Insta GPS

GPS or the global positioning system is a pretty handy thing to have. Why? Well, it will help you find your way back to wherever you want. Just key in some points and press some buttons and bingo! you are at your destination. An Indian company Bharti Airtel launched this service in collaboration with Sweden based Wayfinder systems.

Airtel will introduce the handy GPS system in the Blackberry 8800 smart phones. This system will transform the cell phones to a GPS receiver complete with all kinds of maps as well as points of interest. The points of interest will be based on number of Indian cities like Delhi, Faridabad, Navi Mumbai, Mumbai proper, Chennai and Kolkata.

I think this is a good endeavor from Airtel’s part. However, I seriously doubt how many of us will use the Blackberry phones. Maybe they should have thought about building this technology in other commonly used phones.

About the GPS service plan

Airtel is offering a 6month free trial to it’s blackberry 8800 users. According to the company, the customers won’t have to pay any charges whatsoever on the application initially.
There is a data download fee that is charged to the users. Users will have to download the GPS application on their handsets. In order to do so all they have to do is SMS ‘NAV’ to ‘3636′.

According to the Chief Marketing officer of the Airtel mobile Sanjay Gupta , the GPS is supposed to be state of the art:

We are now introducing in India a state-of-the-art GPS-based navigation system that will largely benefit all frequent travelers using compatible mobile handsets like the BlackBerry 8800

Hopefully Airtel will see an increase in users because of this latest service they have introduced. Irrespective of the number of users subscribed to the system, the best part about this is GPS service has started in India. At least you won’t have to ask for directions to random strangers.

Image Credit: Techshout

Source Link: Techtree

Now, the subscribers of TeleNav can send their current locations to any mobile phones. TeleNav Inc. has unveiled the latest version TeleNav GPS Navigator, the original navigation application for mobile phones.

Customers can also share addresses of their businesses, including restaurants, hotels or movie theaters. Even users can send information on local gas stations with the cheapest prices for that day. The company has launched the GPS navigation system for mobile phones, which has following features:

Voice and on-screen turn-by-turn driving directions: TeleNav GPS Navigator computes the routes automatically. Users get up-to-the minute guidance, including street names, and will automatically be re-routed if a turn is missed while driving.

My TeleNav” Web site access: It allows you to preplan your trips, save addresses and manage your account, all online at Telenav. Subscribers can save locations in their “My Favorites” folder and they will automatically download on their phone next time they launch TeleNav GPS Navigator.

Location sharing: Now users have the ability to send their current location or the location of a nearby business to one friend or many friends all at once. This information can be sent from a mobile phone or from the “My TeleNav” account on Telenav. TeleNav GPS Navigator users can quickly navigate to locations they receive using the service’s turn-by-turn directions. Mobile users not subscribing to TeleNav GPS Navigator will receive a link to view a map and static directions on their phone.

Local search: Customers can look up more than 10 million businesses and services, including ATMs,restaurants, hotels, Wi-Fi hotspots and gas stations, and easily navigate to them with the click of a button.

Business reviews and ratings: Users can sort by highest to lowest rating to help them make a decision, or view all of the search results on a map. TeleNav GPS Navigator also allows customers to rate restaurants themselves directly from a mobile phone.

Real-time traffic alerts and one-click rerouting: TeleNav GPS Navigator monitors each specific route and will proactively search every five minutes for traffic congestion or incidents. Customers will be alerted, both audibly and on-screen, and can choose to find a faster route to their location by pressing just one button.

Fuel Finder: TeleNav GPS Navigator includes updated gas prices for local gas stations, and provides driving directions to the station with the lowest gas prices. Now, with just one click, friends and colleagues can share locations of these stations with each other as well.

Full-color 3D moving maps: Just like an in-car navigation system, the 3D maps turn, move and stop along with the driver, while also displaying a realistic image of the streets the driver is approaching and passing. Users can also pan and zoom around the map to view surrounding streets.

Spot Marker: Users can mark waypoints to help find their way back to a location or to record points of interest.

Pedestrian Mode: TeleNav GPS Navigator can also be used while walking, to help guide customers through crowded downtown streets or back to a parked car.

My Favorites: Customers can save as many addresses as needed for easy access and directions later.

Image Credit: CDMA TECH & Navi Gadget

Via: Gizmodo

GPS industry will soon get pretty crowded as more and more manufacturers are launching devices with different and of course different tag lines and brands. This one has been developed by Wiley and Maylog Group.

This new GPS system dubbed FD-35 is being marketed under a brand “GPS Navigation for Dummies”! (What does this mean…?)

The manufacturers claim that the GPS comes equipped with the maps of U.S. and Canada and the screen shown in the picture above also shows some of its multilingual capabilities!

