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Mio quietly releases $250 C220 in-car GPS unit
One would think that a manufacturer releasing a sub-$250 GPS unit with a 3.5-inch touchscreen would want to make a little bit of noise about this attack on the low-end market, but not only did Mio fail to make a peep about launching the new C250-like C220, it didn't even bother do up a press release as far as we can tell. Thanks to eagle-eyed Jason who found this pretty powerful little unit on the Circuit City site, though, we finally have the full specs on a device which first peaked its head out a few months back: SiRFstar III, 400MHz Samsung CPU running Windows CE 5.0, 256MB ROM / 32MB RAM, 1200mAh rechargeable battery, and MioMap 3.3 navigation software with TeleAtlas maps loaded up onto an SD card. According to the good citizens of the 'City, the C220 also "tells you the likely locations of fixed speed cameras (speed cameras) and the likely locations of mobile traps, with free updates for a full year from the time you register," but Mio's US site makes no mention of such a service (or the C220 at all, for that matter), and only European countries are listed on the company's German Speedcam database. But hey, what can you really expect from such an entry level system, or from a retailer which just fired all the good people who knew anything about its products?[Thanks, Jason A.]
Airis' GPS-enabled T610 and T620 PDAs won't break the bank
We're not sure who's still snatching up these old-fashioned "personal digital assistants" (or PDAs -- for you kids out there, they're like smartphones without the phone; weird, right?), but apparently some people are still interested in do-it-all devices that don't really do it all, so Spanish manufacturer Airis has broken off two new GPS-equipped models on the cheap. As far as cellular-free handhelds go, the Windows Mobile 5-powered T610 and T620 are pretty feature-packed, each sporting a 400MHz Samsung CPU, 3.5-inch QVGA display, 64MB RAM / 128MB ROM, Bluetooth 2.0, SiRFStar III satellite receiver, and a regular SD slot to hold your maps and various multimedia swag. On top of all that, the T620 also throws down an 802.11b/g radio, making it even more attractive than some of the pricier Garmin iQue models that we've seen. Best of all, either unit can be picked up for a song, with the T610 priced at €220 ($278) and its big brother going for a very reasonable €289 ($365). Still, without the ability to pull in live traffic updates like a PocketPC phone loaded up with TomTom, we'd probably take a pass here (man, are we spoiled).[Via Digital-Lifestyles]
Inkel's WIDETOUCH 5.6 does navigation and multimedia
We see a lot of GPS-enabled foreign PMPs pass through here, but rarely are they being pitched by a mascot quite as appealing as Inkel's Starfox-meets-Robin Hood spokesperson. Available in black or white, the WIDETOUCH 5.6 features -- you guessed it -- a 5.6-inch widescreen LCD for navigation and media viewing, 400MHz Samsung ARM CPU, and built-in DMB receiver on select models. That digital TV option hikes the price up to almost $600, but since this model will only be sold in Korea, things like pricing and availability probably don't matter much to you.
Viliv announces new US-bound PMP, the P2
So apparently the viliv P1 personal media player is doing so well in the US, that the company has already announced plans to release their new model, the P2, Stateside as well. The P2 takes all the P1's multi-codec goodness (MPEG-1/2/4, H.264, DivX, WMV 7/8/9, XviD, MP3, WMA, OGG, AC-3, and WAV), subtracts the iPod resemblance, and adds a 60GB option as well as an optional GPS receiver. Powered by a 400MHz AMD processor, the P2 runs on Windows CE 5.0 and sports a large 4.3-inch, 800 x 480 widescreen LCD, and also can also act as a USB 2.0 host device. Expect to see these for sale sometime in the middle of August, although pricing has yet to be announced.
