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NEWS: The low down: Best Car Gadget 2009

Dan Sung — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:35:11 +0000

A closer look at the very best in their class

Day 2 of our Vodafone Pocket-lint Gadget Awards 2009 nominees round-up brings us to the motor car and all tech goodies within. After a lot of being ordered to turn left, right and about face because we were heading in the wrong direction, the top five in the class have been narrowed down.

So, before you head over to the voting page to mark your choices, here's a little run down of the contenders.

TomTom XL Live

Type: 4.3" satnav
Release date: 20/5/09
Price: ?176.50
PL review rating: 9/10

What thrusts this car gadget straight into contention is that TomTom has brought its excellent live traffic service, Traffic HD, into the mid-range XL models rather having to fork out for the full on TomTom Go. The way it works is by taking the information from all the other drivers with the system on all the other routes nearby and gives you the best route based on live, local traffic information. The only catch is that the service will cost you ?7.99 per month.

The device itself has an all touch 4.3-inch display and it offers the local Google live search features as well as all the speed cameras, way points and POI that you'd expect from pretty much all satnavs these days. Very handy for finding a florist, hardware shop, somewhere to get a Sugar Puff sandwich or whatever it is you need.

The XL was ?225 for the UK version when it came out but these days you can pick up the full European maps for much less. Great PND, reasonable price and really good car kit to go with it.

TomTom One IQ

Type: 3.5" satnav
Release date: 02/04/09
Price: ?115
PL review rating: 9/10

Funnily enough, it wasn't just the mid-range XL Live that impressed us on the road in 2009. The smaller, lighter, less expensive TomTom One IQ routes system was also a winner on Pocket-lint too. The deal here is that you pay ?60 less but get the core features of an excellent satnav minus certain, admittedly nice, bells and whistles.

There's no Live routes and HD traffic system going on here but the IQ routes systems isn't too shabby itself. It calculates the best path based on the time of day. It's not quite as accurate and exciting as Live but it's certainly better than having just the one answer all the time.

In practice, the review team found it worked surprisingly well and naturally, it doesn't require any ?7.99 subscription either, which is what makes it a real tempter and head and shoulders above much of the competition in its class. But is value enough to beat its bigger brother?

Navigon 8410

Type: 5" satnav
Release date: 09/09
Price: ?370
PL review rating: 8/10

If the TomTom One is the hatchback and the XL Live the saloon, then the Navigon 8410 is strictly luxury cars only. It's much more expensive than the other satnavs in contention for this year's award but for good reason. It's not just a satnav. This device has ambitions to be your PMP too. Naturally, it's an all touch 5-inch display but as well as providing route guidance, it plays music, videos, digital TV (with an add-on module) and works as a Bluetooth speakerphone too. Plus it has all the mini-USB and microSD slots it needs for the job.

That aside though, it has some excellent features as a PND too. Firstly, included in the price is a 2-year subscription to the Navigon traffic service and other live features as well as free map updates over the same period. What really blows you away though, is the 3D interface. The 8410 offers properly rendered 3D views of landmarks, cityscapes and the relief of the surrounding country as you drive. What that adds is of arguable use, but it's certainly a much better experience for your passengers to enjoy. For pure function, the award should stop here but whether the price tag justifies the gaudy experience is another thing.

CoPilot Live 8 for iPhone

Type: iPhone app
Release date: 06/08/09
Price: ?26
PL review rating: 9/10

TomTom's arrival on the iPhone rather eclipsed the news of other mobile-friendly satnav software even though CoPilot has been making the stuff for years. At half the price of all the others, CoPilot Live 8 is a real bargain. For just ?26 you get all the UK maps you need plus plenty of traffic and weather software too, without the need for subscription. It just comes down your mobile's data connection.

There are one or two decent features like Quick Stop for finding petrol stations and cafes and such, but what makes CoPilot Live 8 for iPhone a strong contender is that it works perfectly well and costs a tiny fraction of all the other satnav solutions. The company has even issued three free updates since launch.

Jabra SP700

Type: Bluetooth speakerphone
Price: ?34
PL review rating: 9/10

Speakerphones aren't exactly the sexiest area in tech but the Jabra SP700 did enough to get our reviewers excited. It doesn't do anything unbelievably ground-breaking but it's a really solid performer. It'll relay calls and music from your mobile phone over your car's FM radio and through your speakers and all with just one large button should you need to push it. It looks sleek, clips tightly to the sun visor and gives you 14 hours of talk time and 255 hours on standby, as well as having noise and echo cancellation technology for a very high quality experience. Some might even say the SP700 has winning value at just ?34.

NEWS: EU cars getting mandatory emergency system

Duncan Geere — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:20:50 +0000

If you crash, alerts would automatically be sent to authorities

From early in the next decade, it'll be mandatory for all cars in the EU to be fitted with a "black box" technology called eCall. This is an in-vehicle emergency call service which is used to contact the authorities in the case of an accident or other adverse situation.

