Escort Passport iQ: GPS radar detector and navigation

Escort has been designing radar detectors and other rear view mirror with GPS navigation systems. Now we get the news that they came out with a new GPS navigation system called Escort Passport iQ that combines turn by turn directions with radar detection.

The radar detector is based on the Escort 9500i which gives you protection against radar, laser, red light and speed camera ticketing while utilizing a 5″ touch screen display and a newly designed antenna:

…engineers were able to change the standard radar detector form by designing a radically new microwave antenna assembly,” said Tim Coomer, ESCORT’s vice president of New Product Development. “Until the merging of these two major mobile technologies by ESCORT, drivers had no choice but to purchase and connect separate driving devices at the same time….

Are you ready for the price though? $650! Yes, The PASSPORT iQ Radar/Laser Detector with GPS navigation starts at $649.95. What do you think? Is it worth it?

Brought to you by your GPS navigation site NaviGadget.

Escort Passport iQ: GPS radar detector and navigation

iPhone software 3.0 video walkthrough

GPS Tuner Atlas for offroad navigation

GPS Tuner just recently announced their latest generation of its off-road navigation software, developed specially for mobile devices. GPS Tuner Atlas is a must-have for anyone who needs an off-road navigation solution for geocaching, biking, touring, extreme sports, and even hunting.

GPS Tuner Atlas is available at their website and the innovations include fast graphics, real satellite imagery with a global coverage by DigitalGlobe, 3D digital elevation, custom map calibration, street level basic map data by TeleAtlas.

There’s also a simple trip computer that is flexible thanks to its many specialized functions. The North American version is $57, same for Europe, and South America too. If you want the whole globe you’ll need to say goodbye to $124.

GPS Tuner Atlas for offroad navigation

HTC Snap video product tour

After the HTC Snap was announced earlier today, HTC have wasted no time providing us with a video. Its only a short one but quickly explains how the inner circle works and a look at the rather functional front facing QWERTY keyboard. The videos after the break.

Samsung S7220

Samsung just recently announced the new Samsung S7220 in the U.K. with the name “Samsung Lucido“.

The device is a quad-band GSM, dual band (900/2100MHz) 3G phone with integrated A-GPS receiver getting ready to be released in the U.K. first.

It has a 2.2? AMOLED screen, storage that can go up to 8GB with the microSD card slot, 5MP, auto-focus, face detection, Smile-Shot camera, bluetooth 2.1, and an FM radio as well as a media player to keep you entertained when bored. It kinda resembles the Samsung Ultra S730… via

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Broadcom Introduces PND on a Chip

Broadcom announced what it calls "the first PND on a chip," a new navigation processor and power management unit (PMU) designed for personal navigation devices (PNDs). The BCM4760 system-on-a-chip (SoC) includes a GPS baseband, radio frequency (RF) circuitry, low noise amplifier (LNA), and high-powered applications and graphics processors to drive 3D user interfaces.[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Review: Nokia MD-8 portable speakers

 

 

Matthew Miller from Nokia Experts checks out the Nokia MD-8 speaker set that was included with the Nokia 5530 XM evaluation unit. The Nokia MD-8 speakers have a £20 retail value, although you can pick them up for £5 at Amazon, until now I never had a chance to check them out. As a person who travels on the road for my company, I can truly appreciate having a set of speakers like this to enjoy my music content and podcasts in my hotel room and rental car.

The retail package includes the Nokia MD-8 speakers, Nokia Audio Adaptor AD-52 (2.5mm adapter), 3-AAA batteries, and User Guide. The audio adapter is present so you can use the speakers with a phone that has a 2.5mm headset port. The end of the 29.5 inch cable contains a 3.5mm headset jack so you can plug in the speakers to just about every MP3 player and most new Nokia Smartphone’s. I tested the speakers with the N97, Nokia 5530 XM, and my new Zune HD.

There are two speakers in this unit with a bright white indicator light in between them and a power switch on the top. The whole unit is white (black is also available) and feels very solid in your hand. On the bottom you will find small rubber feet that do an amazing job at keeping the MD-8 speakers from sliding on the table. On the back you will find the cable wraps around a slot with a place to secure the 3.5mm headset male end in the center.

The speakers are powered by 3-AAA batteries (included) and you just pull out one end of the back and swivel it around (the other end is attached) to access the battery compartment. The Nokia site states you get up to 40 hours of playing time with the three AAA batteries. The MD-8 measures 4.76 x 1.65 x 1.14 inches and weighs in at 4.2 ounces.

