GPS Watch from Globalsat: GH-601 / GH-602

If you're looking for a waterproof wrist-watch with GPS navigation that you could use when jogging, biking or even skiing then you should consider the Globalsat GH-601 or GH-602.

Unlike many Sat Nav systems which have fairly week signal strength, the device from Globalsat has the SirFStar III GPS chipset which should give you a signal in most environments.

You may be thinking about the difference between the 601 and 602 models, well the 602 adds an electronic compass and a barometric altimeter.

The battery gives you 16 hours of use with the GPS turned on and compass and altimeter turned off, without all three it amounts to 70 hours.

Funny voices for your Sat Nav

I've always wondered (but never got round to looking) if there are any voices I can download for my Tom Tom. But now a new survery featured on the Auto Channel and conducted by The Co-operative Bank has revealed that Peter Kay would be the top choice for motorists, whilst Joe Pasquale would be the least.

Mark Byrne, Head Marketing Management at Co-operative Financial Service (CFS), which recently launched Deal Check, a free valuation service for car buyers, in conjunction with What Car?, said: "This isn't science fiction. In the near future we could be changing sat nav voices like we download ring tones to our mobile phones.

Here's the list:

Favourite comedy voice
Peter Kay 49%
Homer Simpson 24%
Dawn French 12%
Jonathan Ross 9%
Victoria Wood 6%

Least favourite voice
Joe Pasquale 35%
Janet St Porter 29%
Cilla Black 16%
David Beckham 12%
Tony Blair 8%

Favourite male voice
Sean Connery 39%
Trevor Macdonald 20%
Tom Baker 14%
Terry Wogan 11%
Kelsey Grammer 11%
Other 4%

Favourite female voice
Carol Vorderman 32%
Fiona Bruce 28%
Mariella Frostrup 25%
Kathleen Turner 10%
Miriam Margoyles 4%

Other Useful Sat Nav Sites

To help you obtain the widest possible choice of Sat Nav retailers and information resources, we've added a list of such sites.

» The Navigation Company
They have a truely outstanding range of Sat Nav systems and product information.

» Nav Now
They currently have a wide range of Sat Nav systems, indluding the Aspen IVDN-7004, Becker Traffic Assist, Blaypunkt Lucca, Chicago, a whole range of Garmin, Magellan and Tom Tom unites.

Blaupunkt Sat Nav with MP3 Player

Blaupunkt are renowned for their innovative products and they continue the trend with the TravelPilot Lucca MP3. IT combines an MP3 / WMA player, photo-reviewer and a 3D GPS navigation system.

Whilst you drive it can play your favourite songs, but with only 512mb of memory it's really not much use for the dedicated music fan. But if you combine it with a CD player you should be fine.

Sat Nav to the Masses

The Nokia N70 and CoPilot will bring Sat Nav to the masses the Virgin.net technology editors assert.

They believe that we're heading down a route of portable gps devices being mobile phones rather than specific units such as a Tom Tom or Navman. This comes after the introduction of Symbian Series 60 handsets which began with the Nokia N70.

Whats really nice is the fact that the CoPilot Live 6 Software has been updated to allow voice guidance as well as colour 3D maps.

RAC: Sat Nav are dangerous

The RAC believe (i.e we believe they believe) that there are too many distractions when we drive. We've not only got road signs that don't always make sense, but we've got sat nav devices too.

If anyone's tried to navigate the M6 where it splits into the Toll Road and the M42 then you'll know what I'm on about. The Tom Tom says "keep left", well how far left you wonder as the signs above the road give indication of which lane we're supposed to be in. Whilst we confirm with the Tom Tom our concentration is distracted and our eyes move off the road.

We should all trust our sat nav devices and use them more to prewarn us of lane changing etc. It's normally other passengers, the radio, changing tracks and taking a quick swig of Lucazade that will distract us more.

What we're waiting for is "speech recognition" sat nav systems. Now they'll be great, but how they work when you're arguing with your passengers about whether if you're going to the shops on the way home from work or not is another matter.

If you can, go through the route summary before you leave and take a mental note of the roads you'll be traveling on.

Sat Nav Rental from Hertz

It's a good idea, and we're supprised that other car hire companies haven't thought of it sooner.

Basically what you've got to do is ask for a car that have "NeverLost" installed. To find out more view their FAQ.

Ford Helps Sat Nav Owners

Ford has announced that its 700 UK dealers will now be implementing a registration system to help secure Sat Nav devices against theft. They'll be security marking each unit so they'll be easier to trace and riskier to sell.

They'll be working in partnership with Retainagroup, the dealers will be marketing a simple DIY kit that has a unique id-code and 24 hour phone access to the Internation Security Register. The kit will cost £10 which is less than the usual £11.75.

Advice for Beating Sat Nav Theives

"Don’t lose your satellite navigation equipment to car thieves" says Avon and Somerset Police. Here's what they say.

With satellite navigation equipment become more popular with motorists, it is also becoming more popular with criminals.

Where it’s portable, keep it safe by taking it, together with the support cradle and suction pads, with you when you leave the car, and remember to wipe away any suction pad marks left on the windscreen or dashboard, as thieves will look out for these.