The initiative has come out of the eSafety Forum, a group of car manufacturers, technology companies and representatives of various emergency services bought together by the EU. Qualcomm is responsible for the radio modem that uses existing emergency bands for communicating with the authorities.

If a car crashes, or if anyone in the car manually activates the eCall system, a message is immediately sent to the authorities with info about the time, location and type of vehicle involved in the incident. A voice call can also be initiated with the emergency services that plays over the car's entertainment system and uses an embedded microphone so you can converse with the operator.

It's not entirely clear exactly when the system will become mandatory. The UK, along with a few other countries, haven't signed the necessary legislation yet. Qualcomm predicts a timescale of "around 2012", whereas Wikipedia reckons 2014.

Still, this could prove a useful tool for alerting emergency services to accidents, and getting help to those who need it, as well as for recording more accurate data on road accidents.

Tags: Car And GPS Car gadgets eCall Qualcomm EU

EU cars getting mandatory emergency system originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:20:50 +0000

NEWS: Magellan launches iPhone app and car kit

Amy-Mae Elliott — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:33:46 +0000

Rivals TomTom with new in-car system

Magellan has joined the iPhone navigation party with the news it is to launch not just the RoadMate GPS application, but like TomTom and Navigon before it, a tailor-made car kit.

Magellan's offering is more of a rival to TomTom's system as it too claims to offer enhanced signal with a built-in GPS receiver, noise-cancelling speakerphone functionality, boasts in-car charging and can rotate for landscape and portrait use.

As far as the software goes, the Magellan offering looks fairly comprehensive with the navigation offering spoke street names, lane assist, 3D landmarks and address book integration.

Extras include in-app music control from the get-go, find your car functionality, a pedestrian mode and a "OneTouch" favourites menu.

Touch owners should note that when combined with the car kit - and its built-in GPS receiver - the set-up can turn the iPod into a navigation device too.

The app is available in the States now for $79.99, while pricing for the car kit (due late 2009) is $129.99, UK/Europe details are TBC.

Read

Tags: Phones iPhone apps Magellan GPS software Car And GPS Car gadgets

Magellan launches iPhone app and car kit originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:33:46 +0000

NEWS: Vodafone Pocket-lint Gadget Awards 2009 - car gadgets

Dan Sung — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:33:52 +0000

Who should be the nominees for best car gadget 2009?

Naturally, the lion's share of the best car gadgets category for the Vodafone Pocket-lint Awards 2009 is concerned with satnavs or PNDs as the industry likes to call them. It's been a tense year for the device manufacturers. They've seen the rise of the smartphone on the horizon for some time now and with mapping applications and GPS chips so readily available in handsets everywhere, it's only been a matter of time before the fight has come to the satnav's doorstep. If the battle hadn't begun by CES 2009 then it certainly has now.

Satnavs/PNDs

The three main players - in the shape of TomTom, Garmin and Mio - have certainly been busy throughout the year with multiple series releases each aimed at a different section of the market. Mio started the ball rolling in January with the launch of the Mio Moov range which pretty much laid out the form factor approach for the year for all the brands. There were three models going from a 3.5-inch pocket version through a 4.7-inch middle of the road to a 7-inch premium monster. The value was not only in the screens but also the multi-lingual text to speech, the millions of POI and Bluetooth for hands-free calling as well as software additions such as Junction View. Since that point, it seems to have been an arms race with the mobile phone for the satnavs to offer value and new features that its enemy just can't compete with.

For Mio/Navman, one of the highlights was the addition of digital TV receivers into PNDs with the Navman Sprint V505 and V705 units as launched in the summer and the company wasn't the only one to decide that in-car entertainment was the dimension to add for success. Navigon also introduced a DVB TV-toting model and Pioneer, TomTom and Navgate have been quick to release models focusing on music playback with support for CDs, MP3, AAC and often with SD card and USB slots too, as well as the option to playback through your car stereo.

Another approach has been specialisation of one sort or another. At the beginning of the year, we saw TomTom do a deal with Renault to create a satnav that embeds directly in the car's dashboard, while Navevo came up with a solution for HGV drivers with software focusing on the kinds of details that would suit the professional driver. At the other end of the motoring spectrum, Garmin brought out a satnav with BMW aimed at motorcycle riders which included features such as glove-friendly touchscreens, but perhaps the most common focus we've seen in 2009 is for fuel economy and eco-friendliness to match both growing green concerns and the global recession. There were models from Vexia with the Econav as well as a glut of software additions on the matter from the major players, and if it's just plain value you're after, then even Medion has got into the market.

