Like Geocaching? Checkout The New OpenCaching.com From Garmin

Are you a Geocaching geek? If so you might want to checkout the newest project from the fine folks over at Garmin. OpenCaching.com, a  free online community for creating, sharing and finding geocaches around the world.

“Garmin is extending its reputation for ease of use even further into geocaching, creating the most intuitive experience possible,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin’s vice president of worldwide sales. “By making it free and easy to download every detail of every cache, Opencaching.com will introduce more people to this great activity and show them just how fun, easy and rewarding it can be. OpenCaching.com gives us a chance to go beyond the development of hardware and software and interact directly with the vibrant global community of cachers.”

Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunt where participants of all ages explore the outdoors, hiding and finding containers of various shapes and sizes that are filled with collectables, trinkets and logbooks for signing in and letting fellow cachers know you were there. Creating a cache consists of placing a container in a public area, saving the GPS coordinates and uploading them to a website. Finding a cache is as simple as searching the website and downloading those details to a GPS handheld. As free and open as the great outdoors, OpenCaching.com was created to help promote the growth of geocaching and build the worldwide community of cachers.

The strength of OpenCaching.com lies within the geocaching community, from diehard cachers to families and classrooms trying it for the first time (for which there is an informative how-to guide included on the site). Everyone – regardless of experience or numbers of caches found or placed – is welcome to the same information and invited to get as involved as they want. OpenCaching.com will work with any device or software package that can read GPX files, regardless of manufacturer.

“Because OpenCaching is brand new, we’re counting on cachers everywhere to get creative and get involved,” said Bartel. “We want everyone who posts, seeks and finds a cache to have the pride of ownership in this new site, and there’s no better way than to build it together. As the word gets out about OpenCaching, we expect the number of caches posted to grow quickly.”

Garmin GPS Now Offers In-Store Trade-In Program

Trade-in programs are all the rage these days and it seems like everyone has one for almost everything out there. Well now there is one more kid on the trade-in block. Garmin GPS has announced a new in-store trade-in program that is launching exclusively at the Garmin Chicago Store.

With the new program owners of qualifying automotive or fitness GPS units can trade-in their used equipment for credit toward the purchase of a new device. Garmin customers can call the store today for more information or visit the Chicago Store online to see if you have a qualifying automotive or fitness unit.

As with most these trade-in programs the trade-in value isn't much compared to selling it yourself, however it does take some of the hassle out of selling the items yourself. A qualifying automotive trade-in will land you a $35 credit toward a new purchase, and a qualifying fitness trade-in will get you $25 toward a new purchase.

Note that not all Garmin product model types are eligible for the trade-in program. Even if a particular model is eligible, a particular unit will only be accepted for trade-in if it is functional, unaltered, and has no screen damage. Other restrictions apply. See a store associate for complete details.

Get Looney Tunes Character Voices On Your TomTom GPS

Voice navigation is a great feature on any GPS unit but lets face it sometimes those voice can just be flat out annoying. So I say lets add a little fun to the mix, and that's just what the folks at VoiceSkins.com have done in the form of some of our favorite Looney Tunes characters.

VoiceSkins.com, in association with Warner Bros., Consumer Products and TomTom, brings the classic and official Looney Tunes characters to TomTom navigation devices for the very first time. Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam are the first two out of five Official Celebrity GPS VoiceSkins to have recently launched with Daffy Duck and Sylvester/Tweety launching this month and another long time Looney Tunes favorite Pepe Le Pew coming in November.

All Looney Tunes voices will be available in English. The Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam voices are available for download immediately for $12.95. TomTom customers will also be able to download free of charge various official warning alert sounds voiced by Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam, along with free start up screen wallpapers for customizing their devices.

To hear clips of the voices -- and to find out more about them -- visit www.tomtom.com/looneytunes.

If Looney Tunes isn't your thing VoiceSkins.com offers several other great packages including the original Homer Simpson voice, recorded by Dan Castellaneta, the voice of Snoop Dogg and the official Star Wars voices.

