Magellan Maestro
Update: We’ve received more information about these products now, much of it better information than we were previously provided with. Here are links to what we know about the Maestro 4000, Maestro 4040, and the Maestro 4050.
News out of Magellan had been a little quiet recently, but things ought to pick up a little bit as a little birdie has told us that the new Magellan Maestro series will be out soon. The Maestro will have three products in the line, the Maestro 4000, Maestro 4040, and Maestro 4050. Details are extremely sketchy, but here is what we know so far.
Based on the pictures I’ve been shown, Magellan is finally coming out with what I would call a pocketable device. While some of their RoadMates are smallish, none of them are truly slim and pocketable. The Maestro series looks to finally get small and be a similar size of a Nuvi or the TomTom ONE.
The device is 3.8 x 4.8 x 1.4 ” and weighs just under 9 ounces. It comes with a 3.5″ touch screen display at the typical 320×240 size. SD cards as well as MMC cards are supported.
We know that at least some of the Maestros will come with Bluetooth to allow hands free calling through the GPS. This feature will apparently be called BlueSoleil. The Bluetooth profile is also capable of transferring files so you can send things like pictures and music to and from the Magellan Maestro devices via Bluetooth.
There is a QuickSpell feature which facilitates the entering of street names and city names. Once you start typing in characters other characters on the on-screen keyboard will disappear if they are not in any of the names left matching your query.
There is a “TrueView” display which will display a 3D representation of an upcoming intersection. Routes can be calculated via the shortest time, shortest distance, least use of freeways, and the most use of freeways.
Like other Magellan devices, the Maestro series will be able to route to multiple destinations. It can also take a list of several destinations and order them in closest to furthest distance away from the current location.
Automatic night mode comes with the Maestro series along with POI alerts so you will always know when you are near a Sarbucks if you choose. The Magellan SmartDetour function is also loaded on the Maestro. If you are on a freeway travelling less than 15 mph the device will display a detour icon giving you quick access to a route recalculation around the detour.
Of course there will be an MP3/WMA music player as well as a photo viewer which can display JPG and BMP files.
