NaviGadget

This sleek looking phone from Motorola apparently has GPS features and is the 3rd generation of Z8 series, called Z8m. It is currently only on display in Korea selling for about the equivalent of $500.

Other features of this slider phone include:

• 7.2Mbps HSDPA
• 2.2″ QVGA display
• 2MP camera
• 80MB memory
• microSD card slot (4GB max)
• one-touch music access
• photo viewer
• Bluetooth
• USB 2.0

We hope to see this in the U.S. soon… via

Motorola Smart Rider is the new in vehicle phone from Motorola. Smart Rider phone, is an in-vehicle (fixed) device featuring GPS navigation, interactive voice activation, and Bluetooth wireless.

The hands free feature allows users to converse, navigate and tend to business while on-the-go.

The Smart Rider which targets professional drivers for the enterprise has the following features:

• Bluetooth technology allows users to move freely from the home or office straight into the vehicle while having active calls, contact information and other personal data automatically transferred from the handset to the in-vehicle device
• Multiple user profiles grant secure access to personalized phonebook settings for up to three drivers on the Smart Rider phone
• Interactive voice activation makes the phone hassle-free for drivers
• A robust built-in microphone and speakerphone ensures an exceptionally clear, sharp sound

Motorola’s Smart Rider also has GPS features like we mentioned earlier. Drivers can get turn by turn driving directions on the 2.8″ display and even have access to real time traffic reports. The phone also supports other location based services for fleet management.

Smart Rider will be sold worldwide and will be available on the market in June 2008.

Motorola MING A1600 is the new model from Motorola’s MING lineup. MING A1600 hasn’t been officially announced just yet but a whole bunch of pics have been on the internets lately.

What makes A1600 so awesome is that it runs a flavor of Linux as the OS, features a 3MP camera, has a GPS receiver chip, and it can even connect to WiFi networks.

The transparent clamshell cover adds a nice touch and it also comes with a stylus to keep grease off the screen… read »

Motorola DH02 is the obvious successor to Motorola DH01 which we mentioned earlier this month. DH02 is a mobile TV with a GPS functionality. The maps are provided by TeleAtlas, and the high speed connectivity by the HSDPA / GPRS networks.

Other features of DH02 include:

• Live DVB-H TV with PVR (personal video recorder) capabilities – timeshift, live pause, frame grabbing
• GPS navigation with voice-activated directions
• handsfree calls to points of interest
• automatic channel scan and listing
• High resolution WQVGA display
• microSD card slot extension for other media
• 5 minute memory buffer for live pause and time shift of TV channels
• real-time traffic information and speed alerts
• E-call (Emergency Calls) and SMS support
• Bluetooth and earphones

With DH02 Motorola is trying to capture a chunk of the tiny mobile TV market in the U.S. while using GPS navigation as a way to enter into people’s lives. We’ll see how it goes.

Moto Z9’s sales spec sheet has leaked on the net and we’re happy to see that Motorola used a chip capable of A-GPS enabling it to provide turn by turn directions. The Moto Z9 (pdf) document tells us all we want to know such as the 2.4″ QVGA color display, 2MP camera with flash and 8x digital zoom, microSD card slot, USB 2.0 connection, and of course the HSDPA and 3G networks support.

The A-GPS is of course not functional until you pay some fees depending on your provider, and therefore comes with a footnote like this:

Network card dependent feature, not available in all areas. Airtime, data charges, and/or additional charges may apply.Certain mobile phone features are dependent on the capabilities and settings of your service provider’s network. Additionally, certain features may not be activated by your service provider, and/or their network settings may limit the feature’s functionality.

Some of the other specs for the Moto Z9 are:

• Windows Media Player 11
• Dedicated music navigation disk
• Integrated music player that supports MP3, XMF, RealAudio, MIDI, MP3, AAC, AAC+, Enhanced AAC+
• 45MB on-board user memory, plus up to 8GB optional removable microSD memory card slot
• Bluetooth
• Video stream, capture and playback; MPEG 4, 3GPP Audio and Video

read »

Motorola’s new pocket size gadget DH01n which was made official in Barcelona last month offers a media player, GPS navigation, and of course mobile TV via the DVB-H networks.

