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Magellan Maestro 4700 GPS Prettier Than Most- Does It Stand Out?

Matt Buchanan — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:00:00 +0000

None of the actual features in Magellan’s Maestro 4700 GPS navigator particularly stand out against the competition—4.7-inch screen, 3D landmarks, OneTouch bookmark access, predictive traffic, find your car—but it’s a damn sight more attractive than most for $US299.

Magellan(R) Unveils Next Generation Maestro(TM)

Magellan Maestro 4700 Boasts a New Design with a 4.7-inch Display, Voice Command, Bluetooth, and Highway Lane Assist

SANTA CLARA, Calif., July 6 /PRNewswire/ — Magellan, one of the leading GPS brands, introduces the Magellan Maestro 4700 GPS device. The ultra-slim device features a wide 4.7-inch colour touch screen and includes many premium features to deliver a robust navigation experience for users. In addition to Magellan’s OneTouch user interface, the Magellan Maestro 4700 device also performs advanced navigation tasks with built-in voice command capabilities and hands-free Bluetooth calling.

“The Magellan Maestro 4700 lets you keep your eyes on the road and hands on the wheel,” said Mike Wagner, senior director of product marketing for Magellan. “We have incorporated voice command, Bluetooth, and highway lane assist to help you reach your destination with confidence. The large 4.7-inch screen is easily viewable in all lighting conditions. Thanks to our unique OneTouch favourites menu and our AAA partnership, the Magellan Maestro 4700 makes trip planning and travelling easier and less stressful.”

The Magellan Maestro 4700 features several premium features including:

* Exclusive OneTouch(TM) favourites Menu: Access favourite destinations and searches with personalised bookmarks. Reach your favourite cafe or restaurant in any city with a single touch. To meet consumer requests, the Magellan Maestro 4700 now offers an additional twelve bookmarks to save favourites.
* Bluetooth Compatible Hands-Free Calling: Make or receive calls using a compatible cell phone. Access your phone’s address book to access up to 1000 numbers directly from your Magellan Maestro 4700. The noise-cancelling microphone keeps road noise down so you are heard clearly.
* Predictive Traffic: Analyzes past traffic patterns when creating a route to help you avoid known delays. Choose to stay on your current route or go with suggested less congested routes.
* Instant Access to All Points Of Interest (POI): Perform one search and get results from both the standard POI database and the Magellan-exclusive AAA TourBook(R) guide. Results are organized in a tabbed format.
* “Find Your Car” with Pedestrian Mode: Remembers the location of your car in parking lots, airports, malls, universities, amusement parks or stadiums. When your day is done the Magellan Maestro 4700 will automatically guide you to your car.
* 3D Landmarks: Displays visual cues to help drivers perform maneuvers and find destinations.
* Larger Fonts: Makes viewing easier and safer while driving.
* Intuitive, Context-Driven Touch Zones: Provides drivers with a completely interactive map screen.
* New Address Book: Makes adding an address a snap with smart address summary that lets users save complete itineraries.
* QuickSpell(R) with Smart City Search: Allows quick, single-address entry or convenient multi-destination trip planning, including route optimization.

The manufacturer’s suggested price for the Magellan Maestro 4700 is $US299.99. It ships with a windshield mount and cradle; 12-volt vehicle power adapter; USB cable, protective pouch, adhesive disk for alternative, on-dash mounting; and quick reference guide. For additional accessories, including cases, pouches, and other mounting options, visit www.MagellanGPS.com.

Map updates for Magellan products can be purchased separately.

About MiTAC Digital Corp.

MiTAC Digital Corp. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of MiTAC International Corporation and promotes and sells products and services under the Magellan brand name. Magellan assists people to travel, work and play their way with leading portable navigation and positioning solutions across multiple consumer markets. recognised as an industry innovator, the company is the producer of the award-winning Magellan RoadMate(R), and MaestroTM series portable car navigation systems, as well as the Magellan Triton(R) outdoor handheld navigation devices. MiTAC Digital Corp. is headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif. For more information on Magellan, visit http://www.magellangps.com.

