Red Hen Systems recently rolled out the X-gen built-in geotagging solution for Nikon’s D200 and D2X SLR cameras. The latest solution, which is known as Blue2can, lets users automatically get geospatially-referenced images in the simplest and most trustworthy set of collection technique nowadays by incorporating off-the-shelf Bluetooth GPS units and the industry leading Nikon D2X and D200 cameras. Aside from that Red Hen’s Blue2can sets up for the first time a camera area network Bluetooth solution, which is said to automatically hook up general Bluetooth GPS devices straightforwardly to the apt Nikon camera. With the help of Red Hen Systems’ patent pending Camera Area Network, the Nikon D2X and D200 (and soon other digital cameras and handicams) GPS positional data is poured into the camera and built into the EXIF meta-data of the JPEG imag Apart from all that Blue2can ‘s spatial EXIF metadata info can also be utilized to map these geotagged images by: Red Hen Systems MediaMapper, PixPoint and GeoVideo products, Virtual Earth and other 3D Worlds, Google Earth/Maps, Yahoo’s Flickr. Now take a look at Blue2can features: The Bluetooth GPS unit may be mounted on top of the camera, carried in a pocket, put on the dash of your car, or placed in the scene (1) Industry standard GPS geo-tagging offers compatibility with most GIS and mapping systems (2) Includes IsWhere picture mapping software that operates in conjunction with Google Earth (3) Bluetooth wireless integration eliminates all cables (4) Instantly inspect and view data on the camera LCD (5) Very simple to use, just plug it in and go. (6) Price: $279.95 without Bluetooth GPS (7) Release date 5/25/2007.
Next-gen iPhone could be equipped with GPS
It is being rumored on the net that the X-gen iPhone, likely to be made public in spring 2008 at Macworld, is going to be built-in with a SiRF Star III chip or something down those lines. Although the StarIII’s power consumption is somewhat elevated than Apple want, it is regarded as the finest chip for a mobile device of this sort, having the ability to get signals from 20 different satellites concurrently and an ultra-modern First Fix Time. The source, with this rumor, is reported to have said: Apple is certain to use a chipset using Assisted GPS technology, which cuts down the time needed to determine a location using GPS. (A-GPS) is necessary in urban areas with tall buildings or locations with heavy tree cover. A-GPS assists the device for a quick satellite fix by obtaining a little help from mobile phone towers. Though there is also a talk in SiRF’s press release regarding a joint venture with NXP Semiconductors to accelerate the growth of lucrative location-conscious 3G wireless handsets.
ASUS’s S102 GPS soon to hit the stores for $550
Recently ASUS’s forthcoming S102 GPS caught my eyes. A palm-sized box, which is built-in with sat-nav feature with a handheld media player, is consisted with a 18mm-square antenna for super-persistent signal management. Grippingly, there are a number of techniques for pinpointing your goal: on-screen keyboard, handwriting recognition and voice recognition, in conjunction with keyword searches to accelerate the process. The moment your route has been fixed, you can make access to turn-by-turn instructions, as is quick re-routing if you bump into traffic. Scott was stricken with his small play, getting it to be firmly put up and valuing the 1GB SD card ASUS bundle (which are not able be utilized for mp3s or photos to be seen on the 3.5-inch screen). The latest device will soon hit the stores with the price tag of $550
Tele Atlas teams up with Inrix to add trafficking software
A Boston-based company Tele Atlas recently united with Inrix to integrate trafficking software, which makes use of billions of pieces of historical traffic data to envisage how crowded roads are going to be all through the day. Users will be capable of utilizing this software algorithm in conjunction with their GPS satnav to get exact estimates of traffic gush, but for paying for live traffic updates. Nowadays, there are many services that claims to sell real-time traffic info and this Tele Atlas system also claims to make you available with that option, however while you unite that live data up with this enormous database of historical traffic data, you are provided with what the company claims is highly exact assessment of accurately how long you are going to take to arrive at your aim at any pre-set time of the day. However that real-time data can only be availed in 94 cities so far, and yes, you need to reimburse US currency for the advantage of getting it.
GPS tracker is capable of relaying SMS location alerts
Though the little of which I am going to talk about has been named as “Freedom”, but the latest GPS module is claimed to be capable of reining in exactly that. With the integration of a standard GPS tracking module with a tri-band GSM radio, the Freedom is touted to be efficient enough of relaying text messages to a specific phone number just with the touch of a single button. This Lilliputian miracle enables users to pre-arrange emergency numbers into the unit and afterward when there is an emergency, it will text message those Nos to your location Easy enough and user-friendly. I am in awe if this thing gets get going while it’s stuffed into a backpack crammed with pens, books and a cell phone but for a key lock engaged.
