Garmin nuvi 360 bluetooth portable GPS navigator and personal travel sssistant is a GPS navigator, personal translator, multi-media entertainer and tour guide all wrapped into one. In addition to all the advanced features of the Garmin nuvi 360 - including automatic routing, turn-by-turn voice directions, an MP3 player and audio book player, JPEG picture viewer, and much more - this pocket-sized personal travel assistant comes with hands-free Bluetooth wireless technology, making it the hands-down go-anywhere travel companion.

Make Hands-Free Calls
The nuvi 360 integrates wireless technology with a microphone and speaker that lets you make hands-free mobile phone calls using your compatible Bluetooth-enabled phone. In addition, you can easily look-up and dial numbers from your personalized phone book or from your phone’s call history log.

Navigation and Entertainment with Ease
For starters, the nuvi 360 includes a high-sensitivity integrated GPS receiver that offers exceptional performance and reception. A built-in Travel Kit that includes sample MP3s and audio books will get you started with entertainment, and with the unit’s SD memory card expansion slot you can add optional software, such as language and travel guides. A USB port is also included for loading and updating data. The unit also features Garmin Lock - an advanced anti-theft feature that disables the unit from performing any functions until you type in a specific four-digit PIN or take the unit to a predetermined location. A built-in lithium ion battery will give you up to eight hours of power, and an included 12/24 volt adapter cable will let you run the navigator off your vehicle’s power. An AC battery charger is also included.

Garmin GPS navigation systems are one of the most reliable and dependable navigation devices today. The Garmin Foretrex 201 is the most sophisticated of the Garmin Handheld GPS units of it’s kind. It is very much different than its fore runner, as it is so lightweight, that it is much lighter than many watches. It only weights 2. 75 oz.

This GPS unit uses a rechargeable lithium ion battery, so you do not need to worry about the battery running down. It actually has a 15 hour battery life. The great thing about the Foretrex 201 is that it easily mounts on your wrist just like your wrist watch. Its size is 3.3 inch X 1.7 inch x 0.7 inch (8.4 x 4.3 x 1.8 cm). The black and white LCD screen is 1.4 inch x 0.92 inch (3.6 x 2.3cm), which uses 100 x 64 pixels screen resolution.

If you are in a party and the other party members have another Garmin Handheld GPS receivers, they can pinpoint your exact location. The screen shows a small dotted line, right to where you are. So they can all ways keep track of you. Plus if you were to get lost in your surrounding all you have to do is to use the TracBack feature that is always there and the screen will show you the way back to your beginning.

If you are in a competition of some kind, you can set the timer to count down. The screen has a large number display which is great for looking at any data with a quick glance. The waterproof Garmin Foretrex 201 is tough to beat, and a must have on any type of outing. However, it does not float. It has a high sensitivity receiver, so you should have no trouble at all picking up other party members.

It is programmable, ( up to 500 locations can be added) so you can input your favorite waypoints and other points of interest. It can not only connect to your computer, using a serial cable. It has a trip computer already built in. This trip computer allows you to input all the current fishing and hunting maps that are available online, and if you are farther away than the location on the map, other Garmin Handheld GPS systems will still pick up your location. You can also input the location of your camp and where your vehicle is parked.

Once you get the box that the Garmin Foretrex 201 comes in, do not throw the owner’s manual or the quick start guide away; they will be very helpful in the future. As far as Garmin Handheld GPS accessories are concerned such as holsters and clips, as well as adapters; you will have to purchase them separately.

With all the new gadgets that are manufactured for outdoor fun, The Garmin Foretrex 201 is definitely one that everyone should own.

Author: LaZinnia Manley

The advanced GPS device helps a lot to locate the places of visit for the travelers. The new high-tech TomTom ONE XLS is one of the innovative devices in the world of GPS systems. This text-to-speech device is available in a budget price, with a high-resolution wide screen and has a solid construct.

This factory-refurbished device, the TomTom ONE XLS, comes in a standard size with the width of 4.7 inches, depth of 3.4 inches, height of 1.1 inches, and weight of about 7.3 oz. This GPS system is recommended for use in an automotive mode. TomTom ONE XLS supports the advanced USB and Bluetooth Connectivity. Apart from that, the device has an automatic electronic compass and facilities for spoken navigation instructions. The built-in antenna helps the device to stay well connected. The other added features include preinstalled POIs, 2D / 3D map perspective, TomTom PLUS ready via Bluetooth Software, etc. The device includes extensive maps of USA, Alaska, Canada, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. The display type of the device is anti-glare TFT - widescreen with a high resolution of 480 x 272 and diagonal Size of 4.3 inches. The device comes with a touch-screen and multiple color display. The consumer can set the language according to her/his choice, as a wide range of choices are available including Czech, Dutch, Danish, French, German, Polish, Catalan, English, Finnish, Flemish, Italian, Latvian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Estonian, Hungarian, Norwegian, Slovenian, Lithuanian, Portuguese, etc.

