NaviGadget

Samsung M7600

Feb 8, 2009 gps navigation, phones, samsung 1 Comment

Samsung just can’t keep their new phones under cover long enough. Today we heard about the new Samsung M7600. Looks like an high end phone with its large 2.8″ amoled touch screen and its Bang & Olufsen acoustics that you can’t miss. The insides of Samsung M7600 is also high-end; take for example the HSDPA network support, A-GPS receiver, and a 3MP camera with flash. Wish we knew more about GPS supporting applications but we don’t.

We’ll be sure to update once we find out more about the Samsung M7600… Read More …

Helio Ocean 2 does GPS navigation

Feb 3, 2009 gps navigation, phones 4 Comments

Following the success of Helio Ocean; you can now get ready for you Helio Ocean 2. It is expected to go on sale Feb 12th for $150 after a two year contract.

As you’d expect Helio Ocean 2 is slightly slimmer than the original but a big longer. There are a couple of other minor changes such as the material of the keypad and the trimming but that’s all difference you’ll see as far as hardware.

Helio Ocean 2 does have an A-GPS receiver and the Buddy Beacon feature is now standard. Other applications that utilizes the onboard GPS receiver are the Garmin and Google maps that allow you to view maps and get directions. Garmin of course will cost you an extra fee.

It is 3G enabled so you can expect for faster loading maps… Read More …

Helio Mysto

Dec 24, 2007 gps navigation 5 Comments

Helio Mysto (aka Samsung SPH-A523) is finally here and soon will be available with Helio, offering everything from GPS to bluetooth.

For those who are wondering how the service here is in the United States you’d be pleased to know that Helio uses Sprint’s 3G network. If you get Sprint’s 3G network in your area, this phone will work quite well.

The GPS will communicate with Google Maps to give you your initial driving route – but won’t do turn-by-turn directions unless you pay up for Garmin’s service which can be quite costly… Read More …

Helio Fin mini review

Aug 17, 2007 gps navigation, phones, reviews 1 Comment

The highly skilled Helio Fin which we talked about a couple of days ago already got a review from slashgear – which also talks about the GPS capabilities of this phone:

Buddy Beacon

Not much new here, I don’t know very many people with a Helio handset, in fact the list is currently one person long, which says a lot about technology and Indiana as well as about how many friends I have! But it came up, did the update and then started working immediately with MapQuest Maps.

GPS with Google Maps

This app came up easily and started working instantly, it knew right where I was and worked almost exactly like it does on my PC. Once again, this isn’t a really new feature, but it’s still impressive.

Like we mentioned before Helio Fin only costs $175 with a new contract.

Helio Fin works with GPS enabled Google Maps and Garmin Mobile

Aug 15, 2007 gps navigation, phones 3 Comments

Helio just introduced a super slim mobile phone from Samsung called Fin that is already available across retailers and www.helio.com. In addition to a sexy ultra thin blue-black magnesium body Helio Fin also offers 3G content, including MySpace, GPS-enabled Google Maps, YouTube, and much more. With Fin, Helio also debuts Garmin Mobile for voice-guided navigation.

Fin’s capabilities are almost endless including a 3MP camera with 4x zoom, 100MB internal memory, a microSD slot that can support up to 4GB of storage, and a full HTML browser – all of this on a high-speed 3G network. Also you get stereo Bluetooth and support for various audio and video formats including MP3 and AAC audio, and MPEG-4 and H.264 video.

Helio also took advantage of having GPS on board with Fin (unlike other providers who just disable GPS) allowing users to geotag their photos and upload them instantly to sites such as Flickr. What’s new for Helio with Fin is that now they offer Garmin Mobile on this slim phone providing a moving map with turn-by-turn directions in near!! real time. (why not real time? – we’re not sure) For $3 this service can also check weather for driving conditions and find alternate routes in the event of heavy traffic. This sounds quite pricey and probably doesn’t have much to add to free-for-all GPS enabled Google Maps.

Fin costs $175 for new members who are willing to sign a contract and you can expect to pay somewhere between $65 and $120 depending on how many minutes of talk time you’ll need.

Helio Ocean with GPS

Mar 26, 2007 gps navigation, phones 4 Comments

Helio just announced Ocean, a dual slider phone with integrated GPS. What’s dual slider? Slide horizontally and you’ll get the qwerty keyboard, slide vertically and it’ll reveal the numeric keypad. Helio Ocean will be available this Spring for $295. Just like the other GPS-enabled Helio phones we talked about, Ocean also takes full advantage of Google Maps enabling you to get driving directions right there on your phone. No need for extra devices such as bluetooth GPS receivers or any extra software. Just make sure you get the All-In membership so you don’t pay extra for data charges. In addition to driving directions you also have access to local businesses.

Other things you can do with the GPS is geotag your pictures you can take with the on-board 2MP digital camera.

