nuvi 1690 with nuLink! @ Amazon & Garmin website...

From looking through the links it appears as if the unit is using a cellular data connection with Navteq traffic. $499 buys the unit and 2 years of service but no mention of recurring costs after 2 years. I wonder who the cell provider is? As it is advertised as EDGE, it has to be one of the GSM carriers such as AT&T or T-Mobile with roaming agreements.

I'm guessing EDGE data connections, a 2G+ technology will only be offered for a few more years. GSM carriers and Verizon are going to go to LTE technology for their 4G offering. The fastest GSM data connections right now are HSDPA which is a 3G.

The Garmin news release states that the Nulink service is free for the first 2 years (included in the price of the unit) and $5.00 a month after that.

Also gas prices will be updated daily.

This looks like yet another "I pass" unit for me. I barely use my MSN Direct receiver for it's additional info which has never been "must have" in my personal use anyways. I get by just fine with the Clear Channel traffic and that's it.

I'm wondering how the following will go over with users:

MP3 player: no
FM transmitter: no
Headphone jack/audio line-out: no

Looks like no connectivity to your car's head unit/stereo at all even if you just want to pipe your voice navigation audio out.

It does appear to have a powered cradle because of this though:

"Garmin Locate™ (marks position when removed from windshield mount): yes"

or it could be that they've found a way to do it by disconnecting the USB cable...this remains to be seen.

I believe this unit would be a downgrade for me personally.

The first two years of service are included in the price. Afterward, service will cost $5 a month which does not seem too bad. What I would like to know is whether this price will ever go up like alarm monitoring fees? I certainly hope not.

More information about this:
http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/ticker/article.aspx?symbol=...

And yet more info at http://www.gpslodge.com/

In the top Specifications part, it says "included traffic receiver provides North America traffic information"

Then lower down in the section talking about Garmin nuLink, it lists "Traffic" there, too.

So where does it get it's traffic information from? An old-tech FM receiver in the cord, or through the EDGE data connection? Big difference!

Anyone have it yet.

I doubt anyone has one yet. The Amazon link I posted above shows a release date of Oct 20.

Just as a quick note... I contacted Garmin today to ask about an external antenna for the Nuvi 1690 and after being transferred to a tech I was told that Garmin "feels" that the chip used in the 1690 eliminates the need to an external antenna and have not provided the ability to add one. I have a SERIOUS problem with that as I believe it has the same chipset as the Nuvi 5000 which I have now. I have a mini van that has ultraviolet filters in the windshield to protect the interior. When I 1st used the Nuvi 5000 I was not getting a good signal. At times either totally blocks or intermittently loses the satellite signals. So I had to buy the external antenna which was suggested to me by a Garmin tech. So basically without the ability to add an external antenna to the Nuvi 1690, Garmin had basically designed a model that hampers its performance when used in newer cars with filters in the windshield. They have traded satellite navigation for cell phone reliabilty for secondary services such as weather, traffic (although this is important but useless without satellite guidance)and flight status. Brillant Garmin... just brilliant!

At the bottom of the screen that shows the map that is nearly covered in blue it says

Then a link that takes you to the traffic coverage area says

So the answer is that the traffic coverage is the same as what is currently available to any receiver capable of picking up the Navteq FM traffic data.

Personally, I think the 885T is a much better buy. As usual, Garmin adds a few new wrinkles but leaves off a lot of others. With the 1690 you get ecoRoute ( a total waste as far as I'm concerned), and you get 500 more waypoints/favorites...but you don't have a removable battery, voice activation/remote and you lose msn direct, fm transmitter, headphone jack/audio line out, audio book player and mp3 player. I think I'l just stay with the 885T.

Too bad. I don't think I will buy another Garmin that still uses FM for traffic. Too unreliable and the reception coverage area is too small.

i think general trend is to go out to smartphones-my nokia can do the same and more of the functions of my nuvi i bought a year ago, and the nokia is much more upgradable.