For you audiophiles out there, here are some stats on the sound from the speakers:

• Frequency response: From 300 to 15,000 Hz
• Speaker output: 2 x 1 Watt
• Signal-to-noise ratio: 90 dB
• Max sound pressure level: 78 dB

You can hear samples from the speakers in my video. If you are looking for a set of portable speakers, these appear to be a nice set to consider.

 

 

Via

News devices

Devs

waze demo video

As you know we talked about Waze a while ago – and if you read that review you might know that our trial didn’t go that well. Well they now have a demo video up and of course it works flawlessly there. Waze provides crowd sourced maps, and traffic information. Of course it provides voice guided GPS navigation too.

Check out the video if you want to know more about Waze.

Brought to you by your GPS navigation site NaviGadget.

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Magellan SE4

We’re not used to this naming convention from Magellan. Their newest model that showed up on Best Buy’s website is called Magellan SE4.

Magellan SE4 is a GPS navigation system with a 4.3″ screen, preloaded with Navteq maps that includes 48 contiguous states, Hawaii and Puerto Rico, text-to-speech, 6 million points of interests, and multidestination routing.

How much? $180.

Magellan SE4

Unlocked iPhone 3G now on sale in UK

Play.com are now offering the iPhone 3G for sale without any simlock. That’s right you can buy the phone from them and use it with any UK sim card that you have like Vodafone, T-Mobile etc as it is officially unlocked and ready to use. This is not a software unlock so updating the phone will not break the unlock.

• This is a genuine Sim Free mobile phone and therefore unlocked to all UK networks.
• It is not unlocked from a UK or European network and is available due to EU legislation ensuring the sale of sim free mobile phones.

Now the downside is the price, a whopping £549.99 for an 8 Gig model and £599.99 for the 16 Gig, that’s pretty steep but at least there is now a way to use the phone legitimately on with your current network. One word of caution, a new model is rumoured to be just around the corner.

TomTom XXL 540S

At the same time XXL 530S was announced, the company also announced TomTom XXL 540S GPS navigation system.

TomTom XXL 540S differs from 530S by offering US and Canada AND Mexico maps, lane guidance feature, seven millions points of interests, and a fancier shiny black finish.

These extras will set you back an extra $20, putting the price of TomTom XXL 540S at $300. It is probably worth it.

And yes, the ginormous 5″ is on this model too.

Brought to you by your GPS navigation site NaviGadget.

News of devices

Mivvy One

Mivvy, a mobile phone makes from the Czech Republic just announced a new smartphone called Mivvy One.

Mivvy One runs on WinMo 6.1 with a custom user interface but offers no 3G support. What good is that?

Some specs include 3.2″ TFT display with 240×400 resolution, GPS receiver, WiFi, Bluetooth, and FM antennas, 3MP camera, and a microSD card slot.

Mivvy One will be available for 6700CZK in Czech Land which is about $380… via

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get topo maps on your iPhone

TopoPointUSA is a new application for iPhone by Ebranta Technologies. Apparently it’s worlds only GPS enabled application for displaying United States Geological Survey (USGS) high resolution topographical map images and your GPS position whether you are online or not. It costs $10.

Here are the features of TopoPointUSA:

• Complete USGS Map coverage of the USA, including Alaska and Hawaii
• Offline Map availability when located outside cellular service
• Scrolling map with current GPS or browse location display
• Automatic offline or online operation
• GPS Position with accuracy and map scale information
• Powerful Browsing capabilities with position display
• Fully featured Waypoint capabilities

Brought to you by your GPS navigation site NaviGadget.

ViewRanger maps for Nokia 5800

Cambridge, UK based Augmentra just announced that their mapping, navigation, and tracking software ViewRanger is now available for Nokia 5800 and other Symbian S60 touch screen mobile phones.

ViewRanger is an off-road satellite navigation application that provides detailed topographic maps across Europe with points-of-interests and leisure route guides. Maps can be downloaded directly to the handset using WiFi or 3G, downloaded to an SD memory-cards to put onto the device.

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is a great device for running ViewRanger with its 3.2″ widescreen display, fingertip and stylus control, automatic screen rotation, and tactile feedback. In addition the 3.2MP camera is ideal for geo-recording your outdoor photos and locating and sharing them with ViewRanger’s TravelLog capability.

Detailed topographic maps, sourced from national mapping agencies, and other content is available for a growing global community including Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Holland, Ireland, parts of Italy, Norway, Slovenia and Switzerland.

