New Gadgets

Until Delorme’s inReach two-way GPS Communicator, sending text messages over satellite signals was mostly a one-way affair. This 4.78 by 2.85 by 1.73-inch battery-powered minibeast pairs with either the company’s PN-60w or an Android OS device to send and receive 160-character text messages and real-time GPS data to those tracking you.

It can also beam an SOS message at timed intervals then receive confirmation that help is on the way when you ultimately realize that being at home with a fast connection is really all the adventure you needed anyway. Delorme tells us that the inReach will be available in October for $250 and monthly plans start at $9.95 with a one-year contract.

If you have got tired of the first generation of portable cell phone jammers and want to be able to do some GPS jamming instead, this is your lucky day (and not so lucky for others).

Anti-Phone: Transmitting low power radio signals to cut off communications between cell towers and any cell phones in the proximity, this Cell Phone Jammer completely shuts down any GSM and DCS mobile phone signals within a 10 meter radius.

Anti-GPS: Worried someone has intentionally installed a GPS tracker somewhere in (or under) your car to track all your movements? It’s more likely than you think, but now worry no more because this jammer offers a perfect 10 meter radius of GPS jamming, ensuring your privacy no matter where you go or how large your vehicle is.

The Portable GPS and Cell Phone Jammer (GSM, DCS, GPS) is sold through the Chinavasion website with a retail price starting at about $36 USD.

This GPS Pen  is a tiny GPS tracker not much bigger than a thumb drive, which you can stick just about anywhere and retrieve as necessary.

The thing will remember up to 94,000 locations, every 5 seconds for over 70 days. And when it’s done its sneaky little business you just pop the lid, stick it straight into your laptop and download the tracking data into Google Earth. Powered by two AAA batteries and priced at £99.00.

The GPS Pen is a true plug and play device. Simply plug it into your PC and the software automatically downloads to your PC. It will then open a map and show its movements without you doing anything! The GPS pen stores all its movements on an internal memory chip. The closest comparison that you may be familiar with could be a black box recorder on an aircraft.

The Japanese have done it again. They’ve made a prototype device that proves that GPS navigation systems can be fit into regular everyday use glasses. Simply called the “Wearable Personal Navigation System” the system consists of a battery, a microcomputer with GPS receiver, magnetic directional sensor, and a few LEDs.

So don’t get your hopes up so much. There won’t be any maps or virtual reality with these glasses. It just points to the direction you need to follow by lighting up a few LEDs. And the destination has to be entered on your computer first and then transferred to the prototype GPS glasses. It really just seems like a student project that’s getting a lot of attention.

The news of the PDA running on two processors is spread in the Internet. S400 is created by Ndrive company, which has a wide popularity due to its GPS-transmitters. The details of joint work of these processors are not clear yet: whether they will work together or one will be responsible for, say, GPS, and the other- for everything else.

Ndrive S400 Features
OS: Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
Processor: Marvell PXA310 624Mhz + Qualcomm 6280
Memory: 256 MB ROM / 128 MB Ram
Networks: Quad GSM / UMTS / HSDPA 7.2MBps
Display: 2.8-inch with a resolution VGA (640 x 480)
Camera: 3.0 megapixel camera with auto focus
GPS: A-GPS
Bluetooth 2.0
Wi-Fi
Expandable memory slot MicroSDHC
Battery: 1500mAh
Accelerometer
FM-radio with RDS

During Computex 2008, Mio introduced a new phone Leap K1, which has a built-in GPS and two screens. Like Samsung F300, Leap K1 has a small screen with a usual mobile interface, while the other is much bigger for GPS navigation and multimedia.

Mio Leap K1 has a built-in 20 channel GPS receiver and installed software MioMap 2008. MioMap 2008 starts with the help of the large screen, depending on how it supports the movement of a vehicle and pedestrian modes. Maps are stored on the microSD.
Unlike Samsung F300, this phone has a removable battery, as well as a 2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, 2,5 mm audio input and miniUSB.

Over a month the world is waiting for a new iPhone, a mobile phone from Apple that has conquered the world. It became clear that in order to keep the already gained popularity, the company needed some kind of novelty.

As always happens before the output of some new devices from Apple, the Internet is full of rumors and all sorts of predictions, 90% of which is ultimately proved to be wrong.

First version struck me as somewhat implausible. This version was: simple 4-gig. memory with less capacious battery, no video support, no 3G. Other version was powerful 32-gig. memory, 3G support, more capacious battery.

Also there is information that the first (4 gig) one will be sold freely, without being tied to a particular operator and the second (32 gig). – only with the reference to the operator (AT & T in the U.S.), but buyers would have the opportunity to buy it cheaper signing a contract for 2 years.

Innovations

A week ago, a very popular blog reported: the new iPhone besides supporting 3G, will also have GPS. First it was reported that the phone will have the same design as the previous one. But just today it has released information that the new model will be 2,5 mm. thinner than the first. By the way the size of the screen has also changed.

Yesterday a non-official, but very popular, Appleinsider wrote that the second-generation iPhone will weigh 30-40 grams less than the first (158 grams against 120-130 grams). They also reported that the diagonal of the new device will be only 2.8 inches (instead of 3.5 inches).

