BMW Motorcycle Navigation Unit Announced By Garmin

Ever wanted a special GPS system specially designed for your motorcycle? Well now you can have one thanks to Garmin. Garmin has just announced a new product they are creating which is a navigation unit designed specifically for use by motorcyclists. The new product will be called the Garmin BMW Motorrad Navigator IV. The Navigator IV is based off of a previous GPS by Garmin, the Garmin zumo 660 but it adds features that are BMW specific.

Some of these BMW specific features are a BMW dealer database, bluetooth capabilities, a customized mount, and audio. Functionality is simple to use with the device's 4.3 inch, glove friendly touchscreen. The Navigator IV also has a ton of preloaded maps as well as millions of points of interest.

The Navigator also has a few other features. You can pair the Navigator IV with a bluetooth helmet headset which also allows the rider to make and receive mobile calls while riding. For quick functionality, the Navigator IV has a four button mount which also provides extra control capabilities. The Navigator IV is waterproof and protected against UV rays. The device is also vibration-tested to withstand the vibrations of the motorcycle and the road. According to Garmin, the GPS should be available in the third quarter of 2009 in Europe and North America but no price level has been announced yet.

The Garmin nüvi 1260T

The Garmin nüvi 1260T is ready to assist you in the car or on the street because not only is it an amazing GPS system but also it features an enhanced pedestrian mode. This top of the line system, when combined with the cityXplorer maps, can aide pedestrians in finding bus and subway routes. This could be a huge blessing to people living in a large city full of complex public transportation systems.

The 1260T features a 3.5-inch, 320 x 240-pixel screen, a Bluetooth phone interface, and is pre-loaded with maps for North America. Also included is text-to-speech conversion and ecoRoute. EcoRoute is a feature that allows you to find the most fuel-efficient ways to get around. In automobile mode, the 1260T functions exactly like the Garmin nüvi 265T, but in pedestrian mode, a whole new realm opens up. It will assist you in finding the nearest bus and subway stations and provide a detailed map of the city streets that you might happen to be wandering.

Another fascinating selling point of the 1260T is that it is the thinnest GPS system currently on the market. This is important due to the fact that you might be carrying this GPS around the streets of New York City and won’t exactly want to be weighted down. With its sleek appearance and lack of bulkiness, this definitely gives some brownie points to the 1260T.

I feel like this GPS system is a pretty good deal. For $299.99 you can have the thinnest GPS on the market that also includes advanced features. I think the enhanced pedestrian mode could be a big help if you travel to big cities often, and the ecoRoute feature could definitely come in handy with the ever-increasing gas prices. In my opinion, the Garmin nüvi 1260T seems like a great GPS system to look in to.

iriver M7 NV Classic PMP

The M7 NV Classic is a new PMP from iriver. The NV Classic is basically an update to the original iriver NV with a few differences, namely the removal of the the large jogwheel. This PMP works as not only an media player, but also as a navigator. The NV features SiRF GRF3i+ GPS, two 1.5 watt speakers that allow for voiced turn-by-turn directions, an SDHC slot to upload maps, and a 7 inch TFT LCD 800x480 touchscreen. But the NV Classic also works as a media player.

The NV Classic can run through most any media file you have. It will run your WAV, WMA, MP3, and OGG audio files and will also run WMV9, MPEG1/4 and Xvid videos. The NV Classic also displays you images showing BMP and JPEG images. With the NV Classic, you can also view DMB digital television via a DMB tuner that also has on-screen controls for t.v. channel presets as well as radio channel presets. Storage for these files is via an SDHC card. iriver supplies you with two SDHC cards standard when buying the NV Classic, a 4GB card that you can use for all your media files and a second mapping SDHC card which can be used with The NV Classic's PND functionality.

The iriver M7 NV Classic will be shipping in Korea first at a price of KRW 329,000, or roughly $264 American. No word as of yet on availability outside of Korea, but I'm sure we will see the N7 Classic in other countries in the near future.

Emergency Stop Assistant From BMW

Driving a car requires attention, experience, and quick reflexes in case anything bad happens. But all of these factors suddenly become hindered if you have any kind of medical condition like, diabetes or are at a heightened risk of heart attack or stroke. Many people who suffer from ailments like these discontinue driving, knowing full well that they could become a risk not only to themselves, but to others as well. Some people, however, continue to drive despite their medical condition either because they do not perceive it as a risk or they have no choice but to continue driving. This puts many people on the roads at risk, and endangers many lives.

But BMW is working on a system to make this scenario a whole lot safer. BMW's new safety system called Emergency Stop Assistant, will safely bring your car to a stop during a medical calamity. According to BMW, the system will be able to sense a drivers medical emergency. Once the system realizes the threat, an auto-pilot feature takes over control of the car. The system is said to turn on the hazard lights, navigate the vehicle safely through traffic via radar technology, and then slow the vehicle to a stop on the curb or shoulder of the road. After this happens, the Extended Emergency Call System already installed in the car will contact emergency response services giving them the location of the vehicle. This new feature is a part of the project SmartSenior, launched by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research out of Germany. It will be interesting to see how the integrated system will detect said medical emergencies, how it will know the severity of the emergency, and how it will be able to pull the car over without hitting something. It also raises the question if this technology could be integrated to assist drunk drivers as well, something that would save even more lives than the SmartSenior program.