The press release isn’t exactly clear as to what maps are included with the unit – which costs a whopping $1,200. It says that it comes with “a worldwide basemap and accepts optional comprehensive street maps, topographic maps and BlueChart®g2™ charts”, but there’s no indication on whether or not there’s even Australian mapping included n the price.

What is mentioned is that it has the same UI as Garmin’s nüvi range, and a whole heap of useful marine features that only people who own boats would get any benefit out of. And as I don’t own a boat, it means nothing to me.

If you do own a boat and want to know more about this all-in-one satnav, the press release is below. Oh, and I hate you. Just kidding – can I come fishing with you some time?

Sydney, 20 May, 2009 – Garmin, the global leader in satellite navigation, provides a GPS device for the most amphibian of creatures – an ultra portable and rugged touchscreen navigator which accepts not only marine charts but can also utilise street and topographic maps. The GPSMAP 620 comes with a worldwide basemap and accepts optional comprehensive street maps, topographic maps and BlueChart®g2™ charts, costs $1200 and is available now.
“Blending the best of Garmin’s products from the popular portable marine units combined with the intuitive user interface of our in-car nüvi® navigators, the GPSMAP 620 is the perfect tool to be used in the boat and on the road,” said Matt DeMoss, Sales and Marketing Manager for Garmin Australasia.
Portable and powerful, the GPSMAP 620 series features a high-sensitivity GPS receiver and boasts an intuitive, waterproof (IPX7) super-bright 5.2″ WVGA touchscreen display (800 x 480 pixels) that reacts as users tap or drag through intuitive menus and options. The GPSMAP 620 comes with a worldwide basemap and accepts optional comprehensive street maps, topographic maps and BlueChart®g2™ charts. When placed in its included marine mount and being used with the optional BlueChart g2 cartography, these new portables will automatically start up in marine mode, presenting chart features such as shaded depth contours, port plans, wrecks, restricted areas and more.
With optional BlueChart g2 Vision™ technology, the GPSMAP 620 provides a true 3-D “mariner’s eye view,” for a navigation perspective above the waterline, and a “fish eye view” for an underwater 3D bathymetric contour perspective. Mariners will also benefit from the auto guidance technology the g2 Vision data card provides, that suggests the best navigational route on the market. In addition, photo references give detail aerial views of points of interest (POI) such as ports, marinas, waterways and landmarks.
When boaters are ready to pack up and hit the road, the GPSMAP 620 effortlessly snaps off its marine mount and, when placed in the automotive mount, quickly transitions into a robust automotive navigator. When used with optional City Navigator or TOPO Australia, on the road, this device gives voice-prompted turn-by-turn directions, advising you to “Turn right on Main Street.” In planning a route, users can search for a local bait shop or the best resorts around town and the GPSMAP will lead the way. With the GPSMAP 620, users can also create custom POIs and set up proximity alerts for the ultimate in driver awareness.

The GPSMAP 620 has a Recommended Retail Price of $1200 and is available in stores now. As with all Garmin marine devices, the GPSMAP 620 comes with a two year warranty.

[Garmin]

If our best guess is correct, all of those off-white stuctures on the board are “micro-porous ceramic” heat sinks. But not only do they dissipate heat from board components while looking ever so evil—the ceramic also improves the structure integrity of the board itself.

The only catch to performance clockers may be the inclusion of SO-DIMM slots—small form memory slots generally reserved for notebooks.

As of right now, the Marine Cool is a concept. But like their dual-screen laptop, if Asus actually brings this model to market, we’d all remember that the company is capable of creating a lot more than just netbooks. [Softpedia via Engadget]

Right, I’ll back up for a second. The embattled chopper(s)—under fire for their cost and alleged foreign manufacture—have been trotted out by republicans as an example of government spending spun out of control. Just as that controversy seemed to be subsiding, reports surfaced that the blueprints and avionics package for Marine One have been leaked over a peer-to-peer network, to Iran. Oops?

The leak wasn’t at all intentional, unless you consider trusting technical illiterates with such sensitive material “intentional”. No, the leak happened because an employee at a unnamed defence contractor (The Register thinks it’s Lockheed) accidentally stored the files in a P2P folder, or, and this is more likely, just set his entire hard drive to share. Before long, the files had been uploaded to ~~xOsamaFanIran74x~~ and the intelligence community fell into a tizzy, all because some guy wanted to catch up on Big Love during his lunch break. In an interview with WXPI, Wesley Clark summed up the situation—and then, hilariously, the internet—for all of us:

We found where this information came from. We know exactly what computer it came from. I’m sure that person is embarrassed and may even lose their job, but we know where it came from and we know where it went. Once it’s out there, it’s hard to get it back. I don’t think the full ramifications of this have been understood by the watchdog agencies.

[The Register]