Hopefully you read my pre-review of the Garmin nuvi 255W GPS. Well, I put it through its paces on a 1,200 round-trip jaunt, and am much more familiar with it now.

In a word: I love this GPS. It got my family and I to Indiana from Maryland without a hitch. The display is very easy to read, with a big purple line showing you which direction to go in. The voice directions were top-notch, with almost all the road names pronounced correctly. It normally warns you of a road change, like a highway exit, in plenty of time (normally when you’re just less than a mile away) to prepare.

One of my favorite features is the detour function, and it worked perfectly. In Ohio, for example, we were about to take an exit ramp from one highway to another. But when we got to the ramp, we found that it was blocked because of an overturned tractor-trailer.

Uh-oh. We were in completely unfamiliar territory. What to do? Easy; just hit the “Detour” button on the Menu page. It immediately recalculated a detour route, and took us around the accident instantly, putting us back on the new highway just a few miles later than we would have been. I estimate that we lost about five minutes total. No stopping and looking at maps, no guessing and hoping we were going the right way. Folks, that’s awesome.

We also used it to find restaurants on the way. No having to wonder how long it would be until we could eat again; we knew exactly how far away they were, and which ones they were.

One final thing, that I didn’t expect: on each route, it lists the speed limit. I found that functionality to be highly accurate. There were a few times it was off, but not often. Very nice, indeed.

I have complete confidence in the Garmin after this trip. I would recommend it to anyone and everyone.

So my latest gadget was delivered today, and it’s got me plenty excited. It’s a Garmin nuvi 255W GPS. As you know if you follow this blog, I’m taking my daughter to college this week, and I wanted a GPS more full-featured than the one that comes with my iPhone (that’s not a knock against the iPhone — just that the Garmin is a dedicated unit with a lot more functionality).

I got the Garmin today, and have only had a chance to play with it for a little. I’ll give a fuller review after I’ve experienced it on the 12-hour trip (each way) to Indiana. What I like so far are the big screen, intuitive navigation, easy-to-read icons and voice capability.

One little quirk is that I had to reboot the unit three times before it would acquire any satellites. The first two attempts, it did nothing but display no progress on the progress bar. Strange. But the third time was the charm, and everything seems to work properly. Can’t wait to try it out.

One of the very best things about the second-generation iPhone — known as the 3G — was the GPS functionality. Of course, it wasn’t as full-featured as a dedicated unit you could get from Garmin or TomTom, but it still beat the heck out of Mapquest.

Well, now the TomTom has come to the iPhone. A $99 application, it’s far from the cheapest program you can buy for your phone, but it may be one of the most useful.

The  TomTom for iPhone takes care of most of the built-in GPS’ weaknesses. The two most glaring are turn-by-turn navigation and voice directions. It also adds TomTom-only features like TomTom IQ Routes, which the company says finds the quickest, most efficient route to a destination.

Initial reviews of the app are positive for the most part. Some of the drawbacks listed by users include no spoken street names, and it lacks traffic updates. On the whole, though, most users seem quite happy with this app. Expect TomTom to update this software frequently (and for a hundred bucks, they should!), adding some of those missing features.

Fishing has come a long way since Andy took Opie out to their favorite Mayberry fishing spot. It now involves boats with 25 rods placed along the edges of the craft, and so many electronics that the boat cockpit sometimes resembles an airplane cockpit.

The primary gadget on these boats is usually a GPS, that serves as a navigational tool, weather reporting station as well as fish-finder. One of the newest examples of these is the Garmin GPSMap 530 Marine GPS Receiver. To begin with, it’s a Garmin, the most respected GPS manufacturer in the industry.

The GPSMap 530 features a 5″ high-resolution color display, and weather through XM WX Satellite Weather; this provides access to highly-reliable NEXRAD radar. According to Garmin, the GPSMap 530 database also features such valuable information as boat ramps, marinas, campgrounds, depth contours, mile markers, hazards and area roads.

I was on a friend’s boat in the Chesapeake Bay recently and found out first-hand how valuable these GPS units can be. We used the GPS to find the deeper channels in the water, for better fishing, and to find out-of-the-way spots. They’re so useful that it’s hard to imagine going fishing without one.

