GPS

How tired that little ASUS Eee PC must be at the end of the day. Not only can it serve as an accomplice in stealing money in an ATM scam, but it also morphs into a GPS navigator.

The Eee PC’s 7-inch matte display gives you plenty of screen space for maps and directional instructions and decently handles sun glare. Even better, its small build doesn’t take up too much space on the dash.

While it’s no Dash Express or Garmin nüvi, the Eee PC can handle getting you where you want to go with voice navigation while saving you more than a few bucks. All you need is a relatively inexpensive and compact USB-powered GPS receiver and companion mapping software. I used Microsoft Streets and Trips 2008 ($99.99), which is a decent software and receiver package for its price. You can also purchase a standalone receiver and download freeware, such as GPS Utility, EasyGPS, and GPS Positioner Smart.

I spent a day driving around with the Eee PC on my dashboard. Check out the video below to see how I set up my ride and how it handled a short trip to a local Starbucks. Then check out these detailed tips on how to set it up.

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This morning AT&T added a third BlackBerry Pearl to its lineup, the GPS-enabled Pearl 8110. Previously, AT&T offered the BlackBerry Pearl 8100, which is now available only as a refurbished device for $79.99, and the Wi-Fi–enabled 8120 ($199).

The new 8110 is priced at $149, $50 cheaper than the 8120 and with many of the same features, including a 2-MP camera, 3.5mm headphone jack for listening to music, and a side-loading microSD slot for adding music and video to your BlackBerry. It also has the same SureType keyboard.

Oh, and it comes with an “exclusive Indiana Jones ringtone.” If you thought BlackBerrys were still just for business, there’s your proof that it’s not. On the business side of things, though, AT&T is hoping that the Pearl strikes interest in potential AT&T BusinessTalk subscribers, a service that lets small businesses talk to multiple phones on the same contract for free.

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This evening, we took a trip to downtown Manhattan to witness Archos unveil several new updates to Archos TV+ and its 605 Wi-Fi and 705 Wi-Fi portable media players that will give entertainment seekers new ways to acquire and move content-as well as navigate roads.

TVportation is a $49.99 plug-in (available in May) that transforms the Archos TV+ into a streaming media server that will allow users to watch their live, home TV on 3G or Wi-Fi-connected devices (smart phones Archos 605 Wi-Fi, 705 Wi-Fi, notebooks). In the demo, the connection was slow and more than a little choppy, which the Archos reps blamed on the multitude of wireless signals beaming through the room.

Archos’ new partnership with Paramount Digital Entertainment will allow users to download flicks like Cloverfield and Shooter to their Macs or PCs, or directly to one of the company’s PMPs. Paramount’s offerings will appear in a separate area within Archos’ store, but not within the Archos Content Portal; an odd choice, as who searches for movies by studio?

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South Korean manufacturer Fine Drive today announced the CUVi, a GPS device with DMB capability. Yes, that’s live television. In your car. While you’re driving.

The 5.4-ounce CUVi sports a 3.5-inch display to efficiently navigate users to their respective destinations and equally effectively increase the likelihood of driving into a telephone pole while watching the morning news or a movie. Drivers can load their hazard-inviting PND with up to 2GB of delightfully distracting entertainment. The CUVi will sell in South Korea for 300,000KRW (about $307), and by a stroke of good fortune, no U.S. version appears to be in the works.

[via Aving USA]

GPS on your cell just got much better. Networks In Motion’s AtlasBook Navigator, which will be the platform for the next version of Verizon Wireless’ VZ Navigator service, provides audible, turn-by-turn directions and now access to real-time traffic data.

Compatible with a wide variety of handsets, the service delivers traffic updates and finds local detours around congestion and accidents, all with the touch of a button. Even on a small screen AtlasBook Navigator offers a clean interface and easy-to-read maps. Add in a new 3D perspective view, movie and events finder, weather reports, and gas prices at nearby stations, and you have one of the best mobile tools you can fit in your pocket.