Practical Tips For Sat Nav Drivers

This guest post was written by Zara Turner from Satellite Navigation UK

Unfortunately it is not always as simple as typing in post code into your satellite navigation system and relying on that system to reach your desired destination as quickly and safely as possible. In reality, users face quiet a few problems along their way using satellite navigation. Here are some useful and informative tips from the fine folks at Satellite Navigation UK for drivers armed with sat nav devices.

Hook into speakers

The smartphone speakers are thin when compared to those on dedicated sat navs, making it very difficult for the drivers to hear instructions on motorways. If your car stereo can utilize the 3.5mm input, link this to your smartphone and use your car stereo speakers to pipe the instructions. Alternatively, the phone can be connected to advanced Bluetooth speaker to achieve better clarity.

This practice will make hearing your directions much easier and provide a much clearer sound for more distinction between odd street names and or muffled directions.

Do not rely on postcodes alone

Your sat nav may support the postcode option, but relying on it completely may not be the most effective use of your system at all times. The postcode search could work fine in cities and towns where a single code covers a handful of houses, however this may not be the case while in rural areas. In various rural areas a postcode search may be completely useless as one post code could cover the entire village. In these cases it would be best to always utilize the complete address.

Beware of Heated Windscreens

Heated windscreens or heat-reflective screens can cause interference with GPS reception making it difficult for your sat nav to receive GPS signals. The problem can be addressed by fixing an external antenna and running the wire up behind the rear view mirror where the heated windscreen usually meshes with the roof of the car. The addition of the external antenna should reduce the interference cause by the heatd windshield thus boosting reception.

Stay up to date

Roads, speed limits and speed camera positions change frequently, hence it is better to take advantage of any updates your sat nav manufacturer may offer. Some sat nav manufacturers only offer free road map updates where as other may other update options such as traffic, road construction and more. This service is not only important for adding in some of the newer roads, speeds limits or other possible issues but it having the latest updates can be very useful for faster, safer and tension free driving to your destinations.

Readers wanting more tips or information on safer use of their sat nav systems or those wanting reviews on popular systems like the LG sat Nav systems, Kenwood systems and Magellan systems can compare sat nav prices and reviews at the Satellite Navigation System Reviews website.

Garmin Adds New Oregon 450 & Oregon 450t Touchscreen GPS

All you outdoors geeks looking to for the latest in touchscreen mania look no further as today Garmin introduced two new touchscreen based GPS handhelds the Oregon 450 and Oregon 450t (topographic).

The 450 and 450t are the newest of Garmin’s next-generation outdoor handhelds featuring online community compatibility with Garmin Connect as well as Garmin’s free Custom Maps utility for transferring paper or digital maps onto your new handled.

“More than ever, Garmin offers intuitive touchscreen options for anyone exploring and enjoying the world around them,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin’s vice president of worldwide sales. “Oregon 450t and Oregon 450 provide a bridge between the slimmed-down Dakota family and the top-of-line Oregon 550t, all of which work seamlessly with Garmin Custom Maps in planning your adventure and Garmin Connect for reliving the experience and sharing the memories.”

Weighing only 6.8 ounces, the Oregon 450t and Oregon 450 last up to 16 hours on two AA batteries. Each device has a high-sensitivity GPS receiver with HotFixTM, which automatically calculates and stores critical satellite information and can use that information to quickly calculate a position. The new Oregon models have 850 MB of internal memory and a microSD card slot for photos and optional map data, and you can store up to 2,000 waypoints, 200 routes, 5,000 caches and a tracklog of up to 10,000 points and 200 saved tracks.

Geocachers can help the environment and be more efficient by going paperless with Oregon by quickly downloading cache information directly to the device. Oregon stores and displays key information such as location, terrain, difficulty, hints and description, so that you don’t have to tote printouts with you.

