What it does: Pick your destination, and the iWay 500C automatically displays the best route, and then gives you turn-by-turn directions with voice and visual guidance. No need to download maps or keep up with compact flash cards; the iWay comes with a built-in map of the continental United States.
How it does it: The iWay uses a 12 parallel channel GPS that simultaneously tracks multiple satellites to provide fast, reliable and accurate navigational data. The unit comes with a 20GB internal hard drive, with 10GB of storage dedicated to built-in, high-detail mapping and 10GB of storage reserved for MP3 music files (it can store up to 5,000 songs depending on compression rates and song lengths).
When to use it: The iWay is useful anytime, especially on family vacations or on road trips to tournament sites or unfamiliar lakes. With today's soaring gas prices, the iWay can even be a means of improving gas mileage, as it provides the quickest route to a destination, and it can keep you from getting lost.
Where to use it: The beauty of the iWay is that you don't need to be in unfamiliar territory to tap into its benefits. The "Points-of-Interests" feature gives you access to 2 million services, including: restaurants, gas and service stops, ATMs, hotels, shopping and more.
What it costs: Suggested retail is $799.99. The price includes the following features: hardwire adapter with 1/8-inch stereo jack for wiring into a car's stereo system; suction-cup mounting bracket for windshield applications; USB to PC interface cable; 110VAC to 12VDC power converter for in-home use transferring music files, etc.); protective cover and touch-screen cleaning cloth. For more information visit www.lowrance.com.
Cool features
Color touch-screen display
Backlit LED keypad
Simplified operation of the GPS with five primary keys
Three selectable mapping displays: 2-D Track Up, 2-D North Up, and 3-D
Turn-by-turn audio and visual cues, including auto-zooming and automatic recalculation of directions after a missed turn
Street address searching, plus auto-routing choices to choose or avoid toll roads and interstates or avoid
left-hand turns
Mega-memory storage for up to 1,000 waypoints
Key music functions include: Browse Files, Play Lists, Repeat On/Off, Shuffle, Equalizer, Pause, Stop, Scan, Skip Forward, Skip Reverse, and Volume
iWay extras
iWay 100M A compact, pocket-sized version of the full-panel iWay lineup that comes with many of the same features, including the routing options such as "avoid" or "prefer" toll roads, interstates or left or right turns. The iWay 100 automatically displays the best route and gives turn-by-turn directions with voice and visual guidance. The unit also includes "MapCreate" mapping software and an expandable memory card slot. It weighs just 8.7 ounces and measures roughly 5 by 14 inches. Suggested retail is $399.99. For more information visit www.lowrance.com.
Create your own "skins" In short, skins allow iWay users to change the appearance of the unit's face plate. Skins are a group of images and command files that specify how windows, buttons, fonts and colors should appear and function on the iWAY. You can have multiple skins loaded onto your iWAY, and you can change which skin is currently used by accessing the display settings of your unit.