Category: GPS

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Spending an afternoon with the Nikon Coolpix P6000

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My users group gave away a new Nikon Coolpix P6000 at our meeting over the weekend. Before we gave it away, I got a chance to try it (test it to make sure it was a good prize 😉 ) out for the afternoon. I must say that this little camera packs quite a punch. I would guess that this is Nikon’s answer to the Canon G9/G10. This camera is aimed at people that want the best possible quality and feature set that they can get out of a point and shoot camera and just short of a DSLR. This is also the same camera that Phil Shiller showcased during his Macworld Expo Keynote address as being one of the new cameras with a built-in GPS. That feature is key to the new “Places” feature in iPhoto ’09.

Nikon vs. Canon

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Without turning this into a Nikon vs. Canon fight (does anyone ever win those anyway?), let me start by saying (again), that I use both. I have Nikon professional DSLRs and Canon point and shoot as well as Canon video equipment. So spare me your my side is better than your side arguments. They’re both good! I’ve just always been drawn to Nikon gear on the DSLR side and Canon gear on the portable/consumer side. When I’m not shooting with my Nikon D700 or D300, I’m using my Canon ELPH 850IS. The problem is that I can’t remember the last time I used it. Not that the Canon is not a great point and shoot camera, the problem is that I’m just using my DSLR more and more. I take it with me when I travel. I use it more on the go than I thought I ever would. The ELPH is nice because it stays in my computer bag at all times. I always have a camera with me.

Why don’t I use the point and shoot camera more?

That’s the real question! I’ve become a control freak. I want complete control over the settings in my camera. While point and shoot cameras do offer manual control, it seems that these options are often buried and not easily adjusted on the fly. Let’s face it! Point and shoot cameras are aimed at people that just want to….. wait for it…… point and shoot! The Nikon Coolpix P6000 changes all that by offering me the same controls I have on my DSLR. As a matter of fact the control dial has basically the same exact settings as my bigger cameras. Also once I’m in manual mode I can easily adjust Aperture and Shutter speed with the jog dial on the back. The other reason I don’t use my point and shoot more is because I really like shooting in Camera RAW. I know that this could easily start another fight/war. So again, if you love JPG and see no reason to use RAW, great for you!

I do see advantages to using RAW and you guessed it the P6000 does have a RAW shooting mode. The next reason for the lack of P&S use is probably the big one that’s not easy to overcome and that’s the great lenses that I have. No easy out for the P&S cameras there. However, the trade off is the P6000 can fit in my pocket. The DSLRs can’t!

The P6000 in action

One of the key features of this model is the built-in GPS for Geotagging. This was actually the most interesting feature to me and probably the only other one (besides RAW support) that would even make me think about upgrading my P&S camera. So I went out to run some errands with P6000 in tow. The minute I walked outside, I fired up the camera (I had already turned the GPS feature ON) and I wanted to see how long it would take to aquire a satellite signal from a cold boot. It took about 1 minute 30 seconds. Certainly not the fastst time in the world, but not unbearable either. I then turned the camera off and drove to my first location. I turned the camera back on when I got out of the car the sat aquistion took only about 33 seconds this time. Much better and about the norm. One word of warning though, other reviews I’ve read warned about excessive battery drain with the GPS turned on. While I’m sure having the GPS on does take more power, I didn’t notice any signficant battery drain. However, keep in mind that I only used this for a few hours on a Saturday. The other thing that makes me chuckle is when people complain about the GPS not working well indoors. All I’ll say to this is, ur um DUH! I wouldn’t expect any GPS to work to well indoors! The complaint about it not working well around tall buildings in an urban environment is more of a valid complaint. However, I see that same complaint about most post portable GPS units. I did notice about a 60 second sat acquistion on a downtown street as opposed to 30 seconds, but it did work.

