GPS Devices: Finding Yourself

Digital Dan Scopes Out The Best In GPS & Other Location-Oriented Services

(CBS)  Similar to the Streetpilot C550 mentioned above, the AVIC-S1 allows Bluetooth phone users to upload their entire phone book and make phone calls. The key selling point here is slim, sleek portability and the same fast SiRF chip. $599


Navman ICN 750

Instead of just playing back photographs, what if you had a GPS with a built-in digital camera? That’s the marvelous selling feature of Navman’s ICN 750. This GPS has pre-installed NavPix photos of major landmarks, to help you get started, but there’s a complete 4-gig hard disk containing maps of the U.S. and Canadian road network.

What’s great is that you can park your car in a crowded lot, take a picture of it, and find it again just pushing on the picture. Want to go to Grandmother’s house? Push on that picture - the GPS coordinates are linked to the image.

The Navman features a 4" color TFT widescreen and also has the ultra-fast SiRF III chip, for fast acquisition of location. Two cool features are "nearest fuel" and "nearest park" buttons, so you can focus on driving while quickly finding these critical locations.

I was so enamored with the idea of a digital camera in a GPS, I asked some colleagues to try it out for a more dispassionate view. Was "camera navigation" a truly useful function? The consensus was resoundingly positive.

CBS News editor Walt Leiding loved it when he tested it on a recent trip to Colorado: "I always seem to forget what my rental car looks like, so this was very useful. I marked destinations we needed to return to, like the airport, Hertz car return, Wal-mart, Costco, etc, and it was great." Walt even used it on the plane, taking pictures along the route and finding out precisely where his flight was at the time, astounded at the precision even at 37,500 feet.

The Navman has a lovely form factor with a large and vibrant screen. There are a number of automated voice characters, and Walt enjoyed changing these along his journey, pretending the accented voices were strange fellow travelers. There's some delay when you switch between map modes: 2D to 3D views for example. But signal acquisition and new route computation were quite fast. Navman iCN 750 costs about $799.

Navizon

Navizon is a fascinating startup company that doesn’t sell any GPS hardware. Instead, Navizon CEO Cyril Houri designed a new software-driven approach to location-finding. Navizon supports a free network displaying the fixed locations of WiFi hotspots and cell phone towers.

With a WiFi-enabled device, or even simply a GSM phone, your location can quickly be triangulated and determined. Simply download the Navizon software and enroll in the free community, and your wired device will become a full mapping tool.

About ten thousand users across the country, mostly hardcore computer hackers, have adopted Navizon. Because this is a shared community, sophisticated users who have paired their wireless devices with GPS units are constantly collecting and enhancing the huge database of known WIFI hotspots and cell towers. This database, in most urban areas, will free the rest of us from having to rely on GPS technology.

I’m a huge fan of Navizon and Cyril Houri’s vision, but must confess that the software still has kinks and bugs in it. Before you chuck out your GPS, test out the Navizon approach first. You can even choose to share your location with friends over the Navizon network if you wish.

VZ Navigator Phones from Verizon

On an increasing variety of location-enabled phones (including the Motorola V325, RAZR models, and the LG 9800) Verizon has launched an astounding application, the VZ Navigator. This “Get-It-Now” software service costs an additional $9.99 a month, but it provides you with a fairly straightforward and effective interface to find where you are just using your mobile phone.

Initial setup is slightly complicated (only if you don’t read instructions) because you not only have to download the new VZ Navigator software, but also enable the not-so-easy-to-find "Location-On" function. Once you’re over that hurdle, click on "Where Am I?" and, even indoors, your location will pop up on a map. You need to be outside to truly utilize all the navigational functionality: find services, favorite locations, even route and turn-by-turn instructions.