GPS handhelds are improving almost as fast as wandering souls are snapping them up — market-research firm IDC projects 6.5 million personal navigation devices will be sold this year in the U.S., three times as many as last year. Among TomTom's latest models is the GO920, available around Thanksgiving for $700. Beyond just giving you voice turn-by-turn directions, the GO920 will verbally prompt you through the menus (though the woman demo'ing the unit for me the other night had trouble with physical menu drilling), potentially be a great feature for anyone who finds GPSes hard to navigate (i.e. everybody). It also has speech recognition, listening for your answers and responings to any spoken addresses you're looking to get to — letting you keep your eyes on the road instead of on the 4.3-inch touchscreen.

Also noteworthy: TomTom's MapShare feature, which lets users submit corrections and additions to maps and points of interest (POI). In addition to the usual 2D map view, you get a 3D birds-eye viewing with a growing number of buildings and landmarks added by both users and TeleAtlas. — Stewart Wolpin