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Navigon USA folds

Following several days of speculation in blogs and on message boards, Navigon CEO Egon Minar has confirmed that they will “withdraw from the PND business in North America.” Though they are saying this is “for the time being,” I seriously doubt that they will ever reverse this decision. Navigon is keeping their Chicago office open, but it is unclear what level (if any) of support services will remain, or if Navigon owners will be able to purchase new services.

New Navigon introductions feature MyRoutes

Navigon is announcing three new models today -- the 3300 max, 4300T and 7300T. The big news is the MyRoutes feature, which provides up to three route choices with distance and ETA calculated for all entered destinations, factoring in speed limits, construction and traffic. As you can see above, route options are displayed on a map with ETA and driving time.

Navigon adds new ala carte downlaods

Continuing the no new hardware trend we ID'd yesterday, Navigon will announce this morning a wide range of new downloadable content, some good, some not so good. On the plus side we have red light cameras and European maps. Of more questionable value is 3D landmarks, and sure to rile the folks who bought the Navigon 7200T is the option to beef up its weak POI database by paying $29.99 for an additional 2.8 million POIs.

CES briefs - Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Here are a few more GPS related announcements from CES:

• TomTom announces a second-generation in-dash unit in their partnership with Fujitsu Ten - the Eclipse AVN4430
• Little known (in the PND world anyway) Dual Electronics looks like they will offer the first PND in the U.S. with HD Radio technology; whether they will take advantage of the bandwidth to deliver additional traffic data is unknown
• Nextar, fresh off a stellar holiday season, offers up a unit with free lifetime traffic
• Navigon has announced a new partnership, offering Rand McNally content for their devices

GPS predictions for 2009

Disclaimer: These are predictions and nothing more, so keep your sense of humor and please don’t sue me.

Auto GPS predictions

• A nuvi 8x5 series will bring lane assist and voice recognition together in one unit
• Garmin discontinues the nuvi 200 series; all Garmin nuvi models will now have text-to-speech
• Crowdsourced HD traffic comes to the US with the stateside introduction of the TomTom GO LIVE series
• TomTom releases a GPS receiver that utilizes alternative positioning information for improved accuracy in urban canyons
• More manufacturers display multiple route options visually, ala Dash and Insignia
• Navigon folds, caught between Nextar on the low end and MiTAC’s aggressive promotion of the Magellan line
• Red light camera alerts will move closer to the mainstream
• More downward feature creep -- expect to see Lane Assist on some mid-range Garmins, more units with lifetime traffic, larger screens, etc.
• Garmin announces a desktop application (possibly a revamped MapSource) that allows planning routes with POIs and transferring them to Garmin units with current City Navigator maps; it will be set up to allow users to opt into sharing anonymized tracklogs ala TomTom HOME
• Said application will support wireless transfer of data via ANT or Bluetooth

NAVIGON 2200T review

The Navigon 2200T is Navigon's current entry-level model with lifetime traffic. This 3.5" touch screen unit features text-to-speech, so you'll hear "in one mile, turn right onto Maple Street" instead of just "in one mile, turn right." Other features include Reality View^TM Pro, Lane Assist Pro, speed limit display, multi-destination trip planning and DirectHelp^SM. It includes maps of the 48 contiguous United States. PC Magazine has reported a fairly small number of POIs - 2 million, though I have not been able to verify that; Navigon documentation simply states that the device has "millions of POIs."

Navigating thru a winter wonderland

There's a confusing enough array of GPS units on the market, but around the holidays the major manufacturers start throwing out units you've never heard of and have never seen reviewed. Some are exclusive to one retailer, while others are bargain-basement stripped down devices. Here's what the major manufacturers have on tap for the holidays this year...

Navigon 7200T review

The Navigon 7200T updates the Navigon 7100, adding 3-D buildings and a new interface. The 4.3" wide screen navigator comes loaded with maps of the U.S. and Canada, and has text-to-speech, so you'll hear "in one mile, turn right onto Maple Street" instead of just "in one mile, turn right." Other features include Bluetooth for hands-free cell phone use, lifetime traffic, voice destination entry, Reality View^TM Pro, Lane Assist Pro, Zagat® ratings and reviews, Exit Guide and DirectHelp^SM. Whew; this thing is loaded! But the question is, how well does it do all that? I'll dig into those features in more detail shortly. First, let's look at how it compares to other units in the Navigon family.

Last chance to win a NAVIGON 7200T

There's little more than 36 hours left in our NAVIGON 7200T giveaway at GPS Deals -- it ends at midnight Tuesday. We're even giving you up to three chances to win, so if you haven't jumped on the opportunity, what are you waiting for? Skedaddle on over to the Navigon 7200T contest post and enter right now!