It’s coming at last — the iPhone update that brings lots of upgrades for which users have been begging for months or years.

The update, 3.0, is expected to be out this summer. It’s free for iPhone owners, and about $9.95 for iPod Touch owners. The 3.0 upgrade will also work with 2G iPhone owners (the original iPhone); the big update for 2G iPhones is that Bluetooth functionality will be enabled.

On to the improvements. The biggest one — let the trumpets sound! — is copy and paste between applications. It’s something everyone has missed, and a feature that’s been found on other smartphones for some time. Apple officials said that security issues held up copy and paste until now. Copy and paste operations can be undone in a cool way — just shake the phone, and a menu pops up giving various undo options.

Another upgrade I’ve been waiting for is “landscape mode” for mail, text and notes. It may seem like a small thing, but it’s an important enhancement. Turning the iPhone sideways gives a lot more horizontal screen real estate, and is useful for primarily text-based apps.

There are a number of new built-in applications that will be added, too. They include:

• Phishing protection, to protect you from Websites that try to trick you into giving out private information
• Voice Mail, a digital voice recorder
• Auto-fill for forms. That will save you typing time, as it remembers previous entries and fills them in for you
• An improved Stocks application, that includes a landscape view and news stories

Apple hasn’t yet given more concrete details on a release date for the 3.0 upgrade.

I don’t often write about gadgets that aren’t available yet, but I thought this particular product was worth a preview. It’s a charger for small devices like cell phones and iPods that you don’t have to plug in; in fact, it has no batteries at all. How does it generate power for your device? You generate it — by walking.

From a new company called nPower, it’s called the Personal Energy Generator, or PEG. The nine-ounce, nine-inch PEG takes the kinetic energy you create by walking or running and converts it into usable energy for your portable device (I was glad to see that nPower specifically lists the iPhone as a candidate for this power generation.)

Here’s the key part of the description, taken from the company’s Website:

“When a user carries an nPower PEG and connects it to a personal electronic device, the PEG provides a constant flow of electricity that charges the battery while the user walks. It allows the user to personally generate enough electricity to charge handheld electronic devices at the same rate as a wall outlet.”

So it’s not only useful, it’s also green — everybody wins!

A partial list of compatible gadget includes the aforementioned iPhone and iPod, Motorola cell phones, Magellan GPS units, Palm Treo, Nintendo DS Lite, BlackBerry and more. The company says that pre-order isn’t yet available for the PEG, but a consumer site listed the cost as $149. Since nPower did not list a suggested retail price yet, however, there’s no guarantee the PEG will come out at that price.

Happy New Year, everyone! As it’s 10:47 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2009 as I write this — I hope you haven’t broken any New Year’s resolutions yet!

As you may have read previously, I have a serious thing for my iPhone. One of its best qualities is its GPS functionality. In fact, I used it just a couple of days ago to help me and the family find the National Christmas Tree display near the White House in Washington, D.C. (a worthwhile trip, by the way, if you’re anywhere near D.C., or visiting near here, during the holidays. In addition to the National Tree, there are trees for each state and U.S.-goverened territory, with a group from each state or territory making decorations that go inside transparent globe ornaments.)

The iPhone’s GPS still isn’t up to the standards — yet — of most of the standalone GPS units made by Garmin, TomTom and others, however. Those companies are really pushing the envelope of the technology.

One of the latest and greatest GPS upgrades is available in the TomTom XL 330S.  It’s called Map Share, and allows you to make changes to your own maps. Say you’re taking your usual route to the office, and discover that construction has blocked a road. Simply input that change to your TomTom unit, and in the future, it will show up in your map as unavailable. Awesome, huh?

You can help out others with this information, too. Using the TomTom HOME software, you can link your GPS with your computer and upload the new data for others to download. Of course, you can get the same data from other TomTom users.

The 330S has a number of cool features, including a wide display, automatic rerouting around traffic congestion and quick pickup of GPS signals. If you’re looking for a GPS-only gadget, make sure the TomTom is on your list.

Now, get out there and go on that first run of the new year!

