Garmin listens to their users (the people that are making them money) and then markets the products that people want.

Look how many people are out there on the internet searching for free Garmin voices or free Garmin voice packs! I’m telling you - there’s lots of people out there looking for this kind of stuff and it is not easy to find anything.

Sure, if you’re going to disrespect the ancient and outdated copyright laws you’ll likely find some stuff on the torrent sites and the P2P networks - but you know the risks in doing that.

What Garmin did above all is listened to the market. Garmin developed a piece of software that allows you to make your own voices for Garmin GPS devices and they are giving it away for free.

You thought you were going to have to pay for something like that didn’t you?

You can download Garmin Voice Studio directly from the Garmin Web Site.

For those of you who think outside the box you’ll figure out that you’ll have no problem making any free Garmin GPS voice pack that you want to with this piece of software.

If you don’t have a Garmin yet - get with it! We suggest the new Garmin nüvi 1690 4.3-Inch Portable Bluetooth Navigator with nüLink! Services

See larger image Garmin nüvi 1690 4.3-Inch Portable Bluetooth Navigator with nüLink! Services (Electronics) List Price: Price Not Listed New From: Check Amazon For Pricing In Stock Used from: $249.99 In Stock

Magellan (average consumer Magellan that is) has also made their way into the software market and puts out Navigation software for the iPhone and it doesn’t look all that bad.

One thing I do like about their software are the 3D landmarks, which are really cool and really help you find your way without having to look too hard at street signs as you’re driving by them. So the 3D landmarks are great - when they’re available.

I like the address book integration in the Magellan iPhone GPS software too. This allows you to easily enter info into your iPhone address book and then quickly access it through your GPS software later on when you need it without the need to enter it again.

The Highway Lane Assist and Find Your Car are pretty good too even if you don’t really need them.

For those of us that use our devices for real multitasking, there’s even Music Control built into the Magellan iPhone GPS software too.

You can find Magellan’s GPS software, Magellan RoadMate in the iPhone store.

Alright Magellan, this is getting better, but I still haven’t forgiven you for the Pro GPS stuff you pulled on me so you’re going to have to keep moving and improving. When it comes to your electronic devices Magellan - can you please come up with something that’s actually innovative as well, instead of just the same as everybody else has!

If you have a Nuvi 205, Nuvi 705, Nuvi 1200 or a Nuvi 1300 you’re on your way to saving some money.

The Garmin Nuvi EcoRoute software lets you choose between getting to your destination quickly, getting there via the shortest route or getting there saving some money by the most fuel efficient route.

The software will also allow you to keep track of your fuel usage and tell you just how fuel efficient your driving is. So if you’re one of those people that like to race to the next stop light or sign you may be able to break yourself of the habit by watching your fuel consumption using different styles.

When you’re doing a lot of running around or short trips back and forth you can also keep track of how much it costs you to do them! Keep running tabs on your trips and maybe you’ll even start walking once the trips to the corner store costs start adding up.

If you already have a compatible GPS you probably already know about the EcoRoute Web Site.

If you don’t have a GPS yet follow the links to find great prices on the following EcoRoute compatible Garmin GPS Devices:
Garmin nüvi 205 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator
Garmin nüvi 1200 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator
Garmin nüvi 1300 Series 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator

Enjoy the Savings!

It seems that GPSTuner is now interfacing with some of the extra sensors put into WM6 and MobileMapper devices because GPSTuner now comes with a bubble level compass tool and a pressure graph for WM6 and an electronic-compass, barometer and thermometer for MobileMapper.

More fun tools to play with!

I recently purchased some GPS software for my Windows Mobile OS based device and believe that this is some of the most advanced GPS software you can get for just $24!

Actually there’s 3 different versions of the software Basic (without upgrades), Standard (1 year of upgrades) and Geo (allows you to do area calculations and comes with 1 year of upgrades).

Since I use my GPS in mother natures great span of wilderness I really prefer this type of software to navigational software.

One of the best things for me with this software is the ability to use Google Earth’s satellite photography as my maps. So when I’m hiking around in the Mexican sierra I won’t get lost! The compass view with the sun’s direction is also really helpful for me when trying to find out which direction I should be going. Of course, the software has all the functions of regular GPS software like the ability to add waypoints and tracks.

When I’m on the road or traveling in a city I’ve never been in and more so if it’s a popular tourist destination, the ability to use maps from Terraserver, OpenStreetMaps or Google Maps is perfect because I don’t have to shell out $50 to $100 just to get a CD with all the maps on it for where I intend to go.

Another neat feature if you’re traveling with a bunch of friends in a real connected city is the ability to share your GPS location with your friends in real time. Yes - I believe this software had the GPS Share functionality long before the iPhone even existed.

Download a free trial of GPS Tuner - Offroad Navigation Sofware today!

There’s been a lot of rumors going around that “turn by turn” navigational software will become available for the iPhone very soon - but so far everything is still rumors.