I took some shots in RAW and JPG. There’s a nice indicator right on the BIG LCD screen that lets you know when you have sat signal. There’s no mistaking it. I just had to assume that it was working. When you go to the GPS setting in the camera, you do see the current longitude and latitude. Also when you review the images you’ve taken, the GPS icon will be lit on the LCD if those images contain GPS data. I of course would have no way of knowing if the location was accurate until I got back to my computer.

Speed or not so much speed

Shooting in JPG the speed of the camera was as good as any other point and shoot camera I’ve used. No complaints there. However, shooting in RAW was a different story. There is a noticable lag from the time you press the shutter until you can take the shot while it clears the buffer. This lag was about 3-5 seconds. Yes, even with a fast SD card. So if you’re going to use this camera to shoot in RAW, you’re not going to be shooting anything with fast motion like sports. For portrait or landscape work you’ll be fine.

Overall

I was pleased with the image quality of both my RAW and JPG files. The RAW format is not the standard NEF format that is common amongst Nikon DSLRs. It’s actually NRW. Apparently this is a RAW format specfically aimed at the Coolpix line of cameras. To be honest, I don’t really care what the extension is as long as it’s supported in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and Adobe Camera RAW and it is! I brought my shots into Lightroom with no problem. I even converted one of the NRWs to DNG with with no problem.

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The JPEG above actually has the GPS data in it.

I then checked out the GPS data in Lightroom using the Google Maps integration and here’s where it took me. It wasn’t dead on, I was standing about 30 feet from the spot pin pointed on the map, but that’s actually within acceptable parameters for GPS units in general. It may be a little less accurate than my di-GPS Pro, but certainly still usable.

The Bottom Line

If there was a situation where I couldn’t or didn’t want to take my DSLR, then this would be my camera of choice. I like the size and I’m comfortable with the controls. Also the hotshoe should be compatible with my Nikno speedlights, Pocket Wizards, etc. I do wish the RAW capture speed was faster and since I’m in no hurry for a new P&S camera, I may wait for the next rev. My only other complaint with this model is that it comes with a AC adapter that plugs into the camera to charge the battery. I would much rather have an external battery charger (like the ones that have always come with my Canon ELPH cameras) so that I can charge one battery while shooting with another. I’m sure that there’s probably another charger out there that does this, but I would have liked to have seen it in the box. Also at the $499 asking price, I would definitely expect it! Lastly the camera comes with an Ethernet port built-in. I didn’t even bother with trying this out because everything I read was that this is for uploading your pictures to Nikon’s Picture Town sharing site. While that’s all fine and good, if you’re going go through the trouble of putting a high speed ethernet port on your camera, let me use it for other things like a super fast way of downloading my images to my drive or uploading them to other sites beside the Nikon one. I should also mention that this camera does record video and audio too. It does 640×480 video at 30fps. I did not get a chance to test this. However, I did test the voice annotation feature and it worked great! That’s pretty much it! I only had one afternoon with this camera and it does what it claims to do.

The Nikon Coolpix P6000 13.5MP, 4x Wide Angle Optical Zoom with Vibration Reduction. See the full specs here. Also Amazon has it now for only $357! The price seems to vary daily.

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Terry White Recommends…

I have fun reviewing technology and gadgets. Now that I’ve been running my blog for a few years, it occurs to me that new readers may not have seen some of my earlier posts. I also get asked by friends and relatives all the time to recommend my top choice in any given category. I do this formally once a year in my Holiday Gadget Gift Guide, but that doesn’t really help you much when you want recommendations throughout the rest of the year. So I’ve put together my own Terry White Recommends aStore. I will constantly update this site with any new recommendations that I have. These are products that I either have first hand knowledge of or use on a very regular basis. I have no paid sponsors, so these are products that I simply feel are great!

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Garmin Nüvi GPS Vent Mount

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If I rent a car while traveling, them I’m going to be using my Garmin Nüvi 765t GPS. I’ve never been a fan of suction cup mounts because they just simply don’t work well for me. I had moved to a bean bag style (friction) mount which works great. However, it’s not very small and when I’m traveling every bit of space counts as I hate checking my bags. When I bought my Nüvi 765t, I noticed a very small mount that actually clips right on to the AC vent of your car. I bought one of these on eBay and used it on a personal trip last month to Wisconsin. I don’t even remember what kind of car I had on that trip, but the mount worked PERFECTLY. 