Both units are immediately available to order now on Garmin's site, and the Oregon 450 retails for $399.99, while the 450t will cost you $499.99.

Source: Garmin Press Releases

Magellan Launches Premium Car Kit for iPhone and iPod Touch

New Cradle Provides Complete Hands-Free Navigation Solution

Magellan, one of the leading GPS brands, today announced an innovative new vehicle mount for the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS and second generation iPod touch. With a built-in GPS receiver for improved navigation accuracy, the Premium Car Kit features an amplified speaker for crystal clear directions and enhanced Bluetooth hands-free calling and clear turn-by-turn directions.

For iPod touch 2G users, the GPS receiver in the Magellan Premium Car Kit allows true navigation functionality, turning the iPod touch into a complete car navigation system. Once the iPod touch is connected to the Premium Car Kit, a separate Bluetooth enabled mobile phone can be connected to it via Bluetooth for hands-free calling.

"Building on the ease of the Magellan RoadMate app, we are proud to introduce a cutting-edge Premium Car Kit that gives our consumers the entire in-car navigation experience from their iPhone or iPod touch," said Peggy Fong ,Chief Operating Officer for Magellan.

Features of the Premium Car Kit include the following:

• Secure vehicle mounting for iPhone or iPod touch
• Accommodates most silicon skins and hard shell cases
• Adjustable mount securely rotates iPhone to either portrait or landscape mode for optimal positioning and widescreen route display
• Recharges battery via the vehicle power outlet
• Amplified speaker with volume control for loud and clear phone calls and directions
• Noise canceling microphone for full duplex speakerphone operation
• Auxiliary audio output (for connection to your car stereo)
• Works with all navigation applications (including the Magellan RoadMate for iPhone application)
• Bluetooth enables hands-free calling

Available now for pre-order, the car kit will retail for $129.99 and will be available at Amazon.com, Best Buy, and MagellanGPS.com.

Garmin-Asus Introduces nüvifone M20

BARCELONA, Spain/February 12, 2009/Business Wire — Garmin-Asus, a co-branded alliance between Garmin Ltd., and ASUSTeK Computer Inc., today announced the Garmin-Asus nüvifone M20, an all-in-one phone, mobile web-browser and premium navigation system with a Windows Mobile operating system. The Garmin-Asus nüvifone M20 will be on display at GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, February 16-19, 2009, at the Garmin-Asus exhibit.

As the first Garmin-Asus nüvifone powered by Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional with enterprise email, the sleek and colorful nüvifone M20 is designed for on-the-go professionals who want a fashionable and functional smartphone to manage their busy work and personal lives. This powerful device combines a dual-band 3.5G/tri-band GSM phone with Wi-Fi connectivity, desktop-like internet browser, push email, document viewing, multi-media capability, Bluetooth and Garmin sat nav.

The nüvifone M20’s full QWERTY soft keyboard makes it easy to send and receive SMS, MMS and emails. The nüvifone M20 can also be synched with a computer so that contacts and emails are always available. HSDPA wireless connectivity and enterprise grade Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g) ensure messages are sent and received quickly, including those with attachments.

Recognizing that location is relevant to every aspect of every day, the nüvifone M20 is designed with location based services (LBS) at its core and has the most advanced LBS experience of any Windows Mobile phone. Navigation functions are linked to frequently used applications such as calendar, contacts, email, internet applications and more, simplifying the nüvifone user’s day as they travel from one location to another.

The nüvifone M20 supports download speeds of up to 7.2 Mbps and offers a desktop-style web browsing experience. Users can zoom and pan web pages with their finger as they view the information in either portrait or landscape orientation. In addition, they can easily navigate to an address on a web page with only a few taps of the screen.

