GPS Obsessed

A December proposal by the European Commission to impose a 3.7 percent tax on GPS-enabled mobile phones and a 14 percent tax on mobile TV-enabled phones has been halted.  In a European Union Customs Committee Meeting earlier this week, the majority of EU countries voted to overturn the proposal as did the number one cellphone manufacturer in the world, Nokia, and Sony Ericsson.

The December proposal sought to reclassify mobile phones with GPS or TV receivers as “multi-functional devices,” a classification that would allow the import tax to be charged.  But with mobile phone sales expected to drop over the next 5 years, a tight economy and GPS receivers increasingly being built into mass market phones, the new classification would have undoubtedly hurt the industry.

Sooner than expected, T-Mobile’s myTouch 3G with Google will launch July 8 at a press event in New York City.  The same day, customers will be able to pre-order T-Mobile’s second Android smartphone though it appears even those won’t arrive until August 3 though I believe existing customers will get theirs on July 23.  Manufactured by HTC, the myTouch 3G with Google will be pre-loaded with all of the usual Google goods which will now include Latitude.  It’ll cost $199 with a 2-year contract.

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These two mobile internet devices from Inkia aren’t anything special but they both pack a handy GPS chip nonetheless.  One has a 5-inch screen while the other boasts a 7-inch display, both touchscreens and both with 800 x 480 pixel resolution.  Other common features include GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3G network support, 1 GB of RAM and 32 GB of solid state memory.

The 5-inch MID, which doesn’t have a name yet, comes in a variety of Intel Atom Z500 chip varieties ranging from 1.1 MHz and 1.6 MHz, while the 7-inch unnamed MID has a 945GSE/ICH7M chipset for its N270 Atom and also ships with a VIA CPU option.  The smaller and larger models also have differences in a few other specifications as well: microSD slot vs. SD/MMC slot, and a 1, 900 mAh lithium polymer battery vs. a 3, 000 lithium polymer battery.  Both have a 0.3-megapixel webcam while the 5-inch model also has a 3.2-inch digital camera.

Inkia hasn’t released pricing or availability dates for either MID, but don’t bet the house on either model coming to North America anytime in the near future.

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Apple has filed a trio of patent applications that indicate additional functionality for future iPhones.  Of most interest here is an application that covers the use of the iPhone’s touchscreen as an RFID reader.  The company has found a way to embed an RFID sensor in the phone’s touch panel, enabling it to read RFID tags.  RFID, or radio frequency identification, is often used for local asset tracking and could have some interesting applications in the area of augmented reality.

The other two patents also involve the touchscreen.  One application seems to indicate that Apple is considering adding some sort of haptic or tactile feedback to the touchscreens of future phones by including a “grid of piezoelectronic actuators” that can be turned on and off.  That way, for example, if a user is driving they’d be able to differentiate between different icons and functions by the tactile feel of the display.  Related is a third application that differentiates between different fingerprints so each can be used to initiate some sort of dedicated function when detected.  Like tactile feedback, an included fingerprint reader would be used to enable non-visual use of the touchscreen.

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In my opinion, the wide majority of laptops and netbooks that come to market in the next couple of years will either have a built-in GPS chip or be compatible with some sort of location aware add-on.  PC maker Dell seems to think this is a good bet too, announcing a new GPS kit for its Inspiron Mini 10 netbook.  A combination of hardware and software, the Dell Wireless 700 kit has a Broadcom GPS chip packaged with ALK Technologies’ popular CoPilot navigational software.

The Wireless 700 kit will be able to determine your location via Wi-Fi and GPS, while CoPilot will provide 2D and 3D maps and voice-guided turn-by-turn directions.  While a suggested price and launch date haven’t been announced yet, Dell’s Wireless 700 GPS kit will be able to run on any Inspiron Mini 10 netbook running Windows XP, Windows Vista, and when it’s released, Windows 7.

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Wireless carrier O2 will sell the Palm Pre exclusively in the United Kingdom, according to The Guardian.  Details regarding an availability aren’t known yet, but an official announcement is supposedly coming next week so we should know more than.  O2 has also grabbed an exclusive on the new iPhone 3GS, of which over 1 million were sold in its first 3 days on sale after being announced a couple of weeks ago.  Analysts believe about 300, 000 Pres have been sold, but online reviews of the new phone and its webOS operating system have been by and large quite positive.  It’ll be interesting to see how Palm and Apple’s new devices will compare in sales numbers when being offered by the same network.  Also keep an eye on Carphone Warehouse as the online shop will probably stock both phones as well.

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ALK Technologies has just launched an Android version of its popular CoPilot Live turn-by-turn GPS software.  Like its Windows Mobile and Symbian siblings, CoPilot for Android comes with a full database of maps which are stored on the phone, voice-guided directions, 3D maps, real-time traffic alerts, direct dialling to POIs, a safety camera database, and a new service called CoPilot LiveLink which allows you to share your location with friends.  Unfortunately all of this functionality doesn’t come for free.  The app will cost you $34.99.

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A collaboration between NASA and the Japanese trade ministry has resulted in the publication of the most comprehensive terrain map of the earth, ever.  Covering 99 percent of the earth, the Global Digital Elevation Map includes 1.3 million images with only 30 meters between each measured elevation point.  All of the images were taken by Japan’s Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (codenamed Aster) which resides aboard the Terra satellite.  Data users interested in using the data can download the entire data set from NASA.  The best previous topographical map of our planet, created by NASA’s Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, covered only 80 percent of the earth’s surface.

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The Slashdot forums have an interesting discussion currently happening regarding hackable GPS units.  There’s also a fair amount of chatter about beating people with keyboards and why mother-in-laws being driven off cliffs by faulty GPS devices is a good thing (if you’re looking for a laugh).  But there are some good resources for those looking to modify their navigators.

Really, anything that stores all of its files on an SD card is the easiest to modify because you just have to replace the files.  There isn’t any hacking or coding involved.  GPS navigators such as the Navigon 2100 would be good examples.  I also learned that there is quite a large Pioneer AVIC-hacking community at http://www.avic411.com and the open source Openmoko Freerunner is a popular choice for GPS hackers as well.

Have you ever modified a GPS navigator?  A TomTom or Garmin?  Please share!

Blackberry maker Research In Motion still hasn’t mentioned its acquisition of Dash Navigation publicly despite the story milling around on the web for almost a of month now.  Why is this?  According to some number crunching by Davis Freeberg, the secrecy may lay with RIM’s intentions for the navigation company.  While it’s assumed that Dash’s software will be integrated into the navigational component of Blackberry smartphones, Freeberg reveals that the real intention for the purpose could be nothing more than a tax cut for RIM.

By digging through RIM’s recent 6K filing (which doesn’t mention Dash by name), Freeberg was able to derive a final $8.3 million purchase price for Dash.  Peanuts when you consider the company raised 3 rounds of financing worth $71 million.  But while that amounts to an 88 percent loss for investors, RIM grabbed a $26 million tax credit for the purchase giving the company a return of over 300 percent.  And that’s without doing anything.  As Freeberg points out, hopefully this isn’t the only reason RIM went for the hot deal because it would be a shame to see Dash’s technology go to waste.