The current rumours flying around the internet are that Garmin is going to release a new range of GPS devices in the next few weeks. The Oregon range will be a similar device to the Colorado range, although it will be slightly smaller, and feature a touchscreen. One colleague we recently spoke with said he was always trying to use the Colorado screen as a touchscreen, so welcomed a true touchscreen unit.

Although Garmin are usually tight lipped about new devices, it appears that somehow these devices made it onto both Amazon and Buy.com before being removed. As such, a fairly reliable spec has been obtained, and this includes:

• High sensitivity GPS receiver for improved performance and reception
• Easy to use, touchscreen interface
• microSD card slot for optional mapping and data storage
• Electronic compass, barometric altimeter, temperature sensor
• Built in 3D Basemap /Digital Elevation Model
• 3D elevation view
• Wireless exchange of user routes, tracks, waypoints, geocaches and images
• Unit dimensions: 4.5 in x 2.3 in x 1.4 in
• Display size: 3 in color, touch screen
• Pixels / H x W: 240 x 400
• Waterproof standard: IEC 60529 IPX7
• Battery type: two high capacity or lithium ion AA batteries
• Weight: 6.8 oz with batteries

The specs above are for the 200 unit, with a 300, and a range of 400 units (similar to the Colorado 400 range) will also be available in the US. Given the main difference between the Colorado 300 and 400 models is the amount of memory to fit in the included US maps on the 400 range, we suspect that again the 400 range may not make it to the UK, leaving us with the 200 and 300 though. The main missing feature from the Colorado will be the Naviwheel, which isn’t needed due to the touchscreen.

Story via the Groundspeak Geocaching.com forums (no registration required to view).

Garmin have announced a multi-year, multi-device deal with GySPii, who are a location based social networking site. In essence GyPSii is similar to Plazes, who both link the idea of providing your current status (a bit like Twitter), but also providing your current location. GySPii have said they will “provide technology, products, worldwide data
center infrastructure, development licenses, and GyPSii branding rights to Garmin”. It’s not clear whether an existing GyPSii user will be able to use their logon details on their Garmin, or whether Garmin will run a separate service using the same technology. The interesting point about the announcement is that it refers to a “range of devices”; whilst the nuviPhone is an obvious contender, we wonder whether Garmin is planning to start offering more 2 way communication options within it’s devices in the coming years…

Although not 100% confirmed, there are lots of stories of both Garmin and TomTom offering free map updates (if needed) to users who register their new SatNav unit. There’s a catch though, the unit needs to be registered within the first 30 days after purchase to qualify for the free map upgrade. Obviously, some times, these units can sit on the store shelves for some months (or occasionally even longer) before you purchase them, and so a free map upgrade is a nice feature, and would give you the same mapping as a unit shipped directly from the manufacturer that same month.

Mercedes Benz and Garmin have linked together to produce the “Streetpilot III”, which is actually a Nuvi 760 on a custom mount designed for the Mercedes A-Class, B-Class and C-Class. It will retail for approximately €550 and be available soon across Europe (it should also be available in the UK too). The custom mount links into the car’s system, so all spoken directions are through the car’s speakers (with other sources muted), and there are no visible wires as everything goes via the mount. As a Nuvi 760, it offers Bluetooth Handsfree calling, a 4.3″ widescreen, and traffic information. It has also been loaded with all the latest Mercedes Benz dealerships

This isn’t the first time Garmin have worked with a car manufacturer, having already announced a solution with BMW, but it’s nice to see other manufacturers looking into custom solutions using portable SatNav devices.

Some content courtesy of NaviGadget.

Nokia Maps 2.0 has now been formally released by Nokia and is available for download from here. Although this adds little since the last beta version, all the beta versions have added lots more functionality than Nokia Maps 1.0. The main new features since 1.0 are improved car navigation and pedestrian modes, support for satellite images, much more local content, multimedia city guides, and a new user interface. Other features we should coming (as mentioned before) are near real time traffic information, and links into “Share with Ovi” for sharing POIs and routes.

