestrian mode so that once you’ve parked the car you can take it along for those final directions to your destination. It’s an excellent platform for interacting with the rapidly growing range of location based services being offered. The A969 comes with the bundled car kit.
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Technorati Tags: ASUS MyPal A696, GPS enabled PDA, GPS antenna embedded

Magellan’s Maestro 3000 Vehicle Navigation System models include the premium 3140 and entry level 3100. The primary difference between the 3000 and 4000 Magellan Maestros is the larger 4.3 inch touchscreen on the 4000’s compared to the 3.4 inch screens on the 3000s.

All the Magellan Maestro models are GPS navigation units only having no multimedia capabilities. Standout features or the 3140 and 3100 models are the sensitive and accurate SiRFStarIII GPS receiver, text-to-speech capability (reads out street names - 3140 only), Bluetooth hands free phone calling capability (3140 only) and the integration of AAA Travel Information.
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Technorati Tags: Maestro 3000, Vehicle Navigation System, SiRFStarIII GPS receiver, text-to-speech, Bluetooth hands free phone, AAA Travel Information

Magellan’s Magellan Maestro 4000 Vehicle Navigation System series includes the premium 4050, mid-range 4040 and the entry level 4000. All the Magellan Maestro models are GPS navigation units only having no multimedia capabilities. Standout features are the large 4.3 inch diagonal touchscreen, the sensitive and accurate SiRFstarIII GPS receiver, voice recognition operation (Voice Command and Control) (4050 only), live traffic updates (4050 only), text-to-speech capability (reads out street names), Bluetooth enabled hands free phone calling and the integration of AAA Travel Information.

Voice Command and Control provides the ability to control the navigation with spoken demands. However, this is one of the first GPS devices to provide this feature and the fledgling technology only allows for a limited set of spoken commands – you can’t have a chat. That said, it is surprising that unlike word processing speech recognition software, it does not require any voice “training” for voice recognition to function. One point to note is that like children in the back seat it will pick up command words even when you are not talking to it so, you need to be careful what you say. This is a technology that will mature and provide every increasing usefulness for hands free navigation. Have a look at the video to gain an idea of how it works.
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Technorati Tags: Magellan Maestro 4000, Vehicle Navigation System, GPS navigation, 4.3 inch diagonal touchscreen, SiRFstarIII GPS receiver, voice recognition operation, Voice Command and Control, Bluetooth enabled hands free