Maplin are selling a GPS Tracker, which offers the ability to record your location as you travel around.  It can record at a variety of differing levels, providing either greater accuracy, or a greater time period the logs are recorded for.  Unlike other units, it doesn’t support external media cards, so you are limited by the internal memory, but for most people it will still easily cover a day or two of photography.  It uses the Sirf Star III chipset for greater accuracy, measures 47 x 29 x 12mm and weighs only 21g.  It’s claimed to be compatible with Google Maps and Google Earth, and is water resistant.  For £39.99, it might well be worth a look for many budding photographers…

Thanks to Mark at Automated Home for the heads up.

Not wanting Apple to get all the attention yesterday, some leaked pictures of a new Nokia phone were leaked out. The phone, believed to be the N85 (the prototype is labelled N00, as many Nokia prototypes have been in the past), features dual LED flash and a lens cover (a feature missing from some other high spec Nokia phones). As with many other high spec Nokia smartphones, it features GPS, a 5 megapixel camera, and geotagging.

More information over the coming weeks and months as and when the details are released.

Tonight Apple launched the iPhone 3G as expected. The device has a number of improvements over the previous iPhone…

• 3G Data support
• Available in 8Gb (Black) and 16Gb (White) versions
• The back of the device is now black plastic
• Improved audio
• Headphone socket now flush with the device
• Built in GPS with Location Based Services (eg news specific to your location)

Alongside this, Apple have released more details on the type of applications that will be available via the App Store, and even some key new features coming in the new iPhone 2.0 software (which will be available to existing iPhone users and iPod Touch users for a small fee). One of the key new features is the Mobile Me service (which replaces .Mac); this offers a nice integration between the iPhone, your PC and your Mac. For example; read an email on your iPhone, and it will get marked as read on your other devices; that’s the sort of integration we’d like to see more people promoting (of course, it can be done today with other services, but how many of them promote such a tight integration facility?).

Much more detail can be at Apple, and it will be available in the UK on July 11th.

Here’s the newest device from HTC, the Touch Pro, adding a sliding keyboard to the overall Touch design look and feel (it’s mainly based on the Touch Diamond). The Touch Pro has a good all round spec:

• HSDPA, Bluetooth and WiFi
• 2.8″ VGA screen
• Windows Mobile 6.1 featuring HTC’s TouchFLO 3D interface,
• QWERTY keyboard, including the fifth number row
• 3.2 megapixel camera
• microSD slot
• GPS built in
• 512MB ROM and 288MB RAM

A good spec, and with HTC’s keen followers, it’s likely to sell very well. The first versions should use the European 3G frequencies and be available in the “late Summer”.

At Computex 2008, Asus have launched another interesting device; a SatNav GPS unit with a HUD! This looks very interesting, and something that we like the idea of; providing next turn information including the distance to the junction on the HUD.

The display looks nice and clear, and certainly a good indication of what we could be driving around with in the next few years. The picture below shows the actual HUD unit providing the picture being projected.

There’s no information on whether or not Asus will be providing European mapping, or whether they plan to release the device in Europe, or the UK, but we certainly hope it becomes available.

As with all our Computex stories, pictures and information are courtesy of linitx.com.

Well, it’s been discussed and rumoured for some while, but Broadcom have confirmed the new 3G iPhone will have a GPS chipset within it. This is, apparently, to comply with the 911 emergency rules in the US; that is, the ability to be able to locate the device and provide that information to the emergency services whenever an emergency call is made. Given all the other hints, it’s looking likely that this will be accessible to the end user.

More information here.

According to this article on the BBC website, sales of smartphones will outstrip laptops in the next 12 to 18 months. With Symbian recently reporting that more than 200 million Symbian smartphones have been manufactured and shipped (the actual figure is at least 206 million), and Nokia predicting it will sell over 35 million GPS enabled handsets in the coming year, it’s all go for smartphones.  It will also be interesting to see how the other manufacturers react; there’s already strong indications the new 3G iPhone will ship with a built in GPS, or at least GPS support.

BBC Link via SMS Text News.

