While many folks use their smartphones as an in-car GPS, I’ve long preferred to use a dedicated TomTom-like GPS device, leaving my iPhone free to serve its roll as a phone and information serving device. While there are advantages to each approach to in-car navigation, Magellan has addressed the matter by combining the best of both worlds with the new Magellan SmartGPS – a traditional in-car GPS with deep social and smartphone integration.
From the website:
Discover new places and find deals from Yelp and Foursquare reviews. Receive valuable information and reviews from real people, at your fingertips, pushed to your SmartGPS based on your location. Let the Yelp and Foursquare communities help you find your next favorite hot-spot.
Simplify your Life. Stay Connected. Wirelessly sync, save, and share your favorite destinations and contacts between your SmartGPS, Smartphone and PC. Bookmark locations wherever you are, and your connected devices conveniently share your preferred destinations. Managing your schedule has never been easier. Reduce wasted time replicating information, Sync Smarter.
The Magellan SmartGPS is the ideal companion for your mobile lifestyle. In addition to its full-featured premium GPS functionality, the Magellan SmartGPS takes navigation to new levels. Connect and go beyond the vehicle with revolutionary “Smart” features: enhanced social exploration, expanded connectivity to your devices and a seamless mobile experience from home to vehicle to sidewalk. Plus, a powerful combination of valuable dynamic content delivered directly to your SmartGPS, creating the ultimate blend of practical navigation functionality, safety features, and an unparalleled wealth of social information, allowing you to navigate smarter in any situation. SmartGPS, Discover your World.
The GPS pairs with an iPhone or Android device using a custom app, and offers content from Yelp and Foursquare, live-updating fuel prices, local weather, and so forth. It can also sync and save routes, destination bookmarks, and more between your smartphone and the GPS itself, as well as syncing with Magellan’s website so you can access the data from any computer.
To keep mobile data usage to a minimum, the device is designed to connect to your home or office WiFi connection to download and cache most of its content, using your mobile data only for relevant on-the-go information updates. The device looks like a great way to combine the best features of smartphone-based navigation with a dedicated GPS unit, complete with a large 5-inch touchscreen, lifetime map updates, Bluetooth support, and more.
The device is available now from Best Buy or Magellan’s own website for $249. We’ll be getting our hands on a review unit soon, and we’ll let you know exactly what we think of it once it arrives! For more information, visit Magellan’s website, or check out the handy YouTube previews below.
