Filed under: GPS

RoadRover, RoadRover — send some GPS right over! This Chinese navigation company has just released the ENV1200, a new navigation device that comes in a sporty (and Commie) red color. It’s got some pretty good hardware too, with a 400MHz processor, 128MB of NAND flash memory, and 64MB of RAM. Further, it’ll keep you headed in the right direction with its P30 GPS receiver, which apparently is very similar to the SiRF Star III that we’ve come to know and love, says Navigadget. As you’d expect, the ENV1200 plays the normal host of media files, including AVI, MPEG, WMV, MPEG-1/2/4, WAV, MP3 and WMA as well as the standard still formats. However, a new feature that seems pretty simple to add, given that its running Windows CE 5.0, is the ability to display text files, PDFs, and even Microsoft Office documents. And finally, as expected, all the maps come loaded up on a 1GB SD card. Despite the fact that the specs appear to be more or less standard, there are a couple aspects of this that we’re a bit confused about. First, Navigadget reports this device will not be available in North America or Europe for the time being, although the map on the screen clearly shows the eastern part of Romania and the northern part of Bulgaria. Second, the site also says that the ENV1200 comes in a trio of colors: silver, grey (are those two really all that different?), or black — but makes no mention of the red that’s pretty obvious in the press photo. Once we find out what’s going on here, including the ENV1200′s price, we’ll let you know.

[Via Navigadget]

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: GPS

Earlier this week we told you about a $300 GPS nav unit, and while that was among the least expensive GPS devices that we’d seen until that point, we just spied one that dropped the price a little bit more. Meet the PVST-SPN350 Phillar Vision Navigator, an inauspicious device that gets rolling with a 276MHz processor, 32MB of ROM, 64MB of RAM, a 3.5-inch screen (320 x 240), and an SD/MMC card slot. Apparently it doesn’t come with the ability to play audio and video files (you gotta pay extra for that), which may be part of the reason that the Vision Navigator appeals to the spendthrift set; the whole unit will set you back a pair of Baroque bridges (that’s €200, or $256).

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: GPS

We last spotted Averatec‘s first GPS device this past summer, the Voya 350, and this week, the California-based company just released its update to the line: the Voya 320 navigation device. It seems to offer many of the same features that we saw in the previous model, including the same chip (Samsung 300MHz), the same amount of RAM (64MB), the same screen size and resolution (3.5-inch, 320 x 240), and same memory card slot (SD/MMC). However, the Voya 320 has a smaller battery life (two hours instead of four) and also has brought the price down to $300. Is an extra two hours of battery life worth $100? That’s for you to decide.

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: GPS

As if Mio didn’t already have enough options for snatching your GPS dollar British pound, it’s now introducing the decently-featured C250 navigation device to keep things interesting. Along with that 3.5-inch touchscreen, the device features full UK maps, major European roads, speed camera locations and free traffic alerts. The device is based on a 400MHz CPU, 64MB of RAM and a SiRF Star III chipset, and can manage MP3 playback in a pinch, but seems to be mainly suited for its primary purpose. The best news is the price: at £170 ($324 US) it comes in underneath many similarly specced devices, and should be available for stuffing some stockings this holiday season.

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: GPS, Transportation

Everyone who’s ever been stuck in traffic always would love to know exactly what the road conditions are like. Sure there’s those news radio stations that interrupt every three minutes to tell you how the freeway you’re on is totally backed up, but those often don’t tell you how to route yourself around the problem. TomTom and Vodafone have just partnered to create a new type of commercial traffic data system based on thousands of mobile phones that will describe traffic conditions in real-time. The idea is that by using the regular signaling information between the handset and the base station, the location and speed of the handset can be determined at any given time. Combine that information across a region among thousands of drivers who become data points, and a picture emerges of how backed a given freeway really is — enabling TomTom to provide detours much more quickly than previously possible. The program is set to be launched in the Netherlands in the second half of 2007 — so for all you folks who commute into the Dutch metropolises of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht, you may want to renew your Vodafone subscription pronto.

