GPS For DummiesYou’d think that a partnership between the Maylong Group - whose Co-Founder and CEO, Mr. Ming Wang, helped design and implement the OnStar™ system - and Wiley Publishing - owner of the For Dummies™ brand, the books famous for simplifying complex technologies - would be perfectly suited for developing “the easiest and most intuitive Personal Navigation Device (PND) on the market!” Well…we’ll see.

Their first GPS unit, strangely dubbed the FD-35, is due to be released around October (just in time for Christmas shopping but there’s no indication yet of the price) and here’s how the GPS Navigation For Dummies web site describes the included features:

  • A 3.5″ touch screen and 2.0 GB memory card
  • Digital mapping with browsing capability
  • State-of-the art text-to-speech navigation, turn by turn, using actual street names
  • Complete mapping of North America: the U.S. plus Canada!
  • 2 million ‘points of interest’ (POIs) with search capability, the perfect amount of data on each screen to get users where they need to go
  • An included MP3 player and eBook reader
  • The familiar, easy-to-use For Dummies™ style, complete with icons, leads you through the user interface and instruction guide

Right off the bat, I’ve got to wonder whether or not this little hummer’s gonna cut the mustard (hmmm…there’s a phrase I’ll have to include in next week’s trivia post). The one thing that jumps right off the page, for me, is the fact that the FD-35 comes loaded with 2 million POIs. Sounds like a lot; doesn’t it? Its not; its really, really not. As a matter of fact, some folks think that GPS units including 2 million POIs or less should be avoided. I’m not sure I’d go that far, business addresses can always be entered by hand, but it’s definitely an indication that this unit’s likely targeted at the low-end market. So it’ll probably be cheap. Right up my alley.

According to the GPS Navigation For Dummies press release; “Subsequent releases of the product will include an expanded, 4.3″ screen as well as richer, Internet-connected content such as travel destination information or traffic data.” Maybe they’ll beef up the POI count, as well.