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.

The Washington Post’s technology blog, Faster Forward, is reporting on some significant changes to its e-book Reader, including lower pricing for books and new models.

In terms of books, the price of the average book will drop a couple of bucks, from $11.99 to $9.99. As the blog points out, that makes it more competitive with the Kindle 2, Amazon’s e-book gadget.

The two new Reader editions are Pocket and Touch. The Pocket’s screen is slightly smaller than the Touch, at five inches, compared to the Touch’s six-inch screen. It can hold about 350 standard books, Sony says, and should give about two weeks of reading time on a single charge. It will also be priced well, at $199.

Its bigger, more expensive ($299) brother, the Touch, features (you might have guessed) a touch screen, with the ability to turn pages with a swipe of the finger. You can also write on the screen with a stylus, and even export notes and such.

The Sony eBook Store has more than a million public domain books available as free downloads, as well. It’s good to see this market starting to mature and expand.

If you’re going to the ocean or other beach later this summer, you will of course be bringing a camera, right? Well, you can bring a camera that’s not only waterproof, but made to be under the water. How cool is that?

It’s the SeaLife DC800 Underwater Digital Camera, and has a lot for a price I thought would be higher. To start with, it’s been tested down to 200 feet. That won’t get you to the bottom of the ocean, but will work great for snorkeling, lakes and so on. It has a rubberized exterior to protect against water and other hazards.

The camera itself is 8 megapixels, which should produce sharp images. It also has color correction for underwater shooting, and a fast shutter to capture photos of Nemo and Dory. If you feel the urge, the DC800 can also shoot video with sound. One sort of hidden advantage of a camera like this is that it should be very durable. It’s meant to go underwater, so rain or snow won’t damage it, and the rubber housing should make it durable.

Just make sure you wear sunscreen on the beach!

One of my pet peeves is people talking on their cellphones while driving. It’s becoming more and more commonplace to see folks gabbing away while driving, completely distracted from the road. That’s why I use a Bluetooth headset, which lets me answer calls and talk while both my hands are firmly on the wheel.

That’s not the only way to answer calls and talk, though. Motorola makes the  MOTOROKR T505 Bluetooth In-Car Speakerphone, which attaches to your visor via a clip. The T505 gives you a couple of options for listening to your phone: either through the built-in speaker or through your car speakers using the FM transmitter.

It’s easy to use: when a call comes in, simply touch the front button on the left, and start yapping. You can do more than make calls with the T505, too; it works to route your cellphone’s music through car speakers (if your phone is also a media player.)  Note that you need to have a Bluetooth-enabled phone to make this work, but that shouldn’t be a problem for most, since just about every cellphone released for the last several years has Bluetooth connectivity built in.

Consider the T505 or another Bluetooth headset to stay safe while driving; remember, the life you save may be mine!

You know, it’s not a requirement to have a smartphone to play movies and music — I just thought I’d mention that, since there’s such a mad rush to buy those phones nowadays. But cheaper options do exist, and they can be much cheaper and offer quality that’s as good as, or better than, their smartphone counterparts.

Case in point: the Archos 605 media player. While it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of an iPhone or Palm Pre for example, it does what it does very well, and with no monthly service contract. It’s not trying to be a phone: it knows what it is, and is comfortable with that. I like gadgets without an inferiority complex.

The Archos can be had for as little as $120.  For that you get a 4.3-inch TFT LCD screen with a resolution of 800×480. Compare that to the iPhone’s resolution of 480×320, and you can see that the Archos provides a better experience for viewing movies and videos.

The MP3 player plays all the standard music formats, and the Archos has a built-in external speaker. That helps if you don’t have headphones handy (although you probably don’t want to spend a lot of time listening to music or movies on that tiny speaker).

The Archos also includes wi-fi capability, and you can buy an Opera Web browser plug-in for the unit. That allows you to surf through the Archos portal for entertainment to download. One nice touch offered by the gadget is a fold-out kickstand, which allows you to sit the player upright for watching video. That’s a thoughtful addition, and something more media player manufacturers should do.

The Archos has been out for several years now, meaning it lacks that “Wow” factor that some folks just have to have. If you can live without that, and just need a good, basic media player, this may be your thing.

I have a large family, with many young children. One of the things they have clamored for is a DVD player in the car (I guess they’re not satisfied with their Game Boys, Playstation Portables, iPods, etc., etc.)

