Technically speaking, you have better navigational capability in your car than the entire airline industry. Why? Because they are still relying on an antiquated WWII era traffic network that often takes aircraft on zigzagging routes towards radar beacons—costing carriers billions of dollars in wasted fuel each year. To make matters worse, the plan to upgrade the system has been stuck in the planning stages for more than a decade thanks to funding issues an the complexity of such a switchover.

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Navigon's upcoming 7200T GPS unit has some pretty high-end features: voice destination entry, photo-realistic 3D views of roads with lane guidance icons and 3D landmarks built-in. But its niftiest feature is free real-time traffic info updates with no subscription fees, for life. That's just got to be handy, and comes over an FM receiver from Clear Channel's Total Traffic Network. The 3D road rendering is designed to stop you making the mistake I made last night: mistranslating a GPS display onto the complicated road interchange I was trying to cross because the two looked different. The Lane Assistant feature even tries to give you advance warning of which lane you'll need to be in before a junction. It's due in October for US$449. Press release below.

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The JATY DR7200 could be the most absurdly feature-packed GPS device ever thanks to a whole slew of options that have no business being there. An eBook reader? Seriously. But that is not all--the device also features a SiRFStar III GPS chipset, a 533MHZ CPU, mountain, car and golf GPS navigation, video playback, a photo viewer, etc...etc...etc. So, basically it offers a ton of distractions that can result in your untimely death on the highway, and one option designed to prevent it. This Korean-only gadget retails for around US$300. [Aving via TRFJ]

galleryPost('dashupdate21b', 3, '');Dash navigator's latest update rolls out today, allowing for a few key improvements. • My Route records your local paths between two points (or locations within 800 metres of those points) and recommends the route along side... Read More »

I got a sneak peek at Mio's new Knight Rider GPS, and it's more fun and cheesy than I expected. As you can see in the video, William Daniels, the original voice of KITT, guides you as you cruise the streets, fighting crime. Flashing red LEDs are synced up to the speech, and the screen marks your location with a Pontiac Trans Am icon. My favourite part is that is has 300 names built-in when you're done pretending that you're Michael Knight and you want KITT to call you by your real moniker. It'll be US$270—a bit less than we thought—when it's out in August. [Knight Rider GPS]

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I already have a GPS unit but I'll be dammed if I'm not throwing it out because the guys at Mio have come up with a Knight Rider branded GPS unit with voice prompts by the one and only Mr Feeny KITT William Daniels. Apparently, you will recognise his familiar voice as soon as you fire it up and hear "Hello Michael, where do you want to go today?" As an added touch, the display is flanked by a series of red LEDs that mimic KITTs hood-mounted lights. Further details are scarce, but we do know the Mio Knight Rider GPS will retail for US$299 when it is finally released. [Next Autos Thanks Dan!]

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In an interview with TomTom spokesperson Yann Lafargue, French site Mac Generation hit on a few interesting tidbits about 3rd party navigation software on the iPhone. During the interview, Lafargue confirmed that there was a version of TomTom software running on the iPhone but he does not know if they will ever actually ship the product. You would think that the major reason for not shipping would be the clause in the SDK agreement that states "applications may not be designed or marketed for real time route guidance," but Lafargue insisted that is not a problem.

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If you were one of people who was all about GPS on the iPhone, you will be glad to hear that Tom Tom already has a version of their navigation software running on the device. Unfortunately, no other details regarding a release date, features or pricing have been released--but it stands a good chance of being the first, truly powerful GPS navigator for the iPhone-- if they can beat Telenav to the punch that is. We have heard that they are also hard at work on their own version. [Reuters]

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Just in time for the recent surge of GPS expertise, Garmin is offering GPS Blackberry owners a lifetime licence for their navigation software. The US$99.99 fee replaces the $9.99/month subscription service, and Garmin Mobile for Smartphones gives access to Garmin's collection of maps, points of interest and very slightly sexy voice prompts.

AU: US only at the moment, I'm afraid.

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