Harman Kardon preps video player with GPS

Harman Kardon flies the flag for convergence with the announcement of its Guide & Play GPS-500, a combo sat-nav/multimedia player.

As the name suggests, the Guide & Play is principally a portable sat-nav unit. Both 2D and 3D European maps come pre-installed on a 2GB flash card. Harman Kardon has also included support for TMC (traffic message channel). So the pocketable Guide & Play can double up as both pedestrian guide book and in-car electro-map.

Alongside the sat-nav, the 'Play' functionality encompasses music and video playback. The Guide & Play supports MPEG-4 and WMV9 for video; MP3, WMA and AAC for audio. An ideal device for the connected urbanite who has little or no sense of direction.

Klaus Lebherz, International Brand Director, Car Solutions, Harman Consumer Group International, said: "The Guide & Play can be used while driving, working or relaxing, allowing you to take your music collection on the road, watch movies in-flight or if you're hungry, use the GPS to find the nearest restaurant at the touch of a button."

The Guide & Play will be available this month and HK has slapped a guide price of £345 on it. For more information, swing your browser towards www.guideandplay.eu .

We'll bring you a review when we can get our hands on one.

Technical specs

  • 4" widescreen display (480 x 272 pixels, 65k colors)
  • 300MHz ARM9 dual-core processor, 128MB RAM
  • 2GB of internal flash memory
  • Preinstalled maps (Tele Atlas): Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and Vatican City
  • Up to five-hour battery life (lithium-polymer battery)
  • SD card slot (up to 4GB)
  • USB 2.0
  • Dimensions (H x W x D): 75mm x 118mm x 20mm (3" x 4-5/8" x 3/4")
  • Weight: 201g (7.1 oz)
  • Available: Silver/Black