Seth Goldin has a fantastic idea for a killer iPhone app that is just itching to be made. It’s a very simple idea, but it would be very tricky to do on anything other than an iPhone. Basically the idea is to have a program that will tell you exactly the route you should take by monitoring the traffic jams and such that other users are observing.
Creating a service using a traditional traffic monitoring system where you would pay for people or contractors would be prohibitavely expensive. Thus, most systems that track traffic end up being not terribly responsive or accurate. Using the power of crowds could really provide excellent data to build a system from and the way that Seth has thought about it is really right on. The iPhone could just send its GPS data back to the server every so often when driving as its giving directions and that would give the server enough data to monitor the traffic. Read more…
admin Articles crowdsourcing, geotagging, gps, iphone, traffic directions, traffic monitoring
Just a few weeks after its first update, the Samsung Instinct has received its second major firmware update.
They’ve chosen to roll out this update in an interesting fashion. Rather than pushing out one big update for the phone, they’re pushing out a series of updates for each affected feature. The updates include:
- Picture mail (fixed some errors)
- Browser (rendering optimizations)
- Sprint TV/Radio
- Sprint Navigation (better battery usage)
- Sprint E-mail
- Sprint Music Store
- Visual Voicemail
It sounds like a nice collection of updates for an already popular phone.
admin Samsung, Software gps, samsung instinct, Sprint, visual voicemail
IntoMobile has recieved an HTC Touch Diamond to review, and they seem to love it! Some highlights from their review:
- It’s considerably smaller than the iPhone and seems “cute”.
- It’s “the slickest Windows Mobile handset” they’ve ever used.
- The TouchFLO 3D interface is superb.
- The GPS works well enough.
- The on-screen keyboard works well, but could be tough for a lot of folks on the smaller screen.
All in all, they seem quite impressed. Read their full review for more information.
admin HTC Apple, gps, HTC, iphone, touch diamond, touchflo, windows mobile
I’m gradually becoming less excited about the Garmin Nuvifone, and now it’s been pushed back to sometime in 2009.
It’s not that I think it’ll be a bad phone, but it’s just going to be too late. If the iPhone has turn-by-turn GPS in the next six months, what on earth will be the draw of the Nuvifone? Granted, the Nuvifone might have better turn-by-turn, but the iPhone will have thousands of apps, a superior interface (I assume), better browsing, etc.
As Unwired View points out, Garmin won’t even commit to a Q1 2009 release, meaning it could be well into 2009 before it comes out. At that point, it had better be awesome and cheap!
admin Apple, Garmin, Hardware, gps Garmin, gps, iphone, nuvifone
There were various reports today that Apple is testing their 2.1 firmware for the iPhone, and one major feature will be improved GPS tools. In particular, items such as direction and speed tracking are reported to be in there. While I can see their usefulness, why are they necessary? If you get a mere two points from a GPS, you can very easily determine speed and heading, and theoretically could have a full-featured turn-by-turn system using that info.
I’ll admit I’m not an expert on GPS, but that’s how it looks to me. Am I missing something here?
admin Apple, Software, gps Apple, firmware, gps, iphone
TomTom has announced that they have a software solution for the 3G iPhone that “runs on the iPhone already“, though they haven’t given a specific release date.
This could certain cause some headaches at Garmin. Their Nuvifone looks pretty neat, but will reportedly cost $500 with a contract, which suddenly looks very expensive when compared to the $199 iPhone. Of course, we have no idea what the TomTom software for the iPhone will cost, so some of the diffrence is likely to be chewed up. I’d expect to see more news on this very soon.
admin Apple, Garmin, Software, gps Apple, Garmin, gps, iphone, nuvifone, tomtom
There’s been a ton of news today about the new iPhone, so I thought I’d try to give a brief summary:
The good
- July 11 release
- 3G, as expected.
- GPS. There are already some great looking applications to take advantage of it.
- $199 for the 8 gig model, $299 for the 16 gig. They both require a two-year contract from AT&T.
- 300 hours of standby time
- 5-6 hours of browsing
- 7 hours of video
- 24 hours of audio
- Talk time is 5-10, depending if you’re using 3G or not.
- A ton of new apps you can download.
- Slightly modified design — thinner body, more tapered edges
- Free upgrade to version 2.0 for existing iPhones, though they obviously won’t get 3G or GPS. $9.95 to upgrade your iPod Touch.
