Garmin | GPS Obsessed

Garmin nuvi 5000 Gets Reviewed

by Justin

Garmin nuvi 5000

Garmin’s nuvi 5000, with a 5.2-inch screen one of the largest widescreen GPS devices currently available is built specifically for drivers of larger vehicles such as truck drivers.Â Meant to stand-out on a sizable windshield, the nuvi 5000 is pretty hefty and not really suitable for portable use thanks to its size and lack of internal battery.Â This one has to be hooked up to an external power source such as your vehicle’s cigarette ligther.Â The 5.2-inch display has an auto-dimming feature and has a pretty fine 800 x 480 pixels displaying an interface pretty well ubiquitous among Garmin devices.Â The unit comes with an easy-to-use suction cup mount through which data and power connections are run, keeping that whole wire mess at a minimum.Â It comes preloaded with Navteq maps of the US, Canada and Puerto Rico, but you’re SOL for live traffic unless you decide to spend the extra coin on a separate FM TMC or MSN Direct receiver.Â Other features though are largely disappointing.Â While the Garmin nuvi 5000 does have text-to-speech, it’s missing Bluetooth for hands-free calls, but manages to fit in some multimedia features such as a photo viewer, mp3 player and audible ebook reader.

If you do like what you see, the Garmin nuvi 5000 is available at Amazon as of this article’s writing for $300 off its regular price meaning you’ll pay $556.94.

via pcmag

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May 31, 2008 1 Comment

SiRF Losing Money And Downsizing, Om Malik Says Portable GPS Is Dead

by Justin

SiRF, the company whose chipsets power some of the world’s most popular GPS navigation devices, is set to cut 7% of its workforce due to losses as the prices of consumer GPS devices continue to drop and sales are below expectations. The cuts come after SiRF announced their first quarter financial expectations have dropped by $10 million and will also result in the closing of two offices-one in San Francisco and the other in Stockholm, Sweden.

The company will also be killing off their in-development mobile TV business due to short-term losses-normal for new businesses, but not something SiRF can absorb at the moment. While mobile TV will probably become fairly “mainstream” at some point, it’s an emerging trend at the moment, and definitely not the business to enter for a financially strapped company.

Om Malik of broadband blog GigaOm believes that SiRF’s problems are indicative of pending disaster in the GPS industry. Being the chipset supplier of popular consumer brands such as Garmin and TomTom, SiRF’s issues are easy to extrapolate to the portable GPS market. This is probably likely in the short term, but long term could see portable navigation devices obliterated by the growing mobile phone market, says Malik. It seems many of the newly released mobile models this year feature integrated GPS functionality or at least the ability to use navigational apps. I can’t see this happening too soon. Maybe in a couple of years when GPS-enabled phones are ubiquitous, but automotive GPS in North America is only in its beginning stages and cell phone GPS will never replace automotive GPS in any practical (and safe) way.

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March 27, 2008 5 Comments

Garmin’s GPSMAP 495: Portable Aviation Navigator With High-End Features For A (Relatively) Low-End Price

by Justin

Garmin’s GPSMAP 495, a portable aviation navigator for pilots, is the newest aviation device from the world’s most popular GPS manufacturer.Â Just announced today, the GPSMAP 495 is “a cross between the GPSMAP 296 and GPSMAP 496″, according to Gary Kelley, Garmin’s marketing VP.Â With some of the advanced features of the GPSMAP 496, but a price closer to that of the GPSMAP 296, the GPSMAP 495 is the perfect price/feature compromise for budget-wise pilots.Â Of course “budget-wise” is a relative term, because the $1595 street price is anything but cheap.

Some of the GPSMAP 495’s features include:

3.8-inch 480×320 pixel TFT display with 256 colors and backlight
SafeTaxiÂ® airport diagrams-preloaded taxiway diagrams, position data for over 850 US airports,
AOPAâ€™s Airport Directory-info for over 5300 US airports, airports of entry for Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean, names and phone numbers of thousands of FBOs, plus ground transportation, lodging, restaurants, local attractions
Garminâ€™s Smart Airspaceâ„¢-highlights airspace close to your current altitude
5 Hz update of data and “Panel” page instruments for near real-time presentation of your aircraft’s analog indicators
built-in Jeppesen database
Americas, Atlantic or Pacific terrain database
obstacles database for the U.S. or Europe
can be switched to automotive or marine mode
voice prompts and audible terrain alerts

The GPSMAP 495 package comes with a yoke mount, cigarette-lighter adapter, AC adapter cable, USB-to-PC interface cable, low-profile remote GPS antenna, carrying case, free Jeppesen update certificate, owner’s manual and quick-reference guide.Â It will be available at the Sun ‘n Fun Fly-In in Lakeland, Florida from April 8-13, where all purchases will be rewarded with a $100 rebate.

Via press releaseÂ