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Garmin has announced the Dakota 10 and the Dakota 20 handheld GPS navigation devices. The devices include a high sensitivity GPS receiver, worldwide basemap and color touchscreen display. The Dakota device is compact, lightweight, rugged and waterproof.

With HotFix, Garmin’s new Dakota devices rapidly acquire and maintain satellite reception. These devices automatically calculate and store vital satellite data that can be used to quickly evaluate a position. All those from geocachers and youth scouts to hunters and surveyors can obtain the benefit of Dakota’s 850 MB of internal memory, which can stock up to 1,000 waypoints, 50 routes, 2,000 geocaches and an active tracklog of up to 10,000 points and 200 saved tracks.

“As families and friends explore the outdoors – from an exotic locale to the local park – Dakota helps keep their adventures affordable and enjoyable,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin’s vice president of worldwide sales. “While kids have fun with Dakota’s small size and simple interface, parents can take comfort in never losing their way thanks to high-sensitivity GPS and extended battery life.”

Weighing only 6.75 ounces, it comes preloaded with a global base-map and is attuned with the Garmin city Navigator NT which gives turn-by-turn directions on city streets. The TOPO U.S. 24K and 100K map software for incredible terrain detail and Blue Chart g2 for marine charting are each sold separately.

The Dakota is easy to read, can be used in all environment, is glove-friendly, receptive to the touch of your finger yet resistant to the forces of nature. Dakota lasts up to 20 hours on two AA batteries and can connect to PC or Mac via USB connection.

The Dakota 20 possesses additional features like a 3-axis compass, a microSD card slot for enhanced mapping and memory storage, barometric altimeter, and wireless unit-to-unit connectivity for sharing waypoints, routes, tracks, and geocaches wirelessly with compatible Dakota, Oregon, Colorado and Foretrex devices. Dakota 20’s 3-axis, tilt-compensated electronic compass shows the heading even while users stand still.

Dakota 10 and Dakota 20 are the most recent breakthrough devices introduced from Garmin at a price of $299.99 and $349.99 respectively.