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« January 2007 | Main | March 2007 »
GPSPrevent (a french company) released a GPS integrated radar detector device, the G200. The G200 warns drivers about fixed and mobile radars, also danger zones for France and Europe. It tells you the distance as well as the type of the radar based on its frequency. You can choose a female or male voice for vocal alarms : The update of the radars is free and unlimited. The G200 will cost 130€. More info here and here.
Would you like to make your own Google Maps + iTunes mashup? MoveTracks is a new tool that lets you create playlists, (or movetracks) based on your geographic location and a drive you are planning to take. How does it work ? Click here, see your iTunes library on the left side of the screen -wait until your library has fully loaded! It's cool :-) On the right, you'll see a google maps application. Now you can drag and drop songs from your library into the route you've created. Finally, save your MoveTrack so that it's sent to your iTunes library as a playlist. Thanks to the Playlist Magazine Forum and googlemapsmania for the info !
Big move in the GPS business with the announcement that Brunswick had agreed to sell Navman to Mitac !IT hardware and mobile device manufacturer MiTAC International is a maker of PNDs which are sold under the company's own brand, Mio. Brunswick had bought Navman from the founders in June of 2003. So we can say that despite booming market growth, Navman has struggled in a market dominated by Garmin and TomTom : In Europe, Mitac is currently on the third rank on the navigation systems market, in front of Navman. (according Canalys, read here) By combining Mio and Navman, the taiwanese group would obtain a share of market consolidated of 20%, and this is enough to dislodge Garmin (11%) and to position after TomTom(37%).
NAVTEQ has officially announced their 
re-designed MapReporter, a program to report on mapping errors and changes to help them update their data sets. It's a great move because map accuracy is the most important indicator of a user's satisfaction with their navigation system. In fact, MapReporter follows the start of a similar program, called Map Insight, from the rival map maker TeleAtlas. To read the press release of MapReporter click here.
We know that some of you were waiting for this news : Navx database of speed cams is now compatible with Garmin GPS ! And not only with Garmin, but also with all TomTom -PDA and smartphones. Enjoy !
It is not a secret that virtual mapping tools like Google Earth and Microsoft's Virtual Earth turn out to be a big boon for the advertising industry. CNNMoney talks about it in this article, discussing how Google Earth can be successfully used for advertising. Recently, Google developped an online multimedia advertising campaign for Saturn's new car : The Aura. On the website of Saturn, you can see screenshots from Google Earth showing 22 Saturn dealer locations. (See the video below) Yes, as it's said in The New York Times : Google is not just for text advertisements anymore. New technologies, new marketing !
ps. For all details and examples of other ad campaigns done with Google Earth, see gearthblog.
GPSreview.net reported that Magellan was about to launch a new Gps series, the Magellan Maestro. There is no info on Magellan website yet, but TigerGPS.com has already that series on their site. The Maestro will have three products in the line, the Maestro 4000, Maestro 4040, and Maestro 4050: you can get all the details and see technical specifications here and here. The big news is that the top of the line model, the Magellan Maestro 4050, will include voice recognition capabilities ! It will be exciting to see how well their voice recognition features work ! What do you think ?
Mio is releasing another GPS-enabled Pocket PC Phone called the Mio A501 : it is a quad-band GSM phone with bluetooth support, with USB port and SD/MMC slots. The system comes with an in-built navigation system ( SiRF Star III) and works on Windows Mobile 5.0 and a T1 processor. The Mio A501 will be out in stores by March, but no info on pricing for the moment. More details here and here.
Dandella is a "hand-held robotic GPS companion", this year's winner of the Japan Design Foundation's competition. They named it Dandella because it was inspired by the idea that young sunflowers always point towards the sun. In fact, Dandella works by combining GPS and robotic technology : You get 2 "Dandellas" and program them to track each other. From that moment, their buds respond by pointing towards one another. Dandellas are controlled via GPS, so they have unlimited range and are Bluetooth enabled for wireless communicated with a PC. Even a child is able to walk in the direction that the flexible, so industrial designers called it: a method to "simply find someone". More info here if you're interested.
Maybe you have already seen some photos of Nokia's E90 Communicator. At the 3GSM the company has dished out all of the specs on the device: The E90 is quad-band GSM, with both WiFi and HSDPA radios, a 3.2 megapixel camera, and....has built-in GPS and Nokia Maps software !!The E90 Communicator is expected to ship sometime in the second quarter of this year for around $1,000. Looks nice and surprisingly thin, isn't it ? Click to see a 3D demo, a video or some technical specifications.
