Garmin's First Windows Mobile Phone

GPS device manufacturer Garmin teamed up with electronic vendor Asustek Computer to create their first Windows Mobile smartphone which launched earlier this week in Taiwan. The phone, the Nuvifone M20, features a 2.8-inch touchscreen, a 3.0-megapixel camera, 4GB of flash memory, QWERTY keyboard, a full web browser, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and a Qualcomm 7200A 528MH CPU. The phone’s camera also automatically geotags photos with date, time, and location data.

Of course, the phone features Garmin software for turn-by-turn directions in addition to other pre-installed applications like Microsoft Office and a location-based social networking platform called Ciao!TM that integrates various social networks into one interface.

What’s really cool are all the included location-based applications that deliver info like real-time traffic updates, gas prices, flight times, weather, White Pages and local search.

The phone is currently available in Taiwan and Hong Kong and will soon arrive in Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand, and then later this year in Europe. No word yet on the U.S. (www.on10.net)

Twitter To Add Geo-Tagging

Micro-blogging service Twitter adds features that to allow users to add their location to their status updates, adding to speculation about how the service will make money.

Twitter is adding the ability to geo-tag individual updates Twitter is bringing easy geo-tagging to the popular micro-blogging service, and it adds another possible way that the service might be able to make money.

Writing on the company's blog, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone wrote:

We're gearing up to launch a new feature which makes Twitter truly location-aware. A new API will allow developers to add latitude and longitude to any tweet. Folks will need to activate this new feature by choice because it will be off by default and the exact location data won't be stored for an extended period of time. However, if people do opt-in to sharing location on a tweet-by-tweet basis, compelling context will be added to each burst of information.

As Stone mentioned in his post, third party developers like Germany's Twibble have already produced geo-location services for Twitter. They relied on information pulled from the location details in users' profiles or from location information in the form of latitude and longitude or hash tags in the tweet itself.

Twibble's mobile client was specifically designed add the location information by pulling the data from the GPS radios in smartphones. It is a relatively easy process, but it has its drawbacks. Updating my profile location took a few steps in addition to posting a tweet, which became cumbersome if I was moving a lot, and embedding my coordinates or a location hash tag in the tweet itself took up precious characters. Hopefully, the geo-location API will make the process much easier and embed the meta-data in my tweets in such a way as to leave all of my 140 characters. (www.guardian.co.uk)

LifeCam Cinema HD Unveiled

Microsoft just unveiled the latest in their line of LifeCam devices, the LifeCam Cinema HD. This is no basic webcam by any means as it offers 1280 x 720 HD resolution at 30 frames per second. That makes it the first consumer webcam support this level of HD, in fact. (It will also lead to some seriously high-quality Vimeo vids!)

The camera also features USB 2.0 connectivity, auto focus, a glass lens, a 4x digital zoom, a noise-canceling microphone, and a technology called “ClearFrame” which aims to deliver smooth and detailed video.

The new webcam is compatible with Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP out-of-the-box and also integrates with the Windows Live suite of tools including Live Messenger, Live Photo Gallery, and Live Movie Maker.

However, before you run out to purchase this hardware (which becomes available on September 9th), you’ll need to first check the hardware requirements. Since this camera does some heavy lifting, you’ll need at least a dual core 1.6 GHz processor in order to use it. However, a 3 GHz processor is recommended. You’ll also need 2 GB of memory.

The camera will retail for $79.99 here in the U.S. (www.on10.com)

TomTom for iPhone

Turn-by-turn car navigation for iPhone is here. Tom Tom has just announced Navigation application for iPhone. I think its very good idea.
TomTom has made navigation available for your iPhone 3G. All you need is:

the TomTom app including the latest maps
(coming soon to the iTunes App Store)
the TomTom car kit that offers secure docking, enhanced GPS performance, clear voice instructions and hands-free calling, while charging your iPhone at the same time.

Stinger CE 6.0 R2 Robotics Kit

Just came across Stinger Kit. Its very good for learners and based on Win CE. Stinger CE Robotics Kit provides an fun, easy, and robust way for students to learn Windows CE 6.0. The Stinger CE combines our Stinger Robot Kit, Serializer Robot Controller, and an ICOP eBox-4300 Windows CE 6.0 R2 Spark Jump Start Kit for a proven platform for software development.

The Stinger CE Robotics Kit is designed to allow students to learn how to develop an embedded Windows CE device by:


Building and Deploying a WinCE 6.0 R2 image
Developing and Deploying WinCE 6.0 R2 applications
Developing Robotic applications using the Compact .NET Framework

This kit includes all of the hardware, software, and documentation you need to get started, right out of the box.

The Stinger CE Robot Kit Includes
Stinger Robot Kit
Serializer .NET Robot Controller
ICOP eBox-4300 Windows CE 6.0 R2 Spark Jump Start Kit
Null Modem Serial cable for debugging
5V Switching Voltage Regulator
Power Cable (regulator to eBox-4300
Push Button I/O/LED/Buzzer Board
Line Following Sensor or GP2D12/GP2D120 Sharp IR Distance Sensor (3) Package
Please note: This kit DOES NOT include batteries.
These batteries work well with the Stinger.

www.roboticconnections.com