One of the fixes that’s occurred between the first beta and the release is that UK 7 digit postcodes now work properly.  They’ve also added Network based positioning (similar to that used in Google Maps) for a rough location until the GPS can precisely locate you.  This works on most phones today, although the E90 will need a “software update” will should be released soon.

This all bodes well for Nokia, although they are still a little behind TomTom and Garmin with their feature range, and some people are still questioning their pricing model. It will be interesting to see how many current phones get new firmwares with this version installed by default..

There’s a nice review of Garmin’s Mobile XT over on Tracy and Matt’s Blog. The biggest drawback appears to be the fact that Garmin link the software to the serial number of the SD card, meaning you can’t move the software and maps to another larger card. Head over to read the review.

Thanks to Mark for the heads up.

Garmin have announced agreements with MapQuest and Google Maps to allow you to send trips and destinations direct from the MapQuest / Google Maps website to your Garmin GPS. For MapQuest, this will utilise the “Send to GPS” option which will become Garmin compatible sometime this month, whereas the function is already available from Garmin. This will use the Garmin Communicator Plugin, which is already in use on other websites, such as Geocaching.com to transfer information to Garmin GPS units. Not all devices support full trip (route) details being transferred to them, but all seem to support a single destination being sent.

There are a lot of rumours flying around that TomTom is planning a response to the Garmin nuviphone by producing their own equivalent. The device will possibly combine an HTC hardware device with TomTom pre loaded (removing some of the problems TomTom has had over the years with compatibility problems with their software working on some Windows Mobile devices). Hopefully more information will be revealed over the upcoming months, and we won’t discover this is a early April Fool’s.

Story courtesy of Pocket GPS World.

In a surprise move, Garmin has signed an agreement with iTIS Holdings for the supply of the RDS-TMC traffic data for the Nuvi 2×5 range. What’s not currently clear is whether it’s just for these units or whether it’s the start of a move away from Trafficmaster as the traffic data provider to Garmin. If it is across all devices, it’s also not clear whether it will apply retrospectively to existing units. Trafficmaster recently stated it had not lost an RDS-TMC contract, and was continuing to win business from iTIS.

One influencing factor may well be the low signal transmission strength dictated to all UK radio transmitter masts which has made receiving the TMC signals, especially from portable devices, a real challenge. In the last few months, iTIS has addressed this issue by supplementing it’s original carrier, Classic FM, by broadcasting the data signal using a good number of local radio stations as well. This has improved the coverage of iTIS a great deal, although debates still rage on which provider has more accurate data (when you can receive it).

Original story courtesy of Pocket GPS World.

If you have a Garmin SatNav and you’ve started to receive the odd “your maps are out of date” warning on your unit, then one option is to buy the new 2008 maps for your unit. If you head over to the Garmin website, you can enter your serial number, and it will confirm if there are new maps available (and which exact format of Garmin maps you need). Garmin have stated that right now the retail map upgrade DVD only supports the Nuvi, Zumo and Streetpilot C5xx series of devices, so if you have any other device you may have to wait a bit longer for the upgrade maps to be released.

Over the next few weeks, selected Garmin devices will support a variety of games. These games are traditional games (Sudoku, Solitaire, Poker, etc.) and some will even be free. Right now, only the Garmin Nuvi 850, 880 and 5000 are listed as supporting the games, and Garmin have provided some of the games for free, whereas the rest will be chargeable (and bought from My GPS Games). The games will be either $5 each, or $2o buys a VIP pack encompassing all 6 chargeable games).

Even before the Colorado starts shipping in any serious quantities in the UK, Garmin have updated the firmware in these units based on user feedback. The main features added are:

• Displays geocaches on the main screen
• Doubles the number of caches supported to 2000
• Adds the ability to mark the cache as found
• Provides support for Colorado Field Notes, which can be directly uploaded to geocaching.com

If you are thinking about getting a Garmin Nuvi 710, there’s a thorough review over at PocketGPSWorld.com that’s well worth a read here.

