Mighty Gadget Blog: The latest technology news & reviews in the UK

The world of the SatNav has come in leaps and bounds over the past few years and its hard not to know a car owner who hasn’t got one and now with the increase in well “smartness” of smartphones (most now have free GPS Navigation software) where next for the SatNav. Well it appears this is it.

The Mio Moov V780 is a massive 7” in size and has a capacitive WVGA display. A little excessive you might say for a SatNav but this is also disguising itself as a PMP/netbook. Packing Wi-Fi and optional HSPDA and WiMax for online use, it also has an external TV aerial to catch TV on the move. It also has DivX, MP4 and H.263/264 support allowing video playback obviously for when the SatNav is not needed and the kids are restless in the back of the car. What is odd id the HDMI out which can playback its stored video content at 720p on a flatscreen. Unless you’ve recently been on “Pimp My Ride” i can’t see most average folk having a HDTV in their car.

Going back to its connectivity, the Mio Moov will also have a keyboard dock and as it runs Windows CE, you can access Exchange and GMail to get your email on the move, not recommended whilst driving but I’m sure your passenger can or if you’ve stopped at the services. Expected to debut at CeBit this week, more news on release and price will be available then.

With the conference been and gone, we gave you some snippets of news. The lower priced MacBook excited me personally, but with so much going on we’ll give you a summary of everything else.

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The XL 340 is the latest 4.3-inch portable navigation system from TomTom, which comes loaded with full maps of North America, Canada and Mexico (no mention of the UK/EU version just yet).

It has seven million points of interest pre-loaded so you can find information about restaurants, gas stations and attractions in a particular area you might be driving through. The GPS also features both IQ Routes Technology and Advanced Line Guidance. The IQ Routes suggest routes typically only know by locals to a particular area, meanwhile the Line Guidance feature provides you with more detailed information at complex road junctions so you can stay safe while driving in difficult space. The TomTom XL 340 is priced at $230 (£160).

If I could drive, I would want to drive this bad boy. Up for auction at eBay is the Aaron Grote’s celebrated Atomic Punk bubbletop custom hot rod. This hot rod got a lot of attention at the 2008 Detroit Autorama Extreme.

Aaron Grote says that he has built this thing from the rusty haunches of a ‘59 Plymouth. The motor is a 392 Hemi he front end is chrome drilled and dropped. The Ed Roth inspired hot rod has been seen in several magazines and is currently the Cover Car on the newest Rod and Custom Magazine.

At the moment the bid is just shy of $63k which is about £40k. Not bad considering the press attention it has received, the quality of the build and the fact it is completely unique. The auction ends on November 13th so the price will likely rise, and if you are a UK buyer you would have to ship it over here so yeah the price would likely start to rise a lot. Still if I was a footballer I would drive around in this, it is better than the generic BMWs, Landrovers, and Mercs you see all the footballers driving, maybe not as comfy though.

More images after the jump.

Via: Born Rich

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What Gadget Show is complete without some over the top pimped out car?

None that's what.

Stuff Live decided to have an over the top Hummer H2 to fulfil this requirement.

Land rover have released a cool little advert during the build up to the Olympic Games. It features Zara Philips (Queen Elizabeth’s grandchild) and supports the British Equestrian Eventing team coinciding with the Olympics.

No surprise to many, Archos have finally announced a GPS solution for the Archos 605. The unit is a In Car Holder for the 605 Wi-Fi PMP that turns it into a fully fledged navigational system.

The In-Car Holder will be sold for approximately $130 and in theory this will make it quite an impressive competitor to most dedicated GPS system. This is because the Archos has a much larger hard drive (30-160 Gb) and screen resolution compared to most similarly priced GPS systems.

The new system will use Tele Atlas maps and will be available as a European version cover 22 countries, a North America version covering the US and Canada, and a Chinese version.

The full Archos 605 GPS package will give you the following features:

Your Navigation

• Clear, easy-to read maps on the high-resolution 4.3-inch touch screen
• Easy and intuitive address, zip-code and POI (point of interest) markers for rapidly selecting destination points
• Precise navigation with automated simulation inside tunnels, lane assistance, advance signposts and fast and accurate route recalculation
• Traffic assistance, route planning, and speed control assistance in some countries
• Gain navigation information on any location throughout North America, Western Europe and China
• Get clear voice-to-text support through the car’s FM stereo (via the built-in line out), or the ARCHOS 605 WiFi's amplified built-in speaker

Your Media on the Move

• Passengers can use the ARCHOS 605 WiFi to watch recorded TV shows and videos while travelling, such as keeping families and children entertained in the back seat of the car
• Record TV shows in advance for the perfectly relaxed road trip
• Rent and watch movies from the ARCHOS Content Portal
• Transfer and store photos directly from your digital camera and create slide shows
• Share your media with friends and family on their TV
• Play games while on the go

Your Internet

• Surf the web to visit favourite sites
• Stream the latest news, online videos, TV shows and sports from websites - ARCHOS devices are the only to support Adobe Flash 9 for online video streaming.
• Check email from any web-based service.
• Access hundreds of Widgets, including world maps, weather, and currency converters