Filed under: GPS

It looks like U.S. International Trade Commission judge Carl Charneski has managed to cause quite a stir in the GPS industry this month, with him first ruling earlier this month that chipmaker SiRF infringed on six of Broadcom’s GPS patents, and him now recommending that the ITC issue an all out product import ban on products using the offending chips. Given that one of the supposedly infringing chips is the ever-present SiRF Star III, that would obviously shake things up in a pretty big way. A final decision on a ban won’t come until December, however, and SiRF looks to be exploring all of its options in the meantime, including asking the U.S. Patent Office for reexamination of the contested patents. As Reuters reports though, that hasn’t stopped SiRF’s shares from falling 24 percent to an all time low on Tuesday, and at least one GPS device manufacturer doesn’t look to be waiting around to see how things shake out either, with DigiTimes now reporting that Mitac is set to stop using SiRF chips in its GPS devices in the fourth quarter of this year. Then again, that is DigiTimes, but we doubt that’ll be much consolation for SiRF right about now.

Read - Reuters, “SiRF hit after ITC judge urges product import ban”
Read - DigiTimes, “Mitac to give up SiRF GPS solutions due to patent dispute”

[Via Linux Devices]

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Filed under: GPS, Handhelds, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Reincomm just announced the new iriver NV Life. New in that they’ve done away with the big, navigation pad of the original NV in favor of a more sleek, easily portable SatNav device with PMP functionality. Still, it’s a near spec-for-spec clone to the bigger, bulkier NV. Available in either 2GB ₩328,000 (about $367) or 4GB ₩358,000 (about $400) 4GB capacities, the SiRF Star III GPS device dedicates an SD slot to maps and second to augment the onboard flash. Inside, the WinCE 5.0-based device packs an FM-transmitter, DMB TV (with GPS PiP support), and a wide selection of codecs synonymous with the iriver name. The only downside is the display: 800 x 480 pixels spread across 7-inches of glass. On par with the industry but pretty poor when compared to cellphones which offer the same resolution on 2.8-inch displays.

[Via Akihabara News]

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Filed under: GPS

Multifunction PNDs are starting to hit the low end of the price spectrum, which is always welcome — check out G-Sol’s Marbella 8800 nav unit, which sports PMP functions, AV-in, and a 2 megapixel digital camera for a wholesale price of $160. That means the retail price will probably be around $200, but you’re actually getting a decent piece of kit — there’s a SiRF Star III GPS chip in there, which is pretty respectable. Of course, some eager wholesaler’s got to be willing to bring this bad boy to the States first, but hey — that could be you, if you’re ready to fence a couple thousand of these a month.

[Via Navigadget]

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Filed under: GPS

If you’ve bought a GPS unit in the past year or two there are decent odds it’s based on the SiRFstar III chipset, which has been about as good as it gets since it arrived on the scene a few years ago. Now there’s a new chip on the block, SiRFprima, which could have GPS aficionados kicking those SiRFstar III units to the curb. The unit boasts “industry leading” GPS performance, and is the first of its ilk to be able to work with GPS and Galileo signals simultaneously. InstantFixII — which promises 5 second start times — is built in as well, along with 3D acceleration for the fancy new maps hitting the scenes, and the capability to work with external devices like touch screens, DVD players, video cameras and so forth. While no one feature is revolutionary, the fact that SiRFprima will be wrapping up all these features into a cute little package for GPS manufacturers to slap into their units without a worry — which should start happening in the second quarter of this year — is surely cause for celebration.

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Filed under: GPS

There’s not a whole lot out there on this one just yet, but apparently, Mainnav is getting set to unveil the MG-910D’s successor — at least, that’s what we gather from the “available soon” icon beside it on the firm’s website. Nevertheless, we do know that it will sport a SiRFstarIII GPS chipset, a display that shows speed, altitude and latitude, bike mounting hardware and a weatherproof enclosure. Additionally, we’re told that it can store up to 120,000 waypoints at once and can interface with Windows-based software (presumably for Google Earth viewing). We’re not quite sure if this one sports Bluetooth, but considering the current MG-910D does, we’ll be banking on the feature carrying over. Look for more info early next month once CES rolls around.

[Via NaviGadget]

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Filed under: Cellphones, GPS

It’s not like we weren’t already aware of SiRF’s participation in the Open Handset Alliance, but nevertheless, the company is sounding pretty ecstatic about the software developer kit it “just received.” Reportedly, the outfit is already hard at work on “end-to-end location-enabling features” for Android, and in case you couldn’t guess, it’s also providing Android platform support for a plethora of products based on its famed SiRFstarIII architecture. Essentially, the firm is hoping to take advantage of having location as a “native feature” within Android, and it makes the obvious sound a whole lot more intriguing by teasing us with visions of “out-of-the-box locative experiences” involving geo-tagging, geo-searching and social networking. Still, we’ll tip our hat to any form of tight integration, but this here’s probably nothing to get riled up over.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: GPS

This is a very minor update as far as things go, with Holux’s $499 GPSmile 53CLife GPS unit kicking out the SiRF Star chip in the GPSmile 53 in favor of a Mediatek MT3318. That’s it: no design changes, nor any alterations of the specifications (which are: 170g weight, 400MHz CPU, 240×320 3.5-inch screen, SD/MMC slot, MP3 / JPEG playback, and optional add-ons including Bluetooth and Traffic Message Channel.)

[Via NaviGadget]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: GPS, Wearables

Polar’s RS800, which was originally introduced last September, is getting one-upped this fall by the RS800G3 multisport training system. Essentially, this acts as a GPS upgrade to the wristwatch, which “enables athletes to measure speed and distance for a variety of outdoor sports.” The entire system now consists of the RS800 wrist unit, Wearlink W.I.N.D. heart rate transmitter, ProTrainer 5 software and the G3 GPS Sensor, and those who already plunked down for the watch last year can purchase the G3 GPS sensor separately. The sensor itself packs a SiRFstarIII chipset, is water resistant and can last around 15-hours on just a single AA battery. Price wise, athletes (or athletes to-be) can pick up the entire RS800G3 bundle for $499.95, while the standalone G3 will run you $139.95.

[Thanks, SK]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Cellphones, GPS, Handhelds

It’s been a tick since Motorola / Symbol’s MC70 saw a notable refresh, but today Moto is announcing that the newest version of its rugged Enterprise Digital Assistant (EDA) will boast GPS capability. The firm claims that this addition will allow organizations with field-based employees to “track and manage dynamic, real-time tasking, as well as verify specific locations of activities and provide mobile workers with pinpoint navigation support to improve location-based productivity.” Additionally, the device will still include barcode data and signature capture, WWAN, 802.11a/b/g and Bluetooth, and should be available for sale worldwide in Q1 of 2008.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!