About AAA

As North America’s largest motoring and leisure travel organisation, AAA provides more than 51 million members with travel, insurance, financial and automotive-related services. Since its’ founding in 1902, the not-for-profit, fully tax-paying AAA has been a leader and advocate for the safety and security of all travelers. AAA clubs can be visited on the Internet at www.AAA.com.

The Magellan logo, Magellan, RoadMate, QuickSpell, Triton are registered trademarks of MiTAC International Corporation and OneTouch, Maestro are trademarks of MiTAC International Corporation and are used under licence by MiTAC Digital Corp. All rights reserved. The AAA TourBook, Roadside Assistance are trademarks of American Automobile Association. AAA(C) 2009 All rights reserved. All other trademarks and registrations are the property of their respective owners.

[Magellan]

Magellan Triton GPS with Ground Guidance Tech Routes Around Rivers, Cliffs and Deep Forest

Brian Lam — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:45:33 +0000

Most outdoor navs, like the Magellan Triton, just go from point A to point B when navigating off road. Current and future Magellan Triton owners are getting Primordial’s Ground Guidance logic, which calculates routes around rivers, steep inclines and dense tree cover by analysing aerial photography and elevation data (since no one could actually chart all the random routes over the wild.) The Primordial tech Looks pretty cool in action, too.

The methods aren’t new, as Primordial’s site is filled with news clippings from 2006, and I think an old Polaris outdoor GPS had this tech. But Magellan’s press release says the tech is now exclusively theirs. It’s smart, but its probably unwise to depend on such a system to navigate outdoors. Whereas road data goes out of date every few years, the seasonal swelling of rivers, altering of terrain and paths, falling trees, and other quickly changing outdoor conditions are best handled with common sense and local knowledge. Couldn’t be too harmful to know where a deep forest starts and a sheer rock face drops, though. [Business Wire]

CES 2008: What You Missed So Far

Benny Goldman — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 19:00:00 +0000

We arrived at CES yesterday, and despite being separated into bloggers and press, and watching the game in standard def, we’ve had a great time so far. If you’ve missed the coverage, let’s catch you up to speed:

• After Warner’s announcement, HD DVD won’t be attending CES this week, a fact that only looks worse after they put their logo on the press bags. Adding insult to HD DVD’s injury, New Line Cinema also joined the Blu-ray exclusive crew.

• WowWee showed us three robots aiming to attack AIBOs, Robosapiens and autonomous helicopters everywhere. The only thing missing was a robot to bring us beer. Luckily, Inter Active Toy covered that with the RC Cooler.

• Other good finds included the Celestron SkyScout Scope, Cobra’s OLED radar detectors, and an in-dash CD player for audiophiles. On the GPS front, Magellan’s 5340 with built-in Google local search and Garmin’s 880 with voice recognition stood out the most. Finally, Logitech unveiled a whole bunch of stuff, including a networked music player, a sleek set of speakers, and an IR remote with capacitive touch.

So far, so good, CES. We’ll be looking forward to the press conferences today, and the floor opening on Monday. Until then, keep up with all of our CES 2008 coverage to date.

Magellan Does the Dash Thing: Maestro Elite 5340+GPRS Connected GPS with Google Local Search

Wilson Rothman — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 01:23:42 +0000

We’ve been waiting for a mainstream GPS maker to go the way of the innovative GPRS-powered Dash Express. Well, Magellan jumped first, embedding its own GPRS connectivity into a navigator and partnering with Google for dynamic local search wherever you have GPRS reception. (Dash is partnered with Yahoo’s local search, which is nothing to sneeze at.) There’s no Wi-Fi, like the Dash, but the dealbreaker might be the cost: the 5340 is set to ship this month for a whopping $1,500—and that’s before the undisclosed monthly fee. (Press release after the jump.)

