Navigon's MobileNavigator app continues to improve with features like text-to-speech and location sharing.
For the second time in as many months, Navigon has released an update to its MobileNavigator GPS app. The big news this time? Text-to-speech.
Since MobileNavigator debuted in late July, the App Store has grown crowded with competitors, including CoPilot Live, iGo My Way, and TomTom.
But not one of them offers the coveted text-to-speech feature (yet), which announces actual street names instead of just saying "turn right ahead."
MobileNavigator 1.2.0 adds that highly desirable capability--along with a few others. A new integrated iPod control provides one-tap access to your media library. A new location-sharing feature lets you e-mail your location, an address, or a point of interest. (If the recipient is also a MobileNavigator user, the attached link fires up the app with the destination already programmed in.)
Finally, the update includes automatic switching (based on time and location) between day and night modes. In other words, if it starts getting dark out, the app will switch to a less-glaring map view. Nice!
One other noteworthy change: It appears Navigon has settled on $89.99 as the price for MobileNavigator--$10 less than was originally planned. That's nice, but it's still higher than iGo ($79.99) and CoPilot ($34.99).
Also, real-time traffic updates are still MIA. While you're waiting on that, check out the Inrix Traffic app, which I've found to be an excellent road companion.
For the moment, the arrival of text-to-speech gives MobileNavigator an edge over competing GPS apps. If you've tried some or all of them, hit the comments to let me know which navigator you like best--and why.
(Credit:
Pharos)
Pharos announced on Thursday the immediate availability of its latest GPS-enabled smartphone, the Pharos Traveler 137. The Traveler 137 will be sold unlocked through various online retailers, including Amazon, Dell, eXpansys, and Newegg, for $599.95, though you can receive a $250 discount if you sign up for a two-year T-Mobile contract through Pharos.
First introduced at CES 2009, the Traveler 137 is a bit unlike other GPS-enabled smartphones in that you can use its navigation software without a cellular connection. The smartphone ships with Pharos' Smart Navigator software with the vector map and routing calculations, so you'll be able to view maps, create routes, and get turn-by-turn directions at any time.
In addition, the Traveler 137 offers a 3.5-inch, VGA touch screen; a 3-megapixel camera; Bluetooth; Wi-Fi; and support for T-Mobile's 3G network (1700/1900/2100MHz). We'll be getting one in for review and putting it through the usual testing, so stay tuned for a full review.
Though light on bells and whistles, the Pharos Drive 200 offers a 4-inch screen and text-to-speech.
(Credit: Pharos)If you're in the market for a GPS, I highly recommend one with a 4-inch-wide screen. Sure, you can save a few bucks on a square 3.5-incher, but those seem downright tiny in comparison.
Because a smaller screen is harder to see, you're likely to have to steal more glances at it--which means less time focused on the road. Nav systems are distracting enough as it is, so do yourself a favor and splurge on one that's easier on the eyes.
Actually, forget splurging: Dell has the Pharos Drive 200 wide-screen GPS on sale for just $58.49. Shipping is free, but be sure to apply coupon code VBGH?K188CBWMC at the checkout page.
This is a fairly bare-bones GPS, with no traffic updates or Bluetooth or anything like that. But it does offer text-to-speech, arguably the most valuable feature when it comes to actual navigation.
What's more, it has a list price of $149.95, meaning Dell's deal is saving you a bundle. However, some users have indicated that the 200's maps are about 18 months out of date, and Pharos says there won't be an update until late 2009 or early 2010. On the plus side, it does appear registered users will be able to get it for free.
What's more, this is a new unit, not a refurb, and you don't have to wait around on a rebate. Pretty smokin' deal on a wide-screen GPS, IMHO.
Entecho's flying saucer could give the Parajet Skycar and Terrafugia's flying car a run for their money.
(Credit: Entecho)Ever since I had my first taste of an English Channel crossing on a hovercraft and puking my guts out, it's been a mighty long wait to see a more personal form of flying saucer materialize for public use. Now, thanks to Entecho, we could someday join the Jetsons zipping around in a world teeming with air cars.
Aside from wondering if these are as fun as bumper cars at carnivals if one accidentally knocks another flying pod off its axis, Entecho's application utilizes fan-forced flight. Huge hidden blades spin to give the craft lift, with the skirt around it providing directional manipulation. More on its intriguing takeoff technology here.
According to specs, this Aussie initiative can hover up to 5 feet above ground, cruise at a maximum speed of 75 mph, has a range of just under 2 miles, and can seat three comfortably. Of course, this is still in the development stage, though by the time it emerges from its cocoon, the Entecho Hoverpod should be more than ready to deploy solar or even fuel cell technology to power its flight.
