Hasta La Gadget!

The bottom has fallen out of the GPS car-navigation market, which might explain why we’re seeing some innovative handheld options from Magellan. Last week it introduced the iPhone ToughCase, to protect your phone and enhance your GPS reception. Now it’s presenting three new models in its eXplorist line of outdoor handheld GPS devices. The eXplorist 510, 610, and 710 are meant for navigating outdoor destinations, capturing geotagged photos, and sharing your experiences online when you get home.

Each device offers a 3-inch color touch screen, a 3.2 megapixal camera, and a mic and speaker for voice notes. The 710 ($549.99) is meant for either the trail or the road, as it includes maps for both hiking and driving. The 610 lists for $449.99 and the 510 for $349.99. They’ll be available in the fourth quarter of 2010.

GPS-guided parachutes are nothing new — in fact, we’re guessing that a few are being dropped somewhere in this wide world right now — but a new deal between the Armed Services Blood Program and US Joint Forces Command will allow these devices to start saving even more lives in 2011. As the story goes, a cadre of air-dropped ‘chutes will be sent to the front lines of the battlefield in order to deliver vital blood to medics. For those unaware, blood loss is a major cause of death in war, and by skipping over the lengthy process that’s currently in place for delivery, the powers that be feel that more soldiers can be saved. Reportedly, the JPADS system “is a family of guided parachutes that can carry payloads ranging from about 150 to 60,000 pounds,” and at a predetermined altitude, a “parafoil deploys and a GPS-device steers supplies to an exact target.” The new system, however, will rely on ultralight versions of the aforesaid JPADS in order to sneak into locations that were previously thought impossible to penetrate. ‘Course, all of this will be a moot point once the robot armies rise to power and start pulverizing each other with scrap metal, but hey…

GPS parachutes delivering blood to front lines in the coming years originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Jul 2010 16:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PNDs for the golf course aren’t exactly unheard of, and if they fail to excite us it might be because we’re not really the types that putt in the office while dictating memos to our secretaries (we don’t even have secretaries in Engadget HQ). If this sort of thing is your bag, however, we want you to know that a company called Expresso has recently announced the AG1 Automotive and Golf GPS, which promises all the nav info you could ever want for “the freeway, family entertainment and the fairway.” That is, they threw in a media player with the usual GPS capabilities. Featuring iGolf maps for more than 20,000 courses and an HD display, we have a lovely video after the jump in case you would like to hear more. The Pro from Dover never had it this good!

Continue reading Expresso announces PND for the golf course, you’ll have to find your own polyester pants

Expresso announces PND for the golf course, you’ll have to find your own polyester pants originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Jul 2010 06:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Given the size of Dell’s Streak (it’s rocking a 5-inch screen, in case you were wondering), you’ve probably considered using it as a dedicated routing machine with Google Maps Navigation at the helm. The only problem? Using your arm as the window mount. We heard a few weeks ago that the Streak’s official car dock was finally on sale over in the UK, and it looks as if the bugger is finally shipping there, too. The best news? It seems to hold up pretty well to some of Britain’s bumpiest roadways — see for yourself after the break.

Continue reading Dell Streak’s car dock gets a video unboxing, early road test

Dell Streak’s car dock gets a video unboxing, early road test originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Jul 2010 10:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Skyhook Wireless seems to have located itself yet another major partner in its continued quest to pinpoint every single cellphone owner in the world. Sure, we’re exaggerating a bit just to get you riled up, but there’s no arguing the fact that the company fulfills “hundreds of millions of location requests every day across over 100 million handsets, netbooks and cameras.” Or so it says, anyway. The latest company to buy into Skyhook’s geo-locating promise — which uses a mysterious combination of GPS, cellular and WiFi data to get a darn good lock on your current position in most any environment — is Samsung, with the Bada-equipped Wave (S8500) first to tout it. As time goes on, even more Sammy phones will utilize Skyhook’s technology, though we’re left to wonder what exactly those models will be. Anyone up for educated guessing?

Continue reading Skyhook hones in on another partner, Samsung’s Wave to geo-locate like no other

Filed under: GPS

Skyhook hones in on another partner, Samsung’s Wave to geo-locate like no other originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Jul 2010 19:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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