Magellan® Maestro™ Elite 5340+GPRS Connected Auto Navigation First to Deliver Real-time GoogleTM Local Search

New Integration Enables Drivers to Search and Route to Local Businesses, Products, and Services, Plus Send Trips Wirelessly from PC

LAS VEGAS – Jan. 6, 2008 – Magellan, the world’s fastest-growing GPS brand, today premiered its Maestro Elite 5340+GPRS connected auto navigation unit featuring Google Local Search that enables users to get deep, location-specific information on the go. Scheduled to ship in Q1 2008, the Magellan Maestro Elite 5340+GPRS will be the first GPS model to enable users to search for local events – from concerts to local library events – as well as local businesses and services. Magellan will be showcasing its new products in its booth at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show booth (no. 31247) beginning Monday, Jan. 7, 2008.

Accessible on the Maestro Elite 5340+GPRS connected navigation device is Google’s real-time local search enabling users to search the Web for businesses in a specific neighborhood, providing detailed, Internet-based information about those businesses – not just the business name or category. For example, users can search for “Star Wars” and find “Target” and “JPM Comics,” among others, or get recommendations for the best banana cream pie near their point of reference. Users simply type in what it is they are looking for and Google displays relevant results around the user’s current location or a user-specified location.

Through the new Maestro Elite 5340’s wireless GPRS connection, Magellan also delivers real-time traffic information, local weather forecasts, and makes it possible for users to wirelessly send addresses and notes to the GPS device directly from a PC with an internet connection. The user can send destination addresses to the Maestro Elite 5340+GPRS in advance of the trip or have someone at home or back in the office send information from the Magellan website directly.

The Magellan Maestro Elite 5340+GPRS is the company’s premiere GPS model. Like all of the newly introduced Elite models, it provides rendered 3-D landmarks and buildings; 6 million points of interest (POI); a USB port; and advanced voice command functionality. The Maestro Elite 5340+GPRS also features a 5-inch WQVGA widescreen; a 533 MHz S-Media 3362 processor; and the ability to perform deep searches on local areas and receive information sent from a PC for on-the-fly changes.

“We’re pleased to be partnering with Magellan to provide users with detailed, relevant local information while on the road,” said John Hanke, director of Google Maps & Earth. “Magellan devices are powerful, interactive tools for navigation and discovery that serve as a cutting-edge platform for Google’s robust local search capabilities.”

“We are thrilled to be joining forces with Google to provide GPS users with the most relevant local data available in a format that puts people in control of their travel experiences more than ever before,” said Nelson Chan, president and CEO of Magellan. “Google’s renowned expertise in helping users search and organize information adds a powerful and compelling component to our new Magellan Maestro Elite line. As the GPS category begins to expand beyond basic navigation and into more versatile exploration uses, the personal navigation device (PND) will become a primary resource for drivers and travellers to search for and access real-time information, monitor traffic information about their specific routes, and transmit data between communications devices.”

“Connected PNDs can offer much more than just turn-by-turn navigation,” said Chris Jones, vice president and principal analyst at research firm Canalys. “The successful vendors in this area will combine the compelling, dynamic services the connectivity potentially brings, in a device that is easy to use, has an attractive design, is affordable (both the device and subscription cost) and is well-explained to the customer at the point of sale. The partnership with Google will provide the owners of this new class of device with a familiar and trusted local search engine.”

The Maestro Elite 5340+GPRS is scheduled to be available at retailers in March 2008 for an estimated MSRP of $1299.

The Maestro Elite 5340+GPRS will be compatible with Magellan VantagePointTM, the only desktop application on the market that helps people manage their GPS maps, information, and other content and easily sync it to their devices. Through VantagePoint, which is a free download from http://www.magellangps.com, Magellan customers can personalize and expand their GPS experience.

