GadgetReview

The CoPilot app for the iPhone offers free turn-by-turn directions for LIFE.  That’s right, it’s totally free.  But like most things in the app store there’s an up sell.  Drop $2.99 a month, or $19.99 a year and you’ll also get voice guided turn-by-turn directions.  The mapping system is stored locally to your iPhone, letting you chose a small area (megabytes of storage used) or the entire North America (1.3GBs).

Other features:

• 30 days free full-featured CoPilot Live navigation with Text to Speech voice guidance, 3D maps and advanced trip planning
• Free lifetime use turn-by-turn directions with automatic route calculation and 2D maps
• Full street level maps of the US and Canada
• Detailed street maps downloaded via WiFi and stored on the iPhone, so there’s no need to rely on your data network for navigation
• Navigate to a street address or one of millions of businesses using integrated real-time local search
• Free CoPilot LiveLink location sharing lets friends and family know where you are via the Internet, Facebook or on-screen in CoPilot on their own phone
• Customers who prefer to download the complete map of the US and Canada via iTunes rather than WiFi can do so by purchasing the lifetime use, full-featured CoPilot Live North America GPS navigation app via the AppStore.

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In case one of the many GPS watches we’ve seen or tested in the last few months doesn’t pique your interest for tracking all things sports related, Zanier has a pair of gloves infused with a GPS tracking device and monochrome screen called the Xplore.XGX ski gloves.  They can track your distance, speed, location and altitude all the while keeping your digits dry and toasty.  When you get back to the lodge and remove the Gortex gloves you can connect them to the computer via USB and download your stats. …Continue reading: X-Plore.XGX: The World’s First Ski Glove With GPS

Losing a pet for many people is beyond heartbreaking.  Thankfully we now live in an age where satellites can track our pets locations so that we never lose them like we could have in the past.  PAW or Positioning Animals WorldWide has just released a free iPhone App to work directly with their SpotLight GPS collars.

While the app is free, the collar system is not.  Priced at $250, I’m sure many people will find this price extremely reasonable.  Check out the link below for a really well done and informative video tutorial on how the SpotLight Collar works.  As we all know, the smaller the dog, the more finicky the owner and these collars still may be a bit big for dogs under 20 pounds.

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A few months ago I reviewed the Garmin Forerunner 310XT and gave it high marks for its versatility, relative ease of use and social oriented website.  Now Timex is delivering their own version of the 310XT and offering the exact same feature set in the Ironman Global Trainer with GPS.

There’s no word on battery life, but the Ironman Global Trainer with GPS looks to be a bit slimmer than the Forerunner 310XT and has a less obnoxious color scheme.  Outside of that it does the same stuff, such as track speed, distance, location, heart rate via a wireless monitor, a rechargeable battery, 50 meters of water resistance and can push all your info to your computer via ANT+ wireless tech.

We’re hearing that it will drop sometime this September in specialty stores, but who knows, maybe it will pop up online for the warmer months of outdoor activity.

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If your kids have a tendency to wonder you probably wanna checkout Lok8u.  But what about the senile grandparents in your life?  They can end up half way across the state before you or them realize they’re lost.

This wrist watch like cell phone uses Aerotel’s GeoSKeeper GPS service to keep tabs on its wearers location at all times.  If they wonder out of a set zone an SMS is sent to the monitoring party notifying them of the breach – sounds a bit like house arrest.  And unlike Lok8u’s GPS monitoring wrist watch, this one can speed dial up to 3 preprogrammed parties and receive calls.  It’s currently available in the EU with no word on a US launch.  …Continue reading: GPS Wrist Watch For Your Grandparents

Now I really want to move to Compton.  This Zip Code jigsaw puzzle is a great way to show fools you got a grip of that local pride.  All you have to do is send in your address and zip code and you’ll receive a coffee table friendly 12.25″x18.5″ jigsaw puzzle of your locale with your abode in the center. …Continue reading: Represent Your Hood With A Custom Zip Code Jigsaw Puzzle

Don’t be a fool, look up your tool…GPS tool that is.  Apparently these things are getting ganked and yanked out of cars faster than you can reach for your can of pepper spray.  So one Australian company, Who-rae, has come up with a product to prevent GPS theft. …Continue reading: Maplock Is ‘The Club’ Of GPSes

You may not have heard of a Waze lately, but it’s a GPS application that started out as an Android only app, but quickly expanded to iPhones, WinMo and Symbian, and all for free besides.

Well, recently, Waze changed just a bit by turning itself into a kind of mobile game.  Called “Road Goodies”, it essentially operates like a giant game of Pac-Man for your GPS.  You control your character on a field that looks a lot like a map of your immediate area, and you move your character outward, gobbling up icons for points.

Not only is this app actually a good shot of Pac-Man-esque fun, it’s also a good deed.  See, those icons that you’re gobbling up for points represent a map problem spot, and when you play the game and much the icons, you’re helping Waze improve its mapping.

Better, there’s word that Waze will be holding a “Holiday High Points Challenge” to recognize high scorers, and future versions of the game will not only change icons on a seasonal basis but also offer “surprise filled treasure chests”.

Game and improve a GPS app?  Sounds like a plan to me!

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Every time you fly in a commercial jet plane, a blackbox records everything the plane does. In case of an accident, recovering this blackbox lets authorities determine what the plane was doing up to the time of the accident.

With the DRS 1100 you can add similar blackbox features to your car. The DRS 1100 consists of a video recorder with a Secure Digital (SD) card reader (and an included 4GB SD card), a mounting bracket, and a lengthy power cord for plugging the unit into a cigarette lighter. …Continue reading: Car Blackbox DRS-1100 Car Video Recorder Review

If the prospect of spending north of $200 on a GPS add on (aka TomTom) for your iPhone or iPod touch has you little shaken fear not, for there is a semi-reasonable solution.  Arriving in stores  later this month is the Dual Electronics XGPS300 GPS Cradle for the iPod Touch.

For $179.99 it not only adds GPS to your iPod Touch but includes NavAtlas’ turn-by-turn navigation app, a rechargeable battery, speaker, audio out, mini USB port and windshield cradle.  The app itself is free and available at the iTunes app store.  But before all you cheap skates rush off to download it, note that the application works exclusively with Dual Electronics’ cradle.

Or you could just hope and pray that Google releases their free nav app to the iPhone and some how Apple approves it.

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