With a high level of navigating ease, TomTom ONE XLS has other add-on benefits like Back-On-Track, Quickest route, Avoid toll roads, Fast/short route, etc. The device comes with add on accessories such as the USB cable, Car power adapter and windshield holder, SD Memory Card, and so on. With a long-lasting internal Lithium ion battery, the device is quite handy, portable, and user-friendly. The run time of the battery is at most up to two hours. The operating temperature of the device is 14 °F to 131 °F. The device is easily available in the stores and can be easily ordered online even. Though the device could be better in terms of techniques, like automatic day-night mode and automatic on/off with car ignition, still the device is unique in many respects. The device also has a solid construct and is quite portable.

The unique characteristic of TomTom ONE XLS is the voice direction, which speaks the actual names of the streets as the directions provided while providing the instruction. Say, an ordinary GPS device may say “turn right, quarter miles”, but this device will say “turn right towards XYZ lane, quarter miles”, mentioning the name of the street. This helps the first time visitors to get detailed information of the place and thus helps in recognizing the place.

The device, therefore, is a boon for all those gadget-freak consumers who have a passion for traveling. With so many added features, the device is budget-friendly so that anybody who wants to own a high-tech GPS system can avail it without burning the pocket much.

by Arnold Lee

When I first started RVing full time, one of the first things I found I really needed was a good GPS. I needed it to help me locate some of the more out-of-the way parks, but that wasn’t the only reason. Where it was most useful was in navigating around town when we stopped. In our travels, we decided to visit places we’d never been before or had only been rarely. Finding our way around town became much easier once we had a GPS.

The first GPS I bought was a Garmin Streetpilot C550. It turned out to be a great investment. It has plenty of memory, Text-to-Speach capabilities so it speaks street names, Bluetooth to attach to my cell phone, and the interface is simple and intuitive. It didn’t take me long to decide it was a good fit for what I needed a GPS for.

The first nice thing about the Streetpilot is its simple interface. When you turn it on you’re presented with 2 main choices … Where To? and View Map. You touch Where To? and you now have 9 choices. One feature I really like is the Go Home button. Each time we stopped, I simply programmed the GPS that this was now “home”. Then, as we traveled around town, all I had to do was tell the GPS I wanted to Go Home, and it took me right back to the RV. That’s a nice feature when you’ve wandered around a strange city all day and have no clue where you are in relation to the park you’re staying at.

Another great feature is the 6 million points-of-interest (POI) already programmed into the GPS. Want Mexican food tonight? Just touch the Food, Hotels… button and search for what you want by type of food, fuel, banks/ATM’s etc. These POI’s are great, but they were a bit lacking in the RV Parks & Campgrounds. Garmin lumps RV Parks and Campgrounds into the Lodging category and there aren’t that many of them. Unless you know the name of the park, they were difficult to find even if they were already in the GPS.

The other feature of the C550 I use a lot is the Recently Found list. Each time you use the GPS to navigate to a location, it stores that location in it’s Recently Found list. Then, all you need to do if you need to return to that location again is press the Recently Found button and there it is. The GPS keeps the 50 most recently found locations handy for you to return to.

Of course, no product is without its shortcomings. The things I found a bit lacking in the C550 were the lack of a coordinates display and its inability to reset its own time zones when travelling. The C550 doesn’t give you a display of the Latitude and Longitude of your current location. That’s a bit annoying. Fortunately, Garmin fixed that in the Nuvi line. If that’s important to you, you may want to look at the Nuvi instead of the Streetpilot. I’ll be reviewing a Nuvi later, so check back.

The other annoyance is the fact that the C550 can’t reset its own timezone. That seems a bit ridiculous, especially since it is a GPS and always “knows” where it is. You’d think it would know when it crossed into a different time zone and would reset itself accordingly. Unfortunately, that’s not the case with the C550. You have to manually adjust the time zones as you travel.

Article by Phil King