Since traffic is clearly the main feature of auxiliary services like MSN & NuviLink, I think people are going to mostly opt for the free traffic service that was introduced in the Nuvi 7X5T line. NuviLink stands a chance of making it, although I doubt they'll offer 2-years worth of service for free for very long (many of us gps geeks don't even keep our gps units that long!). I do, however, see the eventual downfall of MSN, which offers similar services to NuviLink, but the free service period is much shorter and the services offered aren't as plentiful and versatile as NuviLink. I agree with jra that smartphones could become a major player in the gps market. They're fast becoming our portable "everything": phone, web browser, email, still & video camera, mp3 player, voice recorder, gps...

Per garmin blog: http://garmin.blogs.com/my_weblog/2009/09/nuvi-1690-and-att-...

"The answer was revealed today - it's AT&T. The nüvi 1690 has a built-in wireless module that lets you link to Garmin nüLink! services, and nüLink! gives you one-click access to online content like traffic, weather, fuel prices, Google local search, and white page listings.

The U.S. 1690 comes with two years of free nüLink! service. This makes it the first online GPS to offer an extended period of online features included in the purchase price of the device. After the first two years of service, you can get nuLink! for just $5.00/month. Check out this nüvi 1690 demo to learn more."

In Canada I believe Garmin is in negotiations with Rogers to be the wireless company for Nulink. May make sense since Rogers is also the Canadian iPhone vendor. They seem to follow AT&T around

AT&T will be the provider,and after 2yr free subscription ends it will cost $5 per month.

More Info:
http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/ticker/article.aspx?symbol=...

Not sure what your referring to. Aero_Jonno's post has this same information and my post is dealing with Canada which has no AT&T.

It appears the Garmin Nulink weather feature does not include weather radar like the MSN service.

I had posted this last year and with the announcement of the Garmin Nuvi 1690 as well as the Garmin Nuvi 1820/1860, does anybody happen to know if an A-GPS application could be used with the Garmin Nuvi 1690? I would think it would be handy, but I suppose the 1690 will only allow those applications that are pre-loaded.

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/18716

These are now showing in stock at my local Best Buy stores. I am anticipating that we will start seeing some reports of these being spotted in the wild soon.

I purchased my Nuvi 1690 from Best buy on Tuesday(10/06/09). Unit works great. Coverage in the Washington DC Area for the trafic part is good. Trafic accuracy is at times simular to my 765T. Still evaluating. I noticed its selection of routes is sometimes a bit wacked. But it could be a need for me to scan the directions to see what I might have missed. Over all the unit was just as decribed in several reviews

Maybe after 2 years that service might be free on the next newer unit.

I had a chance to try one of these today. The Google Local Search seems to work pretty well. Does anybody know if the data service uses AT&T 3G or is it EDGE/GPRS exclusively?

Does anybody have any feedback on how well the NuLink service works versus MSN?

I have had my 1690 now for about a month. I also have a Nuvi 680 to compare it with. The 1690 NuLink feature is pretty nice. I use the Google search sometimes to find things vs built in POI's. The gas feature is really nice since it not only looks for the cheapest gas but now has prices for reg, pre, and Diesel (I have a diesel and this is nice). I got a chance to use the airport feature and it really did know when the plane was arriving. Same with threater times and what is showing. I have used the White Pages but haven't had much success with that part yet. The CAIO feature I think is useless. The routing using the 1690 traffic feature takes me different routes than my older MSN 680. Maybe because of the updated maps on my 1690, but it does seem to know traffic situations better and takes me to where I want to go quicker than my older 680. I'm still playing with the unit. I love the lane assist and having mulitiple way points.

Ahsumtoy,

Thanks for the detailed reply. I currently have a Garmin 780 with MSN and obviously I'm looking for a different traffic service when I upgrade. I hope NuLink continues to provide all the gas pricing, news, movie theater, and weather info that MSN provides now.