Navigon has just taken the wraps off the 8100T — a personal navigation device that adds a three-dimensional perspective to a company’s fleet of GPS-enabled navigation products for automobiles.
Sporting a silver brushed-metal housing, the 8100T integrates a 4.8-inch color touchscreen with a panoramic 16:9 aspect ratio. The extra-wide screen is particularly useful for displaying the contours and elevations of nearby geographic features such as lakes, rivers and rolling hills, helping drivers realistically see what lies ahead.
By introducing real 3-D views to the market, the Navigon 8100T “raises the bar on innovation and design in the personal navigation device category,” said Michael Roach, Navigon’s president for the Americas.
Traffic and Lane Alerts
Measuring 5.3×3.3×0.9 inches and tipping the scales at 9.4 oz, the Navigon 8100T is equipped with a 533-MHz processor from Samsung; a SiRF StarIII GPS chip; 512MB of ROM; 128MB of RAM; and a SD card preloaded with software and maps. Additionally, the product integrates a special traffic receiver and antenna; dual microphone input for noise cancellation; and a nonremovable 1500 mAh lithium ion battery.
According to Navigon, the 8100T’s touchscreen is capable of displaying local street and speed-limit signs for virtually every highway interchange and exit that drivers can expect to encounter. Lane alerts are displayed well in advance to prevent users from missing their freeway exits.
The extra-large display window also portrays color-coded visual alerts about real-time traffic conditions across 95 markets in the U.S. and Canada. To avoid a potential trouble spot, the user can simply touch a button on the unit to obtain the best available rerouting around the problem area. Both features are available for the lifetime of the product right out of the box with no additional fees or extra hardware required.
Voice Commands
The device’s built-in voice destination entry technology makes…