Pricing depends on what you need…

This was a guest post by Warren who normally blogs about mobile phones at DAP. Subscribe to the RSS feed for daily updates.

Brought to you by your GPS navigation site NaviGadget.

Broadcom, SiRF Top ABI's GPS Chip Vendor Ranking

Broadcom has been ranked at the top of the latest Vendor Matrix released by ABI Research. SiRF and Texas Instruments claimed the second and third spots in the company's most recent evaluation of worldwide GPS chip vendors.br/br/[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/GpsWorld-LatestNews/~4/tJsNrObH-jE" height="1" width="1"/

Sony GPS-CS3KA

Sony has quietly revealed a brand new photo tagger called Sony GPS-CS3KA. We came across the new Sony GPS-CS3KA on Amazon where it is available for pre-order for $150. The new Sony CS3 is obviously the successor to the popular Sony CS1 that was released about two years ago.

Sony GPS-CS3KA can identify location of both photos and videos in addition to their date, accepts both MS and SD memory cards, and has a battery life of up to 15 hours.

This GPS image tracker is compatible with most Cyber-shot digital cameras and camcorders.

The smart thing Sony engineers did with CS3 was to give you the ability to use Alkaline or Ni-Mh batteries so hopefully you’ll always be able to find a way to power your device.

Expect the new Sony GPS-CS3KA to ship on March 29th.

Brought to you by your GPS navigation site NaviGadget.

JAVAD GNSS Customers Now Track GPS L5 Signal

JAVAD GNSS has announced that its customers with JAVAD GNSS "triple-frequency" type OEM boards (TR-G2T, TR-G3T, TRE-G2T, TRE-G3T, TRE-G3TAJ) and receivers (TRIUMPH-1, Alpha TR-G2T/TR-G3T, DeltaS TRE-G2T/TRE-G3T/TRE-G3TAJ, SigmaS TRE-G2T/TRE-G3T/TRE-G3TAJ) can now track the L5 demonstration signal.[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

garmin nuvi 1300 series

Garmin just unveiled a new addition to the nuvi series. The 1300’s. There are currently five models in the series, all of which have an ultra thin body, and support pedestrian navigation thanks to CityXplorer maps.

…these new multi-mode navigators feature a public transit mode supporting optional CityXplorer content. Available as a download for select cities, CityXplorer allows the user to plan and use routes that can include public transit options such as bus, tramway, metro and suburban rail systems. With CityXplorer, users can get the most out of their navigation experience to many exciting cities across North America and Europe. The thinner and lighter form factor of these new products allows the unit to be more easily carried in a pocket or purse – making it ideal for pedestrian navigation. Content from CityXplorer varies in cost from $9.99 - $14.99, depending on the city.

nüvi 1300 ($249.99)

• 4.3? screen
• text-to-speech
• maps of lower 48 states, Hawaii and Puerto Rico

nüvi 1350 ($299.99)

• add lane assist
• add comprehensive map coverage of North America

nüvi 1350T ($349.99)

• add lifetime traffic alerts from Navteq

nüvi 1370T ($449.99)

• add maps of Europe
• add Bluetooth connectivity

nüvi 1390T ($399.99)

• add junction view
• subtract maps of Europe

Brought to you by your GPS navigation site mobile devices.

Blue GPS shoes

Isaac Daniel – the people who brought you GPS shoes have a new model called Blue GPS shoes. What you have here is a pair of shoes with a GPS receiver and it can talk to your bluetooth capable phone to update your Facebook with your position – or it can text up to 5 other mobile devices. What can we say – great for stalkers; bad for privacy. The good news is of course nobody is forcing you wear one of these – yet.

It should be available before the end of the year and cost somewhere around $150 – can’t wait? Pre-order them.

Brought to you by your GPS navigation site NaviGadget.

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ATT Breaks the E71x, then delays it.

Over the weekend there was a lot of excitement over the fact that this was going to be the week that AT&T would finally start selling Nokia’s masterpiece, the E71x, but alas the news was too good to be true. With today being the scheduled release date, and no E71x in sight qwerty loving S60 fans across the country had their dreams smashed. According to BGR the trouble comes from a bug in the email or exchange synching software. I find this pretty hard to believe, I have been using an unlocked E71 with exchange since Thanksgiving (late November for those of you outside the U.S.) and have never had a problem with synching at all, and on top of that Nokia has sold millions of these phones around the world for nearly a year. If there was a problem with something as vital as email synch, I’m sure someone besides the guys at AT&T would have spotted it by now. While I am disappointed that my fellow countrymen will be denied such a great phone for an extra few weeks, this really questions what AT&T did to this great phone that would break it.

