GPS Devices: Finding Yourself

(CBS)  CBS News Technologist "Digital Dan" Dubno reviews the latest GPS (Global Positioning) devices.

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Summer is here and that means plenty of vacation driving. Besides the perils of soaring gas prices, a more pernicious evil lurks in the family car: confusion and obstinacy. My darling wife instinctively finds the wrong turn at every intersection. And just as surely, I have time and again been proved incapable of asking other mortals for directions.

My fantasy is that my brain is as keen as a homing pigeon: blessed with the astounding sense of finding the right direction. Perhaps, I too, navigate by the magnetic emissions of the Earth or by some more mysterious instinct. My wrong-way wife thinks this pigeon brain analogy may be on target in my case. "Their brains are also about a thousand times smaller than humans," she smirks.

To achieve navigational and matrimonial bliss, I've reviewed the latest and greatest of new GPS devices and other tools. These should help you determine where you are and where you are going.

There have been some marvelous developments in the wide world of location-finding devices.

First, many of the older Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) receivers have been replaced with a revolutionary new SiRF III chip. This chip is far more sensitive and accurate and, as a consequence, allows reliable GPS use in locations (like urban areas) where signals were once impossible to acquire.

Traffic congestion data is being integrated into some of the more advanced devices. We're finding other useful features including cameras, cell-phone dialers, and even multi-media players integrated in GPS systems. At long last, cell phone companies are enabling location-based technologies, for example, allowing parents to locate missing children, and travelers to zero in on nearby goods and services.

Yet even as more consumer electronics companies enter the GPS market, an array of innovative technology promises to turn this navigation approach on its ear. European countries are planning to launch a series of satellites over the next decade that will compete with the U.S.-controlled GPS system. This new ring of satellites promises more precise navigation.

Location-based knowledge will become seamlessly integrated in networked devices that know your interests and needs. Already, new services are emerging to that use "where you are" data to offer discounted deals on what you may buy. Eventually, the devices you carry will continuously negotiate on your behalf for goods and services based on your location and preferences.


Here are a few choice new GPS devices:

Garmin GPSMap 76 CSX

My hands-down favorite GPS device for outdoor and marine use is Garmin's new GPSMap 76 CSX. In its sturdy yet lightweight waterproof housing, the 76 CSX features a large, bright color TFT display, plus expandable microSD card memory slot, electronic compass and a barometric altimeter.

The 76 CSX is a vast departure from the seemingly identical GPS Map 76 CS. The newer unit features the amazing new SiRF chip, a highly sensitive GPS receiver that acquires and processes satellite signals super-fast. It is so sensitive that location-signals are quickly obtained in the most challenging areas, including forests, mountainous areas, even cities - where tall buildings obstruct direct view of the band of satellites circling the earth.

Side-by-side comparisons are breathtaking: the new SiRF chip is at least three times faster in acquiring your initial location, and more than twice as accurate in finding your position, compared to models without the chip.

Garmin's GPSMap 76 CSX serves as a great turn-by-turn in-car unit (though it lacks the "talking" and "traffic monitoring" features described in more automobile-centric units below.) The built-in base map of America's highways and exits isn't awful, but you'll want to add higher resolution maps for areas you're likely to visit.

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