Doesn’t it seem like a matter of time before the car “cigarette lighter” power socket is replaced by — say — a USB hub? Does anyone smoke in their car anymore? Better question: does ANYONE use the car’s cigarette lighter to light up?

Answer: No. Your GPS is already plugged into the cigarette slot. Or your phone charger. Or your iPod charger. Or something besides a cigarette lighter.

That’s where the Kensington PowerBolt comes in. It fills the slot snuggly — sheesh that sounds dirty — and replaces the cigarette lighter function with a 2.1 amp powered USB port that you can plug any device into.

The device is specifically marketed at the iPod/iPhone/iPad market, with the 2.1 amp capability meant to deliver quick charging to the Apple devices. It also comes with a detachable Apple cable. But you can plug in anything you want, even another smartphone or audio device.

By the way, there are about 6 billion USB devices out there. The electronics standard has been popular since its mainstream introduction in 1996.

The device works. It plugs in, fits perfectly, and has an LED indicator to let you know that you’re in business.

It’s 10 bucks and available at Amazon or most electronics stores. Tell your car “welcome to 1996.”

Magellan continued its pattern of “please just get me there accurately” with the widescreen Maestro 4250.

The 4250 has a 4.5″ screen and the same hyper-accurate maps we’ve come to give Magellan credit for.

What it doesn’t have is any serious bloatware. It does have 6 million points of interest and on board traffic updates, but don’t expect to watch movies and replace your iPod with this car GPS. This one is meant to get you where you have to go and maybe offer some advice on where to eat.

This model does offer a few more of the price tag-raising features like voice command and Bluetooth for your cell phone.

The 4250 also pronounces directions and street names, which is a vital feature on any GPS.

Overall, you can find this product for about $200 online, and it’s a great balance of value and features.

Not since 8-track tapes to cassettes have cars seen as dramatic a shift in accompaniment than with paper maps or printed driving directions to GPS units.

They’ll get you where you have to go. They’ll show you where to eat, sleep, fill the tank, and bring the kids.

Blast teamed with Boston.com and tested nine of the latest, greatest portable car GPS units recently to see what the easiest way was to get from point A to point B. The results surprised us.

We tested the Garmin Nuvi 880 and TomTom Go 930. We paired those with the Garmin Nuvi 205 w and TomTom XL 330 S. We also tested the affordable Navigon 2100 max and pushed three Magellans to the limit: The Maestro 5310, Maestro 3250, and RoadMate 1430.

We also tested the cartoony Knight Rider GPS by Mio, featuring the voice of K.I.T.T., the talking car from the 80s television show that’s making a return to the airwaves.

We were ok with the blinking red lights and talking car voice of the Mio Knight Rider. What we couldn’t get past were the inaccurate maps and addresses. This surprised and disappointed because the Knight Rider GPS is brand new (actually it doesn’t come out for another week) and many maps in suburban Massachusetts needed updating.

Knight Rider by Mio
$299-$269
Now available

Pros: Fans of the 80s television show (new series premieres Sept. 24) will love it. It greets you by name and with blinky red lights. You can turn all that off if you want.

Cons: Outdated maps and poor directions mar the good visuals and intuitive destination searching. The Mio also has a poor docking cradle that doesn’t charge the unit and is bound to break on you. Awful battery life that crapped out in an hour.

Overall: It seems like the Knight Rider would have been better at $199. Mio makes a decent GPS though, and they offer great value, especially considering their Mio Moov 200 sells for under $150 and gets the job done.

Blast teamed with Boston.com and tested nine of the latest, greatest portable car GPS units recently to see what the easiest way was to get from point A to point B. The results surprised us and will be available on Boston.com in the coming days.

We tested the Garmin Nuvi 880 and TomTom Go 930. We paired those with the Garmin Nuvi 205 w and TomTom XL 330 S. We laughed at the Knight Rider GPS by Mio, featuring the voice of K.I.T.T., the talking car from the 80s TV show that’s making a comebac. And we pushed three Magellans to the limit: The Maestro 5310, Maestro 3250, and RoadMate 1430.

We also tested the affordable Navigon 2100 max with the lane assist and ZAGAT point of interest features turned on.

