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Updated October 10th, 2008 Globalsat's third generation GH-625 GPS watch has come in for testing and the saying "third time a charm" seems to apply!
The new design and form factor now make for quite a sleek device that remains a bit large to be worn as an "ordinary" watch like the Garmin Forerunner 405 but still houses a large screen capable of displaying a track on the map page. The user interface has been enhanced too, particularly with the 4 custom pages that can host up to 4 fields. Also, laps that were missing on the the GH-615 are now available. More comments and pictures in this topic of the "Sports GPS Systems" forums.
Updated July 30th, 2008 - After the GH-601, their first GPS watch in 2006, that had an excellent battery life (18+ hours) but came short in a few areas (form factor, limited memory, slow interface), the GH-615 in 2007 that had an improved form factor, more memory, but shorter battery life, here comes the GH-625 that was first shown at CeBIT this year...
Updated October 8th, 2008 GPS PDAPhones with a SiRFstarIII chipset (still the best performer as seen here) are very difficult to find in the US. The major player is Eten, with its Glofish series, but they are hard to find and Eten has no presence in the US, so service and tech support can be problematic. MWg (website) have released the Zinc II in the US and it has a full SiRF III chipset inside. They have offices in the US and so tech support and warranty service is readily available. The Zinc II is currently being sold by Expansys and is priced at $499.99.
Paul took the MWg Zinc for a spin in the financial district of Manhattan, one of the worst places on earth for GPS reception and pitted it against the iPhone 3G. As expected the Zinc II performed significantly better, but more surprising was the accuracy of its tracks compared to previous tests carried out in Manhattan. GPS keeps getting better ! More Details and charts in this topic of the "PDAs and PDAPhones with built-in GPS" forums.
Updated May 16th, 2008 - HTC launched the Touch Diamond GPS PDAPhone in London on May 6th and in Paris on May 14th, where I got a chance to "spend some time" with it and found it to be a very impressive device : form factor, razor-sharp screen and packed with features. This fourth member in the "Touch" family of PDAPhones after the Touch, the Touch Dual and the Touch Cruise uses the integrated Qualcomm GPS module with off-line AGPS...
Updated October 6th, 2008 The Qstarz BT-Q1300 made it to the "GpsPasSion Labs" in September and I was able to perform many comparisons in various environments, driving, pedestrian in town, suburban train, to get a good feel for its performance as it has been somewhat variable.
The good news is that TTFF (Time to First Fix) is on par with receivers with a larger antenna, likely thanks to the new MTK v2 chipset rated at -148dBm for acquisition vs the usual -143/-145dBm. The "less good news" is that as expected the accuracy is somewhat lower than on the Qstarz 1000P and even more so compared to the SiRFstarIII Globalsat BT-335 when used on foot in dense urban areas. You can read all about it in this review on the portal.
Updated June 27th, 2008 - Ever since the SiRFstarIII chipset set the bar for high sensitivity GPS receivers in early 2005, the competition had only been able to equal its -159dBM sensitivity, but the new MTK vII (MTK 3329) chipset is rated at -165dBm. While 6dBm may not seem a lot, it actually computes to an x4 boost in sensitivity! Hard to imagine what that translates to in the field, but we should soon find out since it powers the...
Updated October 2nd, 2008 After announcing the nüMaps Guarantee last month, Garmin are completing their map offering with the "Lifetime Maps" program due to launch on October 15th. For $119 (€119 in Europe), subscribers will be able to download quarterly updates for their GPS system as long as they own it.
Compared to other map update programs on the market it falls in between Navigons's $79/3 years Freshmaps and TomTom's €68/1 year Map Update Service (unavailable in the US at this time). While it appears like a good way to stay up to date at a reasonable price, some users might balk at the asking price in a GPS market with freefalling prices. You can use this topic of the Garmin forums to discuss.
Updated September 11th, 2008 - Garmin have just rolled out a new map update policy called nüMaps that entitles users to a free map update if new maps become available within 60 days of the first use of their system. "First use" being determined by the GPS module getting a fix and the system being used for thirty seconds at a speed of at least 20 kph...
Update September 30th, 2008 Some forum members were wondering whether the previously announced Lowrance iWay 700 and 800 units with their giant screens would ever see the light of the day and the answer from Lowrance was more than they expected. Not only will these models not be released but Lowrance have in fact cancelled their iWay line of Road sytems that will have included the 500c, 350c, 250c and 600c. The good news is that the crossover XOG system remains alive and well. More details in this topic of the Lowrance section of the forums.
Updated November 28th, 2007 The Lowrance XOG has started to ship and we already have some user reviews in the forums : rwamf, jelive, map comparisons. Happy campers so far it seems and GPS reception of the new Glonav DynaTrak chipsets appears to live up to its "high sensitivity" rating...
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