 

It puts the GPS in the perfect spot

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Although it’s nice to have the GPS at eye level on the window or dashboard, it does mean that technically part of your view is being blocked. However, having the GPS mounted just below the dash on the vent, is ideal. I’ve seen cup holder mounts and while they seem to be out of the way, I think I would find that position just to low depending on where the cup holder is in the car.

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The size of this mount is also perfect. So small that it would easily fit in a jacket pocket. The price is also right at about $5. I don’t know what other GPS systems this will work with, but if you have a Garmin GPS, then you should really check out this mount.

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iPhone App of the Week – iWant

There are quite a few iPhone apps that try to be your one stop shop for all the businesses around you that you may want to go to. While I have tried many of them, for some reason I keep coming back to iWant. iWant is a location based app that allows you to quickly find the closest restaurants, bars, cafes, grocery stores, drug stores, clothing stores, movie theaters/show times, hotels, department stores, banks, gas stations and car rental places.

 

How well does it work?

The interface is quite simple. Nice big icons that cover each of the above categories. Once you tap a category it will start to display all of the businesses around your current location based on the category you tapped on. It seems to do a pretty good job of finding just about every business I could think of around me in each given category except for the banks. There are three Bank of America banks nearby and it didn’t list any of them. There is a Comerica bank about a block away and it didn’t find that one either. Not sure if there is some brand preference going on or not, but it doesn’t find every business in every category. Even with this shortfall I still like it as I’ve found the same limitation in the other apps I’ve tried as well.

 

A couple of added benefits

Once you tap on a business, you get to see the address and of course the phone number which you can tap to dial. You also get to see it on the built-in Google Map app for easy directions to if from where you are. The Action menu at the bottom of the screen allows you to email your current location to anyone you like and it will automatically generate a link with your coordinates. This is cool when you are unfamiliar with the area and you’re trying to explain where you are. You also have a built-in option to email the developer. I wish more apps included this ability. You can also easily control the search radius with a slider.

 

The Bottom Line

It’s hard to go wrong with this app. It’s easy to use, it’s fast and best of all it’s FREE! Download it from the App Store now.

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The Garmin Nuvi 765T GPS Review

I’ve been a longtime fan of Garmin Nuvi’s. However, lately I’ve been carrying my much lower priced Navigon 2100 with me when I travel. Why would I carry a less feature rich device you ask? It’s actually quite simple. Although I love just about everything about the Garmin Nuvi, the one thing I fell in love with on the Navigon is something they call "3D Reality View." It seems that whenever I’m in an unfamiliar area (which is why I’d be using my GPS in the first place), I would always be in the wrong lane. This would either cause me to miss my exit or exit too soon. On the Navigon 2100 whenever I approached a complex highway exchange, the Navigon would throw up photo realistic highway signs that displayed the exact text that was on the real signs with markers for the lane you’re supposed to be in. Once I drove around California with this feature I was hooked! Recently Garmin sent out a survey and I answered the survey about what I liked about the Nuvi and what I wished were better. The one feature I wanted was this form of "lane assist" and the next thing I knew, it was here! I happened to notice an ad for the Garmin Nuvi 755T, 765T, 775T and 785T and all of these units include a feature called "lane assist." Had I just seen that in text, I probably wouldn’t have paid much attention to it. However, it was the screen shot that got me!:

 

Next it was simply just a matter of deciding which of the four models I wanted. This was the one feature that was keeping me from using my existing Garmin and using a lesser model. Don’t get me wrong, the Navigon 2100 is a great GPS for the money (it’s my most frequently read review with well over 110,000 reads)! However, the Garmin Nuvi offers so much more and as well it should since it also costs 3-5 times more. I ran a comparison of these four models to see which one was right me. I immediately eliminated the 755T because I wanted Bluetooth. Garmin Nuvi’s with Bluetooth allow you to also use it as a handsfree speaker phone while you’re driving. Since I use my portable GPS mostly in rental cars, this feature is a big plus. The 775T seems to come with maps of Europe and the 785T comes with MSN support. Neither of these two features were important to me nor did they justify the huge difference in price. So it was the 765T for me! 

