The GPS magicians at Magellan and the search wizards at Google have combined their relative (and also fantastical) talents to deliver the Maestro Elite 5340+GPRS, a GPS unit rocking some GPRS cellular capabilities. That wireless data’s going to be put to good use, enabling things like real-time traffic (see ya FM traffic receiver of yore) and creepy Google functionality like pointing out the closest proctologist (just around the corner!). But all this fancy technology isn’t coming cheap: the unit will retail for $1299, not to mention an as-yet-to-be-determined monthly GPRS fee. At that price, they oughta program in directions to your local poorhouse.

Toshiba is getting to release a new GPS phone called Toshiba 820T. Apparently it is only going to hit the Japanese market so far. Toshiba seems to be following the same form factor as with 811T but with 820T they are targeting the young ones - or actually their parents who’d like to know where they are - since this GPS phone also supports a location tracking service. As far as other hardware specs, 820T will have 2.4″ QVGA screen, and a 3.2MB digital camera. Available colors include pink, white, and blue. It should be available in February

Magellan introduced its handheld GPS ‘Triton 2000’ during CES 2008, which adopts 2.7-inch color touch screen, 2M camera, an embedded speaker and microphone and SD card slot. Other features included multimedia player, 3-axis electronic compass, barometer function and LED flashlight.

Triton 300 is compatible with National Geographic TOPO maps, and features new Magellan VantagePoint content management software. Another nice convenient feature on the Triton 300 is the fact that it uses two AA batteries.

Korean MediaCanvas had this GPS navigation system on display at CES 2008, simply called Pathfinder.

Pathfinder has a small body - even smaller than most PDAs. It only measures 2.3″ x 4.4″ x 0.77″ and has a 2.7″ TFT LCD touch screen with 320×240 resolution. Thanks to the small screen the Li-Ion battery can last upto 8 hours; something we’re not used to see on most sat nav systems on the market today.

Pathfinder comes with a built-in 2GB memory and uses a 12 channel GPS receiver.

While in-car navigation will remain the most important application of GPS technology, the use of GPS in many other consumer, business, and industrial environments such as telematics and asset tracking will continue to grow. The GPS modernization project and the arrival of additional Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) such as GLONASS, Galileo, and Beidou/Compass will increase the availability, reliability, and precision of satellite positioning and stimulate the location ecosystem, expanding the market to more than 900 million units by 2013.

“Personal Navigation Devices for in-car use will be increasingly complemented by converged solutions based on GPS-enabled handsets for pedestrian navigation and Location Based Services,” says ABI Research principal analyst Dominique Bonte. “However, GNSS technologies will have to be combined with other positioning solutions such as A-GPS, Wi-Fi, and dead reckoning to address the indoor coverage issue. Dedicated GPS devices will remain the preferred option for specific applications and environments such as outdoors, marine, recreational aviation, and tracking of people and animals.”  Read more

Panasonic is going to launch its portable navigation device ‘Strada Pocket(model: CN-MP50D’ in Japan market, which is expected to be available on 12th February.

Users can adopt the 2GB SD card that is pre-loaded with essential map information and phone numbers to a SD card slot. Equipped with LED backlit LCD display and a 1.5w speaker, the Strada Pocket supports about four hours of navigation use and two hours of 1-Seg.

Measuring 87*129*32mm at 295g, it is expected to be available for 70,000(JPY).

Navigon is preparing a new, 8000 series PND, equipped with a new version of Navigon MobileNavigator (version 7) navigation software.

After version 6 presented two years ago this new version would finally introduce voice synthesis as well as voice recognition for capturing address information.

Routes calculation will be faster and it will still have the 3D reality view but even more realistic with the new version 7. Similarly ‘lane assist’ will improve.

Navigon 8110 will be the new high-end PND (portable navigation device) with a brushed aluminum design and a very wide screen, measuring 4.8 inches.

Navigon 8110 will be equipped with Navigon 7 which we just mentioned, and it will also have hands free integrated Bluetooth kit, as well as an FM transmitter to utilize the audio system of the vehicle. It will also have a RDS/TMC receiver for traffic information which would be integrated in the car charger.

As far as hardware the 8110 will have a processor running at 533 MHz, use a graphic accelerator, and have 128 MB of memory.

Here is a summary of the features:

• 4.8 inch screen with 480 X 272 pixels (WQVGA) resolution
• Integrated GPS receiver
• 533 MHz processor
• RDS/TMC receiver for premium traffic information
• FM Transmitter
• Hands Free Bluetooth Kit
• 128 MB RAM
• 512 MB ROM
• Navigon MobileNavigator 7 with Navteq maps
• Dimensions : 13.5×8.5×2.2 cm

Navigon 8110 will sell for 499 € with maps of Europe. You can expect 8110 to be announced at CeBIT which will take place next March in Germany.

TravelPilot Amsterdam NAV35E from Blaupunkt,in black and white and it doesn’t even show maps. Just an arrow that tells you when and which direction you need to turn. It is very basic but it still can take you from A to B.

TravelPilot Amsterdam NAV35E does however carry some high end features such as an internal gyroscope to help out when GPS signals are weak, ability to receiver traffic information, navigation instructions in 10 languages, and the onboard memory to free up the CD player if you want to listen to music.Availbale from Europe .

Blaupunkt TravelPilot Amsterdam NAV35E FM/MW/LW, Codem concept DigiCeiver, Traffic announcements (TA), Optimized digital channel separation SHARX, Station presets 30, Station naming, FM frequency response (Hz) -3 dB 20-16000, FM stereo channel separation > 40 dB, AM noise suppression, Drive with 8x oversampling, Plays back audio CD/CD-ROM, CD-R/RW-compatible, Frequency response (Hz) -1 dB 20-20000, CD mix/Magazine mix, Blaupunkt TravelPilot Amsterdam NAV35E DMS (Disc Management System), MP3/WMA playback from CD-R/RW, Display of directories up to 127, Display of file names, Convenient MP3-/WMA browsing without interruption, Display of ID3 tags (V1) up to 30 characters, Bit rate 8 320 Kbps, Mix/Scan, DEQ, Digital parametric 5-band equalizer, Automatic volume adjustment, Source-specific tone adjustment, Preamp-out 4-channel, 4 V, RMS (DIN 45324) at 14.4 V 4 x 26 W, Max. Power 4 x 50 W, Blaupunkt TravelPilot Amsterdam NAV35E Onboard navigation, Gyroscope more

Here i a gps navigation seems like a game console :D,really sharp looking GPS navigation system + multimedia player device from Korea called XRoad MO1000. XRoad MO1000 is powered by a RMI Alchemy Au1250 processor which runs at an impressive 600MHz. Thus XRoad MO1000 can easily render 3D maps complete with building and other structures.

XROAD MO1000 runs on WinCE 5.0 OS and has the Korean standard 7″ TFT-LCD touch screen. It is HDD based and comes with 30GB of storage space, and has a DMB receiver to watch digitally broadcast channels.

Other features include live traffic information and picture-in-picture capability.

Kenwood released their multi-media flagship, the DNX7100. This behemoth features a whopping 6.95″ LCD screen that could display movies as well as the built in GPS navigation. The large touchscreen is designed with the driver in mind, giving them the 6.95″ highly visible and bright screen. The large touch screen buttons allow the driver to safely command the system without spending dangerous amounts of time looking at the screen.

Multimedia in-dash receivers are some of the best selling products in the car audio market. They’re usually larger, spanning about twice as big as regular in-dash CD players (Double DIN). They contain tons of features ranging from built-in navigation to DVD playback on the integrated LCD screen.