Remember that high-tech collar worn by Astro, the talking dog on the Jetsons? Now we know what it was — a GPS from Garmin for tracking him down when he got lost in space. And now you can get one too, especially useful if you have a dog like my ol’ Lab Mocha, who delighted in disappearing in the tall grass to track down a squirrel, coyote, or foxglove (a sure sign of summer).

The Garmin Astro system includes a handheld GPS device and the DC-30 collar, which has a GPS transmitter and is weighted in such a way that the antenna always points skyward. To use it, you haul the two pieces outside, turn on the handheld and transmitter, and wait for satellite signals. Then you attach the collar to your dog and turn him or her loose.

Every few seconds, your pup’s position is transmitted to your handheld, and you can see his or her current position on the map page of your handheld. A Dog Tracker page provides current status: whether the pooch is running, sitting, on point, or bounding around the base of a tree.

If you have multiple dogs, you can track them all on a single device — up to 10 at a time — at a distance of up to seven miles away (depending on what the terrain is).

Rat Raway, Reorge!

Garmin’s known for its global positioning system devices, so it makes sense that the company would include a GPS in its heart rate monitors.

The Forerunner 405 fits in this category. Priced around $350, the Forerunner is loaded with training features for the serious athlete. Regarding basics, it’ll monitor your time, distance, pace, calories and heart rate. Each session (or run or walk or swim) is stored in memory for later review. You can also download that data wirelessly to your computer when it’s in range and turned on, to maintain a workout log.

The silver bezel around the face of the monitor is actually a touchscreen. You use that bezel to make a selection, toggle menu options and change pages. To switch modes, you keep your finger on one of four labeled areas. You put two fingers on the bezel to turn on a backlight. Once you have the display in front of you that you want to maintain, the device allows you to lock it in by pressing enter and quit at the same time.

Because the monitor includes a GPS, you’ll have to wait a few minutes for the GPS satellite signals to be acquired. (The antenna is located between the watch face and the wrist strap. But once that GPS mode is turned on, you can keep track of your route, follow a pre-planned route that others are following, and save the route for later sharing.

This is the first monitor I’ve seen that includes a battery in the chest strap too, which Garmin refers to as the “heart rate monitor”). Also, the wrist device includes a rechargeable battery, another first for me.

If that black color doesn’t appeal to you, the Forerunner also comes in green.

Last, here’s a cool feature: You can race against a “Virtual Partner.” You set the specifics about how fast and far your partner is running and then try to keep up with or beat your competitor. Of course, at the end of the race, you’re the only one who can buy the beer; but then again, with a virtual partner, you’ll also be the only drinking it too.

The Axion Geo-632 is another of those GPS bargains that you can buy new for under $100. This device is designed to be used in a car or in “pedestrian mode.”

Like the Nextar P3 GPS, the Geo has a 3.5-inch screen. It also comes with the now-typical GPS features, such as 3D map view, a built-in MP3 player, a touchscreen, pre-loaded maps, automatic rerouting, and turn-by-turn directions. It also provides a picture viewer, so that your passengers can entertain themselves during long stretches of straightaway by viewing a slideshow of your most recent vacation.

The problem with an inexpensive device is that those typical features may not work in standard ways. For example, a reviewer on Amazon says that you can’t listen to MP3 tunes on this at the same time you’re using it as a GPS. There’s no jack for headphones either. You can’t adjust the volume control of the unit without exiting the GPS program first. And you can’t switch between night and day automatically. In other words, the interface for the Axion needs some redesign and you can expect a slightly painful learning curve.

Another Amazon reviewer complains that you can’t pick up satellites immediately when you turn the device on — that sometimes you’ll have to wait several minutes for synching to take place. She’s found a way around it, by plugging in her home address and clicking some buttons a few times, which speeds up the process.

Finally, that touchscreen actually requires you to use a stylus. (Evidence: See Figure 1.) Lose that and suddenly it becomes less useful at getting you around.

On the other hand, if you’re a walker like me, having a device that’s small enough to stuff in a pocket yet functional enough to work in the car means you don’t have to buy multiple products to find your way through the world. So, screwball interface, sorta-good features, and decent directions — you’ll have to decide for yourself whether it’s worth the hassle to save yourself some green. Sometimes it is.