Garmin has recently quietly began offering its latest portable navigation device, the nuvi 1450. It uses the same 5-inch, 480x272 resolution touchscreen as the costlier 1490T. Unlike that device, however, there is no Bluetooth support or live traffic updates and consequently brings it down to a budget level.
Garmin on Thursday said it would soon begin shipping its latest portable navigator, the nüvi 1690. The device has a built-in wireless module that connects to Garmin's nüLink service which allows users to access Google local search as well as traffic, weather, fuel prices, movie listings, flight status and more information. They can also connect to Ciao!, Garmin's location-based social networking system. In the US, buyers will get two years of free nüLink access.
Garmin's plans to enter connected GPS units in earnest have been uncovered thanks to an FCC user manual filing (PDF) for its first receiver under the title. First shown only in testing, the nuvi 1690 will have a built-in cellular modem and will use an in-house service known as nuinfo that would let users find information through Google Local Search and receive temperature updates for their current area courtesy of the title bar. The data link will also be useful for live traffic updates and provide a means of searching for fuel prices and flight times.
Portable navigation device maker Garmin has recently publicly acknowledged the issue with its nuvi 7x5-series devices that causes them to shut down. Calling it a firmware error that causes some devices to perform an unprompted GPS software update and in some cases shut down, Garmin announced it is "working diligently on a solution." Users began reporting the shutdowns earlier this week, leading many to believe the error originates from a new firmware update.
Garmin today updated its nüvi GPS mapper line with a new, especially high-end model. The 1490T is one of the company's largest ever and has a 5-inch touchscreen that provides both more information about the road as well as a more comfortable view; with the extra display size, the back is also about a quarter thinner than most of Garmin's lineup. As a flagship, it also gets much of the better features, including the new pedestrian GPS for walking, free lifetime traffic updates and multi-route prediction with lane guidance.
Garmin at CeBIT today broke new ground for itself with two new nuvi navigators. The nuvi 1200 and 1300 are the first devices from Garmin to explicitly support pedestrian GPS mapping in urban areas; adding a CityXplorer map pack provides not only walking directions across parks and other areas off-limits in road-only maps but will also plot routes based on buses, subways and other public transit. To help, the devices themselves are also significantly slimmer than Garmin's exclusively automotive devices.
Mobile partnership Garmin-ASUS on Thursday staked its claim at Mobile World Congress with the nuvifone M20, the second phone in the fledgling GPS navigator phone line. Unlike the G60, the M20 is based on Windows Mobile 6.1 and uses a heavily customized interface to provide turn-by-turn voiced navigation like stand-alone nuvi GPS units. It also uses the positioning for social networking through Ciao! and geotagging photos from the 3-megapixel camera.
Garmin chose Wednesday to reveal its full slate for CES and led off with a new top-end model for its nuvi GPS units. The 4.3-inch widescreen navigator updates the 880 with a lane assist mode that also includes a junction view: drivers are not only told which lane to use for the next change but also shown the layout to properly follow through the next exit or intersection. It further brings an upgraded set of MSN Direct data services and now lets owners check their airport flight status as well as more detailed weather with Doppler maps, better movie listings, local events and the option of sending maps and routes from a computer.
Garmin today revamped both the high- and low-ends of its nuvi GPS mappers with new features as standard that were previously just options. Competing with similar updates from NAVIGON, upgrades to both the 7x5 and 2x5 series now have traffic receivers as standard that provide alerts to road congestion and accidents for the lifetime of the device. Customers no longer need to pay a yearly subscription fee, the company is keen to note.
Garmin on Tuesday kicked off the launch of a new line of nuvi GPS units that are some of its first tailored to be used both for driving and for the outdoors. Both the US-only nuvi 500 and the North America-wide nuvi 550 have the same 3.5-inch design as many road-going nuvis and provide full street maps but also have a waterproofed touchscreen and topology maps for use either on hikes or on rivers. The interface has also been changed to add a quick toggle for the map type as well as a compass option.
Garmin today at CeBIT rolled out upgrades to several of its key Nuvi GPS units, including its lowest-cost devices yet to include smart features. The 3.5-inch 205 and 255 as well as their 4.3-inch widescreen 205W and 255W counterparts all now support Traffic Message Channel data for rerouting on congested roads and can optionally subscribe to MSN Direct for both traffic updates as well as fuel prices, news, and other short information that can be delivered to the Nuvi in real time. Both also use a satellite data cache technology known as HotFix to speed up position-finding, an elevation mapping mode that more clearly marks out hills, and a faster processor that improves routing speed.
Nuvio today announced that is has filed a trademark infringement suit against Garmin International in the U.S. District Court of Kansas. Nuvio claims that Garmin's recently announced Nuvifone infringes upon a prior Nuvio tradmark that the company uses on phones as well as its own telephony services. Nuvio attempted to reach a "mutually satisfactory resolution" with Garmin, but no resolution was reached. That led to Nuvio filing a legal complaint against Garmin to protect its rights.
Garmin recently unveiled its Colorado series of handheld GPS units, and the Forerunner 405 wrist-worn GPS device, as well as the super-sized Nuvi 5000 for use in large vehicles. The Colorado 400t uses a 3-inch color screen to display three-dimensional topographic maps, and is pre-loaded with a complete map covering the US. Tracks, waypoints, and geocaches can be wirelessly transferred with other units, and the device’s “Rock n Roller” thumbwheel makes the device easy to navigate. Garmin will show the new lineup at CES 2008, and although a release date was not mentioned, the Colorado 400 series devices sell for $600.
Garmin today unveiled three different Nuvi vehicle GPS systems, including one model that can use voice recognition to navigate the device’s interface. The 260W uses a sunlight-readable 4.3-inch wide touchscreen LCD to display information, and can speak street names. A trademark of the 260 series GPS units is the internal antenna that allows for a thinner design, while its rectangular shape is easy to mount in a vehicle. Garmin’s “Where To?” and “View Map” welcome screens are built-in to the device, providing users with the ability to search for a specific street address or establishment; destinations can also be located by category. Although pricing and availability information were not readily available, Garmin said that they will show the new units at CES 2008.
