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Sat Nav

Navizon – GPS with out GPS

by Matthew on July 11, 2007

Navizon - GPS with out GPS
Navizon is a cool app for your mobile phone which works with a large database which users update to make it more accurate. The aim of the product is to allow those with out GPS receivers to find out where they are in cities. Those with a GPS device can track cellular towers and wifi signals as they drive around. Once the data is collected it is uploaded to a database. Those users with out GPS can then drive by and with triangulation work out where they are in a city due to signal strength on a cellular tower and wifi network names. The idea is quite cool and something I will be testing out in the next few weeks around my home town. Although the system would need a lot of data to track and also a number of wifi networks to make it accurate, you can see how this would be a very accurate system with in a busy city.

You can download Navizon here. The product costs $24.99 to buy which unfortunately is not much cheaper then a bluetooth receiver. Its well worth checking out the trial though.



TomTom the SatNav Gurus file Cool Patent

by Matthew on July 3, 2007

TomTom PatentTomTom Patent Drawing

SatNav with real time video of the street ahead

TomTom have been in the SatNav industry for a while now. I owned one of their first navigation pieces of software a few years back for my Cassiopeia EM500 Pocket PC. I was amazed at the 3D maps and how they could rotate as you changed direction. However, thats all old school now as TomTom have filed a cool new patent which allows for actual video footage to be displayed on the screen of the SatNav and then the line of the route you take is superimposed on top of the live video. This is an excellent way to go as you actually will see what you are supposed to rather then a guess at what exit you should be taking when the regular maps are not quite clear.

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