NAVTEQ LBS Finalists

NAVTEQ and TeleAtlas are constantly running these searches for LBS applications that rock out world, and for good reason. There's a lot of cool work going on out there. Some not so amazing, and some really amazing.

Here's the current list of finalists:

The winners will be announced at an Awards Ceremony on Sunday, 14 February in Barcelona, Spain. The finalists for the NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge in the EMEA region are:

* IOTO International Inc. (www.ioto.ca), Canada: WHAXI lets you hail a taxi to your GPS location with a push of a button.
* Livecontacts (www.livecontacts.com), The Netherlands: Livecontacts Mobile offers assurance, safety and security anywhere in the world through a unique set of features, including real-time tracking of mobile phones and GPS trackers.
* M2Mobi (www.m2mobi.com), The Netherlands: Nulaz is a social information source that allows you to see where people, places and events are located around you.
* Mobile Agreements GmbH (www.mogree.com), Austria: With Mogree™, you can interact with people around you who share your interests--talk to existing friends and meet new people.

ZorroGPS® (www.zorrogps.com), China: ZorroGPS LIVE comes with 16 live navigation services on SIM PNDs and mobile phones, including Europe or North America NAVTEQ maps, all at a low price.

If you only have time to check out two, I like the nulaz/m2Mobi concept and the Yoose idea. WHile both have been talked about, I like the Yoose idea the best. There has to be a better way of managing all of those shopper cards, discounts and coupons that come my way. How about if Grocery store #1 knew that I liked Grocery store #2 also - let the bidding war commence and see what coupons they might throw my way this coming week. Sick of coupons? How about the App knows that I subscribe to the Sunday Newspaper and all of those coupons that come already get loaded automatically in my "account"?

Read More in: GPS News

Scott Martin Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This |

Garmin Nuvi 285WT - $99 Deal of the Day

The Garmin Nuvi 285WT is a full featured widescreen GPS that offers text-to-speech, bluetooth hands free, and for a while, access to MSN Direct's load of features including traffic, weather, movie times, local gas prices and more. The downside here is that MSN Direct is stopping in January 2012, making the MSN direct features short-lived. The upside is that the unit itself is a solid unit, offering a lot of capability at this price - widescreen GPS navigation with Bluetooth.

At Amazon - Garmin Nuvi 285WT - for $99

Read More in: GPS Rebates and Sales

Scott Martin Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This |

Glu GPS Game on the iPhone: 1,000: Find Em All

Came across this; looks like fun. Glu Games has released a new game that is made for the iPod Touch and the iPhone where it uses the GPS to bring you on an adventure game. The game allows you to hunt down collectible things that must somehow appear on the map around your location. Collect them all and win..... a pat on the back, I guess.

So, there is of course a regular walkabout type game play for the folk on an iPod touch, but you have to admit it has got to be a lot more fun grabbing these items as you walk around with the iPhone looking for a special item like the Bogey; part of the Gross collection.

Available at iTunes - 1000: Find em all (itunes link)

More at the Glu Website

Read More in: GPS News

Scott Martin Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This |

Garmin Nuvifone M10 - GPS Smartfone

Garmin is releasing its third smartphone in the line, and from the looks here, a much improved version of the previous ones. It will be loaded with the windows mobile operating system and have a 3.5-inch touchscreen. With 4GB of internal memory and up to 32GB of optional microSD card capacity, the phone will be primed for plenty of photos through its 5 megapixel camera. Of course because it's a Garmin, the photos will be automatically tagged with the location that they were taken through the automatic geoencoding.

Read More in: Garmin GPS News | Mobile Phone GPS

Scott Martin Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This |

GPS Based Pothole Patrol - Now Crowdsourced

Good little article in the Boston Globe today highlighting an iPhone App that allows users to take a picture of potholes, and other items that have fallen into disrepair and shoot the geoencoded picture over to City Hall. It's called Citizens Connect (iTunes link).

The idea is not new, and several cities have done one, as well as CitySourced, another App with some similar features that spans several cities. In Boston, after the image and details of the problem is received, the message is automatically routed to the local maintenance facility for dispatch. Unlike a kids video game, the crew doesn't shoot out of the garage immediately, but they do get to most issues in a 5-day turn around time.

More at Boston Globe

Read More in: GPS News

Scott Martin Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This |

TomTom Ease GPS; Simple Navigation - Now Shipping

The TomTom Ease, announced at CES, is now shipping from Amazon, available in a Red bezel. The Ease offers a redesigned interface to put a lot of information at your fingertips, with a quick Plan Route and Browse Map pair of icons to make the decision process pretty easy. I mean how many people start up the GPS and right away think, "Hey, I want to change the map color scheme?" Not many - almost everyone wants to see where they are or program in where to go.

There are other smart icons at the bottom, including flipping to a night view (or back to day view) and an options button where you can play with settings.

