7. Children And Pets

Do you like to travel with children and pets? How about into the wilderness perhaps, or even the urban wilderness? If so, the standout products this year are from Garmin and Whereify.

The Pets Recommendation

Garmin's new Astro is designed to show on its display the location of one or more tagged dogs. The whole system is non-subscription-based, and designed to work in the vicinity of the Astro handheld. Garmin might have designed this for hunting dogs, but it is one of those break-out products that will end up being used to track vehicles, stray children, and whatever other moving items can handle the weight of the DC 20 tracking tag.

Style Verdict

You like to wear dark glasses and pretend to be in the CIA or the FCC or whatever. Running around with this toy is bound to draw a crowd, thanks to its odd shape and multiple antennas.

The Children Recommendation

The new Wherifone from Wherify Wireless comes in a variety of candy colors and small sizes for younger children. While the idea of phones for your kids is not new - consider the Enfora Tictalk and Firefly Mobile - these particular phones include the ability to locate them via phone or web. Plus, they are the smallest, most stylish tracking phones I've seen to date.

Style Verdict

Comes in several gaudy, kid-friendly colors; clearly designed with the younger child in mind.

Conclusions

There are now more GPS categories than ever before, and as the main categories mature and their feature sets converge, what we'll be seeing is increased variety with styling and industrial design. In some cases, we'll see wild new colors not seen before, while in others, form will follow function. For 2007, my recommendation is to gravitate towards a unit that looks good and fits with your lifestyle. Whether you're buying one for yourself or someone else, the biggest challenge may be deciding which GPS category your future toy will come from.

To recap, the hot gift categories are:

Single Integrated Device (GPS/PDA Phones) Look for Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, WiFi, Camera, Integrated GPS, Cellular Service and full PDA The Pharos GPS Phone, out at the end of January, seems to fit the bill. The latest Blackberry phones are navigation capable if you can deal with subscriptions. Portable Navigation Devices (PND) Navigation features are becoming largely similar, but look for a good user interface! Shop primarily for color, shape, size, durability and the "lifestyle" look. Outdoors Sports and Fitness Make sure your pick of device can survive drops, dirt, water and sweat. Bright colors are recommended in activities where you may drop or lose the device. Children/Pets The new Garmin Astro looks like a lot of fun whether you have dogs or kids. The new Wherify phones combine just the right amount of color with tracking capabilities.

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