(Source: Crave Asia via Gizmag)
I've owned a variety of automobiles in my lifetime, but one of the few that holds a special place in my heart to this very day was my old 1988 Lincoln Town Car (or as I used to call it "The Stinkin' Lincoln"). It was in no shape or form sedan-like: I'm talking about one of those big, boat-like cars with gas-guzzling 5.0 V8 engines that are sort of like a poor man's Cadillac. My Lincoln was white with plush, white leather interior and the fancy-looking wood grain. The feeling I got driving that Town Car was similar to what I imagine pioneering a spaceship would be like - it felt almost like you were floating as opposed to driving. It was a smooth ride to say the least.
The Lincoln has changed a lot in the last 20 years. The modern Lincoln resembles a sedan more so than a boat on land nowadays. And the modern Lincoln is also hip to GPS navigation technology, which brings us to the video that I've cued up for your viewing pleasure.
This vid features the 2009 Lincoln MKS sedan. The highlight of this video is the examination of the Sync Navigation System as found in the MKS beginning at the :40 second mark. The hard-drive based Sync Navigation is touchscreen driven, although it can also work via voice recognition as well. Sync has many bells and whistles, with such features as USB & Bluetooth connectivity, and it is satellite connected via Sirius Travel Link to provide passengers with everything from weather forecasts to sports results. This baby can even rip music to its hard drive for your listening pleasure as well. And the ride itself...well, it still looks pretty damn smooth to me. Long live the Stinkin' Lincoln! Cheers.
Pharos Traveler 137 GPS smartphone unveiled
Pharos Traveler 137
(Credit: Pharos)Getting a jump start on CES 2009, location-based provider Pharos officially introduced on Tuesday the Pharos Traveler 137 smartphone, a Windows Mobile 6.1-based handset with integrated GPS and navigation software. The unlocked, quad-band GSM phone will be available late in the first quarter for $599.95 and has been awarded a 2009 CES Innovation award for its navigation solution.
The Pharos Traveler 137 ...
Read the full post at CNET's CES 2009 blog.
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Online travel communications retailer Telestial has just launched Travel Journal, an online service that automatically creates an online trip journal based on the location of the user's phone. Using a special SIM card that triangulates the user's location using cell phone towers, Travel Journal automatically updates in more than 100 countries.
Travel Journal plots the traveler's location on a Google map
(Credit: Telestial)Trip data is displayed on a Google map and a journal is created with images of locations visited by the traveler, local weather, and a record of recent communications. Users can manually update their journal by sending text messages or photos to the Travel Journal site.
As the journal is created, family and friends can view and make comments about journal posts online. Privacy settings ("private," "family and friends" and "public") give travelers control over who can access their journal. Viewers of the journal can also see if the journaling phone is on, send text messages, and recharge minutes using a credit card.
This service could be especially fun for people planning road trips or international travel. If the system works as advertised, it will allow users to enjoy their travel, instead on focusing on chronicling it.
Travel Journal is free and is included with the purchase of all Telestial international phone packages or SIM cards.
Although we saw the Lincoln MKS at its debut at the 2007 Los Angeles auto show, and again at the 2008 Detroit show, we got our first chance to get up close and personal with the navigation system during the 2008 New York auto show. Lincoln's new, big luxury cruiser not only includes Ford Sync, the system that lets you voice command your phone and MP3 player, it also has Sirius Travel Link, which gives useful information such as traffic, gas prices, weather, and movie listings.
The Eco-Earth Yacht displays wind turbines and solar panels.
This classic Airstream trailer outfitted with off-the-grid features got people thinking back to the future at the 18th Bioneers conference this weekend. The sustainability convention in San Rafael, Cal., brings together "bio-pioneers" including scientists, artists, clean tech investors and nonprofit activists.
The 22-foot Safari model, circa 1958, incorporates a composting toilet, wind turbine and solar panels. It has bamboo floors, trimmings and cabinet skins as well as an Alaskan yellow cedar couch bed. Countertops are recycled stainless steel and the bathroom floors are marboleum, derived from flax oil.
From the bed-couch inside, you can peer out of a window or up at a skylight.
Owner Tim Blair, who runs a green design consulting firm, offers a few restored "Eco-Earth Yachts" for sale or rent. He has shown them off at events including Burning Man and SolFest. He hopes to repurpose the streamlined trailers as mobile learning, communications and medical "command centers."
Towing an Airstream around the country may be less than green if hitched to a gasoline-powered car, but the trailers have come to symbolize efficient, vintage design. Visionary Buckminster Fuller owned one. Trendy Airstream trailers can fetch many tens of thousands of dollars from loyal devotees.
The kitchen and bathroom are efficient, naturally.
People are converting trailers into eco-friendly abodes and using them as components in modular homes.
Stewart Brand, who founded the Whole Earth Catalog and The Well online community, said at Bioneers that trailer homes deserve to lose their stigma, because dense, urban communities like trailer parks can make ideal centers for sustainable development.
Brand lives in a houseboat in Sausalito, Cal. Many of his neighbors have stayed for decades in the waterfront community because they view their dwellings as homes rather than investments, he said. Prices for houseboats, like trailers, don't tend to rise at the same speed as real estate.
