Alpine rolls out its first portable navigation device
Already well-established as one of the big players in the U.S. market for embedded auto nav systems, Alpine is bowing to pressure from portable devices from the likes of TomTom and Garmin, announcing Thursday the launch of its own portable navigation device.
Dubbed the "Blackbird," the versatile unit comes pre-loaded with map data for the U.S. and Canada, and will provide full turn-by-turn voice directions to an address, intersection or pre-loaded point of interest (including hotels, restaurants, airports, and gas stations). The Blackbird is also a Radio Data System traffic data receiver (requires a service subscription) and an MP3 player accepting music files on SD cards.
Alpine's road trip buddy retails for about $750, with traffic data services starting this summer, for a $60 annual fee.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
celo 9:10PM (5/11/2006)
big whoop; looks like Thales' Magellan Roadmate 760 wanna-be, but without their gnarly Hertz Neverlost-proven maps and technology.
The price is right tho - cheaper than the RM and with traffic option - although Magellan's new series will have a traffic option also - I believe via bluetooth.
I'm waiting for a unit that has a built-in radar detector - that would be rad!
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Calvin 11:18PM (5/11/2006)
Sign that GPS is going mainstream. I can only shoot myself for not buying Garmin stocks at below $60 a pop earlier in the year.
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Vik 12:18AM (5/12/2006)
The cool thing about this is that when you dock it in the car and you have a large double DIN monitor in your car it will send the image to the larger monitor. Alpine is top notch electronics in the car audio game.
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william burtoft 1:49AM (5/12/2006)
Maybe you will come out with a navigation system for the poorer people that live in this world [maybe.]
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Dylan 2:11AM (5/12/2006)
What ever happend to people just learing the city they live in?
I get it if you travel alot and don't know where you're going but if you just don't know how to get where you're going in you're own city, you don't deserve to drive a car.
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PJ 3:44AM (5/12/2006)
Dylan - No offense, but the way technology is going, your comment sounds a little bit "I walked nine miles in the snow to get to school." While GPS takes the adventure out of things a little, it is extraordinarily convenient at times, even in areas you're familiar with.
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felonious monk 5:44AM (5/12/2006)
How is this new? It's been around for a year.
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Steve C. 9:43AM (5/12/2006)
If this portable is anything like the permanent GPS I have in my Honda (Honda GPS is Alpine equipment), I have one recommendation:
Buy a Garmin.
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Vandalay 6:06PM (5/14/2006)
Alpine is a great name in music, but until it has the proven track record of Tomtom, I am going to stick with them and my GO 700, (or hopefully GO 910)...
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Andrew 1:58PM (5/17/2006)
I think this unit was announced at CES but probably hasn't really been available until now. I like the black and silver a lot. And considering Alpine's been making OEM and in-car nav systems for a decade, surely this nifty little thing packs a good bang for its buck.
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