Techplore.com

TomTom has launched a new sat nav that drops a few of the more advanced TomTom features in exchange for a lower price tag. With a simplified menu, the TomTom Start is aimed at motorists just looking for a bit of a hand getting from A to B as quickly as possible. This means you’ll get the TomTom IQ Routes which will judge the fastest way to get to your destination, while Map Share will allow users to share map corrections so you never get stuck up the wrong street. Continue reading…

We’d heard whispers about it before but the Nokia Booklet 3G, Nokia’s first netbook has just been unwrapped. The 10-in Nokia Booklet 3G will feature 3G (as the name suggests) as well as HSDPA and WiFi. It’s powered by an Intel Atom processor and weighs in at 1.25kg. The smooth aluminium shell of the Nokia Booklet 3G also hides a few more tricks with HDMI for HD video out, a front facing camera so you can gawp at your friend during video calls, Bluetooth and an SD card reader. Continue reading…

As if we already don’t know enough! Soon Twitter will be overloading you with another piece of information, the “location” of your tweets.

GPS is getting increasingly integrated into our lives, and has had some brilliant applications in cameras and mobiles, by providing location sensitive services we couldn’t have thought of before. No longer do we associate the GPS with noble causes such as finding your way out of a desert. No, today we can use the GPS to crash parties by seeing how many of our friends collect  in a single location on Google Latitude. Continue reading…

Pioneer has made two new additions to its Navgate integrated entertainment and sat nav systems, with the AVIC-F310BT and AVIC-F910BT.

Both models provide maps in 2D or 3D, real traffic information up to 93 miles away, and the ability to store up to 400 contacts from your phone to make and answer calls handsfree using your car’s speakers. Continue reading…

Aside from Mio’s Knightrider design and Becker’s Ferrari-red Traffic Assist Pro, sat-navs have long been the squares of the tech world. But thanks to bonkers Russian design studio Art Lebedev, a new concept is showing them a curvaceous future.

The slightly pompously-named Navigarius GPS might be a way off production – possibly years, judging by the Optimus keyboard – but it’s a welcome piece of alternative thinking in a market whose design juices are a little parched. Continue reading…

TomTom refuses to rest on its market-share laurels, and so we have another iteration of the best-selling and award-winning Go range. This 740 is the middle of three x40 versions, and gets UK and European maps. The 540 has UK maps, with the option to pick-and-mix European maps at extra cost. The range-topping 940 adds North American maps for the more serious globe-trotter.

Real-time traffic updates
The LIVE in the name refers to a SIM card built into the device that offers up some new functionality – real-time connection to TomTom’s new HD Traffic, as well as safety camera updates, Google Local Search services, such as added POIs and fuel prices. These services are free for three months from purchase, and £7.99 a month thereafter. Continue reading…

Aging systems can’t pinpoint some users when they need help the most

Nearly all modern cell phones can transmit your location, but not all 911 centers can use the information.

Donnie and Sharon Leutjen and their 15-year-old granddaughter, Taron Leutjen, were found June 9. They had been shot to death, and their bodies had lain in their home in Cole Camp, Mo., for about two days.

Authorities know approximately when the Leutjens were shot because they got a 911 call on the night of June 7.

On the tape of the call — which investigators examined after the worried inquiries of someone who knew the family led to the bodies’ discovery — “one of the male voices was directing Sharon Leutjen to sit down (and) put her arms behind her,” the sheriff’s office in Benton County, in central Missouri, said in court documents.

“At least two threats to shoot her and the other two victims” could be heard, the sheriff’s office said.

So why didn’t deputies rush to the scene as soon as they got the call?

They couldn’t. They didn’t know where it came from. Whoever made the call used a cell phone, and Benton County’s technology isn’t advanced enough to take advantage of location services that are standard features of nearly all cell phones sold today. Continue reading…

GeoSetter

These days, you can document your travels by sorting your digital photos by location. Many cell phones and a few specialty cameras can geotag your location, embedding the data in your pics. If you don’t have such a camera, you can use a GPS imaging accessory, like Sony’s $150 GPS-CS3KA, to add location into after the fact. if you don’t have a GPS device, you can manually enter location details at your PC with the free GeoSetter (www.geosetter.de/en/index.html). After you do, the application shows your images as pins in a Google Maps pane built into the program. The process updates the EXIF (exchangeable image file format) details so that locations will appear in other apps. Geotag data is stored in your pictures for you to browse in GeoSetter or other in your pictures for you to browse in GeoSetter or other tools, including Flickr, SmugMug and Picasa. Continue reading…