Tesla is touting the world’s biggest center console for its upcoming Model S today: a titanic 17-inch touchscreen display powered by NVIDIA’s Tegra chip. Infotainment, climate control and navigation will all be managed using the vast dashboard dominat…
Category Archives: navigation
Garmin and TomTom cling to profits, hope
As everyone knows, Garmin and TomTom have their backs against the ropes in a fight to remain relevant in an age of free GPS turn-by-turn navigation on smartphones (thanks Google and Nokia). While dedicated personal navigators are almost always superior to their converged competition, the gap has certainly narrowed such that it’s become difficult to justify another device when an increasing number of people already carry a fine navigation device in their pockets. But that’s just gut instinct talking, where’s the hard evidence? Certainly not speculative stock prices. A good place to start is in forward-looking financial statements like the one Garmin, the leading navigation device maker in the US, just issued. Gamin says that it expects competition to cause prices to decline by about 10% in the personal navigation device (PND) industry putting pressure on margins, and thus profits, in 2010. It also sees flat or slightly declining revenue over the same period. Fortunately for Garmin, it has a diversified product offering that includes the Nuvifone. However, Garmin admits to being disappointed by sales of the handset that “won” our Editor’s Choice award for Worst Gadget of the Year.
Things aren’t all doom and gloom, though. Garmin has a pair of Nuvifones in the chute including the Android-powered A50. And its Q4 results of $1.43 per share easily beat analyst expectations of 95 cents a share. Even TomTom surprised many last week with a 1% increase in Q4 revenue and net profit of €75 million compared to a €989 million loss a year ago. So there's some hope left for the dedicated PND market… but not much.
Filed under: Cellphones, GPS
Garmin and TomTom cling to profits, hope originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 02:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Also posted in financials, garmin, google, google navigation, GoogleNavigation, GPS, Maps, Nokia, nuvifone, ovi, pnd, tomtom Tagged greader Comments closed
Suck It, Street View, Navteq Maps the World in 3D… With Lasers [GPS]
Google’s Street View team famously photographs all kinds of weird stuff as they drive the world, but Navteq, who basically invented this stuff, just built a mount with seven cameras and 64 lasers to see everything better, in 3D.
Mounted atop a VW Jetta wagon is this crazy apparatus with a 12-megapixel panoramic camera on top and six more cameras pointed in specific directions to pick up signs and other data points. But the best gadgetry—the laser array—is housed inside a rapidly spinning barrel positioned at an angle. By using LIDAR, basically radar but with lasers, they scan everything within view, capturing 1.2 million points of data every second. The result is all kinds of terrain data that is not possible using just cameras.
The goal is "high accuracy maps," a deliberately vague notion that ranges from additional information—bridge underpass clearance heights, multilayer cloverleaf navigation and other obvious issues—to super rich 3D environments like the ones you see below. Those aren't CG renderings, in the traditional sense, it's laser-enriched photography.
Navteq, a Chicago company owned by Nokia who has been driving around making maps since the first GPS satellites were hurled into orbit, still provides a massive share of map data for web and devices, so the fruits of this tech might get to you sooner than you know.
As for your own personal rig, I sure want one, and my guess is that Google wants one too—if they don't have it already. [Navteq]
Also posted in 3d, Ces2010, google street view, GPS, High accuracy mapping, Lasers, LIDAR, Mapping, navteq Tagged greader Comments closed
Nissan introducing low-cost navigation systems this January
Now here’s a good idea: a built-in GPS navigation system that’s actually priced to move. Co-developed with Bosch, Nissan has put together a $400 option with a 5-inch touhcscreen, Bluetooth support for phones, USB connectivity for media players, iPod integration, XM Satellite and NavTraffic. The Detroit News was certainly impressed, testing it on a new Sentra and calling it a moment where the benefits of the built-in nav systems outweigh the costs — although the display was maybe a bit too small for its liking. Look for it to these to hit in some of its lower-priced models starting this January. Hit up the source link for the full impressions.