 

Speaking of price

Don’t let Garmin’s retail prices scare you! Nobody would pay these prices! The Garmin Nuvi 765T lists for $599.99 or Garmin’s site. There’s NO WAY I would pay that much for a GPS these days. I started doing some price shopping. Unfortunately I wasn’t seeing the 765T for much under $435 (still much better than retail). I was all set to ask for gift cards for the holidays and I would pool them together to get one. Then it happened! I was looking at Amazon.com a couple of days before Thanksgiving and it was there for only $349! I was stunned! Was this a mistake? I paused for a minute, and then I went for it. The next day after I ordered it, it went back up to the regular price of $435. Prices do fluctuate on Amazon.com all the time. So keep a watch on it. Although it was sold through Amazon, it was actually Car Toys that delivered it. I see right now that their price is a little cheaper right on the Amazon page (on the right side of the page). 

 

Taking it for a spin

 

I couldn’t wait to put it to the test. So although I was home and have a GPS built-in to my car, I put the Nuvi 765T on my dash board and ran some errands. It was GREAT! It was fast and responsive. Plotting good routes (all GPSes plot wacky routes at times). Then I came up on an intersection and BAM! There it was, a beautiful photo illustrating which lane I should be in. Although this was it! This was the feature I’d been waiting for Garmin to release, there is still room for improvement. My only issue with the 3D view is that it simply doesn’t stay up long enough. If you’re concentrating on the road, you could actually miss the display when it pops up. It seems to stay up much longer on the Navigon. It’s not the end of the world and it’s something easily fixed via firmware update. So Garmin, if you’re reading this, let’s get this display to stay up a few seconds longer. I also noticed that the Nuvi 765T now displays the current speed limit of the road you’re on. Another cool feature of the Navigon. However, it seems that all the 765T does is display the speed limit whereas my Navigon actually has a programmable warning if you exceed the limit by a set amount. I went 15 MPH over the limit on the Nuvi and not a peep.

 

 

True Lane Assist

 

In addition to the 3D photo that pops up to show you which lane you should be in, the 765T also displays another form of Lane Assist in the upper left corner, which shows you which of the lanes you should/could be in. For example if you’re approaching a 4 lane pass, you may only be able to take the upcoming exit if you’re in one of the two far left lanes. This feature will highlight the lanes you can be in and still make the exit. I like this feature A LOT! 

 

Why am I back to the Nuvi?

You might be asking at this point, if the Navigon that I already owned had the most important feature to me, why would I spend more money on another Garmin Nuvi? That’s a valid question and here’s the answer. While the Navigon had the one feature that I really loved, the Nuvi had everything else! The Nuvi is more than just a GPS. It’s also a media player, language translator, audiobook player, etc. Sure I have most of these features in my iPhone, but it’s nice having all this in my GPS because it also sports an FM transmitter built-in. This way I can have all of this sound play over the car speakers. The Navigon 2100 has none of this. While these features are nice-to-haves, the most important thing that sets the Nuvi 765T apart is performance and UI. The Navigon units can be sluggish to operate at times. They also have small text that is hard to read depending upon your eyes. The Garmin units use nice big icons and respond almost instantaneously to the touch. Another great feature of the Nuvi is the integration with my computer. With the Nuvi I can mount it on my desktop and drag files to it. I can also download custom points of interest (POI) files to it. I found a great site for getting custom POI files of your favorite stores, restaurants, etc. For example, I have all the PF Chang’s in my Garmin (probably not a good thing 🙂 ). No matter where I am, it will tell me where the closest one is. Same for Best Buy, Apple Stores, Morton Steak Houses, etc. etc. 

