Garmin nüvi 1690 GPS sat nav - - Portable Navigation Device (PND) from Global Leader in Satellite Navigation

The global leader in satellite navigation, today announced the release of the new Garmin nüvi 1690 GPS sat nav. This portable navigation device (PND) has a built-in wireless module which lets the customer use Garmin’s nüLink! service which provides direct links to information such as Google, traffic, cheap fuel prices and weather updates and Ciao! (Garmin’s own location-based social networking site).

In the USA this is the first PND which offers the use of multiple online features in the purchase price as it comes with two free years of Garmin nüLink! access. Unfortunately that only applies to the US version and is not true for the UK version.

It is also claimed that the nüvi 1690 has the most complete set of POI (point of interest) search capabilities thanks to the great performance of Google local search and white page telephone listings. Just like your personal computer you can type in key words or names of destinations and get quick responses with the detail of a PC.

But if that sounds like it wouldn’t be enough for you then maybe the new ‘quick search’ feature might help. Now instead of getting many irrelevant responses you can select search categories like; food, fuel and accommodation for an even more comprehensive and complete search.

While the searching capabilities sound fantastic there are a huge amount of other online features. Some of the most useful of these are; local events and movie listings helping the user to decide on the best destination, real-time flight statuses for a more stress-free journey and best-in-class information from NAVTEQ to help navigate around the worst of the congestion.

In addition to all these standard features customers can also opt to have additional features such as a preloaded POI database.

The Garmin Nuvi 1690 sat nav should come to the US with a recommended retail price of $499.99 in the fourth quarter.