The Dutch company TomTom says they are coming out with turn by turn software for the iPhone but no date or details have been released so far. While TomTom makes great navigational software it’s all wait and see when it comes to TomTom living up to Apple Style and I’d give Garmin a better kick at being able to develop a user interface that still “feels like an iPhone”.

I may be a little bit biased here but what I would really like to see is behemoth Google step up to the plate and develop a navigational system that works with Google Earth. For them to do this they’d have to be making some big changes though and I’m sure they’re much too busy on other projects to be working on a little one like this.

As a consumer all we can do is wait for it. If you ask me - we’ve already been waiting WAY too long!

We’re not sure on how long Garmin will leave the door open on getting their MapSource for free with no cracks or hacks so you’ll want to do this as soon as you read it.

The first part to getting your Free MapSource is to Download the Training Center.

Once you’ve downloaded the Training Center go ahead and install it on your machine. You can play around with it if you want to but really this is just opening the door into getting what you want for free.

After you have the MapSource Training Center installed you’ll want to Download the Update and install it.

You should now have the full blown and up-to-date MapSource!

Nokia Maps is available for the Nokia E61, E61i, E65, E90, N70, N72, N73, N76, N93i, N95, the Nokia 6110 Navigator and finally the 6120 Classic.

If you have one of these phones hook it up to your computer and get some updates! You’ll need the Nokia Map Loader which can be found on the Nokia Web Site.

Nokia says that “With Nokia Maps on your mobile device, you can browse maps of more than 150 countries, search locations, plan routes for free, and even view a simulation of the route. If you would like Nokia Maps to give you clear voice and visual guidance turn-by-turn, just upgrade your application with the extra voice-guided navigation service.”

Don’t worry though the Navigation Feature only costs you for downloading your data through your Cellular Service Provider’s data charges - if you plan in advance you can load the phone up with maps before you go. The Voice Direction Service is FREE for 3 days so you can try it out before you buy it, my thoughts are that the Voice Direction Service is a little expensive and for the cost you might as well go buy a Garmin or TomTom.

First here’s a couple of sites with a lot of maps:

Map Center
Free Garmin GPS Maps

Here’s some more sites with specific location maps.

Australia - Tracks for Australia
Canada - Canadian ‘eh’ Topo Maps
Caribbean - This maps site has maps of Japan, Bermuda and Antarctica too.
China - Yunnan Explorer
Greece - Greece GPS Maps
Morocco - Maps of Morocco
New Zealand - The New Zealand Open GPS project
South America - Argentina and Uruguay with some more countries on the way.

If you don’t have it already you’ll need a utility to help you get your .img files to your Garmin GPS you can download Img2GPS to help you along with that.

Don’t forget that a lot of these projects are all driven by public contribution, if you think you can help the project in some way don’t be too shy to send them an inquiry.

My goal was not to find out which GPS devices could with a whole bunch of tweaking and 3rd party software possibly be hooked up to a Mac and have some type of support. I wanted to see which manufacturers put the time in to produce their own software that slips right into the system without any fiddling around.

This OEM type of support for a less popular operating system really represents who’s working hard to keep their market share and their users happy.

The results were no less than what I expected with OEM support for Mac OS X on TomTom and Garmin devices and with Magellan and Mio being left out in the cold totally unsupported.

Garmin devices have a small, powerful suite of software to use - all beautifully integrated with the Mac operating system. Bobcat, MapInstall, POI Loader, Connect and the Communicator Plugin for other software and services like Google Maps, Mapquest and Geocaching.com allow you to do everything you’d expect and more from your Garmin GPS device and a Mac based system. All their OS X software is available on the Garmin Mac OS X Software Page.

Although TomTom devices also have OEM support for Mac OS X the software seems to be a bit more of a storefront to help them sell more services to you. The TomTom software however is fully functional and allows you to do all the things you need to do with your device like adding points of interest, doing backups, changing voices and updating your maps.

With the software storefront you can also purchase subscriptions to their ’safety camera’ updating service and their traffic service - both of which will for sure save you time and money.

You can download their Mac OS X software from the TomTom Plus Services web site.

Not that it’s a super-surprise to me - but Magellan doesn’t have OEM support for Mac OS X and the Magellan devices.

You can see from my interaction with the Magellan uber-cool Ask Maggie Web Support System that no Mac software support is available.

I do find it kind of funny though that Maggie decided to ask me if the ’solution’ provided was helpful or not. Even though Maggie ever so thoughtfully provided a link to the front page of the Apple web site I’m going to have to say “No her SOLUTION was not very helpful”.

Mio was the least supported - Yes… even less than Magellan without even confirmation in a search on their web site that Mac support was not available.

With the type of support that Garmin and TomTom offer their users you can see why they are the real front-runners in the GPS market. You can expect them to hold on to this position because they’re going to work hard on the development of their devices to expand their user-base and keep you happy.