PocketGPSWorld.com have also written up an article listing most of the known information about the new Garmin Nuviphone, due for release later this year. Read their article here.

If you have a Garmin Nuvi 200 or 700 series, and are experiencing slow initial GPS fix times, you may want to use the WebUpdater software from Garmin and update your SatNav to the latest firmware version available. Garmin have recently produced updates for these products that uses Sirf InstantFix II to improve those fix times.

TomTom have been busy this week! They have also announced TomTom Add-To. This will allow companies to publish a button on their website which will automatically download the exact address to a USB connected TomTom SatNav device. More usefully, you can provide a whole group of addresses (eg for nationwide store chains), or a route of how to access the address. Although many companies have published .OV2 files in the past, this new functionality will allow companies to provide a better experience.

Garmin have had a similar capability for some while now, although there are only a handful of websites using the Garmin Communicator technology, so let’s hope that companies now adopt both methods.

Garmin have announced the Nuviphone, a mobile phone with SatNav capabilities. It has a 3.5″ touchscreen, full browsing and PIM capabilities, HSDPA, Quad-Band (3.5G), WiFi, Bluetooth, and is roughly the same size as the iPhone. As it uses a variant of the same proprietary OS as that on their SatNav devices, the UI will be familiar to many, and will have “millions” of POIs, and will have turn-by-turn voice prompts. However, it will also have Google Local Search capabilities (and potentially other Google apps such as Google Talk, and the camera may integrate with Google Panorama). Finally, it will use the phone network connection to get updates via Garmin Online for real time traffic, fuel prices, news, weather and stock prices (although historically these have been US only data). It is expected to be released in Q3 this year, so in time for Christmas.

The picture above shows the Nuvi SatNav interface running in a Panasonic car stereo. This is a joint venture between Panasonic US and Garmin, and allows Panasonic to develop systems such as the one above. Given this agreement is only with Panasonic US and not the whole Panasonic group (currently called Matsushita, but they will be rebranding as Panasonic worldwide during 2008), it’s unclear whether a device like this is likely to be available in the UK.

Garmin have created a download page for their new software, codenamed Bobcat. Although they have not yet formally announced the software, we can provide some details on the functionality….

• Bobcat allows you to transfer waypoints, tracks, and routes between your Mac and Garmin device and manage your data using your Garmin maps.
• Bobcat provides the ability to search for points of interest from the convenience of your Mac and then send the locations to your Garmin GPS.
• Bobcat also serves as a backup tool for your Garmin GPS. You can receive all your waypoints, routes, and tracks from your GPS and Bobcat will save them automatically.
• MapManager copies maps and unlock codes into the right place to be accessible by Bobcat and MapInstall. To migrate the maps from your Windows PC, download MapConverter onto your PC and follow the instructions.
• Download and install MapConverter for Windows to convert your unlocked PC maps for use on your Mac. For more information please read this document. (PDF file- 245KB)
• System Requirements:
  Intel-based or PowerPC G3 or later Mac
  OS 10.4 or later
  512 MB RAM
  USB port

The software appears to be a Beta version right now, but this bodes well for the future of Garmin’s Mac support plans.

Screenshot courtesy of GPS Review.

If the cost of the BMW built in SatNav has always felt a few too many pounds to spend, then you’ll be pleased to hear Garmin and BMW are working together on the 1 and 3-Series models. As well as the BMW Portable Navigation device (based on the Nuvi 360) being branded with a BMW logo, it features a BMW logo on startup, a BMW dealer database, and uses a custom mount for the Nuvi which allows users to attach the device to the interior trim instead of the windscreen. This mount is positioned for optimal viewing by the driver, and is powered directly by the car, so eliminates the need for exposed cables. This comes on the back of a MINI-specific Nuvi version last year.

Unfortunately, no UK availability information has been released yet.

Next week, as part of MacWorld, Garmin will announce some new software and showing hardware which are both Mac compatible. Garmin, the GPS and SatNav company, pledged better Mac support across their range a while ago now, and have been slowly making good on their promise. As part of this, next week they will announce a new software solution codenamed Bobcat.