Renesas intro’s 600MHz 32-bit SoC device for next-gen car navigation systems
Renesas recently announced the release of a high-end SoC (system-on-chip) for in-car satnav entailing accelerated 3D graphics. The SH7775 is founded on a 600MHz SH-4a core, and is built-in with a GPS baseband from SiRF with a 150MHz PowerVR MBX 3D graphics processor from Imagination Technologies. The SH7775 is described as a “third-generation” car navigation SoC, following the prior SH7774 and SH7770 parts. The SH7775, compared to the SH7770, is touted to give 50% enhanced floating point performance, and three times quicker graphics. The latest SH7775, as with the prior SH777x parts, is founded on Renesas’s SH-4A core, a 32-bit superscalar RISC core with built-in media processing directions plus a four-way, set-associative memory cache with 32KB each of direction and data cache. The core, clocked at 600MHz in the SH7775, is also claimed to make available 1GIPS (giga directions each second) and 4.2 GFLOPS (giga floating-point operations each second), making it the quickest chip ever founded on the SuperH architecture. The SH7775 makes use of the similar 2D graphics engine as Renesas’s prior in-car nav chips, helping software further compatibility. Latest in the SH7775 part, though, are 3D utilities such as triangle 3D drawing and texture mapping, of use for delivering buildings on maps. The SH7775′s 3D potentials are founded on a PowerVR MBX 3D graphics engine from Imagination Technologies.
Dream`eo GPS / PMP supports JPG, WMA, AVI, DivX, WMV and MP3 files
The latest device is consisted with the ideal mixed marriage of gadgets with a cool GPS and Media Player (PMP) with 20GB of hard drive space, certainly it’s the Dream`eo Solo 20GB Portable GPS and Media Player. The 320×240 LCD screen is sharp, clear-cut and is measured with 3.5 inches, plus the Dream`eo GPS / PMP is also built-in with support for all the finest formats comprising JPG, WMA, AVI, DivX, WMV as well as MP3 files. When you’re not watching video and movies you get a sense of direction with the built-in Sat-Nav, that gives you a simultaneous 2D and 3D map viewing function, controlled by Touch Screen, buttons or remote control. GPS Features: (1) Search Destinations by Address, Intersection, Points of Interest, Address Book, and Previous Destinations (2) Voice and Texts in Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish (3) Adjustable viewing angle bracket with suction mount and dashboard adhesive mount plate (4) Advanced searching for Millions of Points of Interest (POI) in over 40 categories (5) Turn-by-Turn Route Guidance by Arrow, Text, zoomed In Map View and Voice (6) User command by Touch Screen Graphic Interface, buttons or remote control (7) High-speed signal acquisition using 1920 time/frequency search channels (8) 12 parallel satellite-tracking channels for fast acquisition and reacquisition (9) Built on SiRF Star IIe/LP chipset with embedded ARM7TDMI CPU (10) 3D, 2D, and Split Screen Map Views with 6 Map Zoom Levels (11) Serial Port input for outboard mini-sized GPS receiver (12) Detailed maps of the US and Canada (13) Car lighter power adapter Features for Media player: (1) Immediately recognized by all computers and equipped with a Hi-Speed USB2 interface, the Solo transfers data ultra-fast by simple “drag & drop” without additional software. (2) Windows operating system and its intuitive interface, the Solo makes it easy to organize your multimedia files and all of your data (3) Connected to your HiFi system, your Solo lets you enjoy and share the pleasure of listening to amplified sound. (4) Connect the Solo to a television or video projector to display all of the treasures stored on its hard disk (5) You can create slideshows from your photo library and add music of your choosing (6) MP4 video player – Compatible with most formats, up to 30 frames per second (7) With the stereo recording function, your Solo becomes a digital recorder (8) The Solo has all of the functions of the latest generation MP3 players You can get Dream`eo solo 20GB portable GPS and Media Player for $229.
Acer rolls out new V200 series PNDs
Acer recently came up with the deliverance of a new line-up of (PNDs) the V200 series, of which price point and placement let me imagine that it will replace the e300, e305 and e310 series. V200 is consisted with a standard 3.5″ however its price range comes under the psychological 150€ mark. Now, as is claimed by the Navigadget that it is going to replace 300 series, all this can be learnt by the characteristics comes in with it. So, let’s take a look at its main features that differs it from that e300, e305 and e310 series. Here are the features of V200 series: (1) Destinator 6 navigation software of with maps of France coming from Navteq on 512MB SD card (2) 3.5″ TFT LCD touch screen with 65K colors and 240,320 pixels (QVGA) resolution (3) 64 MB ROM flash for OS and integrated applications (4) Samsung S3C2442XL Processor at 300 MHz (5) 1100mAh Li-Ion battery that lasts 3 hours (6) Integrated SiRF III LP GPS receiver (7) Dimensions : 9.5 X 7.9 X 2.5 cm (8) 64 MB RAM for applications (9) 3.5 mm audio out (10) SD/MMC port (11) Weight: 172 G (12) 1W speaker It is soon to be marketed for 149€ – most likely in France only. Read
GPS-based Motorola i876 passes FCC conformity tests
Motorola’s latest iDEN phone i876 has finally got FCC’s approval and can be spotted on its listing pages now. The clamshell i876 device is claimed to be an “international phone” featuring the stereo Bluetooth (A2DP), out-and-out music control keys, integrated GPS, 1.3 MP cameras, and the microSD memory card slot. Besides, the latest Motorola i876 also boasts of being consisted with the push-to-talk feature, facilitating walkie-talkie like usage. The Motorola i876 is likely to hit the streets in the Q4 of 2007. The iDEN phone i876 has grabbed our attention by virtue of its glaring features, but; the amount of things which can be done with the GPS is limited. So, let’s learn how much the manual details about making use of 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: (1) Flow control: Hardware (2) Bits per second: 4800 (3) Parity: None (4) Data bits: 8 (5) Stop bits: 1 To set your phone to send location information to your laptop or other device: Press M > Tools > GPS > Interface > set NMEA OUT to On.