Hasta La Gadget!

Ooh, goodie! Try as we may, we’ve yet to really find a (good) free alternative to Google Maps Navigation on the iPhone, and while Navigon’s MobileNavigator gets our highest recommendations in the paid GPS department, Google’s own turn-by-turn option is just about enough to make any iPhone-toting traveler jump ship and snag an Android handset. Thankfully for us all, it seems as if this predicament won’t be nearly as trying in the near future, with the company’s own Steve Lee confirming to TechRadar that Google Maps Navigation would be coming to “other platforms” in due time. MacUser specifically mentions the solution coming to iPhone OS, and frankly, we couldn’t think of a better app to ship alongside version 4.0 than this. You’re good at taking hints, right Goog?

Google Maps Navigation could come to iPhone, other platforms soon originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Apr 2010 02:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Talk about random gifts from the ether. British Android device owners are waking up this morning to discover their robot-themed operating system has gone and upgraded itself overnight. We’ve confirmed for ourselves that Google Maps Navigation — yes, the free turn-by-turn stuff with voice directions — has made its fully functional way across the Atlantic. This is the 4.1.1 Beta released on April 6 to US customers, but as we say, it’s now working over in Blighty as well. We’ve tested it out on a Desire and Nexus One from HTC, with the latter offering the extra-cool option to orally instruct your Google search bar to “navigate to” your destination. Check out the gallery below for some visual edification.

[Thanks, Tes]

Update: We’re now also sure the full Navigation service works on at least some Android 1.6 devices, such as the Dell Mini 5 and a reported Sony Ericsson X10 success over on the xda-developers thread.

Update 2: Numerous users have reported successfully using turn-by-turn Navigation on the 4.1.0 version, leading us to believe that the capability was in the Google Maps app all along and it’s only now that the company has chosen to activate it. If you aren’t yet on board, direct your Android 1.6 or above device to the Android Market and get navigating.

Google brings free turn-by-turn Navigation to UK Androids (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Apr 2010 05:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In Europe, it was a good year for cellphone GPS — ComScore, an organization that tracks painful sounding concepts like penetration and market share, just reported that an estimated 21 million Europeans stopped to ask their phone for directions last year. That’s up 68 percent from the 12.5 million who did so in 2008. With two-thirds of mobile map users saying they accessed their phone GPS in a moving vehicle, ComScore thinks the stats suggest phones might replace standard PNDs as well. Too soon to tell, perhaps, but judging by recent events, we expect 2010’s numbers will be stellar nonetheless. Haven’t tried smartphone GPS yourself? Direct yourself to our comparison guides and see what you’ve been missing.

ComScore: European cellphone navigation on the rise originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 18 Apr 2010 22:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Give your car an upgrade: Toshiba just announced a 200GB hard disk drive for the car, the largest automotive-grade drive on the market. Known by the poetic name of MK2060GSC, this 4,200-rpm SATA drive provides vehicle-systems manufacturers with high-capacity storage for telematics, navigation, and entertainment systems.

Toshiba has already shipped 14 million automotive-grade HDDs worldwide, and had 75 percent of the global market in 2009. With more classes of auto offering in-dash infotainment systems, that number should only increase.

With the MK2060GSC, Toshiba is delivering a 78 percent improvement on internal transfer rates, a seek time of 12 milliseconds, and quiet operation. It will be commercially available in the third quarter.