The GPS features of the nüvifone M20 usher in a level of sophistication never seen before on a Windows Mobile smartphone. It has the navigation capability of a premium Garmin nüvi sat nav, and comes with preloaded maps and points of interest (POIs) – hotels, restaurants, stores, fuel stations and more – for North America, Eastern and Western Europe, or other regions. Selecting a destination is straightforward and requires limited input from the user. For example, users can search for a destination by typing in the specific name or address of an establishment, search by category, or navigate to addresses in the nüvifone M20’s contact database or on the web. The device then gives turn-by-turn voice-prompted directions and automatically recalculates if a turn is missed along the way. In addition, the nüvifone includes quick access to online points of interest through internet enabled local search. The nüvifone harnesses the power of the worldwide web and information about local merchants and attractions is continually updated.

The nüvifone M20 takes GPS navigation one step further via Connected Services, a suite of online applications and data from Garmin-Asus that adds location intelligence to navigation, phone and browser functions. The expandable list of applications includes content like real-time traffic information, White Pages, weather, flight status, local events, and movie times.

The nüvifone product line also includes Ciao!, a ground-breaking LBS application that helps users stay up to date on their friends’ whereabouts and status by linking numerous location-centric social networks. Through Ciao!, nüvifone users will see their friends’ location on a map and then be able to navigate to that location with ease. Nüvifone users can also choose to have the nüvifone automatically update their social network location information.

The nüvifone M20 has exceptional entertainment capabilities with the combination of a 2.8” TFT touch lens display, built-in microphone and speakers, built-in 4Gb/8Gb My Storage, and ActiveSync for Outlook, Microsoft Office, and multi-media synchronization. The VGA (640x480) display brings action to life when watching video or looking at photographs. The three megapixel camera automatically geotags images with the exact latitude and longitudinal coordinates. Users can then save the image on their phone, email it to a friend, or navigate to where the image was taken.

Garmin-Asus expects to announce the nüvifone M20’s pricing and availability information in the first half of 2009. Journalists should contact Garmin-Asus media representatives to arrange product demonstrations or interviews. Additional information about the nüvifone product line is available at www.GarminAsus.com.

About Garmin-Asus
Garmin-Asus is a co-branded strategic alliance that enables Garmin Ltd. and ASUSTeK Computer Inc. to combine their complementary resources to develop world class LBS-centric mobile phones.
Source: Garmin-ASUS Press Release

GPS Tracking, Phone Snooping And Sex Tests?

Has it really come this far, has a parents trust in their own kids fallen to the point that we need these types of products? Apparently so and those are only some of the products I've seen that made me scratch my head in wonder.

According to a recent article published by the Seattle Children's Research Institute, 54% of teens frequently discuss high-risk activities including sexual behavior, substance abuse or violence using MySpace. The study found that 54 percent of the MySpace profiles contained high-risk behavior information, with 41 percent referencing substance abuse, 24 percent referencing sexual behavior and 14 percent referencing violence.

So its no wonder that sites like Brickhouse Security exist. The site specializes in GPS tracking, teen tracking and other security/safety surveillance gear that could be used to spy on your kids, spouse or employees. But should they? My mom wasn't an idiot, she knew we were kids and kids will get into trouble. But she also knew she raised us well enough that we knew better than to get into anything too serious. So its hard for me to imagine using some of these devices to spy on my children (if I had them).

I was pretty shocked to see some of the devices Brickhouse Security featured and wondered if parents are really using these things against their kids. Some of these devices, while invasive aren't that bad, like the Cell Phone Spy, which allows you to recover deleted text message and data, or the PS/2 Mini Key Logger, which is used to record key strokes. But I have to say the, Drug Tests and Sex Tests and the Semen Spy CSI Edition are just a little over the top for me.

So my question stands, do you parents out there actually use these things? How about married people, would you use something like a GPS tracking device on your spouse? Obviously GPS tracking can be used for not so devious purposes such as tracking a vehicle in case its stolen or tracking your toddlers. But its the shady side I'm curious about. Should you really put a Covert GPS Tracking Pen in your kids backpack, or your husband's briefcase?

To me I think if you are already at the point of not trusting someone then its too late.