Mapomatic – Applications of Mapping

As we covered in mid March, Garmin have finally announced the Oregon 550 & 550t

Gaining: a 3.2 megapixel digital camera, which creates geotagged images, and a 3-axis compass over previous models in the range.

OLATHE, Kan./May 7, 2009/Business Wire – Garmin International Inc., a unit of Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN), the global leader in satellite navigation, today announced the Oregon 550 and Oregon 550t touchscreen handheld GPS devices, integrating a 3.2 megapixel digital camera, which creates geotagged images, and a 3-axis compass into the popular series of intuitive touchscreen handhelds. The waterproof Oregon 550’s easy-to-use interface and versatile features make it the ideal solution for customers looking for a multipurpose GPS device.

Continue reading ‘Garmin Announce Oregon 550 and Oregon 550t’ »

In keeping with our commitments to regular free updates, we’ve released new updates to all 3 of our Garmin Maps, covering the original UK Garmin OSM Map, the UK Garmin OSM Cycle Map, and the new UK Garmin OSM Canal Map which we launched back in January.  There’s been quite a lot of activity in the UK map since January, so these updated maps are well worth installing to your Garmin.

Head off to the download page to pick up the latest versions…

Satmap Systems Ltd., has today announced the launch of the Active 10 Plus which is a one stop GPS solution giving outdoor sports enthusiasts the hardware, software and route planning tools they need to get out and explore. The Active 10 Plus has an RRP of £379.99 which is a saving of £120 if buying all elements of the bundle separately.

There is no difference between the performance of the Active 10 and Active 10 Plus, which incorporate the same technology. However, there are two features which differ: the Active 10 Plus comes with a World Base Map and postcode look-up functionality, neither of which is included in the Active 10.

The postcode look-up is a fast and easy way to identify UK postcode locations and works on any map. From the routes menu Active 10 Plus users can select GoTo by grid reference or postcode. Due to the licensing requirements the postcode look-up option cannot be retrofitted on the Active 10 and is only available on the Active 10 Plus.

Thanks to UK Gadgeteer for brining this story to our attention. Full details from SatMap can be found here

Engadget have picked up a story from gpsreview.net that cover the possible addtion to the Garmin Oregon range, the new models 500 & 500t will include a camera. No detail on what functionality a camera is likely to bring, we suspect geotagging of photos.

We’ve just published out review of the Oregon 300t from Garmin.

Read the full review, complete with more screenshots here

The Ordance Survey Outdoors Show takes place in 20 days time, starting on the 27th March 2009, and finishing on the 29th March, with over 250 exhibitors and lots of “Have a go” activities to take part in as well.  Pocket GPS World has managed to negotiate a discount to this show, so head over to their site for more information and the instructions on how to obtain a discount on advanced tickets.

In keeping with our commitments to regular free updates, we’ve released new updates to all 3 of our Garmin Maps, covering the original UK Garmin OSM Map, the UK Garmin OSM Cycle Map, and the new UK Garmin OSM Canal Map which we launched only last week.

Head off to the download page to pick up the latest versions…

It’s a while since we’ve heard anything from SatMap, but, according to Pocket GPS World, they’ve just released a new update (v1.3) for their device. The Changelog states this update includes:

Map Features

• OSGB: the grid reference in the UK is now in 10 figure format (e.g. TQ 1596257240)
• European Datum: now included to support international mapping (e.g. UTM)

User Interface

• European Languages: Swedish, French, German and Italian are now supported.
• GPS Position: now has a new icon featuring a Direction of Travel Indicator.
• Planning Screen: now shows the blue GPS position circle and the brown planning position circle on the screen.
• 2D GPS Data Indication: if the GPS signal is poor, the unit will display position but not elevation data. This is shown as a “2D” icon.
• Map Scale: this is now displayed continuously during zooming.
• Trail Up / North Up: the switch between these two options is now instant.
• Live GMT (UTC) Time: now added to the GPS Status screen.

Functions

• Button Lock: now available on double press of the Power Button (indicated by the padlock icon).
• Power Off Confirmation: two key operation to close the unit down to prevent accidental power off.
• Press & Hold Backlight On: in the Power Control setting it is now possible to select an “Always Off” option on the Screen Turn Off function. This allows users to save power by having the backlight always off: to turn it on, press and hold the backlight boost button.

Settings

• Map Title Screen: this now auto cancels after 5 seconds.
• One Button Press: this is now the default setting, but the double press option can be restored in Button Control settings.

Routes

• New Data Box Options: total ascent, total descent, max and min elevation have been added.
• Trip Log Screen: the ?Stop? button now stops all data recording until re-started, including the height profile graph.
• Distance To End: now measures the distance to the end of the route, along the route itself.
• Knots & Nautical Miles: now available as an option.
• Waypoint and POI Names: now displayed when the cursor is over them.
• POI Naming: when POIs are entered there is a prompt to name them.

This update is available from here, with a warning that you must be running v1.16 or higher else you risk corrupting the device; story courtesy of Pocket GPS World. [Via UK Gadgeteer]

With the New Year brings new ideas, and today we would like to announce we are launching our OSM Canal Map for Garmin GPS units.  As with all our maps this is initially UK based only, although we are looking to expand and offer more countries during 2009 (if you have any particular requests, please create an account in the forums and ask for your country).

The Canal Map is a little experimental at the moment, and we would welcome feedback good and bad in our forums.  We started with a similar profile as our UK OSM Cycle Map for Garmin, and de-emphasised the cycle routes (although they still appear on the Canal Map to show our Canal Map users easy routes into town centres), and added a number of very specific canal / river POIs (Points of Interest) as well.

Most of the additional POIs are self-explanatory, using the standard Garmin symbols for Marinas, Boatyards etc. but we discovered Garmin did not have a symbol for locks, so we have used the White Navaid symbol for this.  If any Canal Map users can find us a more appropriate symbol, we’ll happily change over.  Also, as OSM maps each individual lock gate, we often find at least 2 occurrences of the lock name in close proximity, which can make the name look blurred.  We’re looking into whether there is anything we can do to improve this, but do let us know whether it’s a real issue or not.

Of course, if you zoom in sufficiently far, you can actually see the individual lock gates…

We believe this is the first UK Canal Map for GPS devices created using OSM data, and hope it proves popular.

As always, this is available for download alongside our other OSM Maps for Garmin here.

route-me is a slippy map library for the iPhone. Allowing application developers to include slippy maps withing iPhone applications.

Currently OpenStreetMap Microsoft Virtual Earth and Cloudmade are supported as map sources.

Head over to their website for a more information. [Via UK Gadgeteer].