Magellan Premium GPS Car Kit Cradle for iPhone and iPod Touch

Magellan’s Premium GPS Car Kit Cradle for iPhone 3G/3GS (iPhone OS 3.0 or later) and iPod Touch 2G/3G has some significant advantages over simply running the Magellan RoadMate App on an iPhone/iPod touch including: a built-in GPS receiver for improved navigation accuracy, amplified speaker for crystal clear directions, built-in recharger and auxiliary output to connect to car speakers.

Magellan Premium GPS Car Kit Cradle for iPhone 3G/3GS and iPod Touch

Use of the Car Kit Cradle with an iPhone or iPod Touch requires the separate purchase of either the Magellan iPhone Navigation App or similar (the Magellan unit will work with 3rd party navigation applications). The iPhone or iPod Touch provides a 3.5 inch widescreen (480-by-320-pixel resolution) for the navigation display. The current trend is for larger 4.2 or 4.7 inch widescreen displays so a 3.5 inch display is on the smaller size comparatively. The iPhone specification details a video playback time of up to 10 hours providing an appropriate duration for both personal navigation and road navigation modes without recharging.

Comparing iPhone/iPod touch Built-in GPS Capability vs Magellan Premium Car Kit

The iPhone 3G and 3GS have a Infineon Hammerhead II GPS receiver chip which is commonly used for GPS enabling cellphones. The Hammerhead II has a -160 dBm GPS signal sensitivity and a respectable signal fix time with 5m position accuracy. New with the Hammerhead II is a software feature “advanced multi-path mitigation” that avoid gross errors in urban environments resulting from reflected signals from surrounding structures. The iPhone GPS is advertised as A-GPS (assisted GSP) which means it can obtain support from local cellphone bases such as predictive satellite position information and offloading of intensive positioning calculations. It is also capable of autonomous position determination.

The Magellan Car Kit has an integrated SiRF Star GPS receiver with an excellent GPS satellite signal sensitivity of -163 dBm and an autonomous positional accuracy of less than 2.5m. Antenna size can make a performance difference and one would expect the larger Magellan Cradle has more space for a larger patch antenna than a iPhone/iTouch.

In summary, the built-in GPS receiver, designed for standalone GPS navigation devices, improves navigation accuracy and satellite acquisition performance in built-up areas in comparison to the in-built iPhone GPS receiver.

Feature Summary – Magellan Premium GPS Car Kit Cradle

Secure vehicle mounting for iPhone/iPod Touch in either portrait or landscape position (fits most silicon skins and hard shell cases)
Built-in GPS receiver for improved positioning for iPhone 3G/3GS (iPhone OS 3.0 or later) and iPod Touch 2G/3G
Battery recharging via the vehicle power outlet
Amplified speaker with volume control for clear turn-by-turn navigation directions
Noise canceling microphone
Auxiliary audio output (for car stereo connection)
Bluetooth for hands-free calling

Magellan RoadMate App for iPhone / iPod touch Features (sold separately)

As mentioned the Magellan RoadMate App for iPhone / iPod touch (or similar) needs to be purchased to make use of the Magellan Car Kit. Below is a brief summary of the features available with this application.

OneTouch Favorites Menu – for bookmarking favorite places and searches
Text-to-Speech – spoken street names included navigation instructions
Highway Lane Assist – for correct lane guidance
QuickSpell – quicker entry of addresses
3D Landmarks – for identifying visual cues
Address Book Integration – use iPhone address book for desination entry
In-app Music Control
Find Your Car – save your parked cars location
Pedestrian Mode navigation
Pre-loaded maps supplied by NAVTEQ