Garmin have announced a multi-year, multi-device deal with GySPii, who are a location based social networking site. In essence GyPSii is similar to Plazes, who both link the idea of providing your current status (a bit like Twitter), but also providing your current location. GySPii have said they will “provide technology, products, worldwide data
center infrastructure, development licenses, and GyPSii branding rights to Garmin”. It’s not clear whether an existing GyPSii user will be able to use their logon details on their Garmin, or whether Garmin will run a separate service using the same technology. The interesting point about the announcement is that it refers to a “range of devices”; whilst the nuviPhone is an obvious contender, we wonder whether Garmin is planning to start offering more 2 way communication options within it’s devices in the coming years…

BBC have announced that their iPlayer 2.0 interface is now in beta testing. This builds on the success of the current iPlayer website, but will offer a much more personalised web browsing experience, better radio and TV listings, and higher quality options.

O2 will, according to Smartplanet, be showcasing bikes which can recharge your mobile at the O2 wireless festival in Hyde Park from 3rd to 6th July. The bikes will vary from BMX, Chopper-style, and even racers, and will be available for people to recharge their own phones using their own power. The only downside is that the bikes will be at a fixed location, and so you won’t actually get to really ride the bike anywhere.

Both Smartplanet and UK Gadgeteer feel that, unless it’s hideously expensive, O2 should look at getting this released as a commercial product so we can all recharge our phones whilst cycling.  In our search to see if this has already been done, we did find one manufacturer of a bike based mobile phone recharging system, but their 2 UK resellers seemed hesistant to provide any details or pricing online.

Here’s an interesting device, the Flip Video. In the US, it’s referred to as the Pure Digital Flip Video, but in the UK, it’s just the Flip Video (possibly related to the existence of Pure Digital, the DAB radio specialists in the UK). For just under £100, you can get a really small video recorder capable of recording upto 60 minutes before you need to upload the video. It supports easy uploading to YouTube. It comes in Black, White, Pink or Orange.  The built in USB port makes it very handy to use.

How well does it work, well Ewan over at SMS Text News is currently trying one out in the Maldives, and finding it very useful with the underwater housing, although he did need to remember it’s not rechargeable.  Ewan also thinks the Flip  should not exist; the mobile phone manufacturers should have this market sewn up, but with the lack of easy transferring and uploading of the video content, he can understand why the Flip Video is so useful.  Also, James Whatley from SpinVox is trying one out at Glastonbury right now, so hopefully he’ll report back week how he found it.  Without a PC with him, he can’t upload any video until he returns, so will he find the 60 minute limit too small for a 3 day music festival?

Interestingly, James also took a Freeloader Solar Charger and a Loc8tor Lite, two devices we featured last week, so we’ll hopefully report back on how he found these too.

Many people have speed camera databases loaded into their SatNav, and we support and recommend Pocket GPS World as one of the most accurate and regularly updated camera databases for the UK. However, up to now, if you used Nokia Maps on your Symbian phone as your primary navigation device, you were left without speed cameras. This is now resolved. If you head to this HOWTO at Pocket GPS World, they’ll explain what you have to do to get their database working on your phone.

Basically, you have to install a freeware application, and the subscribe to the Pocket GPS World site (if you aren’t already a subscriber), and download the “Nokia Speedcam” specific database from their site, and you’ll have working, and up to date speed cameras on your phone. The software has only been tested on a UK N95 with Nokia Maps v2, although there’s no reason why it shouldn’t work with every S60 3rd edition phone, and, like Nokia Maps, it supports Bluetooth GPS units if you don’t have a built in GPS.

After the success of the PURE ONE Original DAB radio, Pure Digital have now released the PURE ONE Mini, which offers the majority of the features of the ONE, but in a smaller package. These include an input jack (for your iPod / mp3 player), an FM radio, station presets (although 16 instead of 20 on the ONE), and support for Pure’s ChargePak rechargeable battery packs. Although rarely needed, we support Pure for two reasons, firstly they are British, and secondly, they build the capability for user upgradeable firmware for their devices, and the ONE Mini is no exception, with a miniUSB port as standard.

Having just released the new N800 / N810 firmware, which supports new firmware updates without the need for a full reflash, Nokia have produced their first (in a long time) OTA update for a mobile phone, the N78. Although it’s only just started shipping, the firmware improves areas such as Bluetooth stability, music playback, optimized camera performance and navi-scroll sensitivity. The key point is that this update also does not need a full reflash, and hence all settings and software are kept intact. In fact, Nokia has (currently) gone as far as only releasing this update as an OTA update, removing the need to use the Nokia Software Updater at all (which is good for some, as they’ve still not fix the Vista compatibility issues). With many other Symbian phones supporting OTA updates, it will be interesting to see whether Nokia continue the trend and release all firmwares this way.

T-Mobile have announced price reductions in their SMS and data costs whilst roaming. SMSes will now cost 25p (instead of 40p), and data will now “only” cost £1.50 per MB (down from £7.50 per MB). Whilst we support these price reductions, we don’t think they go far enough to encourage people to use these services completely (when 3 will give you Mobile Broadband in the UK for £10 for 1GB, it puts into question these data roaming charges). For calls, we recommend you look at MaxRoam, but until they support data, you may still be better just leaving the phone switched off.

These price changes should take effect from next month, according to SMS Text News, but we would recommend you check with T-Mobile if you are going to rely upon the price to use the service abroad.

We first mentioned OpenMoko back in November, and covered them again briefly in January, but it looks like the Opern Source based FreeRunner mobile phone (based on the Neo1973 above, but in all-black) should start shipping from them this month, resulting in stocks being available during July. We’ll provide more details as we get them.

Nokia have announced two major updates today. Firstly, they have announced they are purchasing the remainder of the Symbian shares they do not already own, and will therefore take complete control of Symbian. As part of this purchase, Nokia have also announced that they will turn portions of Symbian (the OS), S60 and UIQ (controlled by Sony Ericsson and Motorola) into Open Source, via the new Symbian Foundation. This process will take a couple of years, but follows in the footsteps of the work Nokia has put into the Maemo community (for their Internet Tablets). This bodes well for the future of the platforms.

In other news, Nokia have also released a major OS (firmware) update for the N800 and N810 Internet Tablets. Apart from lots of bugfixes, and some improvements in the applications, the key new feature is that future OS updates will be able to be installed without a full reflash of the firmware back to factory condition.