GPS obsessed

One of the best GPS units of 2007, the Hewlett Packard iPAQ 310 Bluetooth-enabled portable GPS is on sale for $250 at Amazon.  Regularly priced at $449, you’re saving a remarkable 44% off the suggested price.

The iPAQ 310 uses a SiRFtitan 600MHz dual core processor with 128Mb of onboard RAM, the most powerful processor currently used in GPS, to quickly calculate routes and power an amazing 3D graphical interface on a 4.3 inch widescreen with 800×480 pixels.  The user interface is based on Windows Mobile 5.0 and features text-to-speech and Bluetooth for hands-free telephone calls.  It’s pre-loaded map database uses TeleAtlas maps with complete coverage of the United States and Canada and an astonishing 12 million points of interest.  

You can even turn the iPAQ 310 into a portable entertainment center with the use of an SD card, supporting video, MP3 audio, pictures, and even 5 pre-installed games from GameBox Classics.

Looks the the new iPhone 1.1.3 firmware update will include GPS functionality, according to Gearlive. While that’s definitely big news for iPhone users and GPS fans alike, the real news in the blogosphere seems to be whether or not the news reports and accompanying photos are real or not.

Yet another portable media player with GPS functionality, the also features a 4.3 inch 480×272 pixel TFT screen, detachable gaming pad, two joysticks on the controller, and an ADI chip that should allow NES and SFC game play.

The X900 also has support for AVI, MPEG4, MP3, WMA, FLAC codecs, an integrated ebook reader, and an FM tuner. An SD slot can hold up to 4GB memory cards for movie or game storage making these a pretty hot little PMP. Too bad it looks like it’ll be only available in China for the time being.

This may not be a straight out GPS unit, but it is definitely a useful application for the GPS obsessed and for those that aren’t. VentureBeat has been covering a self-funded startup, WhatsOpen, that went live in public beta a couple nights ago. The startup, described as a “secretive local search company”, lets you type in a store you’re looking for along with your current location and gives back a Google Maps mashup that displays a list of relevant store, their respective hours of operation, their phone numbers and their distance from the city center. It’s database of business listings and some of the accompanying information is more extensive than either Yahoo or Google, giving WhatsOpen a definite advantage over its much bigger competitors.

The company apparently also offers an iPhone application and are also currently working on a Google Android application that will be GPS-enabled giving more accurate results as to the distance of a store in relation to your current location. The beta is currently available in the United States, China, and Europe.

Looking for a Navigon 7100 GPS navigator? Then you’ll appreciate this hot deal at Amazon on the widescreen, 4.3 inch touchscreen unit right now. Usually priced at a weighty $649, the Navigon 7100 is priced at $399 saving you an immediate $249. Add in a $50 mail-in rebate and the price comes down to a reasonable $350. Not bad at all.

The Navigon 7100 features turn-by-turn spoken directions, a lane assistant that recommends the best lane to drive in respective to your intended route, real time traffic info via a built-in traffic tuner, and a just plain old beautiful, aesthetically pleasing design. Not a deal to shake your head at. Jump all over this one.

Introducing the Cowon N3 portable media player/GPS unit. The PMP features an Alchemy AU 1250 600 Mhz processor, runs Window CE 5.0 and supports DivX, XviD, MPEG4, WMV video codecs as well as MP3, WMA, ASF, OGG, WAV, FLAC, APE, MPC audio codecs. The display is a 7 inch, 800×480 touchscreen and rather than having internal memory like other Cowon media players, the N3 uses two SDHC card slots for both DMB and GPS capabilities. Unfortunately for western world readers, this is rumored to be an exclusive release to Korea.

2007 has been a huge year for GPS technology. It has gone from a gadget that everyone knows about, but few have, to a gadget that everyone knows about and everyone must have. Very much reminiscent of the iPod making the mp3 player ubiquitous in every household. Here’s a listing of the top 15 bestselling GPS units, from dashboard units to portable fitness-related units, of 2007. The best part is all 15 units’ prices have been slashed unbelievably to clear out stock after Christmas with prices up to 75% off.

Do you need to remember exactly where a photo was taken? And by exactly, I mean coordinates. The $130 ATP GPS Photo Finder lets you do exactly that by allowing you to geotag digital photos taken wherever you may be. The Photo Finder tags your photos with GPS coordinates just by plugging in your camera’s memory card into the Photo Finder’s built-in USB port without the use of any additional hardware or software. Pictures can then be viewed using either Picasa or Google Earth, both of which support geotagging. The Photo Finder is compatible with any digital camera using jpeg files, according to ATP, and is expected to be released early in 2008.

GloNav, an American semiconductor company which specializes in the production of global positioning system chips by has been purchased by Dutch chipmaker NXP for $110 million in cash. NXP is looking to strengthen its mobile communications unit due to estimates that 40% of mobile phones, about 560 million units, will have GPS by 2010. NXP has already acquired cellular communications company Silicon Laboratories for $285 million and developed a broad mobile communications business featuring FM radio, USB, Bluetooth, and near-field communications offerings.

The Navigon 5100 3.5-Inch Portable GPS is $199 off the regular price of $500 right now at Amazon.com and with a $50 mail-in rebate, the price comes down even further to a sweet $249.99! Long a provider of in-dash GPS software, Navigon only recently moved into the portable GPS market and has done a remarkable job so far. The Navigon 5100 is a navigation-focused GPS, so it doesn’t include multimedia features such as a built-in MP3 player, but it does include turn-by-turn directions using spoken road names via text-to-speech, and free real-time traffic information via a built-in receiver for life. It’s subscription free meaning no setup hassles as the service is ready to go right out of the box. It’ll advise you on traffic flows and best alternate routes making your drive home from work stress free and, of course, much quicker.

Navigon 5100 Portable GPS. The Lane Assistant feature tells you which lane you should be traveling in so that you never find yourself having to move over a few lanes in rush hour traffic, and Reality View gives you a 3D picture of the road including all the signs making the spoken directions even easier to follow.

Cooler still is the 5100’s use of Zagat ratings and branded icons, so it’ll even tell you the best place to stop for a pizza, beer, or bathroom break!