GPS Tracklog

Mio reportedly leaving U.S. market

GPS Business News is reporting that Mio is leaving the U.S. market. If true it is undoubtedly related to parent company MiTAC’s acquisition of Magellan, though it does contradict an earlier announcement that the Mio and Magellan brands would co-exist here.

Garmin Forerunner 310XT and 405CX introduced

Garmin has announced two new GPS fitness watches, the Forerunner 310XT and Forerunner 405CX.

Garmin Forerunner 310XT

The 310XT (pictured above at right) is a waterproof, multi-sport unit, featuring 20 hours of battery life. Waterproof to a depth of 50 meters, the 310XT is clearly aimed at multi-sport athletes. It can categorize the various activities in a workout and log transition time between them. The 310XT uses both audible signals and/or vibration alerts, so you won’t miss your milestones.

It will be sold on its own or with a new waterproof, soft-strap heart rate monitor, which is expected to be available this summer. While it won’t transmit heart-rate data underwater, the strap can be worn under a wetsuit to shave down transition time. The suggested retail price is $349.99.

TomTom ONE 140 and XL 340 series include Mexico and IQRoutes

TomTom has announced four new devices, including the TomTom ONE 140 and TomTom XL 340 series. Each includes IQ Routes™ and Advanced Lane Guidance, which were previously available only on the high-end TomTom GO series.  Additionally, the new units come with increased North American map coverage that now includes Mexico. Here are some highlights from the news release:

Garmin backcountry notes

The folks at Garmin have been quite busy lately, hitting us with software and firmware releases, and even new Oregon models. Let’s start with software…

Garmin BaseCamp

This new mapping software, which we first mentioned when it was announced back in January, is now available for download (there is also a Beta version for Macs). Note this disclaimer from the download notes:

“BaseCamp will only recognize MapSource products that contain digital elevation model (DEM) data. Some examples of products that contain elevation data are Topo U.S. 24K, Topo U.S. 24K National Parks (version 3), Topo U.S. 100K (version 4 and later), Topo U.S. 2008, Topo Australia, Topo Canada (version 4), Topo Deutschland, Topo Great Britain, and Topo products produced by many Garmin distributors.”

Top 10 GPS for March 2009

It's the first of the month, which means it's time to look back at the stats and check out last month's top ten. There were few changes in March, although new units continued to climb in the auto rankings.

As usual, the rankings are based on the number of times each GPS review has been read here on GPS Tracklog. With nearly 100,000 page views represented for the 20 units below, it’s bound to tell us something about consumer interest in the GPS marketplace.

Top ten auto GPS

1. Garmin nuvi 260W
2. Garmin nuvi 255W
3. Garmin nuvi 755T
4. Garmin nuvi 265WT
5. Garmin nuvi 205W
6. Garmin nuvi 260
7. Garmin nuvi 780
8. TomTom XL 330-S
9. TomTom GO 730
10. Garmin nuvi 760

DeLorme TOPO USA 8.0 imminent?

UPDATE: DeLorme is saying that this "time frame is not correct." No indication from them of a ship date though.

I thought this might interest you DeLorme PN-40 users out there. While it hasn’t been announced yet, Cabela’s is showing DeLorme Topo USA 8.0 as backordered but shipping within one week. Perhaps we’ll hear an official DeLorme announcement by early next week, giving us some idea of the forthcoming improvements.

Thanks Chris!

TomTom ONE and XL IQ Routes editions heading to U.S.?

Yesterday TomTom announced new editions of the TomTom ONE and XL, featuring IQ Routes and Advanced Lane Guidance, which had previously been available only on newer GO models. While these new models are first being introduced in Germany, France, Belgium, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Australia and New Zealand, GpsPasSion is reporting that they will ultimately make their way to the U.S. Others are speculating that we won't see them on this side of the pond until TomTom reduces its backlog of inventory here in the States.

Garmin nuvi 885T review

The Garmin nüvi 885T is Garmin’s top of the line voice command navigator. Updating the nuvi 880, the 885T adds junction view, lane assist and a speed limit indicator. It is also compatible with the third generation of MSN Direct services, including doppler radar and flight status.

Garmin Approach G5 now available

UPDATE: Now available at Amazon too.

The Garmin Approach G5, a specialized touch-screen golf GPS based on the Oregon platform, is now shipping from GPSNow. The Approach includes thousands of pre-loaded courses, with more to follow.

Long-time readers know that GPS Now is one of our favorite vendors, due to nice extras like the free FedEx priority overnight shipping they are offering on the Approach G5. So if you order by 5 p.m. Central Time, you can have it tomorrow and be out on the links with it this weekend. Here’s the order link.

And here’s a couple more resources that may be helpful:

• Garmin Aproach G5 FAQ
• Garmin Approach G5 quick start manual (PDF)

TomTom Map Update Service

TomTom has officially announced the availability of its Map Update Service^TM for U.S. and Canadian consumers, allowing access to one year of quarterly map updates, for a one-time fee as low as $39.80, or $9.95 per map release.