Don’t leave the equipment in the glove compartment – thieves will usually check there first.

You can also help by following these tips:

· Mark your satellite navigation equipment system with your postcode and house number or your vehicle registration number or another unique number, using special security markers.

· Make a note of the make, model and serial number of the equipment and keep the note somewhere safe – not in the car. Consider recording this information on one of the commercially available asset registers.

· Don’t leave anything on view in your car. Thieves are opportunists and it only takes them moments to break into the vehicle.

· Lock all doors and windows, not forgetting the sunroof, when leaving your car.

· Never leave the keys in the ignition when the car is unattended, even while you’re paying for petrol.

· Use car parks that are part of the police-approved Safer Parking Scheme. Approved car parks display the official “Park Mark” sign.

Garmin Biggest in the US

During the Christmas period it is reported that Garmin sold more units than any other manufacturer despite Tom Tom's huge expenditure. In second place was the Tom Tom which said total sales of personal navigation devices increasing by 192 percent in the fourth quater and Magallen (Thales Navigation Inc.) come in third with a market share that more than halved.

Medion Sat Nav for Traffic Updates

This sat nav system is cleverly positioned in the market. It is squarely focused on people that love traffic updates. With this model, the GoPAl PNA 350 gives you free traffic updates using the Traffic Message Channel which uses the FM signal to deliver up-to-the-minute guidance around pile-ups, jams and other problems.

Although its got a colour touch screen and put out a loud enough sound, there's no Bluetooth connectivity - but do you need it?

This model also uses the Navteq UK and Ireland database and will be avaliable from March.

Sat Nav for Pedestrians

If you're out at a meeting and forgotten to take the map off your desk and you've got 5 minutes to navigate your way through the streets of an unknown city what are you going to do? Well now you can reach for your mobile and connect to the MapWay Local Search using 02's i-mode.

You can navigate to any address in the UK and use the "What's Nearby" facility to see whats around you. But, as with many things these days, its not free when perhaps it should be. The £1.99 per month charge isn't excessive but it could deter some.

Snooper Indago Sat Nav System

Competition is good we think. So we welcome the launch of a new system called Indago.

It has a powerful GPS antenna and it's digital mapping system is based on Navteq and has the added feature of using the Enigma database which provides advanced warnings of accident black-spots, speed cameras and speed levels and over a million points-of-interest.

We expect the price to be under £600. More information can be found at Sat Nav 2 U.

Updated:
The system contains a full accessory pack
Quick release windscreen suction cup bracket
USB connector lead for fast efficient downloads from your PC
12V Power supply/charger - via cigarette lighter adapter
AC Adaptor/charger
Download Software Disc
Security Protected 256Mb SD Card
Protective Carry Case

JVC offers sat nav with songs and movies

The new eAvenu KV-PX9 (who thought of that name?) not only gets you home, to the office or back from the pub if you've lost your way (walking of course) but also has half of its 20gb storage set aside for music, photos and movies.

I'm not entirely sure why you'd want to watch movies or review your holiday snaps whilst on the move, but being able to listen to a bit of Fleetwood Mac whilst on the M6 shouldn't be too much of a distraction.

The added bonus is that its not a bad system. There's over 1 million points-of-interest in the UK and Europe.

It's due out in April.

Fujitsu Siemens Pocket Loox T810 / T830

Fujitsu Siemens have launched a new advanced 3G mobile phone that runs on Windows Mobile 5.0 and has WiFi and GPS navigation compatibility. The T830 model also has a 2.0 megapixel camera and VGA secondary camera.

It's a pretty neat phone to be honest, and one heck of suprise as I'm not the biggest fan of Fujitsu.

The details are the phone are pretty interesting too. It has a 416MHZ intel processor, 64Mb of expandable memory and is 802.11b and g WiFi support and Bluetooth. And here's the important point, it has an optional navigation package with use of the SIRFstar III module, although we're not sure of the cost yet.

Garmin sues TomTom on patent infringement

It has come to our attention that the US-based company Garmin is suing their Dutch rival Tom Tom. From what we can see the basis of Garmin's case is that they believe that TomTom is illegaly using fiveUS-patented technologies which form part of the routing algorythm.

What could the result of this case be? Well anything upto TomTom being barred from marketing their products in the US as well as financial sanctions.

Navman PiN 100

As a Portable GPS Pocket PC Navigation Stystem this is a winner.

All you have to do is install the maps from the CDs given, enter your destination and get out and about.

For a low-level model its worth considering.

Navman PiN 570 - Handheld & PDA

Their proprietory software called SmartST has simple and easy-to-use menus and is a good solution but not our Sat Nav of choice.

It's only got a 266MHZ processor which isn't anywhere near fast enough to cope with the software.

It's perhaps not as easy to use as the Tom Tom either when route planning.

Everyone's different, but we'll be avoiding this model.

Navman launches the iCN 635

The ICN 635 is positioned as Navman's premium model. The standard featires include simultaneous voice and visual driving instructions (just like the Tom Tom), automatic and manual zoom, Back-on-track re-routing and an extensive points-of-interest database.

Visit SatNav2u for other NavMan and Tom Tom models.

The iCN has a high-resolutions 3.8inch LCD screen which shows three-dimensional maps.