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The ASUS R50A Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC) was recently announced as an honoree for the 2008 International CES (Consumer Electronics Show) Best of Innovations Design and Engineering Awards in the Computer Hardware category. ASUS was well represented with the R50A sharing honors with the very new and extremely popular, low cost PC, the Eee PC and the P527 GPS cell phone.

According to ASUS’s news release, the ASUS R50A comes with GPS, 3G / 3.5G connectivity, TV tuner, webcam, microphone and full notebook functionality. It’s a step up from the PDA platform without going to the form factor of a notebook computer. To achieve the ultra mobile tag there is no QWERTY keypad rather relying on a 4.8 inch, 1024 X 600 pixel resolution touchscreen combined with ASUS’s InfoPen software for data entry. The R50A’s size is similar to some of the larger screen car navigation GPS devices available.

ASUS’s R50A ultra mobile computing platform integrating Internet connectivity with GPS capability is a move towards a future including GPS connected navigation devices. With an expected rapid rise in LBS (Location Based Services), GPS devices will become more find and navigate devices rather than navigation devices. Points of Interest from a static database will no longer be acceptable to consumers expecting dynamically updated location based search results.

GPS devices without Internet connectivity are on a path to extinction. You only have to look at Nokia’s recent strategic purchase of Navteq as evidence of corporate acceptance of the bright future for connected navigation devices.

It is not just LBS that will boost the demand for products like the ASUS R50A. Consumers will expect location aware software applications as well. For example, address books will be expected to be location aware even in real time if someone has agreed to ongoing sharing of their location with you.

The roll out rate for new location based services and software is set to jump dramatically due a number of factors such as:

• the rapid proliferation of GPS enabled devices
• reduced development times and easier deployment of location based software applications stemming from the release of multiple phone and carrier programming platforms such as the one recently released by uLocate
• the maturing and simplifying of GPS applications as evidenced by examples such as WHERE, the world’s first wireless GPS widget platform

We are on the edge of a rapid phase of development with expectations like those from market analyst Strategy Analytics prediction of the LBS market growing from some 200 million dollars in 2006 to 1.2 billion in 2011. It’s time for all manufacturers to start looking at what mobile connected computing platforms, such as the ASUS R50A, consumers will be looking for in the near future.

Further Reading

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

Technorati Tags: ASUS R50A, Ultra Mobile PC, UMPC, GPS, 3G / 3.5G connectivity, TV tuner, webcam, ASUS’s InfoPen software, ultra mobile computing, location based services

Going with the premise that constant travelers are always keen to reduce what they have to pack by “one less thing”, Deluo have developed the crossover USB powered optical mouse with an in-built GPS receiver. The Deluo GPSMouse will provide location awareness for any software running on the laptop or any Internet location based services. For convenience it comes with a rectractable USB for easy stowing in a laptop carry bag.

The Atmel ATR0635 (ANTARIS 4) compares well with other GPS receivers even matching the well regarded and widely used SiRF StarIII for tracking and acquisition sensitivity. The unit should operate quite well even in weak GPS signal areas such as city centers.

The Deluo DPSMouse is very reasonably priced laptop GPS enabler and is available on Amazon with the option to bundle it with Microsoft Streets and Trips mapping and navigation software.
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Technorati Tags: Deluo, GPS, Deluo GPSMouse, Atmel ATR0635

Garmins GPS 18 is designed to turn a laptop PC into a GPS navigation device. Included with the GPS receiver are nRoute and MapSource City Navigator software packages which will provide turn-by-turn navigation directions through a laptop. Set up includes installing the navigation and map data software and connecting the GPS 18 receiver to the USB (or serial) port. City Navigator is available with a North America or Europe DVD depending on the location. Destinations can be looked up by entering addresses or points of interest (POI).

The GPS receiver is an accurate 12 channel, WAAS enabled receiver with an integrated magnetic base less than three inches in diameter.

Technorati Tags: Garmins GPS 18, nRoute, MapSource City Navigator, WAAS