3D GPS Navigation On Your BlackBerry


 

The guys at BlackBerryInsight spotted a new 3D navigation software called Navi2Go by 3DVU. It almost looks like a GPS navigation program using Google Maps satellite view. The application looks pretty cool and has some pretty cool features though it is not encouraging when most of the screenshots have a hourglass on them:

Their major struggling point is that they have priced themselves HIGHER than the already mature TeleNav. Navi2Go comes in 3 packages: $39 (3–months), $69 (6–months), and $120 (1–year). That is higher than the TeleNav package for $9.99 a month or $99 a year. This would have been an interesting contender if they just lowered their price. A nice perk is that the service is also available in the UK if you buy a UK plan.

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Blackberry Curve 8310


Featuring a metallic finish, clean lines and soft edges, the BlackBerry® Curve™ 8310 smartphone is the smallest and lightest BlackBerry® smartphone ever to come with a full QWERTY keyboard.

It’s packed with incredible features*, including a camera, a multi-media player, built-in GPS, expandable memory, Voice Dialling, BlackBerry® Maps and trackball navigation. Plus, you get all the core functionality you’ve come to expect in a BlackBerry smartphone—email and text messaging, instant messaging, web browser and advanced phone functionality.

The BlackBerry Curve—it’s your connection to everything that matters.

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Blackberry 8830


The BlackBerry® 8830 World Edition smartphone is the stylish way to get things done. It’s the first CDMA BlackBerry smartphone capable of roaming globally on GSM®/GPRS networks*. So you can travel the world with full mobile voice and data coverage, without having to change smartphones, phone numbers or email addresses.

The BlackBerry 8830 World Edition gives you phone, email, organizer, web browsing and instant messaging. And then it goes a step further, providing GPS*, BlackBerry® Maps, a media player for your video clips and music, and expandable memory to ensure you’ve got the room you need for your media files.

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Benefon Twig Discovery


Benefon are a Finnish company specialising in GSM handsets with inbuild GPS capabilities, and the Benefon Twig Discovery is the latest in their handset line. It’s a much more consumer-orientated device that other Benefon handsets, many of which are aimed at business and industrial applications, and at first glance it looks like a fairly standard mobile phone.

However, the interesting feature with the Benefon Twig Discovery is the inbuilt GPS (global positioning system) combined with the “Twig Navigation” satellite navigation system (with data sourced from Navteq). Unlike many other solutions that combine a phone and SatNav system, the Twig range hasa completely integrated system, so there’s no messing around with cables, paring devices and trying to get third party software to run. Benefon specialise in these sort of systems, so the overall approach looks very promising.

The Twig Discovery comes with an SD card slot, and maps can either be downloaded via GPRS or installed with a memory card. This is a pretty similar approach to other SatNav systems, but it must be noted that this is a GPRS-only device so the download speeds are likely to be a little slow.. however, as with other SatNav systems, most people will probably use the memory card rather than a direct download to the device. The advantage of the integrated system here is that it’s possible to pull live traffic reports and other information directly onto the Twig Discovery, and the satellite navigation system can then adjust your route accordingly.

Inside is an ARM9 processor running at 312MHz, similar to the CPU in TomTom GPS navigators. Internal memory is 32Mb with up to 1Gb of storage on the SD card. The display is a 176×220 pixel TFT panel in 256k colours measuring around 2″ diagonally. The Benefon Twig is a tri-band GSM device, available in either 900/1800/1900 MHz or 850/1800/1900 MHz configurations, it also has Bluetooth, a WAP 2.0 browser and an email client, plus synchronisation with MS Outlook and Lotus Notes. It’s a Bluetooth phone, and there will also be a variety of car kits available (which is handy for the satellite navigation function).

Primarily, the Benefon Twig Discovery seems to be aimed at people who want GPS wherever they go, and this handset is pretty convenient to carry around, being roughly the same size as a 3G phone. Compare this with a device such as a TomTom Go, which weighs 310 grams and you’d need a phone if you want to integrate live traffic information. It lacks the big, touch-sensitive display of the TomTom though, but overall it’s a very convenient all-in-one package that should appeal to those people who don’t want to lug a separate SatNav system about with them.

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AT&T Tilt / HTC 8925



The AT&T Tilt is the most powerful Windows Mobile device you can get right now from a U.S. carrier. Thick and beefy, this chunk of portable computing plays up Windows Mobile’s multimedia and messaging strengths and emerges as the current leader in the Microsoft field. World travelers should take note, as the Tilt is one of the few high-speed world phones—able to hit voice, Wi-Fi, and HSDPA data networks in more than 100 countries across the globe.

The Tilt is a whole lot of handheld, and it’s probably more than most people need. The BlackBerry Curve does just fine as an e-mail phone with decent media player options. And for true media player verve, there’s no substitute for an Apple iPhone.

But where the Tilt rules is in combination with other Microsoft products. If you live a Microsoft lifestyle, interacting with Windows Media Player, Media Center, or Exchange 2003 or 2007 servers, Windows Mobile’s integration with those other Microsoft components pushes it ahead of the pack. Windows Mobile also runs more powerful add-in software than the iPhone or BlackBerry do, SlingPlayer Mobile being one excellent example. If these applications appeal to you, the Tilt is the best of the Windows Mobile breed.

