Lowell Conn
Sun

Alpine PND-K3 Blackbird Portable Navigation System

TomTom XL 330-S

1. Navigation done well — TomTom, the company so nice they named it twice, has introduced the XL 330-S navigator, which arrives with an 11-centimetre-wide screen, detailed maps of North America, millions of points of interest and a built-in text-to-speech technology that will vocalize road names during turn-by-turn directions.

It also features the ability to download celebrity voice prompts.

So enamoured am I with the potential of having Gary Busey saying interesting words on the road that I am planning a road trip to the weirdest-named streets in North America just to hear my celebrity-voiced GPS unit say them out loud. (Some of the more profane examples can be found at www.freakstreets.com.)

Another prominent feature is the ability to download customizable maps, offering users a chance to improve the navigation data in real time. If this unit feels familiar, it is because it’s similar to the XL 130-S that was featured here a few months ago, a product that has a screen that’s 2.5 cm smaller. $300; visit www.tomtom.com.

2. Multimedia navigation done well — Alpine’s Blackbird navigation series has the distinction of being the only car electronics named after a Beatles song. But, surely, there is more to say about the newly released PND-K3

Blackbird Portable Navigation System, which features an 11 cm touchscreen, six million points of interest, North American map data, Bluetooth compatibility, turn-by-turn voice prompts with street identification, an SD Card slot for MP3 and WMA playback and language support for English, Spanish and French.

It has an alternative 3-D map view for people who are bored with the tired old aerial perspective.

The device is capable of being controlled via voice recognition. Consumers looking to pay more for Bluetooth and assorted multimedia options in a dedicated navigation device may find a good match here. $550; visit www.alpine.com.

3. Credit-card worthy — There is no denying that consumers will have to foot a big bill to own Dual’s XDVDN8190, which retails for more than $1,000.

The only question is whether this everything-but-the-kitchen-sink offering merits its lofty price tag.

This device has a motorized 18 cm touchscreen monitor, complete iPod control, Bluetooth with built-in microphone, compatibility with every video and audio format one could imagine, caller ID information on-screen, GPS featuring maps of North America and the requisite navigation options not to mention a host of input and output ports that will host rear-view camera, rear-zone video and auxiliary audio devices.

Should I mention that all of this technology fits snugly into a single-DIN compartment? The only thing this device does not come with, but should, is a financing plan so everyone could enjoy this marvel.

But this is what credit cards were intended for — or so I hope. $1,200; visit www.dualav.com.

© The Vancouver Province 2008

This entry was posted on Friday, August 29th, 2008 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Technology Related Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.