What or whom to believe is not yet clear. Let’s wait and see.

The day of the release

Here, there are few options, though we don’t know when exactly the release of this novelty will take place. It may happen at the WWDC conference, which will be held in San Francisco.

But it is already known that Apple has ordered the production of a new phone at the Foxconn Company, which has produced its first version. Recently this information appeared in Commercial Times Chinese newspaper. In addition, the Chinese newspaper wrote that according to the terms of the contract not less than 3,000,000 units from 25,000,000 must be delivered.

3G version of the iPhone

In late April, the network has started spreading a rumor that the French mobile operator Orange France Telecom has started testing iPhone’s support for 3G. A few days ago, the same news was published on the American AT & T.

The name of the new model

First it was just Macbok then it became Macbook Pro, then Macbook Air. First it was just an iPod then it turned into iPod Mini, iPod Shuffle, iPod Touch, etc.

For example, the best option seems to be iPhone 3G (due to the introduction of support for standard 3G). Names iPhone Black, iPhone White, iPhone Red (if it will be several options for different colors) are also possible (why not). For a version with improved functionality and features the most realistic seem to be iPhone Pro or iPhone Max names. iPhone Shuffle supposedly should be called a simpler version.

How much it will cost?

Fortune magazine a few days ago reported that the new version of the iPhone can be bought $200 cheaper than the current condition of signing contracts with the operator AT & T. It turns out that the new iPhone with 8 gig. memory can be bought for $199, the new iPhone with 16 gig. for $299 (but if you take it at current prices).

As for the rest everything is still unknown. Most likely, prices will remain the same, in different countries the prices are different depending on the operator and new models, which will be released.

This is not all…

Every day too many different rumors and unconfirmed information appear in the internet until the release of the new iPhone which makes all of its fans eagerly wait for that great event.

Motorola has introduced the latest model of its series of mobile TV receivers, Mobile TV DH02 at the CTIA Wireless 2008 conference. If in previous models of this series were only portable TVs, then this one is more functional.

First of all, a mobile TV receiver, but in addition you can download your own content – music, pictures, videos, etc. It has an 3.5-inch touch screen, video playback with the speed up to 25 frames per second. Content is stored on a memory card of microSD format.

It also has a built-in GPS navigator, BlueTooth, opportunity to write SMS-messages and make emergency calls (E-Call).

Do you think this is all? No. In Motorola Mobile TV DH02 there is a special buffer that allows you to put the TV on pause and turn on later. The maximum possible delay of broadcast is 5 minutes. I think this is a very useful feature.

But unfortunately the price of this device is unknown.

While everyone waits for Motorola Android-smartphone, the company provides another model, which has nothing to do with the above mentioned mobile platform, Motorola ROKR ZN50.

This phone is the first music slider with large touch screen, made by the American company. The design of the slider reminds of Nokia XpressMusic phones with their blue and red color accents, but for many it can seem even more attractive.

ROKR ZN50 is the first phone from the Motorola company, which has a panoramic interface with three desktops which can be filled with available widgets. In addition, the phone has 3.2-inch touch-sensitive TFT-display with a coefficient of proportionality of 16:9 and resolution of 240 x 427 pixels, displaying 256 thousand colors. The positive qualities of the phone are: 3 megapixel camera with autofocus, built in GPS receiver, support for stereo Bluetooth headsets, and HSDPA. Phone is also equipped with a TV tuner T-DMB2.

The musical opportunities of the phone are presented using SRS WOW HD technology, 3.5 millimeter audio output, and buttons to control playlist.

Phone settings: 108,9 x 54 x 14,34 mm, weight-143 grams. The battery provides 30-hour time for listening to music. The opportunity to support SD cards up to 16 gigabytes will provide needed space for storage.

You can buy this phone only in Korea, which is very strange, because a successful project like Motorola ROKR ZN50 deserves worldwide distribution.

Great news for fans of Android: soon, in the market, there will appear two more Android devices with QWERTY keyboards and touch screen – HTC Lancaster and Motorola Heron.

HTC Lancaster is the successor of HTC Dream, looks more impressive than the previous one.

In the list of characteristics can be found all that we can expect from a smart phone: Qualcomm MSM7225 processor with a clock speed of 528 MHz, 2.8-inch QVGA touch display, 3-megapixel camera, physical QWERTY keyboard and a full set of communication – HSDPA, Wi – Fi, GPS with support for A-GPS, Bluetooth, microUSB, and memory expanding slot microSD.

It is not yet known what version of Android is set to a novelty, but on Aug. 3, after its release on the market, we will know all the information.

As for Motorola Heron, its ability is the same as that of HTC Lancaster.

Motorola Heron has the same processor and screen, QWERTY keyboard, 3 megapixel camera with LED flash and the possibility of recording QVGA video at a frequency of 24 frames per second. All possible networks are also present: HSDPA, Wi-Fi, GPS with support for A-GPS, Bluetooth, microUSB, and memory expanding slot microSD.

Interesting point: Motorola Heron was originally designed as a Windows Mobile device, so it is very strange that it is Android.
Motorola Heron will appear on the shelves on the 2^nd of November this year.