GPS Tracklog

Knight Rider GPS by Mio is now official

It's either the worse-kept GPS secret in years, or a well orchestrated bit of buzz, but now it's official - the Knight Rider GPS by Mio is due out later this quarter. So if you were a fan of the cheesy 1980's muscle car show, you too can have the voice of K.I.T.T. Your choice of over 300 custom names will welcome you each day.

Connected Mio Moov 380 headed to U.S.

The Mio Moov 380 has cleared the FCC, so we now have another GPS with two-way connectivity coming to the U.S. to compete with the Dash Express and the forthcoming Magellan Maestro Elite 5340+GPRS and Garmin nuvifone.

The Mio Moov 380 will have a built-in SIM card as well as a micro-SD card slot. No word on pricing, who their carrier or search partner is, or what the monthly connection fee will be.

Mio Moov 200 review

The Mio Moov 200 is the entry level model in Mio's new Moov series. The Mio Moov 200 has a 3.5” touch screen, comes with over 3.5 million points of interest (POIs), and has text-to-speech, so you'll get "turn left on Oak Street in 200 feet", rather than just "turn left in 200 feet."

Stepping up to the Mio Moov 210 gets you a one-year live traffic subscription, delivered via the Traffic Message Channel (TMC). The 300 and 310 models offer the same features as the 200 and 210, albeit with a wider, 4.3” touch screen.

The Moov product line has a completely new interface, thanks to Mio’s purchase of Navman. I won't repeat all the details of the interface here that I posted in my Mio Moov 310 review, but I highly recommend reading that post before you buy.

Mio announces connected devices

Mio has announced an agreement with ATX Group to develop connected devices using ATX's content delivery infrastructure. They give the following examples of the types of services to be included:

•     Weather information and forecasting for your current and future surroundings
• Traffic updates that provide current information about conditions on the road
• Local information to explore your surroundings, including up-to-date address and phone listings for local businesses, and more

Mio "Moovs" backwards in the U.S.

UPDATE: Read our Mio Moov 200 review and our Mio Moov 310 review

Last month we broke the news about the Mio Moov series. Details are starting to leak out at CeBIT, and GPS Business News is reporting that we will see the Mio Moov 200, 210, 300 and 310 in the U.S. in the next six weeks.

As we've reported, these units will sport a new interface, that should be a real improvement over the iGo interface. Unfortunately, it appears that we're only getting the most basic models in the U.S. -- no connected services or even Bluetooth!

Mio Moov and Mio Moov XL

UPDATE: Read our Mio Moov 200 review and our Mio Moov 310 review

The bovine-sounding Mio Moov and Mio Moov XL are making their way through the FCC approval process, getting one step closer to our dashboards. The Moov units should be the first to ditch the old iGo interface for a newer, more intuitive one born of the Mio / Navman merger.

CES - Mio to simplify interface with MioMove series

UPDATE: Read our Mio Moov 200 review and our Mio Moov 310 review

Mio is following up on their purchase of Navman by integrating the Navman interface with Mio hardware, ditching NavNGo's iGo interface. The result will be the MioMove series, and the plan is for an easier, more intuitive, interface.

The prototype photo above is from the Mio booth at CES. The menus are contextual, and can change depending upon user preferences, last button pressed, etc.

Mio C720t review

Hands on with the Mio C720t

I've spent the last few weeks trying out the Mio C720t, a new high-end GPS navigation device from Mio. Like the Mio C520, the C720t is equipped with a 4.3" touchscreen, text-to-speech, Bluetooth for hands free cell phone use, and the SiRFstar III chipset. The C720t adds to this feature set with live traffic info, an integrated 2 MP camera, and photo geotagging. You can use this feature to navigate to locations you've taken a picture of.

Mio POI loader

Mio has posted a Mio POI loader that allows you to transfer .csv or .xls POI files to an SD card and have them show up under My POI on your Mio device.

The POI loader may work with newer devices beyond those listed. I'm currently testing a Mio C720t and it worked fine with it.

I'm adding a link to this on my custom POI resource page, where you can find lots of POI sources to use with your GPS.

Mio C230 review

I've been trying out the Mio C230 for the past week or so. Also know as the Mio DigiWalker C230, this unit updates the C220, adding one thing most low-end units don't have -- text to speech. This means that you'll get "turn left on Oak Street in 200 feet" rather than just "turn left in 200 feet." It also offers a much brighter screen than that of the C220, along with pre-loaded maps of all 50 states and Puerto Rico.

Unfortunately, Mio giveth and Mio taketh away. This unit has "more than one million point of interest (POI) locations" according to Mio, compared to the C220's more robust database of 3.5 million POIs. This is disappointing, but is probably a balancing act, allowing Mio to offer these units at bargain basement prices. If you want both text-to-speech AND more POIs, you might want to move up to the Mio C520.