At Amazon the TomTom EASE

Read More in: TomTom GPS News

Scott Martin Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This |

TomTom ONE 130 - $79

The TomTom ONE 130 is a pretty basic GPS navigator with the guts of a TomTom, and a limited but very functional feature set. Offering maps of the US and Canada, solid routing, and a set of TomTom branded features like Help Me! - the quick way to see critical location information in an emergency, MapShare - their way of sharing crowdsourced map fixes, and the EasyPort mount - a foldable mount that makes sticking the GPS into a purse, briefcase or gove compartment a lot easier.

The TomTom 130 is $79 at Best Buy plus about $7 shipping. For comparison, you can get the TomTom ONE 130 at Amazon
for $89 with free shipping.

Read More in: GPS Rebates and Sales

Scott Martin Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This |

SkyCsddie SGX with Club Tracking - SmartClub

SkyCaddie announced a new Golf GPS, the SkyCaddie SGX, with a pretty cool new feature that allows you to embed a wireless chip in the butt end of your club so that Sky Caddie knows when you remove a club from your bag - giving it total awareness well ahead of your deathbed (required reference to CaddyShack).

With the SkyCaddie GPS tracking, awareness of what club you are playing, the SkyCaddie will be able to help profile each club to give you stats on how well you hit each club, allowing you to again choose the right club for the job. Sure you might know how far you are to the front of the green with a Golf GPS, but you might be lying to yourself about how far you can hit that 7-iron. This automated featue allows you to play the round, undistracted, getting a better dataset, and therefore offering you better results.

The SmartClub capability is expected to roll out later this year. SkyCaddie SGX will be available at most golf shops nationwide in April 2010. SmartClub Technology with SGX SmartClub Tags is expected to be available by June 2010. Suggested retail price for the SkyCaddie SGX is $399.95. Pricing for SmartClub Technology with SGX SmartClub Tags will be released at a later date.

Full Press Release below....

Continue reading: "SkyCsddie SGX with Club Tracking - SmartClub"

Read More in: Golf GPS

Scott Martin Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This |

On the iPad - Stupidest Thing to Ever Come out of the NYT?

OK, so I missed on the name - iPad not iTablet, but yes I was excited to see that the new Apple iPad will be running the Navigation Apps that are in the App store. The NYT Blog is asking the question if the iPad - at $800 will be the final nail in the GPS coffin....um, have you checked the weather outside? We're fresh off a recession with the forecast for a slow recovery. Not too many people are going to be buying these things at that price compared with a $100 GPS that works really well. Engaging headline? Yes. Intelligent assertion? No.

Is the standalone GPS future solid for certain or will mobile smart phones take over? Not really sure, but I am pretty certain that an $800 Apple product isn't going to kill the GPS market overnight, or even in a few years; there will be other factors at work that will make the GPS market change dramatically without the influence of the iPad.

Read More in: GPS News

Scott Martin Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This |

New Apple GPS with 10-inch screen?

It's no secret that Apple is going to announce some form of an iTablet today, that will, according to Steve Job's hopes, revolutionize the media market. With a 10-inch screen and the fact that it will buy and use Apps from the iTunes Apps store to run on its version of the iPhone OS, one has to wonder if it will in fact run a navigation program.

With Location Based services all the rage these days, you would hope that Apple has the foresight to add a GPS chip to the thing, so why wouldn't TomTom, Navigon, Co-Pilot Live, and others run on the iTablet device? I am sure there are a lot of reasons, but I want to see it happen.

Read More in: Mobile Phone GPS

Scott Martin Permalink | Comments (1) | Email This |

TomTom Chief - Good Margins Ahead

Quick post - TomTom CEO was quoted recently indicating that margins are still reasonably strong and that the TeleAtlas investment is starting to payoff, as margins for standalone units are about 40% while the mapping licenses are at about 50%. You have to be relieved at this last part - it wasn't long ago that a lot of people thought that TomTom was dead in the water and barely squeaking by under the burden of debt that the TeleAtlas deal brought.

ReadMore on TomTom

Read More in: TomTom GPS News

Scott Martin Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This |

Global Shipping Routes Mapped by GPS

Check out Wired to see a map of global shipping routes collected over a year's time and mapped by GPS.

Too bad this isn't mapped onto Google maps with the ability to zoom in on the individual routes. The map isn't detailed enough to plan your pirate attacks, but maybe that's a good thing.

At Wired

Read More in: GPS News

Scott Martin Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This |

Nokia Free Navigation on Mobile Too - So What?

Nokia announced on Thursday that they will be offering free navigation capabilities on their smart phones too after the same announcement rocked the GPS standalone world when Google offered their innovative navigation App on Android phones.

"So, What?" you ask. Nokia isn't in the US, Navigation on smart phones stink anyway? this might just be the tipping point for the mobile phone and stand alone GPS world.