Ocean’s 2.0 megapixel camera will take advantage of Helio UP, which lets users take a picture with their device, tag it with metadata including a title, description, keywords and location information and upload it directly to Helio Album, Helio’s photo service. Helio UP is GPS-enabled, giving users the option of attaching their GPS coordinates to their photos.

Oh, and did we mention you can use microSD cards in your Helio Ocean upto 2GB? And thanks to the dedicated music processor you can enjoy your tunes for 15 hours on a single battery charge.

Helio Heat with GPS enabled Google Maps

Mar 2, 2007 gps navigation, phones Leave a comment

After Drift, Helio just announced Heat – a new GPS enabled phone with support for Google Maps; manufactured by Samsung.

The heat is $75 cheaper than Drift, costing only $150. It is already available at store.

As far as monthly costs; if you go with the all-in plan with say 1000 minutes of talk time it’ll cost you $85 a month. But if you go with a la carte option, for the GPS enabled Google Maps you’ll pay .2 cents per KB, and this costs $60 for the same amount of talk time.

Here are some specs and features:

• Form Factor – Slide with Electrostatic Touchpad
• Color – Onyx Black and Gold
• Dimensions – 3.6″ (H) x 1. 8″ (W) x 0.6″ (D) (91.4 x 45.7 x 15.2 mm)
• Weight – 3.17 oz (90g)
• Display – 1.99-inch QVGA display, 262K colors, 240 x 320 pixels
• 3G Speed – EV-DO network support for fast multimedia downloads
• Memory – 136MB internal with USB Storage Mode
• Camera – 1.3 Megapixel, 4x digital zoom, built-in flash
• Video Camera – MPEG-4 video recording
• Audio – Stereo Bluetooth wireless technology
• Personal Entertainment Center – Supports: MP3, MPEG-4, VOD, MMS
• Supports Helio Music
• GPS-enabled services and applications
• Built-in Photo Studio
• USB Mass Storage mode
• Photo caller ID

TomTom’s working on a new GO with SIM card

Feb 21, 2007 gps navigation, tomtom 1 Comment

According to some rumors pocketinfo.nl heard, TomTom is working on a new TomTom GO device that can hold a M2M (Machine 2 Machine) SIM card (like the ones soda machines use to communicate inventory). In addition they picked up that TomTom is talking to various Telecom operators to start a TomTom branded MVNO* in Europe. According to rumors, TomTom wants to cover all of Europe and thus has to make (roaming) deals with operators in all European countries. This is something that has not been done before. Almost every MVNO is only locally (country) based and does not cross the borders of that country.

The new TomTom GO devices with SIM slots will probably not be used for making calls but can be used for navigation and receiving weather and traffic updates and even transmitting your location to your friends on your network. Since the data usage with this kind of traffic is low the costs for the user should stay low.

The new TomTom GO with SIM should, according to the rumor, be available before the summer/holiday season.

*MVNO = Mobile virtual network operator – Companies that resell wireless service under their own brand name, using the network of another mobile phone operator. Helio is an example for the U.S.

helio drift w/ google maps and GPS

Nov 12, 2006 gps navigation, phones Leave a comment

Helio just recently announced the launch of its third exclusive mobile device – the Drift – and custom-built service that goes with it which will utilize GPS technology; namely GPS-enabled Google Maps.

The GPS application is two folds, one is Google Maps for mobile, and the other is something called Buddy Beacon.

The hardware like we mentioned is called Drift and is manufactured by Samsung. It will come in two colors, gunmetal black and frost white. Drift features a 2.12 inch display, stereo Bluetooth, 128MB internal memory expandable via microSD, 2MP camera with 4x digital zoom and flash for shooting photos and video, MP3, MPEG-4 and VOD support.

In addition to getting Google Maps for mobile you also get real-time traffic information for more than 30 major U.S. metropolitan areas with color-coded traffic reports, detailed directions with routes displayed on the map itself, together with step-by-step directions.

The Buddy Beacon thing is just a new way of telling your friends where you are:

Helio members can switch on their Buddy Beacon and use satellite technology to broadcast their location to the friends they add to their Buddy List. When they turn on Buddy Beacon, their Buddy List friends can see their location on a map along with a nearby address. Members can add up to 25 Buddies to their Buddy List. When members change locations and want to let everyone know the party is on the move, one simple command refreshes the location. Want to hide out? Just leave Buddy Beacon off to enjoy a night of privacy or to slip out the back of the club into the VIP room.

The Drift is available for $225 but you better check how much the membership is before you get allo excited and invest in the hardware. With all this connectivity and the need for data transfer you probably should get the plan called “all-in” which includes unlimited:

• text messaging
• picture messaging
• video messaging
• mobile myspace
• web browsing
• HOT (Helio On Top)
• File Transfer
• High Speed 3G
• Buddy Beacon
• GPS-enable Google Maps
• Talk: Nights and Weekends

This plan costs $85 for 1000 minutes which is not that bad considering you current phone bill is probably around $50 anyways.