 

The Bottom Line

This is by far the best portable GPS I have owned to date. It’s not perfect, but it does offer the perfect blend of features, price and performance. It is very customizable and Garmin has free utilities for both the Mac and PC. Turn-by-turn voice navigation, fast responsive user interface. Several cool features and the new rubberized coating feels good to the touch. Mine came with the 2009 Map File already loaded and Garmin is pretty good about making timely updates available. If you’re looking for a top of the line, feature rich GPS, this is it!

 

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Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk – Detroit

The Detroit group for the Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk. Photo by Joseph Grey

 

This past weekend over 8,000 photographers from around the world participated in Scott Kelby’s Worldwide Photo Walk to promote his NEW Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers. Over 200 cities from around the world were included and I’ve seen some AMAZING photos already from various places.

Of course I used this opportunity to also give my new di-GPS Pro a workout. So you can click on any of the geotagged photos below to see where I was when I took them. These were all taken with my Nikon D300 and 18-200mm VR lens.

I lead the Detroit walk and we had an absolute BLAST! Everyone was in good spirits and we just had a good time hanging out on Detroit’s International Riverfront and walking up and down the Riverwalk. It’s always interesting to see what 40-50 different photographers shooting the same location come up with. Every one’s “eye” is different and therefore you get different perspectives. I saw photos of things that I said “wow, I wish I had thought to shoot that that way!” So it was a learning experience for me and I can’t wait to do more of these. What was even more amazing was that there were no Canon vs. Nikon fights. 🙂 I’m just kidding, we did have to break up a couple, but at the end of the day they were hugging so it was all good. (OK, I’m totally joking, we all got along great)

I did manage to get some good shots and although I’m not eligible for the contest, I had fun shooting and posting my shots nonetheless.

I grabbed this shot of my good friend Chita. I couldn’t resist. There was something about her eyes that drew me in. 🙂

These kids were having a ball running up and down through the fountain. Some of the other photographers got some award winning shots of these two. Sadly, mine were just “ok”.

Here’s a shot of my buddy Housain who has that kind of face that just begs to be photographed.

 

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 is an amazing upgrade that takes an already great app to the next level! I can’t wait to see Scott’s new book on it.

 

If you want to see the rest of the shots from the Detroit walk, check them out here. People are still uploading, so check back often.

 

If you want to see the shots from all the various locations around the world, go here.

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di-GPS Pro for Nikon DSLRs – GeoTagging!

Back in November of 2007 I wrote about using the N2 di-GPS with my Nikon D300 and I was quite happy with it then and I’ve been happy with it all along. This little GPS unit writes the longitude and latitude of where you are at the time you took your shots, directly to the EXIF data of the images. No post processing required. Once the GPS coordinates are there you can use various apps or services to plot your picture locations on a map. Adobe Photoshop Lightroom is great for this as well as www.flickr.com.

I really didn’t think that were was too much that they could do to make this accessory better. Boy was I wrong! As it turns out there were two areas that could be improved and guess what? They made those two improvements! When you use any GPS device, the first thing you have to do is wait for the GPS to acquire a satellite signal. Depending on the GPS device this could be anywhere from 30 seconds to 2-3 minutes. The N2 di-GPS was always pretty quick (closer to 30 seconds), but I didn’t like having to wait that 30 seconds or so every time I wanted to use it. So once I put in my camera, I would just leave it in the ON position during my entire shoot so that it stayed on even if the camera was off. Since it gets its power from the camera, this would ultimately shorten the battery life of the camera too. It wasn’t bad so I just lived with it. The other area for improvement was that the model I had been using ties up the 10 pin terminal port on the camera. So if you had another accessory such as a shutter release, you had to decide which one was more important to you.

