GPS Nüvi Blog
Featuring news, stories, and popular sales and auctions
News about Garmin the company, its Nüvi GPS line specifically, and general GPS-related stories of interest from around the world. Also featured are special items taken from our sales listings that have generated significant interest on eBay.
GPSs may atrophy a generation’s brains
What is going to be the end result of the current GPS craze?
Marketing, relying on that hoary old method of convincing people they have a problem where they might not, has convinced us that we are continually getting lost while driving, and we are far too busy (or dumb) to figure out where we’re going.
And the product introduced to take care of this “problem”? Why, handy GPS navigational devices, which sit on our dashboards and gently purr at us when to turn, when to stop, and exactly where we are. It’s like an old woman being the (very necessary) backseat driver for an even older man whose spirit has been broken, and tends to just do as he’s told.
So, if this neat little device pulls us along on its electronic leash, and we don’t get as lost as we used to, is it really a boon for us? Actually, come to think of it, did you ever get lost that much before you got a GPS? Think hard.
I used to get lost, but it was never serious, and things always worked out well in the end. And, each time I got lost, I found my way, and strengthened whatever parts of my brain handle these sorts of things.
Now, since GPS, I don’t flex my cranial cartographer’s muscles as much. One day, way before my time, I’ll be that old man taking instructions without question from a kindly, patient female voice. I’ll just be alone in the car, and about 35 years young, wondering where it all went wrong. And wondering where the hell I am anyway.
But cool technology is cool technology, and if the intrepid explorer part of my mind is atrophying, at least my map-reading skills are kept relatively sharp. Well, my map appreciation skills, maybe. They sure look cool on that little screen. And I can at least pretend that I’m some kind of Vasco da Gama for the 25th century.
I guess the end result of all this may be that soon my car will not only know where I am and where I’m going, but will drive me there without my input, avoiding other cars and obstacles via an elaborate electronic grid that controls everything. That will be good - I can take my hands off the steering wheel (if those will even exist anymore), and put them on a book to read during my travels. Maybe a Magellan biography. Whoever he was.
End of the road predicted for Garmin GPS
Jim Cramer, controversial and possibly insane financial wizard, said recently about Garmin’s stock:
“Garmin is having a great Christmas [2007] … I want you to understand that this may be the last great Christmas for Garmin … Enjoy it until Christmas and then sell sell sell.”
Could this be the last great explosion for Garmin GPS? The sniffling Cramer has been saying for some time that, although he has been impressed with Garmin as an investment, the wolves have always been at the door.
On November 27, 2007, he was already predicting that Garmin “will eventually run out of steam” and that its long-term security was “dicey.” He differentiates between Garmin and established companies like Apple and Google, which he says have proprietary products and thus long-term stability.
If Garmin loses its marketshare for whatever reason, it’s possible that another company will rise to take its place, or that consumers will lose interest in GPS altogether and latch onto something else.
So what do you think? Is the market for Garmin GPS navigation devices about the become lost? If so, does this reflect the GPS world as a whole, or just one or a few companies at the top?
Garmin Nuvi 200W offered as prize in “gayest car” contest
Internet rabble-rousers have not run out of things to hold ever-increasing contests about.
A South African website called Wheels24 conducted an online survey recently to discern 2007’s gayest car, straightest car, and most “corrupt politician”-type car.
As incentive to participate in the voting, the website offered one eZee Torq electric bicycle and no fewer than four Garmin Nüvi 200W widescreen GPS navigation devices. (The winners haven’t been announced yet.)
The winners of each of the three categories are:
#1 Gayest Car: Peugeot 207 Coupe Cabriolet
(Incidentally, this car received 380% as many votes as #2, the biggest winner of any of the categories.)
#1 Straightest Car: Audi R8
#1 Corrupt Politician’s Car: BMW X5
Congratulations, maybe, to the cars above. And, um, way to go, Garmin. We’re waiting for the next obscure, unimportant “contest.”
(See the top 5 for each category here.)
A small company called partfoundry is set to finally release a GPS for the iPhone.
The locoGPS, as it’s called, will be released in February 2008 at a list price of around $90. Not bad.
It takes about 60 seconds for the simple plug-in device to lock into satellites. The device uses Google Maps.
Garmin GPS under fire for misleading “anti-theft” claims
Sometimes a company gets caught up in the frenzy of selling a popular product, and oversteps its bounds.
According to a story from Raleigh-Durham, NC’s local ABC affiliate, customer Anthony DiNunno bought a Garmin StreetPilot c330 GPS device at a store. He chose the product because the packaging proclaimed that the unit was “anti-theft protected” (see image above), and his first Garmin GPS, which he liked, had been stolen because, he thought, he had forgotten to activate the anti-theft feature.
When he couldn’t figure out how to activate the protection on his new one, DiNunno called Garmin, and was told that his StreetPilot c330 didn’t actually have an anti-theft feature.
Indeed, Garmin’s own website mentions that the StreetPilot c330 doesn’t have the “Garmin Lock” feature (see graphic), which doesn’t actually physically prevent theft anyway, but renders the unit unusable to anyone who doesn’t have the special ID code. (Confusingly, the website explicitly describes the “Garmin Lock” as an “anti-theft feature”. Go here and click “Specs” to see the claim.)
According to a Garmin representative, none of Garmin’s devices have any anti-theft protection. When pressed further, Garmin claimed that DiNunno’s box had made that claim at the behest of the store he had purchased the unit from - and that the unit was protected from theft from the store, not from the customer.
Seem fishy? Everyone loves Garmin’s GPSs; it’s a shame if they’re trying to use double-speak and deception to get even more sales.