Here’s something we strongly approve of… It’s a SatNav unit designed for HGV drivers, but priced at a similar level to other SatNav units. As a driver, you enter the height, weight, length, and any other potential factors, and the SatNav will choose HGV-friendly routes which will avoid roads / bridges / corners / weight limits that the vehicle cannot navigate. It can even avoid roads with cross winds or steep hills. The device uses NAVTEQ Transport data which includes all this additional data to help the unit. It’s also got hazardous goods information, information on loading bays and HGV fuel stations.

With a few button presses, the unit can have the HGV restrictions removed, so can be used in normal vehicles too, but anything that helps to avoid HGV drivers blindly follow their SatNavs and ending up on the front page of the BBC website or a national newspaper has to be a good thing.

There’s no support for receiving traffic data, although the unit does support a safety camera subscription, which is free for the first 6 months.

Maplin seem to have picked up, and the ProNav should be available from their stores in the near future. We expect other Navteq SatNav manufacturers to look at this unit and work out whether there’s a market, so we may well find other units offering this amount of customisation in the next year or so.

More information at Pocket GPS World.

Here’s a picture of the latest BlackBerry, just announced by RIM. The specs are:

• Tri-band HSDPA
• GPS
• WiFi
• 624MHz mobile processor
• 1GB of memory
• 128MB of Flash
• microSD/SDHC memory card slot
• 2 megapixel camera
• 480×320 screen resolution

An interesting new device from RIM, although it will appeal to BlackBerry fans, it’s still not got the specs of the high end smartphones, such as the N95 8Gb, although it’s getting close.

In other news, RIM has announced a deal with Microsoft to bring Windows Live Messenger to the BlackBerry platform, which finally provides an instant messaging solution that spreads wider than just the BlackBerry community. What’s not clear is whether this will work with companies who use the internal Windows Live Messenger service, or whether it’s only linked to the public MSN service.

9000 story and picture courtesy of Berble.com.

GPXView started out as simply as a viewer for the geocaching.com GPX files used by geocachers. However, it’s now expanded, and offers a near paper-less experience for those who own a Nokia Internet Tablet, and even has basic GPS support for those with a Bluetooth GPS or an N810 (with built in GPS).

The author plans to integrate the program into with Maemo Mapper or into navit, but in the meantime head off to his website for more screenshots and the install link.

The new TomTom GO x30 devices we first mentioned here are now available for sale in the UK. The retail prices are as follows:

• 930 Traffic £399.99 inc VAT
• 730 Traffic £329.99 inc VAT
• 730 £299.99 inc VAT
• 530 Traffic £279.99 inc VAT
• 530 £249.99 inc VAT

The Traffic models include the current RDS-TMC receiver, which is much better than the early TMC receivers TomTom first tried, but it’s still reliant upon the radio signal being broadcast, which is weak, and does not cover the whole country. To improve on this, we’ll need to wait for the launch of the TomTom HD Traffic service later this year. These devices should be compatible with the HD Traffic service, but this hasn’t been confirmed by TomTom.

Pricing courtesy of Pocket GPS World, although we expect the street prices to drop quite quickly.

Here’s the new HTC Touch Diamond. HTC have redesigned their TouchFlo interface, and hope that many users won’t even realise it’s Windows Mobile 6 underneath their interface. The specs are:

• Windows Mobile 6.1
• Triband GSM/GPRS/EDGE at 900/1800/1900 MHz
• Qualcomm 528 MHz CPU
• Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
• WiFi b/g
• eGPS
• FM Radio
• 128 MB RAM
• 256 MB ROM
• 4 GB flash
• 2.8″ VGA display(640×480)
• Front and rear cameras (rear 3.2 Megapixel)

O2 have confirmed they will be releasing the XDA Diamond. It’s also likely that the Touch Diamond will ship with TomTom Navigator 7, and a single downloadable City Map, with the ability to purchase further maps.

If you like the idea of a nice new interface, but already have a Windows Mobile device, or don’t want to buy a Touch Diamond, then head over to Pointui, who have produced their own interface for Windows Mobile, which may be a suitable candidate. Thanks to Mark at AutomatedHome for alerting us to this option.