Mobile Tech Addicts Podcast No 34

Are We There Yet?

Finding the ideal way to use GPS technology in tourism can be as tricky as booking the perfect vacation. Useful devices for visitors being offered at popular tourist attractions come in many forms, from handhelds that trigger to specific sites to three-wheeled mini-cars with programmed tours on board.

Location Based Tech. Inks Distribution Deal with SED

Location Based Technologies Inc. has signed a distribution and fulfillment agreement for its PocketFinder product line with SED International being responsible for fulfillment and logistics for the PocketFinder Affiliate program through the Google Affiliate Network.

CES: Xact Uses U-blox 5 for Trax GPS Tracker

Xact Technology LLC is using GPS receivers with u-blox 5 positioning engines from Swiss GPS chip maker u-blox for its new line of portable personal tracking devices called Xact|Trax.

A-GPS Chip Maker eRide Turns to Synopsis for EDA

Privately held assisted-GPS chip designer eRide has adopted Synopsys' Design Compiler Ultra electronic design automation (EDA) software to design its next-generation Opus GPS chips.

Getac's Rugged GPS Comes with Camera, Altimeter, E-compass

MiTAC's new Getac PS535F GPS has an autofocus camera, altimeter, and E-compass. Its features are designed so field-based employees can capture field data on site and transmit data back to headquarters in real-time, as well as provide pinpoint navigation support to improve location-based productivity.img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/GpsUtilitiesCommunications/~4/YLmQz1n_n4I" height="1" width="1"/

Mobile Time and Frequency Receiver

The mobile version of the PTF GlobalTyme GPS receivers provides the same functionality as the static version, with the added feature of being able to operate in mobile mode for both ground and airborne applications.

Out in Front: Raise a Red Flag

Young GNSS scientists and graduate students from Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, China, and Myanmar who attended the International Symposium on GPS/GNSS 2008 impressed me with their enthusiasm, energy, creativity, and, well, youth. Satellite navigation has a very bright future in the Far East.br/br/[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/GpsWorld-LatestNews/~4/8N_-Mckbvfg" height="1" width="1"/

Lockheed Martin GPS III Team on Schedule in Design Review Stage

The Lockheed Martin team developing GPS III is progressing on-schedule, achieving key milestones in the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) phase with the U.S. Air Force.br/br/[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/GpsWorld-LatestNews/~4/f0bOjS4tMHo" height="1" width="1"/

Waze aims to create a live map

Starting in San Francisco, Boston and Chicago today, T-Mobile G1 users can download the Android application and begin contributing to the project. Akin to the crowdsourced Open Street Map project, Waze picks up GPS points as you drive and automatically and anonymously submits them to the dynamically-generated map of each city. With one click, you’re also able to report road problems such as traffic jams and fix map inaccuracies on the fly. Over time Waze will hopefully become a comprehensive, ‘live’ map of the United States, augmented by driving directions, road changes, speed trap locations and real-time traffic information. As more data is collected, included speed limits, Waze will be able to become predictive and find the best driving route for you based on historical data. You’ll also be able to contribute larger amounts of map information through the Waze website.Waze, which will open in public beta in a few months for the iPhone, Android and Windows Mobile, has already had substantial success in Israel. Over 80, 000 drivers currently use the map and it is the most popular navigation application in the country. As an example of its success, Waze claims “real-time traffic information reached approximately 90 percent coverage wazeand over 85 percent ‘estimated time of arrival’ accuracy” within less than a year.However, the United States will be a much tougher market to conquer. Google Maps has huge mindshare in the US even though it’s in no way dynamic. And PND makers like TomTom and Garmin offer real-time traffic information. But key to Waze’s business model is that it is free for consumers to use unlike established competitors. After all, it’s being built by them. And as Open Street Map has demonstrated, when consumers and companies don’t have to license mapping data, they’ll be more than happy to contribute new stuff to the overall map. Just look at the huge data sets a variety of African-based non-profits have contributed to OSM in recent months.Like all LBS applications though, mass adoption will be required for Waze to succeed, especially given its user-generated model. And in the case of iPhone users, background processing will be a definite requirement for Waze to be of any use. I think for now the choice of a soft launch in three cities is smart. It gives Waze a chance to really focus on areas where adoption will be likely and spread out from there. And with a cost structure that doesn’t amount to much, Waze should be able to move quickly once in public beta.The company also plans to open a variety of APIs to developers which is a great idea. If Waze can pull this off, it could become a platform for all kinds of real-time navigation applications. And for end consumers it’ll be a boon because it’ll all be free.

