GPS cell phone
Cost: $80 to $200
O.K., some people don’t like asking for directions, but not so often that they need to spend more than $1,000 on a built-in car navigation system to plot my course with global positioning satellites.
That’s why the notion of adding GPS navigation to a cell phone, as Nextel has with a service called TeleNav, seems appealing.
And despite some annoyances having little to do with technology, TeleNav performs the most essential task quite well at a fraction of the cost, reading step-by-step directions out loud so you can focus on the road.
Make no mistake. TeleNav is nowhere near as robust as a full-blown GPS system or a portable device:
There are no maps. The screen is smaller. It’s slower, and it only works where Nextel has network coverage. And if you miss a turn during the occasional gap in cell coverage, TeleNav won’t be able to deliver a quick fix to the directions until you get the signal back.
Nextel offers TeleNav on eight Motorola handsets with an embedded GPS receiver ranging in price from $80 to $200, and some non-GPS handsets which connect to a $70 GPS antenna.
The mounting unit costs $13 by itself, and $20 or $25 bundled with a car charger, depending on the phone.
Associated Press