NDrive, a Portuguese brand had introduced a GPS software for smart phones, symbians, as well as PDAs with Windows Mobile. A nice feature of this navigation software is that it can display 3D renderings of buildings while routing the user. Ndrive uses photographs coming from the Spanish company Blom which specializes in high quality geographical information. One thing to note is that data for all these aerial images takes a lot of space: 2 GB for Madrid for example. Therefore it is necessary to install only certain cities in 3D photographs and let the remainder of the country or Europe be installed in normal graphical mode.

Via 

Garmin has released a PC software package to turn your laptop into a Garmin navigation device. The software will give you turn-by-turn directions, and will include some cool PC-only features called Route Shaping features. This feature allows users to select specific roads they want to travel and customize their route to avoid certain roads and geographic areas.

Overall, Garmin Mobile PC gives travelers another easy and inexpensive alternative to get more from their laptop. Furthermore, it offers many of the same real-time features found on high end portable devices like weather and fuel price information.

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North America is soon to get 3D navigation maps when Nav N Go announced that its new software will include this incredible feature. Previously only available in Europe, this fantastic feature adds another exciting option for GPS users in the US.

According to Mobile Mag, Nav N Go will cooperate with a number of GPS hardware manufacturers, so that they can make this feature on their Sat-Nav systems. You will be able to view landmarks and buildings in 3D with elevation of the roads.

From: Product-reviews

Anetenove unveiled its latest GPS evaluation kits, Radionova M10214-K1. The complete set includes the M10214-A1 RF Antenna Module, the world’s smallest RF antenna module incorporating a SiRFstarIII GPS chipset and optimized with Antenova’s high efficiency complementary GPS antenna.

This Evaluation Kit provides designers and developers a complete GPS solution in a box for the development of GPS enabled devices. It is very attractive as customers can actually develop absolute working GPS solutions that allow them to become more familiar with the advantages of the RF antenna modules earlier in the design stage.

This GPS Evaluation Kits are sold worldwide. Please get in touch with Antenova distributors and agents for more information on pricing and availability.

From: 3G.co.uk

For all Mio C310X users, your wait is finally over as map updates which had been slotted to debut on the 20^th June and has been further postponed a week has finally been released. These maps are specifically for installation in the Mio C310X GPS navigator units, and come at a special price of $25 a pop which consist of $14.95 for the product and $9.95 for shipping and handling.

However this is only a special price which they are offering to the C310X users this time around to thank them for supporting and putting Mio “On the Map” while future map updates will be on the same price range as the market map updates at around $100 a pop. For those eager beavers which are raring to go find themselves a map update and taking full advantage of the $25 special price, Mio will only start to take orders on their site www.mio-tech.com beginning 16^th July.

• From GPSLodge.

Other features which the PocketReperion offers are KML composers which allow you to create specific Geo-Blogs, it also allows you to set geofences and get alerted by it. Furthermore it can also allow you to send or receive 1024 character i-SMS which is said to be free. Last but not least, it allows you to upload pictures and, videos and audios with your GPS position.

• From MobileTopSoft.

Now they have even taken a step further and came up with using the GPS tracking to enhance this social networking craze. This is used to share with friends the geo location which the user is in. Social networking websites which are offering this facility through GPS enabled mobile devices are the likes of Bliin, Trackut and Kakiloc. There is a need for users to subscribe to this service by downloading a small program which when activated is able to give real-time updates of their friend’s locations. However, there is a concern over child safety as well as privacy given the use of this function.

• From About Electronics.

Isn’t it annoying when your GPS which is supposed to show you the best way to your destination ends up leading you to some newly present dead ends which cause your journey to be prolonged? Unfortunately, out-of-date maps are a problem where stagnated data for GPS map which are not updated often enough is not able to show the user the latest changes on their routes. Fortunately, the TomTom GPS device provider has come up with the new Map Share software which enables instant update of maps by users which can then be later shared with other users.

New changes to map can be uploaded to the internet through the TomTom Home software which then provides other users to download these maps for an instant update. The good news is that these softwares are free for all TomTom device users, with the new TomTom GO 720 which would be launched next month to be the first to test drive it. Older TomTom device users do not need to fret as they will also be able to get their hands on them at a later date.

• From NewYorkTimes.

OpenGTS is an open source GPS fleet tracking solution. And yes, it is free as in you do not have to pay anything for it. This is an alternative for companies which are tight on budget to get things running and embrace new technologies.

As all open source software, it is not expected to provide customer service and you will have to find your own solution in case anything goes wrong. It uses Google Maps interface but their site says that other mapping interfaces are also supported. It can be used to provide arrival and departure information which are useful to keep track of what is going on with their fleet. OpenGTS supports devices using Open DMTP which is an Open Device and Tracking Protocol. The system can currently be used with the Palm Treo 650 and HP hw 6945. More and more devices supporting this service are expected to emerge in the market soon.

• From GPSTrackingSystems.

Houdah releases a Geocoding software for Mac OS X. HoudahGeo 1.0.2 allows photographers to import images and GPS data tracks and automatically attaches the location information to the photo. It also enables users to manually tag photographs with a location when GPS is not available by clicking Google Maps interface. Images can also be matched to GPS waypoints for more precise encoding.

HoudahGeo integrates with iPhoto and Aperture to enable photos to be exported in Google Earth files for displaying photos online in Google Earth. The image can also be uploaded to various photo hosting sites such as Flickr. The software is available for a market price of $24.95 for single user license and $49.95 for group license. Students have a special offer with price at $12.45. There are also trial versions available if you would like to try it out before deciding whether or not to purchase it.

• From WheezerSociety.