In the first day of CES 2009, TomTom, the GPS manufacturer, has introduced its newest portable navigation device, the TomTom GO 740 Live. This is a connected GPS that uses a built-in SIM card and a GPRS modem. With the purchase of the TomTom GO 740 Live, customers will also get a complimentary year subscription to TomTom's Live services.

These services include Google Local Search, fuel-price information, weather data, and TomTom QuickGPSfix for faster satellite acquisition. The Google search capabilities allow a user to look up local businesses and get such information as phone number and user reviews, if available. Furthermore, the customers will also get real-time traffic information, updated every two to five minutes.

The GPS helps users chose their path and announces time on the estimated time of arrival. To further aid the routing, the GO 740 Live employs TomTom's IQ Routes technology, which calculates directions based on historical traffic data.

As previously mentioned, the devices comes preloaded with TeleAtlas maps of the United States and Canada and it includes text-to-speech functionality, voice recognition and commands, and integrated Bluetooth. As for the hardware capabilities, the GO 740 Live features a 4.3-inch touch screen (with a 480x272 pixel resolution), measures 3.4 inches tall by 5 inches wide by 0.9 inch deep and weighs 7.9 ounces.

Furthermore, TomTom's new device will also have Map Share, which allows users to update maps based on their knowledge of local roads and share information with the TomTom community. The company announced that more than 5 million map improvements had been made by the TomTom community.

The GPS will probably ship in the second quarter of 2009 for $499 and it will be available at major retailers.