New Electronics Reviews

The Garmin Nuvi retains all the features that made the 660 the king of the hill before it, such as the ultra bright 4.3′ wide screen display, incredibly efficient bluetooth calling, and real time traffic conditions brought seamlessly into the navigation data. The Garmin Nuvi 680 GPS receiver has a bunch of new tricks up its sleeve that has already made it a must have unit for anyone looking to jump into the GPS market.

Tiger's Storefront

Most prominent of the new additions to its predecessor, is the integration and utility of MSN direct service built incredibly efficient into the experience. MSN Direct functionality brings the experience to new levels, with real up to the minute data displayed for you exact geographical location as determined by the super accurate tracking systems. Such features as gas prices, weather conditions, up to the second traffic conditions and local movie and entertainment information for areas right around your general area. The Nuvi 680 comes with a 1 year's subscription to MSN direct when you buy the unit, and will cost about $50 a year after that, or you can also pay a one time fee of $130 for Lifetime coverage.

MSN Direct Services available on the Garmin Nuvi 680 GPS unit are:

• MSN Direct - Movies
  The MSN Direct system will retrieve movie theater locations and what's playing at those theaters too, allowing you to search by movie or theater

• MSN Direct – Weather

• When you tap on the weather button you get a forecast for a city or town close to you.

• MSN Direct - Gas Prices
  MSN Direct covers about 100,000 gas stations across the country and the US has 121,000 gas stations. Cheaper prices come up Green and high prices come up Red.

• MSN Direct Traffic
  The Nuvi 680 uses MSN Direct Traffic. MSN Direct uses Traffic.com's data acquired by NAVTEQ, which relies on road sensors to gather information about traffic flow and anticipated delays along your route.

• MSN Direct Signals
  When the car is powered off, the MSN Direct receiver is working on battery power pulling down updated important data like movies, gas prices, traffic, weather.

Strengths:

• White backlit screen is easy to read even in sunlight

• Slim, portable design

• Integrated FM transmitter

• NAVTEQ Mapping Data

• Mapping data is stored in memory rather than a hard disk, making the unit very lightweight and less susceptible to hard disk failure or damage from dropping.

• Excellent performance from SiRF's Star III GPS chipset

• Excellent routing engine

• Fast boot/shutdown times

• Bluetooth / Cell phone integration works well and is thoughtfully implemented with features like call waiting, pausing music during a call etc.

• WebUpdater software makes updating the Nuvi 680’s internal software easy

• Fast CPU performance

• Good quality internal microphone works well for hand-free telephone.

• Long battery life (up to 8 hours per charge)

• Capability to add travel guides

• Ability to route to latitude/longitude coordinates

Drawbacks:

• Expensive

• Manual selection of FM radio stations.

• Weak FM transmitter. The unit needs to be very close to the car stereo for good performance

• Limited MSN Direct coverage areas.

• Can take up to 20 minutes to receive MSN-Direct data once you're in an MSN coverage area

• Route exclusion feature not available

• No multi-destination address optimizing

• No physical volume control

• No way to sort the address book alphabetically, the entries appear in order of closeness to your current position.

• No MP3 playlist capability

Specifications:

• 3D View: Yes

• Display Type: Touch

• Hard Drive: No

• Flash Memory Type: SD/MMC

• Preloaded maps: Yes (North America)

• Waterproof: No

• Weight: 0.39 lb

• Speakers: Built-in

• Power: Adapter, Battery

• Supports MP3: Yes

• PC Interface: USB, Bluetooth Wireless Technology

• Multi Segment Routing: No

Summary:

Garmin leads the market amongst all other GPS manufacturers with the introduction of real-time location-based services that go beyond traffic reports. The Garmin Nuvi 680 is a must have GPS unit for every long distance traveler. Having the MSN Direct Service onboard the Nuvi 680 is a great addition to an already excellent navigator.

Labels: GPS Navigators

GPS or Global positioning systems, are systems of satellites and receiving devices which are used to calculate exact positions on the Earth. GPS is used in navigation and its precision supports cadastral surveying. The GPS navigation system has got much better in recent years, but they still can't match the best built-in factory systems for overall navigation functionality. It's clear that the aftermarket systems are now setting the pace in terms of innovation, integration, and features. For example, while few factory systems offer real-time traffic reports, it's quickly becoming an important feature for aftermarket GPS systems.

A brief of some of the new functionalities in GPS Navigators are:

• Real-time local information: Using this functionality a user will be able to link to MSN Direct to provide in addition to traffic and weather, such local information as fuel prices in nearby gas stations and movie times in local theaters.
• Dual-function capabilities: The GPS Navigators perform the functions of both an automobile navigation system and a wilderness or marine GPS unit. It provides both road maps and topology maps coverage.
• Internet searches and automatic map updates: This new functionality augments its internal points-of-interest (POI) database with Internet searches through Yahoo! local search. This functionality will enable the system to provide more detailed POI results than typical database-driven units can. The functionality will also be able to receive automatic map and software updates either by Wi-Fi or a cellular modem.
• Car to Car Communication: This new functionality addresses traffic in two ways. It comes with a preloaded database of historical traffic flow information for all major roads, which it will use in combination with real-time reports to calculate the fastest route. It will also be able to relay traffic speed data wirelessly to other GPS units to provide additional real-time information.
• Satellite Radio Integration: Using this functionality one can receive Sirius satellite radio signals and transmit them through a car's audio system through a FM modulator.
• Improved search functionality for addresses.
• Speed camera warnings functionality is available in 17 countries with over 16000 speed camera locations. The speed camera database is updated with new speed cameras every week.
• Improved routing mode where the estimated time of Arrival (ETA) and the distance left to destination can be viewed from the main navigation window.
• Integration: Some companies have integrated their GPS system into devices like smart phones with the navigation database built in. Another GPS manufacturer has integrated its GPS system into a back-up warning system.

Labels: GPS Navigators