Hankhan Posted September 20, 2006 Share Posted September 20, 2006 Rand McNally Enters Portable GPS Market By Gregg Keizer, TechWeb Technology News Map and atlas maker Rand McNally on Tuesday introduced its first portable GPS navigation device, entering an American market already crowded with competitors. The Rand McNally GPS Navigator, which lists for $499.99, fits on a vehicle's dashboard, and can be easily dismounted to tuck into a briefcase or bag, said the Skokie, Ill.-based company. The device boasts a 3.5-inch color touch screen, voice prompting, and automatic rerouting for missed turns, along with maps of the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It also comes with a companion printed road atlas and trip planner to overcome what Rand McNally characterized as the "limits of any small device screen in providing the 'big-picture' perspective." The portable GPS market is very competitive, with several vendors -- including Garmin, Lowrance, Magellan, and Tom Tom -- already entrenched in consumer sales. Rand McNally's navigator is available now from the company's online store or from Amazon.com. It will go into wider distribution next month, said the company Quote Link to comment
+markp99 Posted September 20, 2006 Share Posted September 20, 2006 (edited) I wonder about the robustness of this unit. Looks like a nice car-based unit. Edited September 20, 2006 by markp99 Quote Link to comment
+Kabuthunk Posted September 21, 2006 Share Posted September 21, 2006 I dunno... might just be that I can't see what the buttons on the side look like, but it looks like it'd be entirely option-based, instead of being able to move a cursor around with a directional button. Might make creating waypoints or looking around on the map annoying. Quote Link to comment
+ic3scrap3r Posted September 21, 2006 Share Posted September 21, 2006 You could probably move the cursor with the touchscreen. Quote Link to comment
+yyzdnl Posted September 21, 2006 Share Posted September 21, 2006 There is more detailed information in this thread at Gpspassion. http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=67229 Quote Link to comment
+HaLiJuSaPa Posted September 22, 2006 Share Posted September 22, 2006 It looks like it's geared for the car, which probably means it sucks for geocaching or hiking (i.e. I bet you can't easily have it navigate to something that is "off road", may not be able to download waypoints, may even lack a "compass rose", etc.). Quote Link to comment
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