GPS

It happens to us all the time too: Jet over to Paris or Milan for a shopping weekend, and you have no idea where to start. Well fear not, for help is on the way.

Mio, maker of pocket PC and GPS devices, has a new personal travel assistant that comes preinstalled with "vital shopping data" such as size conversions and foreign measurements, as well as an MP3 player, games and the necessary satellite guidance to satisfy all your designer needs. The Mio H610, which has a 2.7-inch touch screen, also has three interchangeable covers and sells … Read more

There are several very interesting location-recording Web sites right now, like Platial, 43 Places, Wayfaring and Flagr. They all record locations and let you tell a story about them. EveryTrail, a new site in early development, adds a wrinkle: It will record your path between waypoints, not just the stops you make.

Why would you want this? To record a favorite hike or bike ride, perhaps. This site lets you share your route with others, for those trips where the point is the traveling.

EveryTrail requires that you have a way to record your movements, of course. You'll need … Read more

PALO ALTO, Calif.--While it sounds like a traveling magic show, Mobile Augmented Reality is actually the future of how we'll access information on our wireless phones.

Though researchers around the world have been developing the technology for a decade, Nokia gave us a peek at its foray into the field Thursday when it opened its Nokia Research Center (NRC) in Palo Alto, Calif. And yes, it is a little bit magical.

Combining mobile cameras, GPS, orientation sensors and wireless devices, mobile augmented reality lets a device capture an image of a location, like San Francisco's Union Square, … Read more

Pioneer is using this week's SEMA show in Las Vegas to launch the AVIC D3, its latest in-dash DVD-based navigation/entertainment system. The D3 improves on the D2 by incorporating some of the features of Pioneer's flagship AVIC Z-1 hard-drive-based system and by adding some extra features of its own. Upgrades to the D2 include an increased range of multimedia options, such as video-playback capabilities (both regular DVD and DivX compressed video formats supported), as well as the ability to play streamed audio via the A2DP Bluetooth profile. With optional add-ons, the unit will also play iPods and … Read more

The new Lowrance iWay 600c is one bad mamma jamma of a GPS device. Yeah, it offers all the navigation basics, such as turn-by-turn, text- and voice-guided directions and points of interest, but it can also overlay satellite imagery onto the maps. Plus, it has a large, 5-inch, 640x480-pixel resolution touch screen; a 30GB internal hard drive; marine mode; and an MP3 player. Rad, huh? Well wait, here's some bad news. The satellite imagery is available only in select U.S. and Canadian metropolitan cities, so if you live in say, Beaconsfield, Iowa, chances are you won't be … Read more

Nokia is the latest consumer-electronics firm to use GPS to follow the money. The Finnish cell-phone maker today announced its entrance into the red-hot car-navigation market with the unveiling of its Nokia 330 Auto Navigation system, which will rely on digital maps from US-based Navteq, rather than those from Tele Atlas found in the new Nokia N95 phone.

The Nokia 330 is expected to compete directly with higher-end GO devices from TomTom, but the list of potential rivals and devices in the GPS market, especially in Europe, is growing all the time. Last week, Dual Electronics, a company traditionally associated … Read more

Car stereo-maker Dual is on the trail of the likes of Magellan, TomTom, and Garmin with the release of its second portable GPS navigation system. The XNAV3550 uses Navigon navigation software, features a 3.5 inch TFT touch screen display, and is preloaded with maps of the United States, including nearly 2 million points of interest. The unit, which will retail for $499, also comes with a range of multimedia playback options, including the ability to play MP3s and movies, and to view JPG photos. All navigation and media data is stored on the XNAV3550's 1GB SD media card, … Read more

Well, Cingular's just having a field day today. In addition to announcing the availability of the long-awaited HP iPaq hw6920, the cell phone carrier launched its first location-based service, called TeleNav GPS Navigator, for its business and government customers. The service costs $9.99 per month for unlimited use (or $5.99 per month for up to 10 trips) and provides text- and voice-guided turn-by-turn directions and color maps so that you don't miss that important client meeting. In addition to the standard nav features, there are some extra handy tools, including a Biz Finder for searching local … Read more

So if I'm to believe the Japanese, I'm supposed to let this scary, strung-out Snuggles look-alike guide me to my next destination? Umm, yeah...no, thank you. For one thing, look at it! I don't want this frightening critter sitting on my dash, looking back at me. And what exactly is that thing in the middle of its forehead? (A colleague seems to think it's his mystical third eye.) Secondly, I don't think this GPS-enabled teddy bear from Navirobo would be much help. Instead of giving you voice-guided, turn-by-turn instructions, it raises its furry, little … Read more