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ASUS P750



Asus has come up trumps with the P750. It is not an inexpensive handheld device, but it crams in the features and manages to stay reasonably pocket-friendly as it does so.

The Windows Mobile 6 Professional software means a touch-screen is present and versions of Microsoft Word and Excel are built in for document reading and editing. Yet the P750 takes a phone-like approach to its looks, being tall and thin like many candybar-style mobile phones.

There is a number pad beneath the screen rather than a cramped QWERTY keyboard, and while this means you can’t tap out text at lightning fast speeds, you can use either the on-screen tappable keyboard or the number pad for text entry, the latter T9 style.

There is a scroll wheel on the left side for sweeping through menus and screens of information, and a Hold button on the right side for deactivating all the various buttons and the wheel when the P750 is in your pocket.

The P750 is a 3G device with HSDPA support, and a front-facing camera takes care of two-way video calling. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a GPS antenna are all built in, and you get a utility that can send your GPS position to up to five SMS recipients at the same time. Another utility saves your GPS route as a file you can upload to Google Maps. If you want point-to-point navigation you’ll have to add in some third party software, though.

Other bundled software includes a business card reader that uses photos of cards taken with the 3-megapixel main camera and converts their text into a contact book entry. You also get software that can show you the current time in up to three countries in the world; handy if you need to plan a phone call. Other additional software includes an RSS reader and a graphics-based replacement for the Windows Mobile Today screen.

There is even an area of memory set aside that you can password protect so you can store stuff you don’t want others to see. If you want more eulogising, then the battery life proved to be very good during testing.

The absence of a miniature keyboard might irritate those keen on mobile e-mail, and the tiny joystick that sits under the screen is not our ideal: we prefer a standard, flat navigation pad. But overall this is an extremely well featured device.

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ASUS P526


Asus is probably best know for its laptop offerings, but the Taiwanese giant is nothing if not prolific and has its fingers in about as many technology industry pies as you can think of, from motherboards to servers. It has also been active in the highly competitive mobile devices space and now we have its latest smartphone, the P526, in for review.

It runs on the latest version of Microsoft’s mobile platform - Windows Mobile 6 Professional - and as smartphones go, it’s a bit of a looker. There’s no glossy black plastic, candy red backlit keys, heat-sensitive keys or funky, ‘innovative’ design. It is, however, one of the slimmer smartphones around at just 16mm, it’s very light at 115g, its grey plastic chassis is chrome-trimmed and it even comes with a smart grey leatherette case to protect the screen, and the overall effect is very pleasing on the eye. It’s smart but unassuming, a bit like a well-tailored suit.

It’s hardly surprising to find that there’s no QWERTY keyboard here given how slim the P526 is. Instead there’s a number pad under the screen, and the one here is an excellent example. The buttons have a slightly curved profile and are separated from each other making it exceptionally easy to dial numbers manually, and there are a few other nice touches to the control system too. Apart from the usual Windows soft keys and pick-up/hang-up combination there are also short cut buttons for the Windows Start menu and one to activate the Voice Commander software. Below the pick-up key is a button that is initially designated as a quick application launch key, but can be reassigned as a task switch button, allowing you to cycle quickly through open applications.

The good news continues. Along the right hand edge, alongside a memory expansion slot for microSD cards and the trigger button for the two megapixel digital camera, is a dedicated lock switch. It has long been a pet hate of mine with Windows Mobile that in order to lock and unlock the keys and touchscreen on most devices, you have to prod a couple of tiny on-screen buttons. It’s not my idea of sensible user interface design. With the P526, however, that’s a thing of the past. Just flick the switch and it’s locked; flick it again and it’s unlocked. I wish more phones would do something similar.

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ASUS P535


At the GPS navigation fair organized by Navtek, Asus has presented its first GPS PDA mobile phone, the GSM and GPRS tri-band P535, with SIRF III GPS chip and integrated receiver and antenna. Unlike the Asus P525, the device doesn’t have a keypad, but compensates with a 2.8 inch TFT LCD screen with 65k colors and a 320×240 resolution.

The P535 has a Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system, and thus, will be able to run all the applications compatible with it. The OS runs on an Intel Xscale 520 Mhz processor, with the help of 256 MB ROM and 64 MB RAM memory, expandable through the miniSD memory card slot. The mobile has Bluetooth 2.0, EDR and Wi-Fi 802.11g connectivity, but the absence of the EDGE technology makes it an almost sure victim for the HTC P3300, its direct competitor. It also has a 2 megapixel camera, a 1300 mAh lithium battery, helping it to be as portable as it can be, with its 150 grams weight, and a Destinator 6 navigation software.

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iPhone 2


Ryan at Engadget says they’ve been chatting up one of the divinely chosen to lay eyes on the second-gen iPhone, and they’re claiming a couple details we haven’t heard before, as well as the by-now familiar: 3G and real GPS—expected, and hoped for. Metal backing out, glossy black is in, with chrome volume buttons, which should help with signal issues. It’s also a little fatter (probably cause of GPS and battery, which still isn’t removable) but you can toss your stupid headphone adapter. The screen is the same size and res (we’d heard they were trying to move to plastic, but doesn’t seem to be the case). He’s guessing it could ship in July. Update: To be clear, neither us nor Engadget were claiming that this is an actual pic, just illustrative (besides, it’s a few weeks old, see the in-body link). [Engadget]

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