Mobile Tech Addicts Podcast No 29

Vixxi Provides E911 Address Support with Reverse Geo-Coder

Vixxi Solutions has concluded testing of its Reverse Geo-Coder technology, which it says can pinpoint the nearest physical address of a mobile emergency caller based on coordinates derived from GPS or position determination equipment (PDE).

U&C Insights — August 2007

In June I wrote about telecom ignoring vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to- infrastructure communication efforts. Of course, as the winds of fate have my name and Social Security Number, one company made an interesting announcement just as my finger left the Send button. OKI Electric of Japan is starting trials of the first Dedicated Short-Range Communication (DSRC)-equipped cell phone that communicates automated warnings between vehicles and pedestrians.

Leadership Talks: GNSS Election '08, Part 1

GPS World's Leadership Dinner convoked a lively debate: Would the community gain more from new signals, or from more satellites? A made-up scenario that elicited important insights.br/br/[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/GpsWorld-LatestNews/~4/dqzQKBhFQek" height="1" width="1"/

Vodafone’s twitter exploits

  With O2 customers receiving free SMS alerts from Twitter, it’s understandable that Vodafone wants to offer a perk for Twitter users. We’re not sure that the "first interactive real time top 40 for music lovers" is the way forward, however.

Vodafone commissioned developer Ben Marsh to "create a live top 40 chart of what people are listening to on Twitter, to promote the Vodafone Music store", he wrote on his blog. Using the #RealTimeTop40 hashtag, Twitter users can enter the artist and song they’re listening to and then check out www.realtimetop40.com to view what the most listened-to songs are right now.

It’s not exclusive to Vodafone customers, however if you want to purchase one of the songs currently riding high on the chart, you’ll have to be a paid-up customer to do so.

If Vodafone created an app for mobile phones we can see more use out of this scheme, but for now it’s just another way for Twitter users to pat themselves on the back that they all have such terrific musical taste. If Patrick Swayze’s ‘She’s Like The Wind’ can be considered taste.

Link: Real Time Top 40

[Source T3]

GIS

When Satellites Collide: Iridium 33 Strikes Defunct Russian Sat in Unprecedented Accident

On February 10, the Iridium 33 and Cosmos 2251 communications satellites collided over northern Siberia, at approximately 1656 GMT. The impact between the Iridium Satellite LLC-owned satellite and the 16-year-old defunct Russian military satellite occurred at a closing speed of well over 15,000 mph, 490 miles above the face of the Earth.br/br/[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GpsWorld-LatestNews/~4/538336450" height="1" width="1"/

Magellan Seeks Growth in the Great White North

Magellan is looking to the Canadian market for growth. The company announced today it has teamed with ReSource Group Canada, a sales and marketing firm, to strengthen and expand the sat nav provider's sales support to retailers and distributors across Canada.

IGS Ponders the Implications of a Multiple GNSS World

What does the rise of European GNSS Galileo, along with other systems coming online, such as China's Beidou, mean for GNSS users? The International GNSS Service (IGS) is considering that very question, and anybody interested in the future use of GNSS for observing for high-accuracy applications will want to review its white paper on the subject.

glympse goes live on Android

Glympse is a service that lets you share your location for a specified amount of time from an instant, to 2 minutes, or to a few hours. It really is a good alternative to those short phone conversations updating multiple people where you are and even easier than texting. What you do with glympse is either “send” or “receive” one. The good part is the receiver never has to install any applications - they just need to click on a URL sent out by the service. Being constantly watched is a scary idea but the timer function of glympse should give you a bit of a peace of mind knowing any glympse you sent will eventually expire.

Currently it only works on Android - mainly T-Mobile’s G1.

The video is pretty good:

Brought to you by your GPS navigation site GPS.

Tracy and Matt’s huge Christmas giveaway

Check out this Christmas competition combining some swish prizes from the top UK mobile websites including Clove. Our pals over at www.tracyandmatt.co.uk have combined a number of impressive treats and it’s very much worth your while to enter as there are enough prizes to give you a decent chance. Up for grabs are an Xbox 360, HTC Diamond2, HTC Tattoo and several other goodies.

