GPS Technology Reviews for news, guides and reviews of GPS hardware, software and services including Handheld GPS, Outdoor GPS, GPS PDA, GPS Phones and Auto GPS Navigators

Location is a factor is business operations management and logistics decisions however, many customer records are in human readable addresses rather than in latitude and longitude coordinates which can be utilized by new GPS enabled business software. Geocoding is the process of converting human readable addresses to latitude and longitude coordinates.

Proxix Solutions has just launched PxPoint Online, a Web-based service that can accurately geocode files containing up to one hundred thousand customer records in a single batch process. The online solution eliminates the costs associated with purchasing and maintaining the hardware, software and data Quality data sources, such as NAVTEQ street data, are used.

PxPoint Online appends exact latitude and longitude coordinates to each record and corrects addresses to United States Postal Service (USPS) standards. PxPoint Online uses multiple data sets to improve geocoding accuracy.
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The Magellan RoadMate 6000T is a high-end GPS navigation unit with a 3.5″ display. Unlike many other vehicle navigation units, both the touch screen and buttons are used for navigation. The units GPS functions are powered by a SiRF Star III receiver which is highly regarded for its GPS performance. The 6000T has Bluetooth for hands-free phone calls and is Traffic enabled allowing users to avoid traffic delays using real-time traffic information. Also included is the popular text-to-speech functionality whereby street names are pronounced which Magellan call SayWhere.

Bluetooth

Bluetooth wireless technology allows the Magellan 6000T to connect to compatible mobile phones for hands-free phone calls using the built-in microphone and speaker. When connected, you are able to access your mobile phone’s address book through the Magellan 6000T for making calls.
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As discussed in our review of SiRF’s SiRFDiRect dead reckoning technology, Mio Technology, Ltd., has announced it’s new Mio A702 Smartphone with SiRFDiRect based Navsteadi(TM) high-precision navigation technology at Computex Taipei 2007. The dead reckoning technology incorporates acceleration sensors which provide dead reckoning data for greater navigational accuracy in weak GPS signal conditions. Previously this technology has only been available with expensive in-dash car GPS navigation systems.

GPS signal strength will improve when new next-generation, Boeing built, GPS Block IIF satellites with increased signal power are launched. The first is to be delivered next year.

The Mio A702 will have Windows Mobile 6 Pro, WiFi, Bluetooth, a MicroSD slot and a 3.2 megapixel camera. A firm specification is not available yet.

Image via newlaunches.

The Garmin Nuvi 200 and Nuvi 250 are portable GPS navigators aimed at providing the convenience of GPS navigation in or out of the car without breaking the budget. Both have a QVGA (320 x 240 pixels) antiglare TFT 3.5 inch (diagonal) color touchscreen display. Other useful features are a picture viewer, calculator, currency converter, unit converter and world clock.

The Garmin Nuvi 200 and Nuvi 250 have identical specifications except for the maps included. The nuvi 250 has preloaded detailed mapping of the entire United States (including Alaska and Hawaii), Canada and Puerto Rico. The nuvi 200 includes preloaded detailed mapping of the contiguous United States (lower 48), Hawaii and Puerto Rico. Garmin offer nuvi 200 series car GPS navigators with regional coverage for Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and Brazil. The regional coverage for Europe includes UK/Ireland, Nordics, Belgium/Netherlands/Luxembourg, France, Italy/Greece, Spain/Portugal, and Germany/Switzerland/Austria/Czech Republic. All maps are preloaded into internal memory allowing the unit to be used straight out of the box.

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The new Sony Ericsson HGE-100 GPS Enabler plugs into your phone to turn it into your own personal GPS navigation system. According to Sony Ericsson, the HGE-100 is the first personal GPS navigator to be built into a Stereo Portable Handsfree.

The HGE-100 was announced at the same time as the Sony Ericsson K530 - the first phone to be compatible with it. The HGE-100 is compatible with many recent Sony Ericsson mobile phones with Java support, including the popular K800 Cyber-shotâ„¢ phone.

