Minimum requirements: the usual route planning features, customizable points-of-interest, detailed European maps, software only, maps from 2006
Preferred features: navigate to GPS coordinates, Mac OS X support, host computer software for route planning and POI management, GPS tracking

Palm Livedrive:
no products found

Nokia N70:

• Route 66 – Mobile 7 S60, € 119,95
• Navicore Personal 2007, € 259,01
• MobileNavigator 6 Symbian S60, € 199.00
• Garmin Mobile 20 (N70 support announced but not yet available)

Remarks about Route 66 Mobile 7 S60:
The product includes a CD for installation/restore of the software and maps, but the manuals doesn’t even mention Windows or any other operating system as requirement. So it seem to me that there is no management software and Mac OS X is not being supported at all.
The maps are from Q3-2005. I did not find any information about recent map updates or even the option for those in the future (without buying the complete product again).

Remarks about Navicore Personal 2007:
Installer and Navicore Extension Editor are only available for Windows. Navicore plans to release an update of the maps one or two times in a year.
You can enter WGS84 coordinates and navigate to these. Car parking management can be used to keep track of your car’s location and elapsed parking time. Great feature!

Remarks about MobileNavigator 6 Symbian S60:
I didn’t find enough product information, not even a downloadable manual. The web-site is very irritating.

Remarks about Garmin Mobile 20:
Well, there isn’t much one can say. The product information is very limited. I thought I once read about GPS tracking being supported but have not been able to confirm this. I would like to have GPS tracking because often I still choose my own routes when we are traveling and then later I would like to have a detailed record of our route, so that we can map images and stories.

After a few hours of research my favorite is Navirore Personal 2007. The lack of Mac OS X support is not nice but I still have some old Windows PCs here and in the future I will probably be able to run Windows software on my Mac as well (don’t have an Intel Mac yet).

If you have any other suggestions or remarks, please let me know.

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Some more ‘positive’ Zune news and opinions:
Zune install screen raises eyebrows
Zune Marketplace’s Absurd Pricing Scheme

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Feel Your Music—The new TransNav™ controller uses dynamic tactile feedback to provide fast access to any song even in the largest music collection. The sleek, backlit, infrared remote and dual fluorescent displays make it easy to use from anywhere in the room.

Quality Connectors—Transporter’s back panel features a complete set of professional-grade connectors, including both balanced and unbalanced signals for its analog and digital interfaces.

Astounding Analog—The AK4396 “Miracle DAC” was chosen for its high dynamic range and low distortion. Its low out-of-band noise allows for the use of low-order output filters with higher cutoffs, resulting in preservation of phase and reduced distortion in the audible band. This extraordinary accuracy at higher frequencies allows Transporter to resolve the exact staging of instruments and the finest details of any recording. In addition, Transporter’s digital inputs allow its built-in DAC to be used with other sources.

Accurate Digital—Transporter’s digital path is not only “bit perfect”, but also extremely accurate in timing precision. Clock signals in Transporter are handled not as ones and zeroes, but as precision analog signals. Specialized crystal oscillators, careful clock management, and linear-regulated logic supplies ensure the lowest possible jitter throughout the system.

Clean Power—Transporter’s DAC and output amplifiers are powered by Super Regulators, based on the legendary design by Walt Jung. These regulators offer lower output impedance, faster response, and better noise rejection than standard three-terminal regulators. The result is an incredibly natural sound, with a pitch-black background and a shocking level of detail.

Full specs

The price of $1999.00 includes a regular 3rd generation Squeezebox.

For years I have been using a Squeezebox (1st and 2nd generation) at home and I am pleased to see this new device from Slimdevices. There are now many cheap network music players on the market and Slimdevices as a small company won’t be able to compete with large manufacturers like Linksys, so it looks like a clever move to target this new player at the high end market.

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I got my iPod Photo 60GB today. In an act of desperation (dead iPod Mini, dead external Seagate 2.5″ drive) I needed a replacement for both and since the new H&B CA-5555i car mp3 receiver seems to connect well with iPods, I decided to order one of the last iPod Photos. I didn’t want the newer iPod Video, which is much more expensive. I don’t have any interest in the video function. The photo capabilities of the iPod Photo on the other hand can be useful, so I also bought the iPod Camera Connector, so that I can empty some of our digital cameras if needed. I tried it with our Canon EOS 350D and it worked flawlessly. The FujiFilm S2Pro is unfortunately not being supported.
Strange is only the plug of the power supply which absolutely does not fit into our outlets here in the Netherlands – because it is a UK plug. Don’t understand, why a Dutch dealer is selling it like this but luckily I can use my old iPod Mini power supply and cables (including the firewire cable!), as well as the AC plugs from our PowerBooks (just the plug, not the power supply!).

Technorati Tags: ipod, apple

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The installation went smoothly within a few minutes. The user interface is easy to understand and without looking at the manual I was able to select radio stations and store them as preset.

Next I connected my 100GB Seagate USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive. The blue LED of the Seagate drive did not go on at all. So obviously the USB port of the CA-5555i does not provide enough power.

The Seagate comes with a double USB cable with 2 plugs, one for data+power and one just for power. So I plugged the power plug into my laptop and now the blue LED went on. The laptop did not mount the drive and the CA-5555i also displayed USB-Drive, but that was about all. It did not scan the drive for mp3 files. The hard drive has one FAT32 partition and according to the manual, this should be supported. So maybe connecting it to the laptop is a problem, but without a car USB-charger I can’t think of a better way to test it.

The interesting questions would have been, if the CA-5555i supports large USB drives like this one at all and I wonder how many files it can actually handle. As you can see, the manual mentions 200 folders and a maximum of 500 files. Would be nice if those were 500 files per folder, because otherwise it would be pretty useless connecting a regular hard drive or iPod. The manual does not provide any information otherwise about USB storage and iPod support, which is a bit strange since it is being advertised as ‘optimized for iPod’.

Last but not least I connected my old iPod Mini. It started charging but was not mounted as USB-Drive. Since the battery of my iPod Mini is hardly working any longer I was not able to try it with a charged iPod. Because I don’t have a SD/MMC card, I wasn’t not able to test this feature either.

The last image shows the CA-5555i at night.

Update – 2005/02/22:
I connected a different iPod Mini and an iPod Photo 30GB today and both worked fine and I did not notice a file limit. When the iPod is connected, you can not use the iPod controls, just like when you connect it to the computer. Both iPods have been initialized for Windows systems (as far as I know using FAT32). I also tried a CD-RW with ISO 9960 file system and some normal mp3 files but that did not work.

Update – 2005/02/25:
The reason why it did not read the CD-RW was, that the CD drive does not work at all! I would like to send it back but then I would have to send the package all the way to France (bought it at an Dutch online store!) on my own costs, so I am wondering if I need the CD drive at all. Today I also tested a 2GB SD card and it worked well but what I don’t like is the mp3 display and navigation of the CA-5555i. Finding a mp3 while driving would be a dangerous and almost impossible activity. So, the USB port for the iPod might seem like a good idea but it is not really a practical solution.

… to be continued

Technorati Tags: ipod, CA-5555i

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