Garmin nuvi 850 and 880 announced

UPDATE: Read my Garmin nuvi 850 review and Garmin nuvi 880 review

Garmin just announced the Garmin nuvi 800 series, the first nuvis to feature speech recognition.

In keeping with Garmin's heritage of elegant user interface design, the nuvi 800 series' speech recognition technology sets the new industry standard for simple and intuitive use. Users mount a push-to-talk wireless remote to their steering wheel, which is used to activate voice commands -- no additional setup or "training" is required. Once activated, the user can effortlessly manipulate controls by speaking the words that correspond to buttons that are on the touchscreen display, so that almost any common task can be performed without ever touching the unit.      

Garmin has also streamlined the way users can perform complex points of interest searches. Driving in an unfamiliar area and hungry for some spaghetti? Simply say, "find nearest Italian restaurant," and you're offered a menu of nearby pasta purveyors. Use a voice command to select the establishment of your choice, and the nuvi 800 series gives you turn-by-turn directions to dinner. The nuvi 880 also knows the names of many large business brands, so a user need only say, "find nearest Starbucks" for a quick caffeine fix.

The nuvi 880 will include MSN Direct access, including some new features:

• Local events: receive special notices on festivals, concerts, and sporting events in your area, and navigate to them.
• News and stocks: the latest news headlines and financial market updates are always at your fingertips.
• Send to GPS capability: plan trips and look up destinations from the convenience of your computer, via Windows Live Local, and then wirelessly send locations to your nuvi 880.

The nuvi 850 will include all of the 880's features, minus Bluetooth and MSN Direct access. The 800 series will be available in the second quarter of 2008.

No word on price yet. I'll update this post with that once it is available. Here's the rest of the info from the news release:

Garmin International Inc., a unit of Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ:GRMN) , today announced the new nuvi 880, a premium portable navigation device with cutting-edge speech recognition, dynamic MSN Direct content, and an impressive array of other convenience and safety features. The device was announced in conjunction with the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and will be on display at the Garmin booth (South Hall 4, booth #35832).

"Garmin's nuvi 880 uses speech recognition to make navigation safer and easier than ever. Now it's possible to keep both hands on the wheel, tell nuvi what to do and where to go, and you're on your way to stress-free travel," said Dan Bartel, Garmin's worldwide vice president of sales. "And with enhanced MSN Direct services, the nuvi 880 provides cutting-edge content like traffic, fuel prices, news and business headlines, and a wireless 'send to GPS' capability."

For the ultimate in safety, a driver at any time speak the phrase, "where am I?" and their device will display its exact latitude and longitude coordinates, the nearest address and intersection, and the closest hospitals, police stations and gas stations. Speech recognition can also be used to search for addresses as well -- all hands-free, from start to finish. Speech recognition is available for American English, British English, European French, European Spanish, German, Italian, and Netherlands Dutch languages.

Three months of free MSN Direct service is included with the purchase of the nuvi 880. Owners can re-subscribe for $49.95 a year, or a one-time charge of $129.95. For more information on MSN Direct services and coverage areas, visit http://garmin.msndirect.com/.

The nuvi 880 has Bluetooth wireless technology for hands-free calling when paired with compatible phones. Using the unit's speech recognition capabilities, users can find and dial phone numbers (specifically supported phones can even access their history log of received, missed and dialed calls) or nuvi's points of interest database (hotels, restaurants, stores and more). This new premium PND also has a built-in FM transmitter, allowing users to wirelessly transmit turn-by-turn directions and street names, MP3s and audio books through their vehicle's stereo. The nuvi 880 also boasts front-firing stereo speakers and a removable lithium-ion battery.

Boasting a bright, sunlight-readable 4.3-inch color touchscreen display (480x272 pixels), the nuvi 880 is loaded with maps of the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico. The new unit incorporates a high-sensitivity internal GPS antenna that makes it thinner and easier to mount in a car. At startup (Garmin's new "instant on" feature makes the unit quicker to use), Garmin's intuitive "Where To?" and "View Map" welcome screen appears, allowing for quick searches of addresses or over six million points of interest like restaurants, hotels, attractions, gas stations, and more. Turn-by-turn, voice-prompted directions guide drivers to their destination, announcing streets by name along the way. If they miss a turn, the nuvi automatically recalculates a route and gets them back on track.

To help drivers find their car in an unfamiliar spot or crowded parking lot, the unit automatically marks where it was last removed from the windshield mount. Users can save 10 routes, specify via points and preview simulated turns, and the unit automatically sorts multiple destinations to provide an efficient route for errands, deliveries or sales calls. It also displays speed limits for highways and interstates, and a trip log provides an electronic bread crumb trail of up to 10,000 points.

The nuvi 880 also includes many entertainment and travel tools including a music player (MP3, Ogg, and Flac formats supported), audio book player (subscription to Audible.com required), alarm clock, picture viewer, currency converters and more. The nuvi 880 even has games pre-loaded to pass the time while waiting in airports and long lines. The units also are installed with Garmin Lock(TM), an innovative patent pending theft prevention system that disables the unit from performing any functions until the user types in a specific 4-digit PIN or takes the unit to a predetermined secure location.

Comments

[Brett]

Magellan already has "Find nearest [XYZ type] restuarant]" voice recognition.

The 3 biggest problems with the Nuvi 700 series are:

1) can't remove a particular road from a route
2) detour function is useless
3) speaker/mic for bluetooth is worthless (like most PNDs)

Did they address any of the three above?

[Rich Owings]

Brett,

No they haven't, but it looks like they may have fixed items 1 and 2 in the nuvi 5000. Guess we'll have to wait for the nuvi 890 or a 900 series to get it with other high end features though.

[Aaron]

DOES THE BLUETOOTH PHONE COME OVER THE CAR SPEAKERS OR ONLY THROUGH THE SPEAKER ON THE UNIT?

[Rich Owings]

It should work just like my 660. The calls will go through the car stereo if the FM transmitter is on.