May 12, 2009

TomTom has announced - GO 740 LIVE

TomTom has proudly announced that its GO 740 LIVE personal navigation device would be its very first "connected GPS" to hit the United States of America. Just last month, the company announced that said unit was finally shipping to anxious consumers. Hardware wise, there's nothing here outside of the ordinary, but it's the little extras that make all the difference in the world here.

It's been a rough little while for so-called connected GPS units, but it looks like TomTom is still confident in the idea, and it's just gotten official with its first such device for the US market: the GO 740 LIVE. As you may recall, this one actually made its debut way back at IFA in the summer, and it looks to be mostly unchanged for its entrance into the US. That includes the standard 4.3-inch touchscreen, 2GB of internal flash memory with a microSD card slot for expansion, handsfree Bluetooth functionality, voice recognition, maps of the US and Canada courtesy of TeleAtlas and, of course, a built-in SIM card slot and GPRS modem to let you take advantage of all those "connected" features. As with the Insignia connected GPS unit, you'll get a year of free service with the device, which certainly makes that $500 price tag a bit more bearable. Look for it to be available sometime in the second quarter of this year.