[Via Reg Hardware]

 

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Filed under: GPS, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Here’s a bit of a head scratcher: BRAINic’s new JUCTOMA DMB and navigation unit features a single core unit that can be swapped between a 7-inch and 4.3-inch screen. We’re sure it costs an arm and a leg for that much touchscreen action, but the upshot is that you can keep the 7-inch version in your car, and slap the core module into your 4.3-inch screen for portable use. Of course, this being Korean, the JUCTOMA doesn’t skimp on other deets just because of its crazy setup: there’s Windows CE 5.0, SiRF Star III GPS, MP3, WMA, DivX, AVI, ASF, WMF, JPG and BMP playback, 128MB of RAM, 2GB of NAND and 32MB of NOR. The 4.3-inch device hits 0.95-inches in thickness, while the 7-incher hits right around 1-inch thick. No word on SD, but perhaps that’s pushing things a bit.

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Remember that Apple patent that we eyed back in early September? You know, the one that patented the merging of various electronic devices into a single gadget? Well, it’s back and better than ever before — it’s an update to U.S. patent application Serial No. 11/367,749, and is entitled “Multi-Functional Hand-Held Device.” So how’s this patent different from the last time? It’s not, really, but it provides a fair bit more detail written in that cryptic legalistic prose that we’ve come to know and love; it describes and displays the new interface, which may include various triggers along the edge of the bezel: “By way of example, the visual guides 180 in FIG. 4 include ‘Menu,’ ‘Power,’ ‘Left,’ ‘Select,’ ‘Right,’ etc. It will be appreciated that the visual guides 180 and their arrangement depicted in FIG. 4 are only exemplary. More or fewer visual guides 180 may be provided, and the size of the visual guides 180 can be larger or smaller than the scale depicted in FIG. 4.” Further, there’s a new portrait and landscape option described, handy for viewing photos or watching episodes of “Lost” while on the bus. But even the music-playing core of the iPod will get a makeover, coming in with an on-screen time slider, volume control, and other options that seem to be user-defined and customizable. We’ve still got questions as we did last time concerning prior art, but perhaps these newer details fill in the gaps. All in all, it would appear that the true video iPod (with possible cell phone or GPS add-ons) is still on the drawing board at this point, and it remains to be seen how these illustrations translate into reality. We’ve got some more patent diagrams of that portrait/landscape view and of the new “now playing” interface on the flip side, hot off the patent filing presses.

[Via MacNN]

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Filed under: GPS, Transportation

Yeah, we love GPS around here as much as the next guy, but it really doesn’t impress our lady friends too much when our mellifluous prose gets interrupted by Cro Magnon-like gestures while we have to ask for directions on our nav units. We’d much prefer to use a phrase like “Find me a hotel in Paris in the seizième arrondissement, play Serge Gainsbourg’s ‘Je t’aime‘ and adjust for mood lighting — s’il te plaît” and have our ride respond instantly. Well, save for that last request, apparently plain English queries (or 13 other languges) to a GPS stystem are now possible thanks to software by IBM built onto Pioneer’s new AVIC-HD1BT nav unit. It’s loaded up with a 30GB hard drive (20GB for maps and the rest for music), a DVD player and an iPod connection of some sort. Although Pioneer claims that the AVIC-HD1BT is for the European-only non-”luxury car market” driver (sorry, us Lexus-driving Yankees will have to suffer), it still doesn’t come cheap: €2,500 ($3,145).

[Via IDG News Service]

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Filed under: GPS, Portable Audio, Portable Video

You know how we love those Korean GPS/PMP/DMB combo units we’re never going to get our hands on, and at the rate they keep on coming down the pipe, it looks like we’ll be able to safely feed our addiction ’till we get caught up to them over here. One of the latest is this Muto i7 unit, running Windows CE and packing an increasingly-standard 7-inch screen, with an SD slot for expansion, as well as a remote control to enjoy some DMB TV from a distance. No word on specific details on the GPS front, though it promises 3D graphics with “iconic 3D buildings and structures.” There’s also no word on price or availability, of course, though we’re guessing if you don’t exchange in won, you don’t need to know.

