Hasta La Gadget!

Google has taken much of the wind out of the turn-by-turn navigation industry’s sails this Fall thanks to the introduction of fee-free Google Maps Navigation, but it’s got a fatal flaw for the moment: it’s only available in the States. Navigon must be banking on the fact that Mountain View is going to take its sweet time spreading the love around the world, because it has announced at iCE Amsterdam today that it’ll be releasing its own app for Android on December 10. Pricing hasn’t been revealed, but for comparison, Navigon’s European solution for the iPhone runs a stout $140 — and as long as Google doesn’t tell everyone that European navigation is no longer a valid business model as they’ve done in the US, that could very well be the number we can expect on the Android side. It’ll be compatible with devices running anything from 1.5 to 2.0, so Dreams and Milestones alike should be welcome to apply.

Navigon announces nav app for Android, Google threat looms originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Nov 2009 11:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Handhelds

Camangi WebStation website goes live, orders do not originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We don’t know what exactly China Mobile is putting in its manufacturer partners’ tea during contract negotiations, but considering how rapidly China’s largest carrier has grown its OPhone line into the most desirable single-network lineup of Android handsets in the world, we’d strongly recommend they continue to do it. Rumors of an LG entry back in August have now come to fruition in the form of the GW880, a full touch handset launching this month featuring a solid 3.5-inch WVGA display, 5 megapixel camera, and support for a pair of pretty important homegrown standards — TD-SCDMA for 3G and CMMB for mobile TV tuning. For comparison, LG’s only other announced Android phone — the GW620 Eve for global distribution — steps down to a HVGA display, so yeah, if you’ll excuse us, we’ve got a Mandarin lesson in a couple minutes.

LG bows its GW880 OPhone for China Mobile, we start packing our things originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Nov 2009 04:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s been a year of milestones for Android in the U.S. The number of handsets with the Google-developed software has grown from one to eight. Three of the four major national carriers, including Verizon Wireless, the country’s largest, now offer Android phones. HTC’s Hero and Motorola’s CLIQ have shown how Android supports customization by manufacturers. And the Motorola Droid has marked the debut of Android 2.0.

When the T-Mobile G1 was launched, Switched On discussed Google’s growing rivalry with Apple. But now Google itself an even more formidable threat to the Android than Apple or even Microsoft. Growing out of the group that created the Chrome browser, Google’s Chrome OS creates a relatively lightweight layer of hardware management code primarily for the purpose of running one native app, the Chrome browser. While Chrome OS can take advantage of local processing and resources, the OS foregoes local applications, citing a need to preserve speed, security and simplicity.

Continue reading Switched On: Chrome’s shine could blind Android

Switched On: Chrome’s shine could blind Android originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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One could argue that the Motorola Droid is in fact the first-ever Android-based in-car navigation solution, but we’re surmising that ArcherMind would disagree. Over at the Embedded Technology 2009 trade show in Yokohama, the outfit has demonstrated an Android-laden navigation system that could actually be inserted as a factory option; curiously enough, it looks an awful lot like the AutoLinQ initiative that hit our radar back in June. The outfit is reportedly shopping the system — which includes a 7-inch, 800 x 480 display — to a variety of Chinese automakers, and given that it can browse the web via WiFi or 3G, connect with music players and phones over Bluetooth and even play back audio files stored on the HDD or SD slot, we can’t imagine it being a tough sell.

ArcherMind shows off ‘world’s first’ Android-based in-car nav system originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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