Announcement of DH01n seems to be inline with Motorola’s goal to be one of the top enablers of digitally broadcast TV channels here in the U.S. and seems like they threw in the GPS navigation capability to make the device multi-functional. The maps for DH01n comes from TeleAtlas and it can render them in 2D or 3D.

More features:

• High-quality live digital video broadcast over the DVB-H standard
• 4.3″ screen
• Convenient automatic channel scan and channel listing
• Personal content like video, music and pictures on SD/MMC cards
• 90 minutes of video on a 256MB card
• Recording, pausing and playing back live TV signals with secure memory card support
• Four hours of playback time

Check out the video:

Motorola today introduced a new version of its handheld mobile computer MC70, now equipped with GPS capability. MC70 is still geared towards the enterprise user with field-based employees, such as shipping companies, to track and manage real-time tasks, and provide mobile workers with navigation support to improve location-based productivity.

MC70 has a rugged design, making it suitable for field work. It can withstand being dropped on concrete from a certain height, resist water, dust, and heat and cold.

For navigation MC70 relies on a SiRF Star III receiver, and adds other features such as barcode data and signature capture, Wi-Fi, bluetooth, and support for high-speed EDGE networks. Motorola chose ALK to provide with navigation software which can use MC70’s internet connectivity to provide relevant data to the mobile user - in addition to providing door to door directions.

AT&T is getting ready to release the new Motorola Q with integrated GPS (aka known as Moto Q Global).

Just like previous Q’s it is a very slim device packed with features. Integrated GPS is of course what we care most about but you can be certain that AT&T will lock this feature for 3rd party application and only make it available through TeleNav so they can charge you some extra fee.

The new 3G Moto Q also features a QWERTY keyboard, 2MP camera, high-speed Internet connection, bluetooth, and microSD card supporting up to 32GB… via

Motorola’s new iDEN phone i876 that is expected to come out fourth quarter of this year has already passed FCC conformity tests. Motorola i876 is of special interest to us because it features GPS. However; the amount of things you can do with the GPS is limited. Here is how much the manual mentions about using the GPS:

Use GPS with map software: Connect your phone to your laptop (or other device) with a serial data cable and set your phone to transmit data. Open the connector cover. With the phone’s display facing up, insert the serial data cable’s connector into the accessory connector, until you hear a click.

Insert the data plug into the COM port of your laptop or other device. Make sure no other application is using the COM port selected.Set the COM port settings of your laptop or other device as follows:

• Bits per second: 4800
• Data bits: 8
• Parity: None
• Stop bits: 1
• Flow control: Hardware

To set your phone to send location information to your laptop or other device: Press M > Tools > GPS > Interface > set NMEA OUT to On.

motorola i876 manual [2.2MB PDF!!!]

We had discussed the Motonav T815 and T805 back in February this year. It looks like the T805 and the T815 has made it through FCC and Motorola is getting ready to start its beta program.

We have no idea when it will be out of beta but currently the full version works with Motorola RAZR V3x, V3xx, maxx V6, and the lite version is supported on Motorola RAZR V3i, KRZR K1, RIZR Z3, SLVR L6, L7. Once it is ready Motonav will run on many other Motorola, Nokia, Sony Ericsson and other mid-range phones with Bluetooth and Java. The version supported depends on the capabilities of the phone model.

Key features:

• Turn-by-turn navigation with voice guidance
• Moving map display
• Local search for businesses and points-of-interest
• Web address entry and synchronization
• Share locations with others
• Pedestrian navigation mode (full version only)
• Announce street names during guidance (full version only)
• Traffic updates (full version only – not complete yet)
• Quick start GPS (full version only – not complete yet)

If you are still curious go to the Motonav beta program and play around (uid: motorola, pass: motonav2007) or read this pdf.