 

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Filed under: GPS

We should start off by saying that growing and selling marijuana for a living isn’t the best idea — besides being illegal, it doesn’t look very good on your resumé, and the lack of a 401k option is detrimental to your retirement plans. And if you’re absolutely dead set on a career in chronic cultivation, driving around with 18 pounds of the stuff in your trunk is something that you’d want to avoid. But a gentleman in Racine, Wisconsin named Dean Brown must be far dimmer than the average dope grower, because not only was he caught with a car full of freshly-harvested wacky tobacky, he was actually stupid enough to have stored the coordinates of all his grow sites in a portable GPS receiver hanging around his neck. After sheriff’s deputies discovered the huge stash in Brown’s car, they proceeded to plug all of the locations from the nav unit into Google Earth, giving them a handy map that has led to four separate plots of pot so far. As a repeat drug offender, Brown faces up to 59 years in prison and a steep fine for his latest brush with law, although there’s slight chance that he’ll get off if the arresting officers are unable to pull themselves away from their marathon screening session of “The Wizard of Oz” synced up to Pink Floyd’s “The Wall.”

[Via 27B Stroke 6]

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Filed under: GPS, Handhelds

Besides being quite a handy portal to the internet while you’re out and about, Nokia’s 770 Internet Tablet is about to acquire some navigation functionality as well, thanks to an upcoming hardware and software suite from Navicore. Called the Nokia Navigation Kit, this bundle will include the Navicore Personal 2007 software, an unspecified Bluetooth GPS receiver, and a car-mount rig, priced at €199; for the equivalent of $248, you’re getting TeleAtlas- and Navteq-based maps of continental Europe and the UK, although if you live elsewhere in the world (like we do), you’ll have to shell for additional street-level map packs. Since Navicore’s software will also run in UIQ 3, it can presumably be used on other S60- and S80-powered devices to boot. Not content with giving love to just Nokia owners, Navicore has also released a Bluetooth receiver that will work with any smartphone or laptop equipped with the proper software, giving you the power of SiRFstar III in a 30-gram package. You can check out the diminutive receiver after the break, although since it’s really just a rebadge of Holux’s GPSlim 240, there’s a good chance that you’ve seen it before…

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Filed under: GPS, Portable Audio, Portable Video

As if we needed another Europe-only GPS device that brings nothing new to the table, Adapt is busting out their all-in-one navigation system which sports a few PMP features and an SD slot, but looks just as bulky as the rest of the similarly-specced devices on the market — with a particular TomTom Go flavor. The 279 Euro ($354 US) unit sports a 3.5-inch touchscreen display, and is powered by a 400MHz processor from Samsung, along with that ubiquitos SiRF Star III chip and software courtesy of Route 66. There’s 64MB of built-in storage, and some sort of music / photo / movie/ eBook playback ability, but we’re not sure about formats or codecs. No word on the release date for this little guy either, but we’re sure it and five other West Europe-only units will make it to market in the time it takes us to get a single one onto our lowly shores.

 

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SPONSORED BY: BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time.

Filed under: GPS, Handhelds

It’s been a little while since we’ve heard much about Fujitsu-Siemen’s lightweight Pocket Loox N100 GPS/PDA combo, but thankfully the folks at Lordpercy.com have come through and quenched our curiosity with a fairly thorough review of the device. The N100′s vitals, if you need a refresher, include Windows CE 5.0 Core Version as the OS, a 2.8-inch TFT, 300MHz processor, SiRFstar III chipset, 64MB RAM, and an included 1GB microSD card — all in a slight 2.4 x 3.5 x 0.6-inch package weighing just under four ounces. As for how it all comes together, Lordpercy came away mightily impressed with the device, praising its slimline design and, most importantly, its accurate GPS system, which managed to guide them through the streets of London without any trouble. They were also digging its capable audio player — with support for MP3, WMA and AAC files — along with the unit’s decent battery life, which clocked in at just around four hours. For those less concerned with productivity, you’ll be please to know that the Loox also comes pre-loaded with versions of Pac-Man and other retro games — which we’re sure will be the tipping point for more than a few of you.