The complete specifications and the price are not yet released but we surely will keep you posted on that.

Via: About-Electronics

The Sanyo’s NVM 4070 GPS satnav has finally been given the combined nods by people at the FCC. This means Sanyo’s NVM 4070 GPS is now ready to make its appearance in the US market. Earlier also we had talked about the product while the same company had come up with the introduction of their two latest models, which were known as NVM-4050 and NVM-4070.

The recent mid-range product, which has recently been approved by the FCC features a 4″ touchscreen, handsfree Bluetooth compatibility, and 2GB of storage space that holds maps of North America. Not just that, the users are also provided with an integrated FM transmitter, live traffic updates through TMC, and a 2400mAh rechargeable battery.

So, if you are keen to grab it, the Sanyo NVM-4070 has been priced at $600 on being available.

Read

Soon, Sprint customers would be able to find out exact location of their friends through their mobile phones. A Mountain View based Loopt has signed a deal with Sprint to launch its social mapping service on selected Sprint and Nextel mobile phones using its Global Positioning System (GPS) capability.

Under this deal, the service allows Sprint mobile phone users to share their locations and status messages to their friends. Even they can send proximity based messages and their geo-tagged photos to their family. Loopt’s social mapping service can find private network of friends and display the locations of friends on a map on the phone. The service also features geo-tagging with its journaling features, so that mobile phone users can capture their experiences and share them with their friends.

The service is 100 percent permission based, which allows users the location-sharing function on or off at will for select friends or for everyone. The service allows you to leave little notes and pictures, which are related with a location for your friends. Even you can receive alerts, when your friends are nearby and allows them to meet up at specific location. Users need to pay $2.99 a month to activate this service.

According to Loopt CEO and cofounder, Sam Altman, the most common question on mobile phone is ‘Where are you?’. Now Loopt would be able to answer this question for Sprint customers, who whish to participate.

Image Credit: Mad 4 Mobile phones
Image Credit: SF Gate

It does not matter where you go if you have Bushnell NAV500, an auto GPS device. It thoroughly guides you in reaching your destination.
The inclusion of In-Car Navigator with full-color mapping capability, touch-screen controls and MP3 player along with the following features make it a perfect in-car GPS device.

Features:

1.SiRF GPS chipset

2.A 3.5-inch QVGA color LCD touch-screen

3.MP3 player

4.SD card slot

5.Road maps of US, Canada and Puerto Rico

6.Photo display mode

7.Turn-by-turn voice prompts

8.Sleek and compact design

9.Rechargeable Li-Ion battery

Read

Latest nuvi line up of Garmin has been ramped up with approximately 200W of mapping units. The two models of Garmin are mainly set for launch. They are 200W and 250W respectively. Both these models are utilizing similar high sensitivity antenna which plays effective role in slimming down their profile as compare to various other GPS receivers.

To enhance readability as well as control in car, it has also added 4.3 inches of wide touchscreen. Both of them also possess millions of points of interest. They also encompass various unique software features from navigation company, such as Garmin lock. Garmin lock works effectively for both safe driving and combination. Moreover, this platform is open for third party companies. They can also add more details to map.

According to Garmin, various versions of 200w that are available outside US comprise maps for Australasia, Europe, Mexico, and Brazil.

Via:about-electronics

The new GPS wristwatch called Pyxis RGPS-3000 is the new innovation unveiled by a Korean company. This GPS timepiece is specially designed for golfers. This watch allows users to load golf courses onto the device allowing them to keep track of the score.

Moreover, RGPS-3000’s software is also adaptable to several conditions especially for outdoor activities such as running bicycling, hiking etc. this is a good idea of a GPS system keeping accurate track of how far one have walked, jogged, swam etc.

The Pyxis RGPS-3000 will be released in Korea only as there is no news regarding the global launch of this watch. This smart gadget can be yours for $215 in Korea.

Source: Navigadget

By outshining its own device GO 510 Tom Tom has introduced its new product called GO 520. This latest product will hit Europe on its launch to feature local maps those varies according to the country from where you purchased it.

This navigation device features 4.3″ widescreen WQVGA display, a 400MHz processor, 64MB RAM, 1GB of internal memory, Bluetooth connectivity, an integrated FM transmitter and an SD memory card slot.

It measures 118mm x 83mm x 24mm and also offers speech recognition specs in some European countries by offering users an option to speak address instead of entering it manually.

But no info about price.

Via: Ubergizmo

Here is a good news for Australians as now they easily access variety of mapping and navigation services through their mobile phones. Australia based firm, PhoneIT has launched the first a free to download mobile mapping and navigation service, amAze for Java enabled mobile phones.