Nissan introducing low-cost navigation systems this January originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Dec 2009 03:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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TomTom Go I-90 integrates into any dashboard, brings radio ‘infotainment’
TomTom has been on a mission to keep itself relevant as smartphones increasingly start to overstep on its territory, and the GO I-90 is another move in its counteroffensive plan. Capable of slotting into the double DIN slot usually reserved for in-car radio / music players, its big selling point is that it integrates into your dashboard yet is still capable of being moved around like a discrete nav unit. You wouldn’t be left decrying the loss of your radio either, with the GO I-90 sporting FM (with RDS support) and AM reception, USB support for MP3 players including iPods, and a promised compatibility with an “extensive” list of phones for handsfree calling — unfortunately, the poorly worded PR makes no mention of Bluetooth so we’re not sure how they’ll pull that off. Throw in a guarantee to receive the latest maps, TomTom’s Map Share for crowdsourced routes, and a Help-Me! emergency menu, and you get a pretty comprehensive product. Shame about that €599 (about $893) sticker then. Available in Europe in December.
Filed under: GPS
TomTom Go I-90 integrates into any dashboard, brings radio ‘infotainment’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Oct 2009 06:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Also posted in car, dashboard, dashboard integration, DashboardIntegration, go i-90, GoI-90, GPS, handsfree, in-car, in-car entertainment, In-carEntertainment, infotainment, integrated navigation system, IntegratedNavigationSystem, map share, MapShare, SatNav, tomtom, tomtom go, tomtom go i-90, TomtomGo, TomtomGoI-90 Tagged greader Comments closed
User manual for Garmin’s connected nuvi 1690 reveals “nuinfo” service branding
The connected PND, by most accounts, is a dying breed. Dash couldn’t pull it off, TomTom’s execution was downright pathetic and no one even remembers that Insignia made one. But considering that Garmin's nüvi range has always delivered, we're going to let the nüvi 1690 ship before passing judgment. Said navigator, which just slipped into the FCC’s database a fortnight ago, didn’t have too many details attached to it, but a recently discovered user manual reveals that although Garmin’s local-data service will be powered by Google, the company has branded it with the virtually-unpronounceable name “nuinfo.” Yeah, we have no idea, but we’re definitely interested in finding out what the ultimate plan is — the shots of the device in the manual lead us to believe that local weather information will be on tap in addition to the usual waypoint searching and so forth, but unless Garmin throws these so-called “connected services” in gratis, every smartphone owner on the planet will simply laugh and move on.
[Via GPS Tracklog]
Filed under: GPS
User manual for Garmin’s connected nuvi 1690 reveals “nuinfo” service branding originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Also posted in 1690, bluetooth, connected gps, connected pnd, ConnectedGps, ConnectedPnd, fcc, garmin, google, GPS, Local Search, LocalSearch, nav, navi, nuinfo service, NuinfoService, nuvi, nuvi 1690, Nuvi1690, pnd Tagged greader Comments closed
CSR debuts SiRFstarIV location-aware architecture, kisses slow fixes goodbye
Nary half a year after snapping up SiRF, CSR is already tooting its horn about an all new SiRFstar architecture. The predictably titled SiRFstarIV technology takes quite the leap over its three-pronged predecessor, all but promising to nix those annoyingly long location fixes that are all too common on existing PNDs. The new location-aware, self-assisted, micro-power tech enables devices to be continually aware of location without requiring network aide; furthermore, there’s hardly any power drain to speak of, which ought to please smartphone owners who can literally watch their battery meter drop with GPS enabled. CSR’s first SiRFstarIV product is the GSD4t receiver, which is optimized for mobile phones and “other space and power-sensitive consumer devices.” We’re told that samples of the chip are shipping out now, with mass production slated for October and device integration happening shortly thereafter.
Filed under: GPS
CSR debuts SiRFstarIV location-aware architecture, kisses slow fixes goodbye originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Jul 2009 08:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Also posted in CSR, GPS, GSD4t, location, location-aware, location-awareness, nav, sat nav, satellite, SatNav, sirf, SiRFaware, SiRFstar, SiRFstarIV Tagged greader Comments closed