 

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SPONSORED BY: BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time.

Filed under: Transportation

Wouldn’t it be great if your car could actually read information to you? We’re not just talking about reciting driving directions (that’s so 2001), but rather an audio version of RSS feeds, specifically Yahoo Japan, Sony’s So-net “lifestyle blog” and Nissan‘s travel guide blog. (C’mon Nissan, no love for Engadget Japanese?) It appears that this new addition to the Carwings system, which already provides ho-hum GPS navigation will also pack a 30GB hard drive so you can rock out to Pizzicato Five if you get bored of that mechanical voice. If you attend the Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies (October 3 – 7) to be held at the Makuhari Messe in Chiba, you can check out the updated Carwings system — if you do, be sure to let us know how distracting the synthetic voice is while zooming down the road.

[Via TechNews]

 

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SPONSORED BY: BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time.

Filed under: GPS, Handhelds

The folks at LAPTOP Magazine have come out with some pretty high praise for HP’s iPAQ rx5900 Travel Companion (a slight variation of the rx5915), calling it the best GPS/PDA hybrid yet and bestowing its Editors’ Choice award on the shiny little handheld. The iPAQ scored the most points for its top-end navigation software, courtesy of TomTom, which they say worked like a charm in conjunction with the SiRFstar III antenna. And, being based on Windows Mobile 5.0, the iPAQ also provided all the PDA functionality you’d expect from a regular handheld, with built-in WiFi and Bluetooth to round out the connectivity options. The biggest downside, not surprisingly, is that the battery will run down pretty quickly when you have the GPS turned on, lasting just 90 minutes with the backlight on as well. Although it does come with a car dock and charger, which will come in handy if you don’t want to have to worry about getting stranded on your next cross-country trip.

 

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SPONSORED BY: BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time.

Filed under: GPS

Ok GPS fans, we’re prepping you early for what could be a moment of pretty severe inconvenience in the not so distant future. Brace yourself, because in roughly five to six years, your beloved handheld devices won’t work for several hours due to solar flare activity (sound familiar?). According to new Cornell University research, solar flares negatively affect GPS devices, based on observations of stellar phenomena in September of last year. In 2011 or 2012, when the sun reaches its next solar maximum, scientists expect it to cause a 90 percent GPS signal drop for several hours. While most of us will walk around, oblivious to these space fireworks, Alessandro Cerruti (pictured on the left), a Cornell graduate student who studies solar flare effects, envisions this horrific day as a “nightmare situation,” given that all planes will likely have GPS signaling by that time. However, given these harbingers of doom, Dr. Paul Kinter (pictured on the right), Cerruti’s advisor, has a brilliant solution: “I think the best remedy is to be aware of the problem and operate GPS systems with the knowledge that they may fail during a solar flare.” See, it’s just that easy, people.

 

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SPONSORED BY: BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time.

Filed under: GPS

Magellan is taking things to the low-end with their new RoadMate 2000 series, but the new portable GPS units aren’t without frills. The base-model RoadMate 2000 brings the SiRF Star III action for a mere $400. At 7.9 ounces and 1.1-inches thick, the device sports a 3.5-inch display and includes SmartDetour re-routing, along with battery power for use when traveling on foot. Another hundie will get you the RoadMate 2200T, which can handle extra info via SD memory, along with real-time traffic, points of interest, text-to-speech directions, MP3 playback and photo viewing. The unit purports to have an eight hour batter life, and can wear an optional “Sports Guard” jacket for impact and water resistance. At $550 the RoadMate 2500T features the “CrossoverGPS” capabilities available to the 2200T via SD card expansion, allowing for all sorts of off-road and backpacking exploration fun. The unit also comes with the Sports Guard sleeve for extra rough-and-tumble action. The three GPS units should be available in North America this September, October and December respectively.