Big Share Player Goes to Free Navigation - Nokia has a huge share of the mobile phone market globally, especially in Europe, maybe someone can dig that up and post it below. Google has a reasonable share in the US of the smart phone market and growing fast. Between the two, they will start to rival Apple and the iPhone's share. While Apple isn't known for following, they might just fold in a Navigation program for free to blunt competition's point of differentiation.

Free Navigation? - It costs money to get maps, but you could crowdsource them like WAZE does, or pay for services with ads on the GPS like Garmin does.

Phone Based Navigation Comes of Age - I was impressed and continue to be impressed by the navigation capabilities that can be crammed onto my iPhone. The screen is passable for its size, and the program features surpass entry level devices. With the buildt-in internet connection advanced features can be more easily created. Advanced search, traffic flow data, pre-loaded maps, easy connection to my address book, text to speech? Yes, they are all in there. these aren't the basic days of the early version Verizon VZ Navigator; this is advanced stuff.

Apple Buys a GPS Player? - Maybe this user experience needs to be owned by Apple in order to create a more innovative capability? There are a dozen reasons to think not, but as Apple and Google start to square off, the move might make more and more sense. TomTom? - if the stand alone market is going to die, do you really want a to buy a leader in the space? They might have a lock on a lot of the technologies that are helping build a better GPS: Map provider TeleAtlas, a large installed base of units for historical speed collection, and more importantly the technology to deal with the data. Companies are already collecting GPS probe data from iPhones like Inrix to help create their ever more detailed maps of traffic situations. Apple could buy a well known phone navigation provider that can dovetail well into their system, like TeleNav who also displays the complex innovative technology to fold a lot of into into cars- like on the new Ford Sync platform.

Death of the Stand Alone GPS? - I think not, at least for now. While people are predicting the dire end of the stand alone GPS, I don't see it for a while. So while everyone might jump on the smart phone navigation bandwagon, smart phones still have a low market share in the US; hovering in the 20 - 30% range. So, for about 60+ million US households they aren't even a player. So while smart phone owners may have been early adopters of the $1,000 Nuvi when it was introduced, they have moved on but with the advent of $100 GPS units, a whole new market has developed. Until the smartphone plans are affordable by a majority of the population, the standalone GPS will be around. Now that may only be the next major market shift away, but I expect it's still a ways off from here.

Read More in: GPS News

Scott Martin Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This |

Trimble - Keeping Fit with Mobile Phones

Trimble continues to keep the product cycle moving with recent upgrades on the Android platform with their Outdoors product (Press release below), while continuing to iterate on the iPhone App too. The idea of being able to track your training can be of great value that in my opinion deserves more widespread use. I know a lot of runners who travel a lot on business and die for that insight into where to run and what to do when in a different city each week.

Trimble not only tracks your progress with a set of dashboards and uploads them to your account wirelessly. not only can you keep track on your phone, but if you need to you can also turn to them for inspiration on where to workout - hundreds of thousands of saved routes for you to choose from helping you to keep in shape.

The latest capabilities include

• Best-of-class out-of-network GPS capability - Users can now count on having a digital guidebook of their content, including maps, photos, trip directions and other information, almost anywhere and even out of network. Trimble Outdoors helps users navigate their way on new excursions and gives superior tools to stay on track.
• Multi-media capability - User can journal activities by capturing pictures, videos, and voice recordings. Share the adventure with friends and family or with all users on the Trimble Outdoors Web site or using the Trimble Outdoors Facebook application.
• Easy user interface - From the weekend hiker to the avid backpacker, Trimble Outdoors on the Android platform is extremely easy to use. All activities and functionalities are activity-centric and designed to help users get started quickly.
• Online content - Users can directly access content from the trimbleoutdoors.com Web site right from the phone. Powerful search functions provide direct access to thousands of professionally edited adventures in the user's area or wherever their travels take them.

More at Trimble Outdoors

Press Release on Android Platform upgrade below.....

Continue reading: "Trimble - Keeping Fit with Mobile Phones"

Read More in: Mobile Phone GPS

Scott Martin Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This |

Garmin Nuvi 1490TV - Yes TV on the Garmin - Just Not in US

Garmin announced that they are launching the Nuvi 1490TV, a widescreen GPS with built in DVB-T television receiver to grab over the air signals in countries other than the US.... like most of Europe. The idea of jamming a TV receiver into a GPS isn't new, but it's news for Garmin who is adding the capability to a unit that has a lot going for it already. With the 5.0-inch widescreen, text to speech, and Bluetooth handsfree capabilities it starts to feel high end.

Watching TV while Driving down the motorway? Not quite - Garmin staved off those plans by configuring the unit to not show TV while moving. Hey, it's a GPS, it should know this type of stuff.

It goes on sale in the Spring and will cost 299 Euro or about $425.

Full press release below.......

Continue reading: "Garmin Nuvi 1490TV - Yes TV on the Garmin - Just Not in US"

Read More in: Garmin GPS News

Scott Martin Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This |