Check out how to enter at Tracy and Matt.

Technorati Tags: www.tracyandmatt.co.uk,expansys,Clove,devicewire,orange,superetrader,HTC

GPSDO Frequency Standard

Fury is a 10 MHz GPS disciplined oscillator (GPSDO) that requires no calibration, delivers higher stability than typical rubidium clock references, and meets the requirements of a Stratum 1 frequency standard.

SiRF and CSR to Merge

SiRF Technology Holdings, Inc., based in San Jose, California, and CSR plc, formerly Cambridge Silicon Radio, headquartered in of the UK will merge in a stock-for-stock transaction to create a new company, which will automatically assume a leading position in global connectivity and location markets. The companies expect the transaction to close in the second quarter of 2009.br/br/[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GpsWorld-LatestNews/~4/536629848" height="1" width="1"/

U&C Insights — November 2007

EU's eCall System Gains Speed Implementing an accident-triggered call system that comprises every new vehicle in the European Union is an impressive goal-but it depends on successfully instituting 112 as the EU's universal emergency number.

PNT Advisory Board Meeting Highlights

This article presents selective passages from the just-published minutes of the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Advisory Board, Third Meeting, Washington, D.C., March 27-28, 2008. Most presentations have been abridged, and many of the ensuing discussions among the Board members have been shortened or eliminated in this rundown. Thus, many items of critical interest have been passed over in the name of brevity. Interested readers are encouraged to peruse the full meeting minutes posted at www.pnt.gov.

Topcon GRS-1

If you need up to 1cm accuracy from a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) Topcon GRS-1 is for you. This is a GPS network rover receiver, and the small, lightweight form factor combined with a relatively small price tag makes it quite attractive. It has DGPS capability with a regular L1 antenna for GIS and navigation and a the PGA-1 external antenna for your local GNSS network. The GRS-1 uses Windows Mobile 6.1 OS, has a 3.7 inch, touch screen display and a rugged construction that can stand a one meter drop.

Other features of the Topcon GRS-1 also include SD memory card slot, optional internal GSM or CDMA modem, built-in 2 MP camera, internal magnetic compass and wireless connectivity via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technology.

Brought to you by your GPS navigation

HKC Mopad 8E

What we’re looking at here is the new HKC Mopad 8E. It looks a like sexy device with attractive curves that remind us of another highly popular device :)

Mopad 8E specializes with its ability to receive digital TV channels (DVB-H). But that’s not why we’re talking abou it here at Navigadget. HKC Mopad 8E also integrates an GPS receiver for navigation - but like most other device from far east we don’t have any clue about the software that works with this GPS receiver.

We do know all the other specs though:

• 3.2″ touch screen
• 8GB memory
• 624MHz CPU
• 1150mAh battery
• 128MB RAM
• 3MP camera

Oh, and that button like thing near the bottom between the green and red keys is a fingerprint scanner.via

Brought to you by your GPS navigation site NaviGadget.

Enfora's GPS/GPRS-Based Spider AT Crawls Forth

Enfora has rolled out its Spider AT asset monitoring and management platform, a combination GPS- and GSM/GPRS-based low-power system, according to the company.

Navigon on Android

Navigon will be announcing their GPS navigation system software for the Android platform in August – Navigon MobileNavigator 7.

A 30 day trial version will be available for free which will even include speed limit warnings, and POIs along the way. There will also be a pedestrian version of the GPS navigation system included in this trial version.

You may find a restaurant through the recommendations of the social network Skobbler, and can also save rating and even send them directly to the communication tool Twitter.

Navigon MobileNavigator 7 for Android will be completely over the air. The maps are stored on a server and routes are also calculated by the server and then downloaded to your device. Of course you’re strongly advised to have a high speed data service on your phone before anything else.

This will be the first time for Navigon to offer such GPS navigation platform over the air. Navigon will be competing with the U.S. publisher ALK which already sells its navigation software CoPilot Live 8 for Android smartphones. Navigon MobileNavigator for Android goes on sale in August for 69 € with regional maps and for 99 € for the complete European version…

via

Brought to you by your GPS navigation site NaviGadget.

Navigon on Android

Spirent's GSS800 Adds QZSS Signal Support

Spirent Communications plc has officially announced that its GNSS RF signal simulator, the GSS800, now supports the Japanese Quasi Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), in addition to GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, and satellite-based augmentation systems.