[Via gps tracklog]

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Filed under: Handhelds, Home Entertainment

You know, there are all kinds of people in the military these days. And we just know that the geekiest of our armed forces are going to go gaga over this new UMPC, called the Catcher. This new rugged, superportable computer has 802.11a/b/g support, Bluetooth, dual-mode CDMA / GSM data, fingerprint reader, GPS, iris scan, a pair of VGA cameras (one pointing toward the user, and one away), and an “emergency alert feature” that sends an auto tracking signal back to the server. The Catcher is also designed to support a three foot drop and up to 50 Gs of shock — slightly better than our consumer-grade laptops, hey? We’ve got zero intel on price or availability, but surely Uncle Sam spares no expense for our elite fighting force. And we’re sure that our men and women in uniform running around Saddam’s former palaces are going to want something like the new application Lifeware to control audio and video systems that they surely have spread throughout the house. Lifeware promises to control everything from temperature to audio controls, but no word on if our soldiers will be able to run military applications, control their in-base audio systems, and play solitare all on the same device, which would clearly be the holy grail in convergence.

[Via jkOnTheRun and eHomeUpgrade]

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Filed under: GPS

At the rate that these newfangled car technologies trickle down, we’ll finally be able to afford one of these traffic thingamajiggies on our measly salaries perhaps around the next World Cup. Today, BMW announced that it would be including Real Time Traffic Information on select 2007 models, including the 3-, 4-, and 6-series models, and on the X5, M5 and M6. That means that for the first time in the US (or so the company claims), drivers will be able to dynamically reroute their way home based on traffic data provided by Clear Channel’s Total Traffic Network to 44 major American cities, including Atlanta, Chicago, and Orlando. If you already have BMW’s navigation system in your ride, this additional service will be free to you for the next four years.

[Via Autoblog]

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Filed under: Cellphones, GPS, Handhelds

All four of these phones have had their fair share of leaks, but now HTC is ready to fess up and assign some names to their Q4 lineup of phones, which is all set to bust up on Europe this fall. Starting from the left we’ve got the S3300, codenamed Artemis, which is due for an October launch, and features TomTom software to power the GPS action, along with a 2.8-inch screen and a snazzy new “RollRTM” trackball / track wheel. The P3600 (aka Trinity) picks up where the Prophet and Magician left off with a bit of bulk, some cute looks, but sadly no QWERTY action. The phone does, however, manage HSDPA speeds and a 2 megapixel camera, so it won’t be all tears when this thing drops in September. Next we have the Q-killin’ “Excalibur” S620, which measures a mere 0.5-inches thick, weighs 4.6 ounces, and manages that lovable QWERTY keyboard and 2.4-inch screen. The phone, due for an October launch, will also come with quad band GPRS/EDGE (3G is conspicuously absent), WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity. Finally, HTC’s S310 “Oxygen” candybar isn’t anything too terribly interesting, but it’s a nice new look for HTC candybar fans who found the HTC Breeze to be a bit too squarish. The S310 should be out this September. Possibly the best news among all this action is that it seems HTC has decided to abandon the frightening naming convention they adopted for the “TyTN” and “MTeoR.” That was a slippery slope if we ever saw one. The worst news is, of course, HTC is only self-branding these phones in Europe right now, and will be letting US carriers adulterate these phones with garish branding and spec drops before we ever get a chance at ‘em. Oh well, such is life. Keep reading for entirely-too-large pr0n of all four phones at their shiniest.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Filed under: GPS, Wearables

Apparently, keeping your pet indoors or ponying up for a fenced in a yard just isn’t in style anymore, as the RoamEO GPS tracking system for pets joins the crowd of other locating devices, texting adornments, and inflatable collars that folks seem to prefer over the more traditional methods. This particular setup is geared to work on all roaming pets, but certainly has its limitations. While the GPS-enabled collar sends the exact location, movements, and velocity to your handheld tracking unit, your pet still turns MIA if it wanders more than a mile away. If you’re fairly certain Fido isn’t apt to stray all that far, you can setup a GPS fence that will send audible alerts if that perimeter is breached. This seems to be a decent system for multi-pet owners who have a tough time keeping things on a leash, as you can maintain a keen eye on three creatures simultaneously — but it’ll cost you $459 for the first one, and $149 for each additional collar.