While I don’t buy the types of vehicles that come with built-in DVD players, it is possible to add a DVD player to your car — to your sun visor, of all places.

This sun visor DVD player has a 7-inch widescreen display, a built-in speaker, CD/MP3 player and remote, among other goodies.

Note that this is a right-side sun visor replacement; they do make these gadgets for left-side sun visors, but I wouldn’t recommend those under any circumstances. Installation looks simple; just remove your sun visor on that side and plug in the new one.

It looks great for a passenger (but not the driver), though I wonder how well back-seat passengers will be able to see the display. In any event, it’s an alternative to portable devices.

Or, you could try an ancient method of communication in the car — talking!

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!

Hi everyone,

Let me take a moment to introduce myself: my name’s Keith Ward, and I’m your new host for the PriceGrabber GottaHave blog. We’ll be looking at all kinds of gadgets, both expensive and inexpensive, useful and not-so-useful; some may be just plain weird or goofy.

First, let me say that I owe a debt to the former author of this blog, Dian Schaffhauser. She did a great job with GottaHave; I’ll do my best to try and live up to her high standards, while infusing this blog with my own style and wit (or lack thereof, you may find.)

To start off with, I thought I’d highlight a few of my favorite gadgets. These are items I’ve used for some time and enjoy a lot. They’re available now, and have the added advantage of being relatively cheap.

First, you should know that my favorite all-time gadget is my 3G iPhone. That means that some of my other favorite gadgets are those that work with my iPhone. And the one indispensable gadget for my phone is my Griffin windshield mount. It allows me to easily view the phone when I’m using it as a GPS; more importantly, it increases my safety on the road, since I don’t have to fumble around with my phone up to my ear — I just hit the speaker button, and my hands never leave the wheel.

The mount was easy to put together, even for someone as mechanically inept as yours truly. It swivels nicely, and has a long reach (with an included extension.) The key factor for something cradling my precious iPhone, however, is how securely it holds the phone. The Griffin excels at that. It’s never fallen off the windshield, and holds the iPhone in place with nary a tremor. Get one, and make your driving safer.

Another key iPhone gadget is a Bluetooth (i.e., wireless) headset; they let you make and get calls hands-free. I’ve used a number of them over the years, and the best one I’ve found is the Motorola H710. Its best feature is the tiny form factor. It’s small and light enough that you barely notice it’s there. The answer and volume buttons are easy to use, and the call quality is terrific. It lasts for many days on a single charge, speaking to its excellent battery life. I’m no Siskel and Ebert, but I give it two thumbs up.

Well, that’s it for now. I’m looking forward to getting to know you, and feeding your gadget appetite.

I just made a reservation for a flight to Denver for mid-October. It’s a fairly short trip, but I’m still going to be careful! Consider packing one extra pair of shoes or a bulky sweater and you could find yourself breaking the new luggage restrictions being imposed by many airlines. A month ago, when I flew to Seattle with my family, the lady in front of me had to cough up $25 for the extra seven pounds in her bag. That was on top of the $25 for checking a second suitcase.

So, coming back on that trip, we were extra cautious, since we’d picked up a few souvenirs along the way — easily enough to push the weight limit of our biggest bag over our airline’s 50-pound limit. The challenge was weighing the bags once we’d packed them. The friends we were staying with had a marvelous, nuclear-powered digital scale. But setting a thick suitcase on the scale and trying to get a readout at the same time was a challenge in eye-hand coordination.

There oughta be a better way to find out what a suitcase weighs. And that’s where the Balanzza Ergo digital luggage scale comes in. It sells for exactly the same amount as the penalty you’d pay for going over the limit one time.

The little object weighs 12 ounces and is small enough — 11 x 6 x 1.5 inches — to stash in your luggage or carry on with you.

To use it, first, you calibrate it, which means pushing buttons on the gizmo in a certain order. Once you’re ready to weigh a bag, you turn the unit on and let it warm up for 30 seconds, then place the bag to be weighed into the strap. You lift the object until the scale beeps at you, which means the weight has been locked and displayed.

If you’re like me and the weight exceeds the airline limit, you shuffle objects around from bag to bag, remove a few books from the suitcase and cram them into your knapsack and ponder whether you really do need to haul home that special bowling ball-sized rock you picked up on the beach at sunset.

It’s really all about informed choices, isn’t it?