The bad
- Still no MMS. Why?
- No native video support, though I presume that you’ll be able to download an app to handle it.
- No 32 gig version.
- No front camera for live video chat, as was suggested in a few places.
- Same camera on the back. I was expecting an upgrade there.
All in all it looks to be a very solid update, but nothing remarkable. I was very impressed by the $199 price, but that’s tempered a bit now that I know it requires a two-year contract.
Now, do I try to get the new iPhone or do I keep using my N95?
admin AT&T, Apple, Hardware, Software 3g, Apple, camera, gps, iphone, ipod, mms, photo, video
The Symbian Blog has a great review of Guardian, software written to help protect your phone from unauthorized usage. For most of us, that means trying to get it back if it’s been stolen. Once configured, you can send an SMS to the phone and it will silently send back a wide variety of information.
Among other things, it can:
- Password protect various applications in the phone.
- Auto-send an SMS to another phone if the SIM card is replaced. The message includes the new phone number of the device.
- GPS. It can access the GPS device in the unit, and send an SMS with the latitude, longitude an a Google Map of the current location of the phone.
- Alarm. You can send a message to the phone that will force a very loud alarm to go off, regardless of what profile is active.
- Logs. It can send you the call/sms/contact logs.
- Fake SMS. You can send an SMS to the device, but pretend that it’s from someone else. The example shown is an SMS from “the Police”.
The only catch is that the thief can’t flash the phone, which any smart thief would do. However, if they fail to flash it, then you’ve got some great tools on your hands to try to track it back down!
Read the full review for more details and a bunch of screenshots.
admin Security gps, guardian, passwords, s60, Security, symbian
Version 4 of the VZ Navigator has just been released! Among the new features:
- Traffic
- Local movies and events
- 3D perspective view
- Gas finder
- Weather
They’re really doing a nice job of adding features that take advantage of the data connection, something that most standalone GPS units can’t do. The cost is $9.99/month or $2.99 for a single day.
admin Verizon, gps gps, navigator, Verizon
(via AllAboutSymbian) Powered by ARC Transistance, Nokia Maps will soon have real-time traffic to help you find the quickest route to your destination. It will cover 16 countries in Europe, but apparently none in the US (yet). Hopefully that will change if things go well.
Press Release:
Espoo, April 29, 2008 – Nokia and ARC Transistance, the European network of automobile clubs, announced today that they are working together to provide Real Time Traffic Information to users of Nokia mobile devices. Nokia will offer the service as a premium offering in Nokia Maps 2.0 and in future versions of Nokia Maps. By adding RTTI, Nokia can save precious time for drivers by alerting them of traffic, construction or other road hazards that could affect their journey. When Nokia Maps receives the road updates from ARC Transistance, the application can dynamicly re-route during navigation and provide a faster route. This is a significant milestone for Nokia Maps, which makes navigation an even more compelling experience for Nokia device owners.
ARC Transistance Traffic Information services aggregate the real time road and traffic conditions of 16 countries in Europe, and growing. The leading navigation industry players also use the ARC Transistance Traffic Information services to enhance the routing guidance and navigation experience of their customers.
Nokia Maps turns mobile devices into local mapping and routing engines with a navigation option, providing worldwide mapping free of charge. In so doing, the unique hybrid solution combines the advantages of on-board and off-board navigation. Maps and location-aware content only need to be loaded once – they are then always available on the device.
Upgrading to the GPS navigation option enables your mobile to become a powerful connected personal navigation device, that provides clear, turn-by-turn visual and voice guidance. If your Nokia device does not have built-in GPS, you can also use an external GPS module with a compatible device. With vector maps provided by TeleAtlas and Navteq, Nokia Maps now has maps covering over 150 countries, with over 70 of them navigable.
The new version of Nokia Maps 2.0 for selected devices is available on the Nokia Beta Labs website: http://www.nokia.com/betalabs. Beta Labs shares some of the exciting new ideas that Nokia is working on and let users help shape their future development. A strong online community has developed around Beta Labs, attracting especially technology savvy, early adopter mobile enthusiasts. The current version of Nokia Maps and the Nokia Map Loader are freely available for download* for selected devices at http://www.nokia.com/maps.
admin Nokia, gps gps, maps, Nokia, traffic
