NaviGadget

GPS Tuner is an off-road navigation software for Pocket PC devices. Today they announced that they’re releasing v5.4 which adds a few nice extra features to the older version.

• ‘Open Street Map’ has been added as online map source
• ‘Google Topo (Terrain)’ has been added as online map source
• Suunto X9i data format(.sdf) handling (Import and Export) has been added
• Automatic map rotation in 90 degrees has been added (instead of flipping 180 degrees)
• Built-in camera photo can be taken and added to waypoint directly
• Waypoints can be exported via TXT output module

GPS Tuner Standard v5.4 cost $34 with one-year free upgrade. Without the free upgrade you can get it as cheap as $24. There’s also another version called GPS Tuner Geo v5.4 which adds area calculation as a feature and also one year of free upgrades: $48.

It looks like Apple is readying iPhone for GPS support. The device emulator included with iPhone SDK for application developers includes hints that the company has added support for GPS to the platform. We have no way of telling whether this would be an add-on device, an embedded GPS chip, or an A-GPS chip from Qualcomm but whatever it is the software is ready for it:

As discovered by user Steffen Voigt, the locationd component of the current iPhone emulator includes references to NMEA. NMEA is a data specification for communication between various location sensing devices, particularly GPS units.

locationd also makes direct references to satellite-gathered information, with strings mentioning satellite status, latitude, speed, magnetic variation, etc. Other strings mention GPS time, type, position and accuracy… iphoneatlas

DeLorme Earthmate GPS LT-40 debuted today with its Teseo chipset and 3D cockpit view which also marked the announcement of Street Atlas USA 2009 DVD and Street Atlas USA 2009 PLUS DVD. Both versions, as well as LT-40 GPS receiver support UMPC’s says DeLorme which is nothing more than saying “this camera supports YouTube”.

However there are some real new features one of which being the NavMode option. NavMode has a more sleek GUI and offers a 3D view. In addition, the LT-40 has something called a ConstantLock Signal Retention where signals as weak as -159dBm are routinely acquired and maintained without sacrificing positional accuracy while STMicroelectronics’ and DeLorme’s Kalman filtering maintains its fix even amid tall buildings, and in high radio frequency (RF) areas.

Street Atlas USA 2009 DVD is already available for sale for $70 and Street Atlas USA 2009 PLUS DVD for $100.

Version 2.0 of the MapCapt just recently got released. If you’ve never heard of MapCapt before don’t worry. Here’s the scoup:

MapCapt automatically scrolls, captures, assembles and saves maps from a web page to a bitmap file, even if scrolling is controlled by custom controls. You can use it with maps.google.com, maps.yahoo.com, and more and then use these ‘downloaded’ maps with your GPS navigation device.

There’s a free version which is quite limited - you can only do two steps of horizontal scrolls on no vertical scrolls. What good is that?

The full version - which you can purchase for $9 or 6 € - has no such limitations and provides two additional features such as the ability to follow a road with the manual scrolling function and autocorrect some small misalignments problems.

Interesting piece of software this MapCapt.

iNAVI K2 has the best 3D navigation software we’ve ever seen so far. Of course it is from Korea; a company called Thinkware announced iNAVI K2, a GPS navigation system that has 8GB of space on SDHC memory card, comes with 256MB of RAM, and has a 4.8″ WVGA screen with 800×480 resolution.

What makes iNAVI K2 so futuristic is the fact that 3D structures are rendered with actual realistic images of the buildings. You can also expect to get complete lane information about the road you are on to help you with your next turn.

iNAVI K2 GPS navigation system also integrates a geomagnetic 3 axis sensor which detects absolute north pole and can calculate the heading of your vehicle even in stand still.

It will retail for 549,000KRW which is about $550 but that shouldn’t matter since you’ll never get your hands on one of these in the States… read »

SnowRanger from Mountain Dynamics is a set of maps that can be downloaded to Garmin or Magellan branded GPS navigation systems.

They have the resort maps for 64 North American ($75), and 420 European ($300) ski resorts which include everything from trails, chairlifts, parks, lodges, parking lots and much more.

North American version runs on both Magellan and Garmin whereas European maps currently only work on Magellan navigation systems. Also you can buy regional maps for most of the regions if you don’t feel like paying too much.

They work on Garmin Nuvi’s too. All you have to do is insert the SnowRanger memory card into your device, and check the box on the next screen to show ski maps. When you are on or near the slopes your nuvi will start showing the correct map.

At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the Portuguese brand Ndrive presented the latest version of their GPS navigation software for smart phones, symbians, as well as PDAs with Windows Mobile.

A nice feature of this navigation software is that it can display 3D renderings of buildings while routing the user. Ndrive uses photographs coming from the Spanish company Blom which specializes in high quality geographical information.

The demo for the software was rather impressive, it is quite smooth, but we’ll have to wait and see if it is really useful. We do not have information on the number of POIs yet but it is planned to be released at the end of March.

One thing to note is that data for all these aerial images takes a lot of space: 2 GB for Madrid for example. Therefore it is necessary to install only certain cities in 3D photographs and let the remainder of the country or Europe be installed in normal graphical mode.

Ndrive uses maps from Tele Atlas. Maps of Europe on DVD will cost 98 €… read »

Vodafone of Spain introduced a new GPS receiver / software bundle for the blind or visually impaired. It is called “Easy Walk” and it works on phones with Symbian OS such as most Nokia’s.

The service allows visually impaired people to know their current location and provide assistance to make them more independent. The way this is done is very similar to regular car GPS navigation systems: Detailed description of turns, distance to a certain point and even details of street names, numbers, and POIs are converted voice commands thanks to the text-to-speech engine.

In addition to helping the user it also transmits location information to family or friends or to a care center to keep their minds at ease. In addition Easy Walk can generate customized routes that can be ’studied’ offline before going out the real world - similar to a simulation… read »

Nokia - in addition to all the A-GPS capable phones - also introduced Nokia Maps 2.0 which is currently in beta. What this brings is a feature called “walk” which can help you find your way when you are on foot.

Currently the beta offers satellite maps of 200 cities worldwide which are downloaded over the air and saved locally. Also 3D capabilities have improved.

“Walk” is included in the navigation license for car navigation but can also be purchased separately. If you have already purchased car navigation with older Maps version, you will now get “Walk” free of charge.

It should work well with the new Nokia 6210 Navigator which has an internal accelerometer to keep the orientation of the map correct depending on the direction you’re facing.

Make sure you read the comments before you try installing this.

Hungarian NavNGo had a nice booth at CES 2008 and one of their products was the NavNGo Limousine which is designed to turn on existing display on your dashboard into a GPS navigation system. In the box you’ll find the NavNGo Limousine Navigator unit which carries the 300MHz CPU and the memory, 2 GB SD memory card with navigation software and digital maps, SiRFStar III external GPS-receiver, remote control, speaker and an external IR sensor.

The unit does not contain a display but has support for 430×234 pixel, 16 bit color screens and supports 16:9 format.

We have no information on pricing just yet.