Vodafone’s twitter exploits

  With O2 customers receiving free SMS alerts from Twitter, it’s understandable that Vodafone wants to offer a perk for Twitter users. We’re not sure that the "first interactive real time top 40 for music lovers" is the way forward, however.

Vodafone commissioned developer Ben Marsh to "create a live top 40 chart of what people are listening to on Twitter, to promote the Vodafone Music store", he wrote on his blog. Using the #RealTimeTop40 hashtag, Twitter users can enter the artist and song they’re listening to and then check out www.realtimetop40.com to view what the most listened-to songs are right now.

It’s not exclusive to Vodafone customers, however if you want to purchase one of the songs currently riding high on the chart, you’ll have to be a paid-up customer to do so.

If Vodafone created an app for mobile phones we can see more use out of this scheme, but for now it’s just another way for Twitter users to pat themselves on the back that they all have such terrific musical taste. If Patrick Swayze’s ‘She’s Like The Wind’ can be considered taste.

Link: Real Time Top 40

[Source T3]

GIS

U&C Insights — August 2007

In June I wrote about telecom ignoring vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to- infrastructure communication efforts. Of course, as the winds of fate have my name and Social Security Number, one company made an interesting announcement just as my finger left the Send button. OKI Electric of Japan is starting trials of the first Dedicated Short-Range Communication (DSRC)-equipped cell phone that communicates automated warnings between vehicles and pedestrians.

Continental Automotive Control Unit Uses GPS, Sensors

Continental AG's Interior Division has debuted a GPS- and sensor-based concept control unit for passenger cars that supplies data such as road topography and curvature, as well as location, speed, and other information continuously to a vehicle's control systems.

Getac's Rugged GPS Comes with Camera, Altimeter, E-compass

MiTAC's new Getac PS535F GPS has an autofocus camera, altimeter, and E-compass. Its features are designed so field-based employees can capture field data on site and transmit data back to headquarters in real-time, as well as provide pinpoint navigation support to improve location-based productivity.img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/GpsUtilitiesCommunications/~4/YLmQz1n_n4I" height="1" width="1"/

Out in Front: Raise a Red Flag

Young GNSS scientists and graduate students from Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, China, and Myanmar who attended the International Symposium on GPS/GNSS 2008 impressed me with their enthusiasm, energy, creativity, and, well, youth. Satellite navigation has a very bright future in the Far East.br/br/[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/GpsWorld-LatestNews/~4/8N_-Mckbvfg" height="1" width="1"/

Samsung’s first Android™ smartphone (i7500) now on sale with O2

 

Samsung Mobile UK today announces that its Galaxy handset (i7500) is now available on the O2 network in the UK through O2 stores, o2.co.uk and O2’s telesales team. The Samsung Galaxy is the company’s first device powered by Android, giving customers instant access to familiar applications, as well as access to a range of ever-expanding services being developed for the Android platform.

“The Samsung Galaxy is one of the most innovative and high-quality Android-powered devices on the market. We’ve built in all the features people have come to expect from high-end Samsung devices, like the AMOLED screen and fast processing power, to provide a great user experience,” said Mark Mitchinson, VP, Samsung Mobile UK. “We’re fortunate to have the technical ability at Samsung to support a variety of operating systems and demonstrate real leadership in developing the technologies that customers want and understand.’

“O2 has become the home of smartphones and launching our first Android-powered phone with Samsung is a key part of this,” said Steve Alder, General Manager Devices, Telefónica Europe. “What I love about the Samsung Galaxy is the great user experience and the fantastic range of apps it brings to even more customers.”

Whatever your lifestyle, there will be an Android application for you and with its large memory, you can personalise your Samsung Galaxy with as many apps as you desire. Go directly to the Android Market on your Samsung Galaxy i7500 and download for free, a variety of unique apps (you will need to have a Google™Account in order to access the market).

• Shop Savvy – allows you to scan barcodes in store with your device and search online for the best prices
• Lightsaber – a fun application that means you can play lightsabers with friends
• Paceman – anyone can play this traditional arcade which is making a cult comeback

The familiar Google services on the PC are ready and waiting on the Samsung Galaxy including: Google Search™ Google Maps™, Gmail™, Google Talk™.  It also has an integrated GPS receiver meaning you can make full use of Google Maps to guide you in the car or on foot. 
As well as the world of applications, the internet really comes to life through the Samsung Galaxy’s 3.2inch AMOLED screen; watch great quality videos from You Tube, surf the web with the super-fast browser or view pictures you’ve taken with its 5 mega-pixel camera.

