Gizmo Zone

Pogo Latest GPS Offering

The Pogo Drive from Pogo GPS of UK is the latest device that comes packed with Origin360 database. This database contains the locations of all speed cameras, danger zones, average speed cameras, accident hotspots, and other kinds of speed traps. It shows the speed limits of every road too!

Furthermore, Pogo Drive is a full-featured GPS navigation device, which comes preinstalled with detailed street-level mapping of the UK and other major European roads. As Pogo specializes at avoiding speed cameras, they can be operated in three different modes of operation: a navigation mode with pop-up safety warnings, map view only mode with pop-up safety warnings, and safety warnings only mode. Hence, everybody is able to get what he or she desires from this little slick machine!

Pogo Drive hardware is pretty much standard fare with a 3.5″touch screen, an internal rechargeable battery, and a few buttons for interface navigation. The only feature that catches most people’s attention is what Pogo calls the ‘dual full range speakers’ to provide clear, high quality audio while on the road. The Pogo Drive costs £350 (about 515 euro).

Car Remote Control for iPod

The wired Brightonnet remote controller BI-RE605 that connects to the Dock connector is especially designed and made for iPod. You can adjust Play/Pause, Music skip, Forward, Fast-rewind, Album skip and Play list skip with the remote. This stylish product can be easily installed in the car. All the control buttons are easy to add and the blue LED makes operation very easy during night. The dual connection of the dock also allows to add a FM transmitter.

The remote is compatible with 4th generation and above iPod and 1st/2nd generation of iPod Nano, iPod photo, iPod Mini. The wired Brightonnet remote controller BI-RE605 measures 9×115×6mm, weigh 35g and are available for approximately 3,980 Yen ($33).

send google maps directions to your BMW

We have some info on Google Maps working with BMW to setup a system where one can send Google Maps directions from a computer to a BMW navigation system. It looks like the video was found on personal blog of Google Italy Communication Manager, Stefano Hesse. Stefano says that this is a “project, for the time being related to Germany only, which I have personally coordinated and about which I am really proud. Any other car companies soon?”

cross platform open source GPS navigation software

There are very few options when it comes to installing a GPS navigation software on a Linux or Mac laptop. RoadNav is one of those few options. Just like any other GPS navigation software it obtains the location data from a GPS receiver, renders maps of the area, and provide visual and verbal guidance to any location (in the U.S.). What makes Roadnav truly open source is that it doesn’t rely on commercial mapping companies such as Navteq or TeleAtlas but uses TIGER/line files from the US Census Bureau to build maps.

Here is a full list of the features:

• Generates street level maps for the US
• Interfaces with GPS units to display your position in real time
• Verbal turn by turn directions to any place in the US. Automatically recomputes directions if you miss a turn.
• On screen keyboard
• 3D (driver’s perspective) view mode
• Daytime and nighttime color schemes
• Automatic day/night mode switching
• Plots nearby landmarks and points of interest
• Can operate offline (without an Internet connection)
• Antialiased output
• Supports multiple operating systems including Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X
• Uses freely available data from the US Census Bureau and the USGS
• Appearance can be customized with skins
• Can output status information to LCD devices through LCDproc

However this free solution isn’t perfect: A major issue is that Tiger/Line treats all one way roads as two way roads - which can cause serious accidents if you follow RoadNav’s directions blindly. Also there is no support for Smarhphones or PDAs. But it’s totally free!

Solar Car Battery Charger

Car batteries are something that no one wants to let run down, the towing bill that we will inevitably have to pay just takes all the fun out of it. ICP Solar has come to the rescue and produced the first solar panel that will help to charge your car battery.

The new Sunsei SolarCharger will keep your car battery charged using energy from the Sun. Naturally the panel must be placed on the dashboard or attached to the windshield. With its Trickle-Down feature, the solar panel will never overcharge the 12-volt battery in your car.

This neat little gadget may end up saving you quite a few dollars. There is nothing more frustrating than coming back from a holiday and realizing that your car won’t start.

PN 3000 from VDO Dayton does Sudoku too

This new GPS navigation system from VDO Dayton is called PN 3000. It features a 4.3″ anti-glare touch screen display with automatic brightness control, built-in 64 MB flash memory, removable/rechargeable Li-Ion battery, IR Receiver for remote control, and an SD card slot. If you need to waste some time in your vehicle you’ll find the MP3 player and JPEG viewer handy too. Feel like you need to exercise your brain? - well PN 3000 happens to be the only navigation system that features Sudoku. Just please do not try to solve them while driving. The prices range from 470€ to 550€

$150K Mercedes fails to deliver decent GPS navigation system

The 510-horsepower Mercedes-Benz SL55 AMG Roadster is one vehicle we (and most of our readers) can not afford. If you need a reason why you don’t own an SL55 we got one for you. The integrated GPS navigation system does not meet your standards. We found this review that pretty much says the GPS navigation system in SL55 AMG Roadster is worst than an after market sat nav system that costs $300 - $500.

The navigation system in this Benz SL55 is DVD-based. You need to keep your maps data on this DVD-ROM that is hidden in the trunk of this expensive vehicle. To get new maps you’ll have to buy it from Mercedes, about every year, and expect to spend about $250. This navigation system is hooked up to a 7″ screen that also is the interface for many other electronics in the car.

Mercedes has a large 7-inch canvas to work with, and I feel that they could provide much more information on the display. What little information is currently displayed is mostly of little value. Given the large size of the screen, there’s no reason why Mercedes couldn’t display:

• + and - Zoom buttons
• Time and distance to destination address
• Estimated arrival time
• Satellite signal reception bar
• Detailed street name of the next turn, and possibly the turn after that as well

One of the nice features of this navigation system is that its GPS speed sensor are connected to airbag accelerometers, providing map tracking even when the GPS can’t get satellite signal which is especially handy when driving through long tunnels. However the long list of CONS easily outweigh the few benefits of the COMAND navigation software that Mercedes engineers decided to install. The good news is most of the disadvantages (except non touch screen LCD) can easily be fixed by switching to another navigation system software provider.