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As with televisions, consumers are looking for wide screen displays for their navigation devices. Garmin has delivered wide screen with the Nuvi 200W and Nuvi 250W. Both have a bright, sunlight readable 4.3-inch color touchscreen display with WQVGA (480×272 pixels) resolution. Other useful features are a built-in picture viewer, calculator, currency converter, unit converter and world clock.

The Garmin Nuvi 200W and Nuvi 250W have identical specifications apart from the maps which are preloaded into internal memory for use straight out of the box. The nuvi 200W includes preloaded detailed mapping of the contiguous United States (lower 48), Hawaii and Puerto Rico. The nuvi 250W has preloaded detailed mapping of the entire United States (including Alaska and Hawaii), Canada and Puerto Rico. Garmin also offer nuvi 200-series products with regional specific coverage for Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and Brazil. The regional coverage for Europe includes UK/Ireland, Nordics, Belgium/Netherlands/Luxembourg, France, Italy/Greece, Spain/Portugal, and Germany/Switzerland/Austria/Czech Republic.

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Yahoo! Zurfer is a research prototype application from Yahoo! Research Berkeley which brings the location based photo browsing functionalities of Flicker to mobile devices.

Zurfer is ideal travel companion as it can show you photos that have been taken around your location providing an opportunity search Flickr and discover what local highlights there are to see. Its possible to access the latest photos posted by Flickr friends and check on comments on your own Flickr photos.

To use Yahoo! Zurfer you need a free Flickr account and a free Zonetag account. ZoneTag is another Yahoo! Research Berkeley application which simplifies geotagging of photos taken with cell phones and other mobile devices.

Zurfer has been tested on the N73, N95, N80, 6682 and N70 Nokia Series 60 v2 and v3 cell phones and the Motorola RAZR V3x. Yahoo! Research Berkeley believes it should work on most Nokia Series 60 v2 and v3 phones.

Yahoo! Zurfer is yet another example of the spread of GPS location based social networking services. Other GPS social networking services recently reviewed are:

• Loopt
• Ask Mobile GPS
• Geo Stories

Yahoo! Zurfer is a not a certified Yahoo! Application (yet) and its installation and use are at the risk of the user.

Garmin have released the free Garmin Communicator browser plugin which simplifies the transfer location data – such as waypoints, track logs, maps and points of interest (POIs) – to and from a website and Garmin device.

The plugin works with IBM-compatible PCs running Windows® 2000 or XP operating systems with Internet Explorer 6+ or Firefox 1.5+. Mac support is coming soon.

The Plugin can be downloaded from the Garmin website.

The world’s smallest, lowest cost dual-axis gyroscope for GPS portable navigation devices, the IDG-1004, has just been released by InvenSence Inc. Santa Clara, California based InvenSense manufactures integrated motion sensing solutions for mobile applications.

The IDG-1004 incorporates InvenSense’s MEMS technology of vertically driven, vibrating masses to provide a low-cost, dual-axis angular rate sensor. The sensor and electronics are integrated onto a single chip. The IDG-1004 improves dead reckoning accuracy through measuring vehicle direction with one gyroscope axis and terrain slope with the other.

Expensive GPS portable navigation systems use dead reckoning to provide uninterrupted positioning when GPS signal fixes are poor such as when obscured by tree foliage, tunnels or tall buildings. InvenSence’s small form factor dead reckoning solution will push this capability into more, smaller mobile portable navigation devices.

SiRF has introduced its new SiRFDiRect(TM) technology , which delivers to portable navigation devices the navigation accuracy and coverage which has previously only been available with expensive in-dash car GPS navigation systems.

The SiRFDiRect technology integrates the award-winning SiRFstarIII(R) architecture with low-cost, small footprint heading and acceleration sensors which provide dead reckoning data for greater navigational accuracy in weak GPS signal conditions. Significantly, SiRFDiRect technology allows considerable orientation flexibility without performance degradation. To ensure continuous optimum performance, the heading and acceleration sensors and continuously recalibrated by the closely coupled GPS/DR (Dead Reckoning) architecture of SiRFDiRect technology. (read more..)