In all, it's really been a question of testing the water for the PND makers. They know there's trouble ahead, they know they need to find reasons for people to keep buying them and they're looking for the added value to which the public will respond. Whether it's better software, 3D maps, bigger touchscreens, TV, music, voice control or just faster GPS chips is entirely up to you. What you can be sure of is that we'll continue getting more services, more additions and more maps for less money.

Phones

Probably the biggest punch up between our readers, our staff and and our judges is going to be over this particular bone of contention - when does a phone become a car gadget? The trick is that you can argue any gadget is a car gadget if it proves itself particularly useful to the motorist or passenger, but then that rather opens the field out to just about any smartphone on the market as well as even the likes of handheld gaming machines and portable DVD players at a push too. The latter two aside though, there have been a small handful of releases in 2009 that you simply can't deny as car gadgets even if they can be used for other purposes as well.

Rather than fight the mobile phone, Garmin has embraced it in its partnership with Asus and ventured into the world of telephony at MWC earlier this year. The Asus-Garmin M20 and G60 nuviphone handsets have finally been released, albeit, in the Far East. Closer to home, Nokia has also refreshed its line of Navigator handsets.

Where the line really starts to blur is when you can add software to hardware that isn't specifically designed for navigation. Step forward Co-Pilot, the TomTom app for iPhone and Android and, more recently, Google Maps Navigation for Android 2.0 on the Motorola Droid. It's the gadget that the award is for rather than a program, but if TomTom makes the iPhone the best car gadget of 2009, then who are we to say no?

Car kits, cradles & hands-free

With phones and PMPs finding their way into our lives and our vehicles more quickly than ever before, you'd expect to have seen a mass of releases in this department in 2009, but actually there have been surprisingly few. What has been the major hallmark though is the quality of each that there has been. Naturally stalwarts of the trade, Parot and Jabra, have been on the case with an iPhone car kit and Bluetooth speakerphone, but the big excitement of the year was with BlackBerry's first entrance with the VM-605 visor mount speakerphone guaranteed to turn most RIM nuts into jelly.

Security specialist Kensington also came up with a speakerphone kit of its own and an iPhone cradle, where TomTom was also not going to miss a trick having come up with the app for the machine itself. But, just to prove it's not all about mobile, both Kensington and Gear4 have brought auto support for the iPod and iPod nano with a couple of kits of their own while Griffin has made some very interesting updates related to the in-car pod range with the Powerjolt, which offers a whole new iPhone battery, the iTrip Universal Plus which will now scan for radio frequencies automatically and Tunflex for music remote control.

The rest

One should never forget that the point of a gadget is to make life easier. So, there's no reason why something smaller can't out-do the likes of the pricey PNDs in this category. A fine example of simplicity is in the Duracell in-car USB charger, which converts your 12V DC socket into a USB port where you can juice up just about any gadget you can think of.

If you'd rather integrate your tech, then there have also been a couple of notable car stereo launches in 2009 as well in the shape of the Sony Xplod and the Pioneer DEH-P4100SD. They've both embraced digital music with the support of all the standard audio file types as well having CD players, tuners, SD card slots and USB ports where you can plug in your PMP of choice. Surely the only way to go for any serious music loving car fan.

And last, but certainly not least, we've just started seeing mainstream installs of proper entertainment systems into any car of your choice from FLO TV in the States - certain to be a contender by next year if it can't gather the momentum for 2009.

What do you think?

But these are just some of the fantastic choices our readers have had in 2009. What would you like to see held aloft as the winner of Pocket-lint Best Car Gadget 2009? Who have we missed out? Which are your unsung heroes and of those we've already mentioned, which would get your vote? Let us know in the comments below and you can help our panel decide which make the shortlist of nominees to be announced here on Pocket-lint on 16th November. We'll have all out coverage of the Vodafone Pocket-lint awards 2009 right here. Don't miss a minute of it.

NEWS: TomTom GO i-90 in-car infotainment solution announced

Amy-Mae Elliott — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:38:05 +0100

Integrated system offers GPS, hands-free, radio MP3 player hook-up

If you can live without a CD player in your motor then TomTom has an in-car satnav and "infotainment" offering that might be right up your street.

The TomTom GO I-90 is a way of giving even older cars in-car integrated satnav using the double DIN space in the car's dashboard.

As well as a full-fat TomTom device pre-loaded with European maps, the Go I-90 provides full radio integration with the car speakers for audio for spoken instructions, or making hands-free phone calls.

There's also USB connectivty to hook up an iPod or other MP3 player for playback via the car's speakers.

For those who don't want to leave such a bit of kit sitting in their motor, or who want to take it out and use it in another vehicle, although integrated, the device is still portable so can be removed.

The Go I-90 will be available to buy through specialist retailers throughout Europe from December 2009 priced at 599 euros (?550) - which does not include the recommended installation costs.

Tags: Car And GPS TomTom GPS Car gadgets Radios Hands-free

TomTom GO i-90 in-car infotainment solution announced originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:38:05 +0100