A device as powerful as this needs a long battery life and memory capacity so it can be enjoyed fully and the Samsung Galaxy doesn’t disappoint. Capable of storing up to 40GB of memory (8GB internal memory, external up to 32GB), this smartphone packs a lot into its slim, compact design (115 x 56 x 11.9mm).

The Samsung Galaxy (i7500) is available in the UK on O2 exclusively for 4 weeks from Monday 31st August 2009 and is free on a £45 per month tariff.

Operating System

Android™ OS

Chipset

Qualcomm: 7200A, ARM11 528MHz + DSP 256MHz

Camera

5MP AF + Power LED

Display Resolution/ Size

3.2’’ HVGA (320 x 480) AMOLED

3G Bearer and Band

2G Bearer and Band

HSDPA 7.2Mbps / HSUPA 5.76Mbps (900 / 1700/ 2100MHz)
EDGE / GPRS (850/ 900/1800/1900)

Connectivity

Bluetooth® 2.0, USB 2.0, WiFi, MicroUSB, 3.5mm ear jack

GPS

Yes

Radio

No

Video / Audio

Video: MPEG4, H.263, H.264, WMV
Audio: MP3, AAC, AAC+, e-AAC+, WMA, RA

Memory

Internal memory: 8GB
External memory: Micro SD (Up to 32GB)

Additional Applications

Browser, Google apps, Android market

Talk / standby time

1500mAh

Dimensions

115 x 56 x 11.9mm

news gadgets

CES: TomTom Debuts Connected PND for North America

Undaunted by the so-far lackluster market for connected portable navigation devices (PNDs), Netherlands-based TomTom unveiled a connected device for the North American market at the Consumer Electronics Show, promising a Q2 introduction for the $499 Go 740 Live.[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

u-blox Endorses Publishing of Schematics by Openmoko

Openmoko, maker of open-source mobile products, has taken another step in opening its mobile platform to the development community by announcing it will publish the schematics for the Neo 1973 and Neo FreeRunner mobile phones.

T-Mobile Pulse

Yay for more Android powered T-Mobile phones. This one is called T-Mobile and is only going to be available for the European market. It is actually a rebranded version of Huawei’s U8220.

T-Mobile Pulse will feature a 3.5″ screen, 3.2MP camera, 3G connection, bluetooth, WiFi, and of course GPS. It will have a microSD card slot, front facing camera, and a super slim body measuring only 13.5mm.

Not sure how much Pulse will cost.

via

Brought to you by your GPS navigation site NaviGadget.

T-Mobile Pulse

smallest GPS receiver ever

Epson and Infinion’s XPOSYS PMB 2540 chip is world’s smallest A-GPS receiver ever. Unless that’s a giant match we can see this fitting into every gadget that you carry.

XPOSYS PMB 2540 only measures 2.8×2.9 mm and will be mass produced starting late this year and will consume only half as much power as other A-GPS receivers… Yay? How do you feel about this? via

Brought to you by your GPS navigation site NaviGadget.

Nexus One Rises from the Ashes… As a Developer Phone

After Google killed the Nexus One commercially last month, there was great mourning amongst the geek community. But now Google has pumped life back into the Nexus One, by selling it as the official Google developer phone, which succeeds the previous developer phone which was the Google Ion. Apparently it is unchanged from the dead consumer model, but Google says that you will need to upgrade to 2.2 when you receive the phone, as it only comes with 2.1. To get the Nexus One, you first need to become an official Google developer, then pay $529 (about £333)  then get it shipped from the states. However, you are going stuck with T-Mobile, as it is carrier locked them.

Source

Sony Xperia X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro Rooted

The good people over at XDA-Developers have rooted the smallest android phones on the market, the Sony Ericsson X10 Mini and the X10 Mini Pro. Apparently it only takes a couple of clicks and a few minutes to root the X10 mini and the X10 mini Pro. Instructions for how to root are in the link below.

Source

GPS Satellite PRN25 Decommissioned

GPS SATELLITE SVN25 (PRN25) WILL BE UNUSABLE ON JDAY 352 (18 DEC 2009) BEGINNING 1522 ZULU UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.

Indian Geospatial Market Report 2009 Released

The third edition of the Indian Geospatial Market Report, an attempt to gauge the health of the geospatial industry in India, has been released in New Delhi by Union Minister of Science & Technology and Earth Sciences Shri Prithviraj Chavan.