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.