TomTom have announced a range of new units over the last few weeks. Firstly, they have updated the TomTom RIDER motorcycle unit (now called RIDER 2), with MapShare, trip statistics, itinerary planning and Help Me! functionality. This functionality will also be available to existing RIDER units via a software update, and the new maps should be available in a month or two as well.

They have also announced two new ONE models, the TomTom ONE and ONE XL. These feature a new ultra slim form factor, large speaker and a unique mount solution. Known as EasyPort™, the new mount design allows it to be left attached to the device and folded against itself making it small enough to fit easily into a pocket or bag.

Some content and picture courtesy of PocketGPSWorld.

Over at Pocket GPS World, they’ve published a full and frank review of the SatMap Active 10. They’ve covered all aspects of the device, in fact the only additional “Con” we would add to the Pros and Cons is the overall cost, especially if you want a lot of OS maps on the device. Head over to read the review.

[Via Mapomatic]

This 8 megapixel is not unique, but certainly different from the standard camera you can buy. As well as the 3″ touchscreen on the rear, it includes a GPS module to record exactly where the picture was taken. The press release (pdf document) refers to their solution as a GPS Navigation solution, indicating the camera contains maps as well as the actual GPS hardware, but it’s not yet clear how good the maps are, nor which countries they will be providing mapping for. However, it’s certainly the sign of things to come, and we can expect many more cameras with GPS (or GPS addons) in the coming months.

Story and picture courtesy of NaviGadget.

An enterprising individual is looking to create a cheap GPS addon for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and is even looking at providing an Open Source software solution for accessing the GPS data. To be able to produce the GPS addon boards, he needs a minimum order quantity of 1000 modules, and he’s currently half way there. Head over to his blog to see more and vote if you are interested in purchasing one (or more).

Story courtesy of Pocket GPS World.

Along with all the general rumours over the release date of the 3G iPhone, it appears some websites are claiming that the new 3G iPhone will contain a GPS Broadcom chip, providing built in GPS functionality. We’ve no idea if this is true or not, but hopefully we’ll find out in the next few months…

This above picture comes from Symbian Freak, a picture of the new Nokia Tube, which will be the first 5th generation S60 device with a touchscreen. This model should be available in early 2009, and will be a mid-spec model, with a high spec model shipping later next year. Having said that, the spec of it is still impressive; a high resolution screen, which is at least 3″ and 16:9 format, a camera (though unlikely to be 5 megapixel), a front facing camera for video calling, 3G, Bluetooth, WiFi, built in GPS (with geotagging support), all in a device roughly the size of the N73. It won’t, apparently, feature multi touch, but will have haptic feedback.

Information and picture courtesy of Symbian Freak.

Garmin have announced agreements with MapQuest and Google Maps to allow you to send trips and destinations direct from the MapQuest / Google Maps website to your Garmin GPS. For MapQuest, this will utilise the “Send to GPS” option which will become Garmin compatible sometime this month, whereas the function is already available from Garmin. This will use the Garmin Communicator Plugin, which is already in use on other websites, such as Geocaching.com to transfer information to Garmin GPS units. Not all devices support full trip (route) details being transferred to them, but all seem to support a single destination being sent.

Nokia has released details of it’s newest Internet Tablet, the N810 WME (WiMax Edition). Although it will only be available (for 2008 at least) in the US, it still brings some interesting features to the current range. It’s based on the N810, so still features the QWERTY keyboard and built in GPS added with the N810. On top of that, Nokia have added WiMax (which adds a little extra depth to the back of the unit to accommodate the WiMax antenna). Nokia have managed to keep the WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity options for when WiMax isn’t available (or you are at home /work, and want to utilise your own existing connections).

The most interesting features, though, come with the new version of the OS. This includes a number of bug fixes and an improved email client. However, it also features “Seamless Software Update” which Nokia claims to remove the need for periodic system updates. It’s not clear whether this is an automated version of the current Application Manager update process, or whether it’s similar to the User Data Preservation feature of some of the newer Nokia N-Series devices. The new OS should be available in the Summer for both the N800 and N810 devices.