[Via The Raw Feed]

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Filed under: GPS

Just two days ago we teased you with pictures, and so to celebrate September we’ve got the full info on the nouveau nüvi 660. It’s got a 4.3-inch screen, an FM transmitter, and Bluetooth support. The 660 also includes an “integrated traffic receiver” to avoid congestion and road construction, give the driver advance voice notification of upcoming hazards, and appropriately route around it. In the US, this Total Traffic Network is included free for three months, and then will cost $60 for 15 months of service. The FM transmitter will play MP3s and phone calls over the car speakers connected via Bluetooth. In Europe, where the FM transmitter is not available, nüviheads can purchase the nüvi 610 (one of nine regional maps), or buy full European mapping with the 660. The North American version of the 660 comes with complete maps of the US, Canada and Puerto Rico, and, as always, one can load up updated maps and other media via the USB port or SD card slot. Expect it to hit U.S. retailers later this month with an MSRP of $1076.91 — but we have no idea how they came up with such a precise figure.

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Filed under: GPS, Handhelds, Portable Audio, Portable Video

We’re a bit miffed that Maxtek chose to go soft on one of the three pillars of Korean gadgetry: PMP playback, but their new MNT-4300DMB device has plenty to love all the same. First off, there’s a 4.3-inch touchscreen, which can handle picture-in-picture just in case the GPS isn’t enough of a reason to keep your eyes off the road. Navigation is powered by a SiRF III GPS module, and TV is of the T-DMB variety. The device can also handle MP3s and photos with its unmentioned amount of storage, but there doesn’t seem to be any PMP functionality in sight. Not too terrible for 349,000 won ($363 US), but if PMP is your thing there will always be plenty of other choices.

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Filed under: Gaming, GPS

You’re probably getting pretty sick of toting around all those cables, adapters, and antennae required by the GPSP mod to get sat nav functionality on your PSP, so you’ll be happy to know that Sony’s official GPS add-on for its portable console has just been spotted in the wild. We’ve already seen pics (albeit crappy ones) of the wayfinding peripheral, but now we’ve got proof that it exists somewhere besides on a PowerPoint slide. Unfortunately there’s really not much to see here (it’s a little gadget sticking out of another gadget — wow), and we’ve got no new info regarding functionality, pricing, or release dates. Still, when we come across something that we think you’d be interested in, we write a post about it — that’s how we do things around here. Sharing is caring, right?

[Via DigitalBattle, thanks Tom]

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Filed under: GPS

Ryan Caron over at Defense Tech has some hefty analysis on China’s plans for their very own satellite navigation system, named Compass. No one is really clear what China’s intentions for the system are, with rumors ranging from a minor upgrade to their regional Beidou system, to a full-on competitor to USA’s GPS and Europe’s Galileo. So far the most solid step China has taken towards actually building the system is an order of 18-20 rubidium atomic clocks that are necessary for syncing up satellites, but which have many other military uses. Ryan theorizes that China might just be bluffing about building a system of their own, in a bid to regain a piece of the Galileo pie, which they, along with all other non-European countries, have been unceremoniously written out of starting next year. More alarmingly, a global satnav system run by China would have the potential to operate as a jammer of US and European signals, another reason the various groups involved are so guarded with their systems. However it plays out, China currently has 32 satellite slots registered with the International Telecommunications Union for Compass, and bluff or not, there’s a lot of potential there.

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