I didn’t even know that Dawn Technologies had come out with a new "Pro" model until someone who read my original review asked me which one did I have? This lead me to their site and to read up on the new model. Well they did it! They made a great device even better. The NEW di-GPS Pro has all the great benefits of the first model, plus a built-in battery to save GPS satellite location information even when the unit is OFF AND a Terminal Pass Through Port! That’s right you can plug in the GPS into your Nikon (or Fuji) camera and then plug in your accessory into the top of the di-GPS Pro. This will come in handy as I do have a shutter release cable and YES, there was at least one time that I wanted to use both at the same time. I was doing a beach shoot and wanted to geotag the location and use my shutter release cable at the same time. I couldn’t do it! So I ended up using the release cable instead of the GPS. Using the camera’s timer in that situation wasn’t an option. I was trying to shoot the waves as they came in and I had to hit the shutter just at the right time.

I’ve known about this model for a couple of months now and I actually wasn’t going to upgrade. Gasp! (I know, right?) That was until someone saw my existing model and said that if I ever wanted to upgrade (sell it), that they would be buy it. Of course that’s all I needed to hear and I ordered the di-GPS Pro the next day. It arrived two days after I placed the order! They’ve really got their shipping process down as it comes directly from Hong Kong. They don’t having any resellers in the US (which amazes me).

 

Putting the di-GPS Pro to the test

I wasn’t too worried about the unit actually working. What I was more curious about was satellite acquisition times and how long it would take to reacquire the signal after being turned OFF. I had to go pick up dinner at one of my favorite restaurants and decided to take it with me for a test. I sat in the parking lot and turned it on for the first time after connecting it to my Nikon D700. I then timed it. It took exactly 35 seconds to acquire a signal. I then snapped this shot and turned it off (click on it to see the location):

I went into restaurant and picked up my order. Afterwards I got back in my car and took a drive to Woodward Avenue. This is the site of the annual Woodward Dream Cruise where all the classic cars cruise up and down Woodward all weekend. Although it was Thursday, I was sure there would be some cruisers out there and I was right. I pulled over where I saw these two beauties parked and I turned the di-GPS Pro back on. I was floored! The signal was acquired INSTANTLY! Seriously it was like ONE SECOND and I had a solid red light. I then snapped these two shots before turning it off again and driving a little further to grap that last shot. (click on them to see the location):

 

 

 

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 gives you a one click link from your GPS data to the location on Google Maps

 

The Bottom Line

If you already have the N2 di-GPS, then you’re probably fine as you are and don’t "need" to upgrade. However, if you use it a LOT and turn it off and on a lot or you have additional things that you would like to plug into the terminal port then this model is a must have. Also if you’re going to buy one for the first time, the I would spend the extra $70 to go up to the Pro model. The built-in battery for saving GPS satellite location info is worth it (to me). Both models work natively with the following cameras: Nikon D3, D700, D300, D2XS, D2X, D2HS & D200, Fujifilm S5 Pro. The D3, D700 and D300 even have a GPS menu right on the camera to display status information about your GPS device:

I was also happy to see that this model came with a little carrying case. A nice touch and a welcomed addition.

The di-GPS Basic goes for $198 and the di-GPS Pro goes for $268. There is a flat $45 shipping free. Shipments are via FedEx and FAST! Order here.

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More on the iPhone 3g

Now that the dust has settled a bit on yesterday’s announcement of the iPhone 3g, a few little tidbits are coming to the surface:

  • The iPhone 3g will REQUIRE in-store activation! So no more picking one up, never activating it on AT&T (or whomever) and jailbreaking it just to resell it.
  • The AT&T data plan is going up by $10/month to $30/month instead of the original $20/month. Rod Harlan has an interesting take on that and the price comparison between the iPhone 1.0 and iPhone 3g.
  • As it stands right now, no online orders for the iPhone. You’ll have to go into a retail outlet to get one!
  • See the Steve Jobs WWDC ’08 Keynote introducing the iPhone 3g and iPhone 2.0 software update here.

So it looks like even though the entry price for the iPhone is only $199, Apple has tightened up on making sure you activate your iPhone with the appropriate carrier (and sign up for the 2 year contract). Also for those that ask the question: “why is it that I can get a 16GB iPhone 3g for $299 while an iPod touch 16GB goes for $399?”, the answer is with the iPhone you can’t use it without signing up for phone service. Apple appears to be taking a more traditional method of using the service contract to bring down the entry price of the phone. It will be interesting to see as time goes on, whether they will officially offer an unlocked version here in the states at a higher price?