The Navigon 2100, at $199, is a great buy for a no-nonsense navigator. It’s a cheap GPS without all the bells and whistles. You can add bells (real-time traffic updates) for a one-time fee of $99; and whistles (ZAGAT survey ratings and reviews) for $39.99.

You can also buy Navigon’s‚ FreshMaps service, which offers 12 map updates over a three year period for a one-time cost of $79.99.

But then you’re not really dealing with a cheap GPS anymore.

Let’s say you don’t want any of these features. The 2100 still has a bunch of built-in features like Lane Asisstant Pro, which visually shows you what lane you should be in for a merger or upcoming highway exit. This was a very, very useful, free feature.

Navigon 2100 max

$199
3.5 out of 5 stars

Pros: A surprising amount of features come packed into the $199 Navigon 2100 max. It speaks street names and shows 3D images of road signs when you’re approaching splits and complicated intersections. For an extra charge, you can also add traffic updates, 3-years of map updates, and Zagat restaurant reviews.

Cons: It’s low on the points of interest, delivering “only” 1.6 million. Most GPS units give you 6 million. The cradle is a bit tricky to put together. The font displayed on the screen is WAY too small. The last thing you want to do is squint to see the text while you’re driving. The interface is intuitive, but the “buttons” on the touch screen are too small.

Overall: It’s a value GPS, but it has the same size screen as the Garmin and TomTom we tested. If you don’t want the extras like traffic and Zagat, you don’t have to buy them. This keeps the base price low. At $199, what have you got to lose?

Harman/Kardon has been busting out plenty of consumer electronics lately, and their GPS models, if priced right, are seeming like they serve up a viable alternative to the big two brands.

The “Guide+Play” GPS-510na is a widescreen choice that handles navigation, traffic with a built in TMC receiver, text-to-speech instructions and audio/video playback with SD and SDHC card support.

One thing I liked about the 510na was that it found the satellites right away, locked onto my position and was ready to rock in under a minute.

One thing I noticed about the 510 was that it has a lot of parts, and that tends to get a little complicated. Even the power adapter comes in two parts. You have to plug the prongs into the adapter and then plug a USB cable into the adapter. I guess, technically that means there are less cables to deal with since the USB pretty much handles everything, but I can see people losing those two little prongs.

I don’t see much of a use for audio and video playback on a GPS unit, but it does support MP3, AAC, WMA, MPEG-4 and WMV formats, so you could technically keep the passengers entertained with a video. You’ll never, ever use it for audio playback in the car, so let’s just skip that part.

The speaker is decent, and the video quality is very good, and if you’re one of those gadget folk looking for an all-in-one device that will cook you dinner and tuck you in at night, you’ll be happy. I just want navigation. If I want to spend $400 on audio/video features added to a product line not traditionally made for audio/video, I’ll buy an iPhone. Or for $200 cheaper, an iPod touch.

The tragic thing about the GPS-510 is that it has excellent navigation, accurate maps, tons of points of interest, a sharp, color display, vital text-to-speech (it says street names and stuff) functionality, handles traffic and is very easy to use. Why tragic? Because at $399, no one is going to buy the Harman/Kardon GPS-510 because they can buy a Garmin for about that or a TomTom for much less.

That’s why Amazon and other retailers have slashed the price of the 510 by $100, and it’s still priced right out of the market. The GPS-only GPS-310 model was also slashed, and it’s available for $250. Harman/Kardon should make a widescreen GPS like this for $149 or $199 with the traffic receiver. That should have been their approach. Nail the navigation; lowball the price; cash in when people like me say it’s great.

The GPS-510 is great, and should have been a great value-priced GPS, but instead it’s an overpriced toy. It has a few minor drawbacks like the bucket-o-parts it comes with is the fact that the the docking cradle doesn’t charge it. You have to plug and unplug the power cord from the device when you remove it. Also, the touchscreen isn’t as responsive as it is on Garmin and TomTom devices. On my Garmin, I can fly through 3-4 commands in a second and be ready to go. On the 510, you have to kinda methodically make sure you fully press each command, and that’s a bitch while driving

Not that you should do that…

Quick hits:

Publisher: Harman/Kardon
Launch Date: October 17, 2007

Overall: 3 out of 5 stars