text: pint-sized navigation - Fujitsu Siemens Pocket LOOX N100 Review & Rating | PCMag.com
  Craig Ellison Fujitsu Siemens Pocket LOOX N100 Though its travel features aren't as robust as those of other devices, the Pocket LOOX includes a number of navigation tools I've never seen before.
  March 15, 2007 3:35PM EST
  Though its travel features aren't as robust as those of other devices, the Pocket LOOX includes a number of navigation tools I've never seen before.
  pint-sized navigation
  when the program launches, the main menu has four entries: new destination; my destinations; take me home; and voice command. yes, that's right, voice command. for each destination that you save as a favorite, you can record a name that's stored along with the entry. you can navigate to that entry by just tapping "voice command" and saying the saved name of the destination. but that's the limit of the loox's voice capabilities. you can't, for instance, use voice commands to navigate menus or change options.
  to enter a new destination, you have the option of entering an address or searching for a poi. for addresses, the pocket loox gives you the option of either entering the street name or the city (or zip code) first. this is a feature i've seen on other gps devices, and it's becoming increasingly popular. you can also search pois nearby, in a city/zip code or nationwide. as with other devices i've reviewed, i wish there was a way to search near an address rather within an entire city or zip code. a restaurant search for all of chicago, for example, is not a very targeted search.
  the pocket loox also lets you pick three poi categories from its list of 26 categories that you can set up as direct-access pois. a single tap of the fuel icon lists nearby gas stations. i was disappointed that when i selected one of the gas stations, the device immediately took me to the start-navigation screen. other gps devices will list the complete street address, and in some cases, the phone number, before prompting you to view the location on the screen or start navigating.
  the pocket loox is unique among dedicated personal navigation devices (as opposed to pda solutions) in that you can choose either portrait or landscape screen layouts. in both modes, the pocket loox provides the standard 2d north, 2d track up, and 3d track up views. you can easily change from 2d to 3d by tapping the location cursor. you have quite a few options in what to display on the screen. you can choose to display speed and altitude, a compass, the remaining distance, and a number of other navigation-related data fields. there are a total of 27 configuration options.
  what's unique is you can also choose to display lanes, speed-limit signs, and road signs, and be alerted if your speed exceeds the posted speed limit by a configured amount. for highways, the default is 10 mph above the posted limit. (be sure to check out the slide show for screenshots of these unique features). the pocket loox has a number of automatic settings, too, including auto-zoom and auto-audio levels. another neat feature is that for a number of national chains, you'll see branded store icons appear on the map rather than a generic symbol.
  the pocket loox supports four routing profiles. along with the standard ones for fastest and shortest, there are optimum and scenic profiles as well. better yet, you get seven vehicle profiles, too, including bike, pedestrian, motorcycle, truck, and three different car selections. you can also choose to allow/avoid/forbid highways, toll roads, and ferries.
  once you've set a destination, the map view first shows you a straight-line route to your destination. it then calculates the route and shows you a route summary. prior to starting your navigation, you can get a list view of turns and exclude specific turns or roads if you wish. after navigation began, i couldn't find a way to go back to the list view. during navigation, the screen displays your current road and the name of the next road. a graphic in the lower left-hand corner of the screen shows a turn preview arrow, the distance to the next turn, and an indicator for turn distance as you approach it. if two turns occur in rapid sequence, a second icon will show the subsequent turn. like the h610, the pocket loox lacks text-to-speech conversion, so voice prompts are limited to simple directions. i found that directions were announced at appropriate intervals, but felt that the tiny speaker distorted at the high volumes associated with highway speeds.
  both the mio h610 and the fujitsu siemens pocket loox n100 have the same $499 list price. and in many ways, the two products are very comparable. though i like the unique gps features found in the pocket loox, the h610's larger poi database and superior poi search capabilities, coupled with a generally more robust package of traveler's aids, tilt the balance in favor of the digiwalker.