GPS, Mio's Believer GPS puts POIs, Book of Psalms at your fingertips
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted February 19th 2009 7:58PM
posted February 19th 2009 7:58PM
Mio has had some fun products in the past (well, at least one), and if you're among the great number of our mitzva-observant readership this item should be right up your proverbial alley. The Ma'amin (Hebrew for "Believer") is a GPS unit available in Israel. Besides the maps and the POIs (including holy sites, synagogues, cemeteries, and ritual baths) this guy includes the Book of Psalms, a Hebrew calendar, and plenty of prayers and blessings. Additionally, the device keeps things on the up and up by only speaking in a man's voice and cutting out the telephone and internet access. Prices start at around $240.
smart way to stand out from the crowd.
(serious)
Except that there is no such thing as God.
The Mio community has a number of members who have developed hacks to unlock many of the units and turn them into PDAs and multi-purpose GPS units. I have unlocked my unit, which I use as a PDA; I also run OziExplorer for topo maps and other off road maps when I hike and bike. I love my Mio; I use an external battery and run it all day. It has a bright, wonderful 4.3" touch screen and can accept 16 GB SDHC cards. Here's a screen shot showing media player running.
http://pic50.picturetrail.com/VOL442/7447283/14154973/352785460.jpg
Jew only? That sucks, it had Mosque locations and the like I would have bought it.
wouldn't be surprised if that will follow for the M.E locations...
I'm sure they will make a Muslim version... The point here is that a Jewish focused one makes money. So, once a Muslim version would make money, they will make one.
This is similar to the services where you can, in Israel, text the same cellphone carrier for either Muslim or Jewish scriptures/prayers.
puts POIs, Book of Psalms at your fingertips
FINALLY....
The text-to-speech on this thing would be terrible. Take it from someone who has been to a temple or two, Hebrew is the wrong language to speak phonetically.
Meh, it should have been "puts POIs, Book of Psalms in your palms."
And then if the software was ported to the Pre, the puns would go into overdrive.
B"H
Jinto, you should have read the original article. This device was designed not to make money but to respect certain religious values, such as having a man's voice report direction instead of a woman's voice and other issues that would be important to someone religious. A Muslim oriented GPS would make tons of money. I am sure someone already has designed one with the location of Mosques in various parts of the world. I know that the GPS in the Lexus has all the South Florida Mosques, Synagogues, churches and Hindu temples listed.
what a waste of tech, religion FTL atheism FTW
Religious intolerance is disgusting on ANY side of the spectrum. Try not to be so insensitive.
For the record, I am an atheist.
You must be one of those american atheists, the ones that believe in god..
I'm with the original poster 100%, to hell with religion!
i'm from israel:D
this is wierd thing... btw I prefer a regular one:)
It's obviously only a small number of israeli that would be that deep into religion that they would want one of these, but now the q. is will the orthodox approve of it? You can never tell.
This is really stupid, Hebrew interface sucks.
by the way, in the picture there are button for Arabic, the red one in the bottom so probably there is a version for Muslims too.
Actually, all of the buttons in the image are in Hebrew. Not to say that there won't be a version for Muslim's as well, but this isn't it.
Soupy twist!
the down red button says "ערבית" in Hebrew, ערבית = Arabic in Hebrew.
No dude, it is Arvit from the word Erev which is the hebrew word for Evening, arvit is the evening prayer.
Also don't forget, Arabs and Muslims are too different things, many arabs are christian, most muslims are not arabs.
Yeah, the button that says "aravit" means "evening services", not Arabic.
The Ma'amin (Hebrew for "Believer") is a GPS ...
and if the GPS says "cross the bridge" even when you don't see any, then you must cross the bridge as a act of faith.
At least it's less embarrassing then if you drive into a river, like normal GPS users tend to do.
Here’s the top 10 features of this new Kosher GPS device:
1) Default voice of Jackie Mason
2) Yells at you in “Mother-In-Law Voice” when you miss your turn.
3) more here…
http://networkjew.com/2009/02/19/mio-releases-kosher-gps-shabbat/