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And you thinking puttering around the intarwebz on your EDGE-capable iPhone was bad -- just think of trying to find anything on the 'net while inadvertently moseying through a dodgy part of town. Nevertheless, BMW is gearing up to offer "unrestricted access" to the web as an alternative in any new 2008 vehicle, but alas, it's only for European clients at the moment. Of course, BMW's no outsider to letting bits and pieces of the web into its motorcars, but this conception will let you catch up on the latest gadget news and pre-order the latest Elmo doll from the comfort of your heated seat. Sadly, the service is only accessible to front seat passengers when the car is moving under 3mph (it's for the best, we know), but your kid can surf into all sorts of bizarre chatrooms while seated in the rear.





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It shares many of the features of its more expensive sibling, the $399.95 Digiwalker C520, but the C320 is not upgradeable to live traffic and lacks the C520's text-to-speech capabilities.
The C320, available exclusively at Radio Shack, features a 4.3-inch touch screen, pre-loaded maps of the United States (including Alaska and Hawaii) on the built-in 1GB of memory, and a 1.7 million Point of Interest database.Mio's newest GPS device, the DigiWalker C320, launched today at 4,500 Radio Shack stores nationwide.
With an estimated retail price of $299.95, the DigiWalker C320 is Mio's least expensive 4.3-inch widescreen automotive GPS.
 
 


 
 
The X2 navigator is bundled with Windows CE, along with a robust 500Mhz AMD AU1200 processor, allowing the user to view DMB TV and videos in multiple formats, such as, DivX, XviD, MPGE1/2/4, WMV 7 or 8 (480 × 272), and WMV 9 (720 × 480).
The device also boasts a 4.3-inch LCD touchscreen from Samsung, with a 500cd/m2 brightness, a 400:1 contrast ratio, and wide viewing angles.
The X2 also features an audio player that supports MP3, WMA, OGG, and WAV, as well as an image viewer, which displays JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, TIFF, and WMF files.
The X2 also manages to squeeze in support for Flash, HTML and MS Office documents.
It also supports SDHC cards, extending the memory capacity to 16GB.
The device is powered by NAND flash memory ranging from 4- to 8GB.
The device utilizes flash memory, rather than the conventional hard disk drive of its predecessor, the P2.
While it looks a lot like the P2, in terms of design, the X2 offers several new features like karaoke, a car diary, and TPEG service, T-DMB, and multitasking function.
With an in built GPS antenna and SiRF3 chipset, the viliv X2 FLASH renders navigation services to travelers even when they are not on wheels.
The device has been priced at 459,000 Korean Won ($497 USD) for 4GB model and 529,000 Korean Won ($572 USD) for 8 GB mode.
The X2 measures approximately 142 x 79 x 23 mm and weighs only 290 grams.
 
 


 
Delphi's latest portable GPS device, the Nav300, has the usual satellite navigation abilities, and also packs in ZAGAT ratings, voice command control, Bluetooth connectivity, Text-To-Speech for street names, speed limit warnings, and a host of other features.
When not on the road, the Nav300 doubles as a media player, handling music and movies via an SD card, and the device also includes a built-in "matching game.
The NAVTEQ Map software includes not only the continental United States, but Canada, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico.
The Points of Interest feature includes branded icons, making finding fast food at a glance all the more easy.
The Delphi Nav300 is available now at ShopDelphi.com for a base price of $399, or $499 including the lifetime Clear Channel traffic and weather alerts.
There's optional real-time traffic and weather information available through Clear Channel for an additional $100 fee for lifetime service, if purchased with the device.
The opt-in-later option costs $199.
Lane assistance and road sign alerts will show upcoming road signs and make sure drivers are in the correct lane to make a turn.
ZAGAT ratings access should be available in September.
 
 


 
Nowadays it seems like everyone has a GPS unit, but Navigon's new 5100 will have a leg up on the competition when it debuts later this month 'cause it'll offer real-time traffic updates at no extra charge (unlike most GPS units which require a subscription for the service).
The unit will be out later this month.
On top of that, the inch-thick 5100 will also have the brains to recommend neighboring restaurants, hotels, and bars rated by Zagat.
It won't have built-in Bluetooth, which we hold as a strike considering its $500 price, but it will offer text-to-speech functionality and a "lane assistant" which tells you the best lane to drive in when you're on the highway.
All this displayed on its 3.5-inch screen.
 
 


 
The system would rely on a camera (mounted on the front of your car) to provide the live imagery to your GPS' display.
Using image recognition technology, the unit would then pick out landmarks and sync it with the directions from your GPS.
The new units will guide you using real-world images rather than 3D maps.
The guys at Electronista have unearthed details on TomTom's next generation GPS units.
TomTom has filed a European patent on the idea, but there's still no word on how soon before we see it here.
The days of staring at polygons on your GPS may be over.
 
 


 
That bulge you see contains a helix GPS antenna and some features inside the unit include a SiRF Star III GPS chip (with GPS tracking using up to four satellites), a 3D motion detector, a decently large 1,200 mAH Li-ion battery and a standard mini-USB connection for charging and connection purposes.
If so, dig this: Germany's Falcom Mambo II is a quad-band GSM worldphone with GPRS that sports a 20-channel GPS receiver for those detailed tracking needs you may be looking for.
Feeling paranoid and require the use of a personal GPS tracker?
No pricing or availability is known yet.
 