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It’s 12 a.m., do you know where your children are? How about your spouse or your best friend?

If you have a BlackBerry and your friend or relative does also, you can track use BlackLine Blip to track each other. If you want to track a person or an object (a car, for example) that doesn’t have a BlackBerry, you can just use a standalone device called the Snitch. You can even get e-mail or SMS alerts when the Snitch is moved.

This technology has some interesting uses. If everyone at work had a BlackBerry with BlackLine Blip, I’d use it to find out which of my coworkers was out on lunch break and ask them to pick up a few cans of diet coke for me. If I had teenagers, I’d definitely put a Snitch in the glove compartment of the family car.

Joanna Stern takes a closer look at the Blip and the Snitch in the video below.

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Networks in motion showed us their new AtlasBook Navigator platform, which will be the basis for some upcoming carriers’ GPS software, including Verizon’s upcoming upgrade to its VZ Navigator.

The AtlasBook Navigator uses your phone’s positioning to give you local information such as traffic and weather. It will even tell you what movies are playing at the nearest movie theater, without you even entering an address or zip code.

Just imagine you’re on a business trip in an unfamiliar town, you’ve got the evening to yourself, and  you’re dying to go see Run Fat Boy Run to kill the time. You can just search for the movie you want to see and get directions from your location to the nearest theater.

Pretty cool, eh? Check out the video.

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For GPS fanatics or even just the average driver, March 27 is a big day. The rehearsals are over and Dash Navigation’s Dash Express is ready for showtime. The device—the first Internet-connected GPS unit designed to deliver the most up-to-date traffic data to consumers—begins shipping today on Amazon.com for $399. For this price, the Dash comes with a three-month trial, followed by a monthly cost as low as $9.99 for the cellular connections.

We’ve been waiting to try out the Dash since International CES 2007. GPS devices have been flooding the market since then. So what exactly have we been waiting for? The answer is that the Dash is unlike the Garmins and TomToms of the navigation world. Every Dash Express on the road connects to the Internet using a Wi-Fi or cellular connection.

When it has a Wi-Fi connection, the Dash searches for larger downloads, such as maps. When it has a cellular GPRS connection, the Dash gets traffic feeds and sends traffic reports back to the service (which Dash calls TruTraffic). The result is almost instantaneous: If you’re cruising down the highway and you suddenly hit a traffic jam, the Express will tell you how long your delay is expected to be, based on how quickly other cars with the Dash are moving through it.
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I have to admit that until recently I didn’t really get the idea of geo-tagging. It sounded too much like some kind of way for a marine biologist to track migrating dolphins. Yawn. Then I discovered that geo-tagging was actually something much more fun.

Geo-tagging, I learned, means that when I take a picture, the GPS data of my current location is stored in the image file on my camera. But how can I put this data to use and share it with friends?

This weekend I decided I was sick and tired of being ill-informed in the art of geo-tagging so I went out with our review unit Nokia N82 with two goals: learn how to geo-tag, and figure out a way to show our readers how to do the same.

I wish I could begin this guide with a host of cameras that you can purchase and go geo-tagging with, but the fact is there aren’t any cameras with built-in GPS or AGPS right now (but you can splurge for a camera accessory like the Sony GPS-CS1).

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We took a brief jaunt around the International Auto Show at the Javits Center in New York City this morning. In addition to checking out Speedracer’s Mach 5, we also sat down with Ford and XM to find out about their in-car navigation and entertainment technology.

Ford Sync

You’ve seen the commercial; now see how it works in real life. The disembodied male voice you hear is mine. The disembodied female voice—that’s coming from the car. Listen for its Vulcan-like interpretation of emoticons.

XM Navigation

This new service from XM, which was announced yesterday for the Acura TSX, not only routes you around heavy traffic, but around nasty weather, too. It’ll set you back an additional $3.99 a month, but the XM rep said that car makers would probably factor it into the total cost of the car.