Archive for July, 2008

archos gps car holder

Jul 31, 2008


The Archos player with GPS function we talked about back in April is available from Arhcos – bundled or seperately. Either way the GPS receiver is tucked inside windshield mount which sells for $129. It will work with ARCHOS 605 4GB, 30GB, 80GB, and 160GB and come with USA and Canada maps.

Did we mention Archos 605 also features Wi-Fi?…

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will nuviphone help GRMN?

Jul 30, 2008 , , , , ,

Garmin’s attempt to jump into the cell phone market is taking a little longer than expected. nuviphone, the revolutionary gps navigation system with 3G cell phone and its own OS is now expected to be available in first quarter of 2009 instead of being ready for the holiday season.

Features of nuviphone is pretty impressive. Take the 3.5″ screen for example, or the ability to connect to the internet with a full browser on 3G networks. Geotagging of photos is of course standard on such a device and there are multimedia playing capabilities too.

However the news today about the delay must’ve scared off some investors. The stock fell more than 20% just today to about $35, and down from 52wk high of over $123.

We’re not stock analysts here at Navigadget so we would like to hear from our more informed readers about GRMN. Do you think now is a good time to buy? Will nuviphone be a success and help the stock recover?

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Asus R50A finally here

Jul 30, 2008 , ,


Asus R50A which we undiscovered at CES at the beginning of this year has finally hit U.S. shores. The device just got its FCC approval meaning it will be available to American consumers very soon.

It looks like the initial specs we posted are still valid including the integrated GPS receiver.

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Sony Ericsson G705

Jul 30, 2008 ,


Sony Ericsson will probably make official a new slider style device in the near future as we now have uncovered the pics of this mysterious new phone. Apparently it is called the G705, and it is expected to be a midrange device as far as we could tell from the specs.

Sony Ericsson G705 features a 2.4″ screen, a nice 3.2MP camera, wait for it… wait for it… integrated GPS, microSD card support, and of course WiFi.

There’s a good chance it will first be available at an Arabic country and there are also rumors that the official debut will be at a press event in two weeks…

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PaPeRo GPS robot

Jul 30, 2008 ,

NEC’s PaPeRo robot has been around since 1997 but recently just made head lines again. Papero is a home robot and its name stands for Partner-type-Personal-Robot. We’re not sure about the details but it sounds like Papero somehow manages to beam itself into your GPS navigation system :)

For example, when a user in house tells the robot that he is “going to Yokohama on a date,” the robot recognizes that person’s voice and uploads the information to the server via wireless LAN, etc. The server performs an arithmetical operation on the uploaded information in consideration of the dialogue history between the robot and the user, the knowledge information inputted to the robot, the season, the time, etc.

Then, information on the best route for the user to go to Yokohama on a date is calculated, and the result is sent to the user’s car navigation system, etc and displayed on the screen. Therefore, the user only has to get in the car and talk to the robot to reach his destination by the best route.

Also, the company added a twist to the car navigation screen by displaying a character resembling PaPeRo on it.

via

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Beijing to utilize GPS to ease Olympic congestion

Jul 30, 2008 ,

An article came out yesterday about Chinese goverment utilizing GPS receivers mounted inside taxis to collect traffic information data and transmit it back to public to help them avoid congestion.

As the Chinese government readies for next month’s Olympics, it is depending on GPS systems like Lu’s to avoid gridlock on the capital’s roads. When Beijing upgraded its taxi fleet to yellow-striped Hyundai Elantras, Hyundai Sonatas, and FAW-VW Jettas starting in 2004, authorities asked all taxi companies to install GPS systems in the new taxis. Since then, the government has been using GPS systems in Beijing’s 66,000 taxis to monitor the city’s traffic flow.

Check it out.

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Nokia 5800 XpressMusic

Jul 29, 2008 , ,


Even audio player phones these days come with GPS functionality. Take Nokia 5800 XpressMusic for example. In addition to its obvious music playing capabilities XpressMusic also offers integrated GPS receiver and a really nice 3.2MP camera with Carl Zeiss optics.

Also known as Nokia Tube, this is an high-end phone with S60 OS, 3.2″ touch screen, Wi-Fi, 3G support, TV out and a lot more.

Expect to see this late this year. We do not know how much it will cost…

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Casio Boulder

Jul 29, 2008 , , , , ,


Yes, that’s a cell phone sitting in few inches of water with a digital compass on its display. Called Casio Boulder, this is the newest addition to the G’zOne rugged phone series. Just like the other G’zOne this one also features integrated GPS receiver and a 1.3MP digital camera.

It will be available from Verizon in August for $130 after a $50 mail-in rebate and a 2 year contract. Here are the other important features of Casio Boulder.

  • Flashlight
  • turn-by-turn directions with VZ Navigator
  • music player
  • microSD card support
  • bluetooth
  • speech recognition
  • voice commands
  • speakerphone

And of course it meets military specifications (810F) for water, shock and dust resistance; immersion; vibration, salt fog; humidity; solar radiation; altitude; and low and high temperature storage…

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alpine dock ‘n’ roll

Jul 28, 2008 , ,


Alpine is currently marketing their IVA-W205 as dock ‘n’ roll which is pretty much an in-dash system that lets you dock your PMD-B200 inside it. This way you’ll have access to the bigger 6.5″ touch screen and be able to hear turn by turn directions from your car’s stereo.

The PMD-B200 Alpine Blackbird II currently sells for $500 and the IVA-W205 for $600. So for this setup which lets you have integrated and portable navigation system in your car you’ll have to spend about $1100.

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LASOIS

Jul 28, 2008 ,


LASOIS. That’s the GPS system for the moon. It stands for Lunar Astronaut Spatial Orientation and Information System.

As you may already know we’re planning to go back to the moon by 2020 and it looks like this time we want to have a sense of orientation when up there instead of just jumping around aimlessly. The idea is to improve safety of the astronauts and help them accomplish their missions more efficiently without running of oxygen.

The architecture will be established based on an integrated sensor network made up of orbital, lunar-surface, vehicle on-board, and on-suit sensors. Orbital sensors include navigation, communication and reconnaissance satellites in orbit around the Moon. These include the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) and a Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) which will be deployed in lunar orbit.

Lunar surface sensors will include surface beacons pre-deployed on the lunar surface. This beacon system will use radio frequency, microwave, ultrasonic or visible light sources to transmit the relative positioning between any object and known active surface beacon reference points. On-board vehicle sensors (wheel odometers, engineering navigation cameras) will be mounted on any roving vehicles or robots. Onsuit sensors will be mounted on the astronaut’s space suit. Light-weight stereo cameras can be mounted on the helmet and will provide real-time visual information used to generate navigation and localization capabilities. A user-friendly interface will be mounted on the astronauts’ arm to provide display functions for 2D and 3D spatial information along with any necessary
simple interaction functions.

It is quite funny actually they used a Garmin Nuvi as a stand-in for the actual interface for the astronauts in their conference paper (pdf). Will Garmin Nuvi will really be the first navigation system to be used in space?

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