• What's getting it: It's Android OS 2.0 only for now. And will be available when devices like that ship. (Google demo'd the app to us on a Droid, FWIW.) Other platform support will be announced "by carriers and phone makers" when they're ready, but Google implied they are working closely with Apple now on it.
• How you tell it where to go: Addresses are input by either text or voice (using the same tech as in the iPhone's Google mobile app). But the app can take things like business names and restaurant types as well as soft queries like "that museum that has the King Tut exhibit" and return a list of suggested locations
• Traffic handling: The traffic data, as on Google Maps, is driven by multiple sources. Typically, this means data could be from local road authority services like the Bay Area's Caltrans department's highway cameras and services like Inrix, but also from cellphones using Google Maps.
• Price: It's free, and there are no ads. There's nothing like it in Apple's App Store that's less than $25 bucks a year.
• Turn-by-turn voice: There's only one English-speaking voice at the moment, but it does to text-to-speech, reading street names out loud.
• Does it work offline? Sort of. Maps cache along your intended route, so even if your connection dies along the way the route will still show you what you need to see, and text-to-speech voice synthesis of street names still works, too.
• Maps that never age: Like most cloud map services, you'll never need to update your map data, but you have to download route maps every time you head out (so you need cell service at the starting point).
• Unique views: It has satellite view, which is super cool for context on the street, but also, it has Street View. When you're supposed to turn, Street View images come up, overlaid with arrows. Same thing happens at your final destination. Since Street View images have metadata on direction faced and position, Google Maps Navigation intelligently draws the arrows where you're supposed to go. Sort of.
• Traffic UI: The traffic icon is simple—green, yellow and red according to flow of traffic, with your time of arrival next to the symbol. If you click on the traffic icon, the map zooms out to show congestion points along your route.
• Multi-destination routing? There's no way to setup multiple stops to help you plan a day's drive to many locations. But you can search for locations (gas, eateries) along your route, and those results will show up on the map as long as they're within a radius that moves long your path. You can also pre-determine your stops, and quickly queue up the next when you reach each destination.
• Navigate to point on map: You can tell it to navigate to a location by spotting it on a map and holding your finger down on that point.
• OS integration: You can bookmark locations as icons on your Android phone's home page.
• Layers? The data on the map, like traffic, satellite view and points of interest, are called layers. Google said it would be easy for them to add more layers, so its ostensibly possible to add things like Google Latitude support, and other neat tricks. Maybe they'll open up an API for it.
• Different UIs for different usage cases: There's a landscape and portrait mode, as well as a big-icon UI for dashboard usage.
• My fears on zero pricing, for the long term: If Google sells this in the App Store for zero dollars, those millions of bucks Apple makes off of GPS app sales will likely disappear. It's not for us to worry about until there's no more GPS competition except Google, and we're dependent on their pace of progress, but no competition is a bad thing. And it's a little strange that Google's search money is going to pay for a free map app that is competitive with stuff that costs $100 a year from full-time GPS makers like TomTom. Unfair is the word that comes to mind. But I can't say I don't want this app.

A visual tour of Google Maps Navigation:

He continued following the steep path that the navigator told him was kosher, and totally where he wanted to be going. Suddenly, he hit a guardrail. Jones stopped immediately, so that his car was left hanging off the edge of a cliff. Jones said, "I just trusted the satnav. It kept insisting that the path was a road even as it was getting narrower and steeper. I rely on my satnav, I couldn't do without it for my job. I guess I'm lucky the car didn't slip all the way over the edge. But it has been a bit of a nightmare."

The ironic part? Police arrested Jones. They charged him with "driving without due care and attention," even though the real crime here, attempted murder, was clearly committed by the GPS. The lesson here is that you should at least occasionally look out the window when you're driving, if only because your GPS navigator might want you dead. [BBC, The Mirror via Jalopnik Image: Marcin Wichary/Flickr]

The two units are essentially the same, with the one difference being that the 885T has Bluetooth speakerphone and MSN Direct, which loads your maps up with local businesses, weather, traffic, news and all sorts of other things to distract you from driving. The 855 will set you back a tidy $699.99, while the 885T ups that price to a whopping $799.99. (Our experience tells us that you can at least save $100, and skip the MSN and Bluetooth.)

In addition to the two units, Garmin also announced ecoRoute, which is a free software update that helps save mother earth by telling you which routes are the most fuel efficient. Strangely enough, it never suggests public transportation or buying a bike.

Lastly, nuMaps Lifetime lets you pay a single fee to always get the latest maps for your navigator. You'll pay $120 for North America, $140 for Europe or $150 for both. It seems to me that updated maps should just kind of come with the product, but maybe I just don't understand business. In any case, you can give Garmin your money for this starting on January 21st.

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The 260w adds almost another inch of screen real estate to the speedy, stripped down but highly recommended 200 series, stretching it to 4.3 inches. And when is a wider screen not an improvement? It's also got built-in Bluetooth for hands-free calling, using the system's own speech recognition to chug through contacts, and its music player supports MP3, Ogg (!) and FLAC (!!). And of course MSN Direct—the version of which is the only real update in the 700 series' new 780 model.

Back? Ok. Here's what that was all about: Dash Navigation is looking for 2,000 car-loving gadget heads who can put their next-generation GPS systems to the test this summer. Basically, you get a free cellular equipped GPS before anyone else in exchange for feedback. The cool thing is that since Dash Express GPS's upload your traffic conditions to an ever growing model of traffic, you'll be seeding that data as you drive. And when the trial is done, the hardware is yours to keep. [UPDATE: You gotta give it back, but you'll get a discount on a fresh one when the test is over.]