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iPhone 3g coming July 11, 2008

As expected Apple announced the iPhone 3g today! This is the iPhone that takes advantage of faster 3g data networks for near wi-fi data speeds.

 

It’s the software stupid

Apple lead their keynote today with lots of talk about software. As with any successful platform, it will live or die by the apps that are available for it. Apple realizes that they can’t do everything that everyone wants. So many 3rd party developers announced and showcased their apps today. Apple also showcased their support for Microsoft’s Exchange syncing which is HUGE in the corporate world. Not to leave consumers out, Apple announced “mobileme“. Mobileme is the successor to Apple’s .Mac service. This service will provide push email, calendar, contacts and photos to consumer users of the iPhone.

3rd party iPhone apps will range in price from FREE on up. You’ll get your apps directly through the iPhone App store on your iPhone running the 2.0 software.

 

What we know…

  • Shipping: July 11, 2008
  • Software: iPhone 2.0 as a free download to existing iPhone users and $9.95 for iPod touch users
  • Capacity: 8GB (only in black) and 16GB (available in black or white)
  • Speed: 3g data network
  • GPS: YES!
  • Push Data: via Microsoft Exchange and Apple’s NEW mobileme (no announcement of when mobileme goes live)
  • iPhone 2.0 Software and the iPhone App store: a free download to existing iPhone users ($9.95 for iPod touch users) in early July.
  • Terry’s Pet Peeves Addressed: Not sure what else from my list of “50 ways to make the iPhone better” will get solved in the 2.0 version, but one thing that has been added is a Search feature for Contacts. Also we now get Bulk Delete and Move of things like email messages.
  • Other NEW Features: View PowerPoint, and iWork (Pages, Numbers & Keynote) document attachments. New Scientific Calculator. Adding photos from emails to your iPhone Pictures library. Also many more languages are included.
  • Price: 8GB model $199!, 16GB model $299

Learn more here.

 

iPhone 3G: Twice as fast. Half the price!

Probably one of the biggest shocks of this announcement was the price! You’ll be able to get a iPhone 3g 8GB model for a mere $199. The 16GB model will go for $299. Both models are slated to be available Friday, July 11th (I’ve got to imagine that there is some idiot out there who is already standing in line. Please tell me it isn’t so!) Don’t get me wrong, I plan to upgrade on day one, but camping has never been my thing 🙂

When you think about it, $199 is a STEAL for a touch screen iPhone, with a GPS, that is also an iPod that plays video, does web, email, mapping and allows for 3rd party apps. Wow! The first 5GB iPod was $399 if that gives you some perspective.

 

Start the countdown…. July 11th can’t get here fast enough!

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Navigon 2100 1.2 Update

Although I’m a fan of Garmin GPS units I keep coming back to the one feature I like best about the Navigon 2100 and that’s the 3D Reality View (pictured above). With the Navigon there is no guessing about which lane I should be in.

 

Good just got better

Navigon quietly released their 1.2 firmware update which provides the following fixes/new features:

  • Improved routing
  • Updated ZAGAT SURVEY Ratings & Reviews
  • Improved user interface
  • Revised voice prompts for highway entrances & exit ramps
  • Improved accuracy of ETA information
  • Updated Maps

The 1.2 update weighs in at a hefty 2GB’s! However, it’s very worth the effort and time to download. I noticed right off the bat the Navigon 2100 is now more responsive and while I’ve used it this week while traveling in Portland, it’s been a real joy. You can download the 1.2 update by logging in to your My Navigon area of their website. Be sure to backup your existing SD card data first!

 

With the update and performance I’ve been getting so far this week, this little low cost GPS unit may just become my first choice when I travel!

You can buy the Navigon 2100 for $151.71 at Amazon.com.