Magellan Announces Seven New GPS Units

Gizmodo US Edition — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 20:37:56 +0000

Like some sort of GPS-delivering Santa, Magellan has announced the upcoming release of seven new GPS units—all set to be available between September and October. In the 4200 series, the Maestro 4250—retailing for $500—offers integrated live traffic updates, a shiny, widescreen 4.3-inch display and Bluetooth capability, while the 4220 and 4200 models will cost slightly less but will lack features like the live traffic updates and voice control.

In the 3200 series, the Maestro 3250 is almost identical to the 4250, except it’s $100 cheaper and has a smaller, non-widescreen 3.5-inch display. The other models—the 3200, 3210 and 3220—are off-shoots of the 3250, with the same screen and less features, depending on price. The only real change with the newly-released GPS units, aside from some minor added features, is their size, which, dropping down to .7 inches in thickness, is a direct result of vomiting profusely after every left turn. [GPS Review]

Magellan’s Triton GPS Features Touch Screen, National Geographic Maps

Seamus Byrne — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 02:36:04 +0000

Unleash your inner explorer with the adventurous Triton handheld GPS from Magellan. There are six models in total, all sporting QVGA touch screens (2.2″or 2.7″) that are waterproof up to one meter. Some feature expandable memory via an SD slot alongside a 2-megapixel digital camera and digital audio player. The top-of-the-line Triton 2000 has a 3-way electronic compass and a built in barometer. All the Triton models can be enhanced with National Geographic’s own topographical maps, which have never been commercially available on a GPS unit.
Accessed via software and transferred to the GPS unit via optional data cable, the National Geographic maps are an outdoorsman’s dream. You can fly through virtual areas, plot routes through recreational sites and mark waypoints for your journey. When you get back from your trip, plug back in and upload your data to get a visual representation of your hike. The Triton 2000 is priced at $499, but you can strip away various features until you bottom out at the Triton 200, a $129 barebones device. Look for the Tritons next month. [Magellan Triton GPS via Electronista]

Talking to the Magellan Maestro 4050, the First Portable Navigator With Voice Recognition

Seamus Byrne — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 01:56:52 +0000

I was lucky enough to get my hands on the first production model of the Magellan Maestro 4050, that is, the very first portable navigation device with voice recognition. And while it doesn’t hear everything I yell at it, and I can’t control everything it does using only my lovely baritone, it’s an amazing first step. Check out my 80-second video and read on for some quick pros and cons.As you saw in the video, when you hail it with “Magellan!” it gives you a limited set of options, such as “Nearest Coffee,” “Go Home” and “Where Am I?” If you are already in the middle of a route, the options are more limited, but useful. The two most important voice commands are “Cancel Route,” which is great whenever you get to a familiar road and want to shut the damn thing up, and “Nearest Gas,” which totally saved my ass just today.

In any case, you cannot speak an address, you still have to type those in. You can pick nearby restaurants, even by food type, but you can’t use the same option to verbally request a grocery store or a park.

I love voice command on my cell phone, but just like that speaker-independent voice recognition, the Magellan’s has its quirks. Most annoyingly, it will butt in on your conversations. Utter anything that remotely sounds like “Magellan” (we think “gel” is what it really listens for) and it will think it’s being prompted. It even speaks up when radio announcers and backseat drivers are chattering away.

The Magellan Maestro 4050 also comes with traffic awareness, but like most systems, I haven’t found it to be terrifically useful just yet. The radio to receive traffic data is there, but the fresh data is still missing. Not Magellan’s fault, but not yet a selling point.

Voice command and the traffic kit differentiate the 4050 from the Maestro 4040. Are they worth a $200 premium? It’s hard to say. I like Magellan’s new Maestro systems for sure, but others will soon have voice recognition, and only then will we know if Magellan’s is better or worse. Just yesterday, TomTom’s US president told me that they too were working on voice recognition, and one that would recognize street names and more. Et tu Garmin? – Wilson Rothman

Product Page [Magellan]