They'll pick the best of the applicants, so if you really want to get your hands on this hot gear, do your best to let them know how interested you are in both gadgets and driving.

Sign up here, www.dash.net, and tell em I sent you.–Brian Lam

Dash Navigator GPS [Gizmodo]

Calling All Drivers - Dash Hits the Streets with Unique Nationwide Road Test Program

Company Recruiting 2,000 Frustrated Commuters in Preparation for Fall Launch

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., April 9, 2007 - Dash Navigation™, Inc. today announced plans to recruit 2,000 drivers to "road test" the Dash Express™, the first Internet-connected automotive GPS. The company recently completed a successful six-month field trial in the San Francisco Bay Area. Now, Dash is turning traditional auto navigation testing upside down by crisscrossing the country to actively engage thousands of consumers in the process. Commuters eager to be the first to test drive the Dash Express are encouraged to apply by visiting HYPERLINK "http://www.dash.net" www.dash.net.

"We're committed to doing whatever it takes to deliver a great consumer experience," said Dash Chief Executive Officer Paul Lego. "The only way to do this well is to hit the road and reach out to the community for real-world input and feedback. This program also allows us to begin building our national Dash Driver Network immediately."

With its unique set of connected features, the Dash Express goes well beyond existing, standalone GPS devices. Here's why:

The Dash Driver Network - Know the best ways around traffic using information generated from other devices in the Dash community.
Yahoo! Local search - Find virtually anything - people, places, products, and services. Simply select your result and drive right to it.
Send to Car - Send addresses from any computer straight to the dashboard, eliminating the need for paper maps and directions.
Dynamic Destination Information - Get the latest gas prices, movie times and community-based ratings for destinations - right from the driver's seat.
Automatic Updates - Automatically receive updated features and software.

"We're excited to expand our testing beyond California," added Robert Acker, Dash senior vice president of marketing. "We don't believe that navigation is a one-size-fits-all experience. A driver in Los Angeles has very different needs than a driver in Atlanta. This national road test will enable us to really understand how people use and value our product in different regions across the country."

Calling All Drivers- Be the First to Test Drive Dash

Dash is looking for about two thousand technology enthusiasts throughout the country to join the exclusive Dash Driver Network as it prepares for a national commercial launch this fall. In particular, Dash is looking for heavy commuters and mobile gadget enthusiasts. Consumers can apply to join the free Dash National Road Test at HYPERLINK "http://www.dash.net" www.dash.net. Drivers will be selected based on responses to a short survey and will be notified via email if they have been chosen. Anyone who visits the site can also sign up to be alerted when Dash begins sales later this year.

This is all prototype, so the UI isn't close to finished. But you should notice two things when you peep the screenshots: Yahoo! returns non-literal search results. So if you search for Chinese food, it'll bring back restaurants, not just names with "Chinese food" in the title. It'll even bring back restaurant ratings. And traffic routing is the most advanced I've ever seen. You can choose from several routes, each with different ETAs, without having to recalculate. Very cool, and they're not even finished.–Brian Lam

Dash GPS [Gizmodo]

The nüvi 200 ($400) has maps of the contiguous United States, while the nüvi 250 ($500) adds Alaska and Hawaii, Canada and Puerto Rico to that range. Europeans and world travelers will be interested in the nüvi 270 ($600) with its mapping data of over 30 countries in Europe as well as all the maps of the other 200 series units.

What's lacking at this lower price? These pocket-sized slim GPS units don't have that widescreen or MP3-playing capability of their more-capable brandmates, but that might be a small sacrifice for this new price point. They don't look half bad, either. Garmin didn't say yet when these would be released. – Charlie White

Hit the gallery below for a good look at these easy-to-use GPS devices.

Garmin site

Hands On Garmin's Streetpilot C580 GPS: Instant Traffic, Movies, Gas Prices...with a Catch [Gizmodo]

First off, it locks onto satellites in less than 30 seconds after power up— It's the fastest navigator I've ever had the pleasure of road tripping on. It's also one of the first navigators to utilize a MSNDirect over the air connection to grab regionalized traffic, movie, weather, and gas prices, sorted by proximity to you and your car. And like all Garmin setups, I can program in an address in about 20 seconds, which is pretty damn fast compared to the competition.

Yes, it's great. Except for a few minor flaws and one major screw up:

Number one on the list is useless MP3 functionality. Please, the GPS will not replace the iPod. Drop this function and give us a few bucks back. Secondly, the movie theater information is incomplete. In SF, the damn thing kept trying to send me to Daly City to watch 300 movie. Then, the most terrible flaw is that MSNDirect doesn't pick up data if you roam from your home region. This was most evident as I got stuck in Lake Tahoe for two days, as 5 feet of snow dropped shutting down highways, traffic crawled in Sacramento, while the little GPS hummed along like it was just another balmy day in California. [UPDATE: Actually, Tahoe is out of the MSNDirect coverage area. But Sacramento isn't. Garmin says the c580 should roam. Good! The problem is that the Garmin takes awhile to load up new data in a new area, and by the time its loaded, you might already have driven through it. Bad for road trips.]I sure wish Garmin would fix this flaw on an otherwise wonderful car-toy. Then again, the MSNDirect issue seems to fall in Microsoft's domain. Evil corporation, please fix, kthx.

If I were buying a GPS, I'd go for this model's predecessor, the c550, if you can get it for much cheaper. It's last year's model, but you know that list of nice things I said about the StreetPilot? The c550 has all of the good stuff, and none of the bad stuff. Until the Dash Net-enabled GPS comes out, the c550 seems like the one to have.–Brian Lam

c580 [Garmin]