 



 
This simple cigarette adapter plug-in reportedly "knocks out GPS logging or GPS tracking systems that may be operating in your vehicle," and considering that it sports a two-to-four meter operating range, just about every automobile outside of an 18-wheeler (or limousine) should be covered.
If you're the type who just may be the victim of undercover GPS tracking (read: promiscuous), you should give some serious thought to this one.
Unfortunately, there's no word yet on how much this potential life-saver will cost, but its slated to ship "soon" to the devious and uber-paranoid sects.
 
 


 
Based on Windows CE 4.2, the Map-Star packs a Samsung 400MHz S3C2440 processor, along with a 4.3-inch touchscreen display, SiRF Star III GPS chipset, the usual audio and video playback support, and a 2GB SD card pre-loaded with maps of the US and Canada (and 1.65 million POIs).
The company also doesn't look to be offering any breaks on price, with the device set to demand a relatively hefty $500 when it's released later this month.
From the looks of it, however, they're not going to have an easy time standing out from the pack, with self-titled device appearing to be throughly average in just about every respect.
There's s not a whole elbow room to be found in the GPS biz, but upstart Map-Star is set to try to muscle its way in nonetheless, unveiling its first and (for now at least) only GPS device.
 
 


 
We don't know much about it yet other than that it can play MPEG-4 and WMV files, support SD cards up to 4GB, and will purportedly stay juiced for up to five hours.
Every time we turn around, there's yet another company that previously had nothing to do with GPS, ready to get in the game.
Now Harmon Kardon will be releasing its first GPS gadget, called the "Guide + Play" in the US this coming January.
Oh, and it'll only set you back around $500.
 
 


 
As you probably recall -- or more likely, don't -- the first two models that the company cranked out are both rather bulky units, and although they share the same case and design as two XRoad devices from Korean manufacturer Carpoint, it seems that both the hardware and software have been beefed up a bit in order to meet the criteria for bearing the Uniden logo.
As is usually the case with Uniden products, you're getting a fair set of prices here, with the 402 going for $378 and the 352 coming in at $318.
So we're not sure that anyone's really been breathlessly waiting for Uniden's premiere entries into the auto GPS market to hit store shelves, but we'd be neglect in our duty to provide you with a well-balanced daily dose of gadget news if we didn't at least mention the retail release.
While the GPS-402 and GPS-352 may differ in appearance and screen size (4.0 inches versus 3.5 inches), they sport the exact same 400MHz processor, 320 x 240 resolution, SiRFstar III receiver, and NAVTEQ-based navigation app, along with pretty much everything else of significance.
Uniden fanboys, go nuts.
 
 


 
As with its last model, this one will do DMB mobile TV in addition to all the standard GPS and PMP functions, and it even boasts some A/V in and out ports to let you connect a DVD player or hook the unit up to an external display.
Korean manufacturer MyDean is at it again with its largely nondescript GPS units, with it now rolling out its new and somewhat improved FX-7 unit.
No word on pricing or availability just yet, it seems, but you know where you'll have to go to get one -- or make use of it, for that matter.
 
 


 
This go 'round, a Czech lorry driver continued down an incredibly narrow lane at the request of his sat nav, and even though his ginormous camion was clearly too large to make it around the 90-degree turn, he threw common sense to the wind and continued onward.
Interestingly enough, the fellow managed to acquire food after befriending a couple that lived nearby, and while we're sure he uttered Michael Scott's words in a different tongue, we've little doubt that "the machine knows!
Needless to say, his ride ended up wedged so tightly he couldn't reverse his way out, so he decided to set up shop for three whole days rather than calling for "an expensive weekend rescue.
Every few months, we happen upon yet another story involving a motorist who simply believes that their GPS system would never, ever lead them astray.
 was heard by nearby wildlife shortly before this situation turned sour.
 
 


Geo-caching and maps mashup nerds: sit up and take notice. The connected GPS hardware startup -- fresh off its redesign and FCC approval -- is coming clean some new geo-feeds integration, which will allow the device to pull up custom geoRSS / KML feeds of user-generated points of interest over its cellular connection, as well as provide integration with certain open-API geo-services like Zillow (which allows you to check the property value of homes in the area -- or on the street -- you and your Dash are in). It's a slightly mind-bending paradigm shift from the static-database-on-your-GPS points of interest usage model we're all used to, so think about it this way: if your standard POIs are now handled dynamically through Yahoo search on the Dash, consider geo-feeds a user-generated extension of that, giving you and your Dash the ability to locate destinations based on the input of online communities.


Sanyo wants to navigate through this crazy world with you, or, more specifically, it wants you to navigate through this crazy world with its NV-HD880FT "Gorilla," a personal GPS rig sure to have even the most die-hard map users casting sideways glances. The new navigator features a massive 8-inch touchscreen, a 30GB hard drive, and dual TV tuners (12Seg / 1Seg and terrestrial). Additionally, the NV-HD880FT packs traffic updates, an FM transmitter, and emission reduction "thoughts" via the company's "Eco-Drive II information" (whatever that means). The navigator will be available in Japan on November 26th, for ¥225,750 (or around $1,956), no word on a wider release.
 


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