GPS Nüvi Blog

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.

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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.

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