JVC makes its portable navigation debut

The bricklike EAVINU is JVC's no-nonsense entrant in the booming portable navigation market. The squared-off and thick case is fronted by a 3.5-inch LCD screen and holds a 20GB hard drive. The EAVINU comes with maps of the United States and Canada with 13 million points of interest, and it lets you search for destinations by address, postal code, and even latitude/longitude. Its destination entry is easy to use and has smart completion. An internal battery lets the unit operate for 4 hours unplugged, which is useful because the EAVINU is also a media player. A portion of its hard drive is reserved for user data, such as MP3 or WMA music, JPEG pictures, and WMV or AVI movies. Files can be moved to the unit through its SD card slot or a direct USB connection to a PC. The EAVINU's thick design gives it a solid feel, although it won't easily fit in a pocket.