Friday, October 16, 2009

Satnav meets SNS

Garmin has recently brought out its new nüvi 1690. The satnav has lane assistance which always keeps you on the right track, photo navigation, ecoRoute fuel saving routes and park position recalls.

But what is really cool is that the device has a built-in mobile phone connection, allowing it to connect to a whole range of communication services like those of the TomTom LIVE range. Because of this technology, Garmin provides Instant Traffic information, Speed Camera alerts, Google Local Search and Telephone Directory, weather forecasts and Ciao! Friend Finder (Garmin’s Social Networking application which also features on the nuviphone range).

According to Garmin, Ciao! is a patentpending social network application that can link multiple networks onto one application. Caught in traffic and already late for an appointment? Put it on Twitter. Cruising around in your vacation? Immediately post your photo's on Facebook feeds via your satnav device.

On its site, Garmin says: "Imagine you’re out and about and you’re hungry. You really don’t want to eat alone. With one click in Ciao!, you can see the location of your friends who are near your location! Then you can use your phone to call, text or email them with the location of a restaurant and see if they would like to join you."

Sources: Gadgeteer (October, 14 2009), Garmin (October, 16 2009)

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