“The nüvifone is an all-in-one device offering unmatched integration of utility and function in a single mobile device,” said Cliff Pemble, Garmin’s president and COO. “This is the breakthrough product that cell phone and GPS users around the world have been longing for – a single device that does it all.”

The nüvifone is an innovative mobile phone that has a wide range of advanced yet easy-to-use features. The all touchscreen device is the first of its kind to integrate premium 3.5G mobile phone capability with an internet browser, data connectivity, personal messaging, and personal navigation functions in one device. The 3.5-inch touchscreen display reveals three primary icons – “Call,” “Search,” and “View Map” which allow the user to effortlessly master the nüvifone’s functions.

The nüvifone is the ultimate multi-tasker. Calls are easily initiated by tapping the “Call” button and selecting a name from the contact list or by using the on-screen keypad. When the user is trying to juggle talking on their phone while entering their vehicle to start a trip, the nüvifone makes the transition simple. When the nüvifone is docked onto the vehicle mount, it automatically turns on the GPS, activates the navigation menu, and enables hands-free calling so that the user never misses a beat in the conversation and is able to begin routing to their destination with ease.

Customers familiar with Garmin’s industry leading nüvi® product line will feel right at home using the nüvifone’s personal navigation features. It includes preloaded maps of North America, Eastern and Western Europe, or both, and allows drivers to quickly find a specific street address, establishment’s name or search for a destination by category using the nüvifone’s built-in database with millions of points of interest. Turn-by-turn, voice-prompted directions guide the user to their destination. If they miss a turn along the route, nüvifone automatically recalculates a route and gets them back on track, speaking the names of the streets along the way.

The nüvifone is Garmin’s first device to include Google local search capability, which harnesses the vast point of interest information available from the world wide web. Nüvifone users can search for locations like “coffee shops” and Google will sort the results based on the user’s current location and relevance. Information provided by Google includes a web-based rating so that users can select the most appropriate destination and route directly to it. In addition, the nüvifone includes a web browser incorporating premium features and touchscreen operation for an optimum mobile browsing experience. The nüvifone also includes personal messaging functions, including email, text, and instant messaging.

For the ultimate in safety, the “Where am I?” feature lets users touch the screen at any time to display the exact latitude and longitude coordinates, the nearest address and intersection, and the closest hospitals, police stations and gas stations. The nüvifone also helps drivers find their car in an unfamiliar spot or crowded parking lot by automatically marking the position in which it was last removed from the vehicle mount.

In addition to navigation, the nüvifone includes access to Garmin OnlineTM, an online service offering constantly-updating information such as real-time traffic, fuel prices, stock prices, sport scores, news reports, local events and weather forecasts.

The nüvifone also includes numerous mobile entertainment applications. The built-in camera allows individuals to take a picture that will automatically be tagged with the exact latitude and longitude reference of where the image was taken. The user may then save the image so they can navigate back to the location, or email the image to a recipient who can navigate directly to the location. The nüvifone also provides direct access to millions of geo-located landmark and sightseeing photographs available through Google’s Panoramio picture sharing site. The Panoramio photo search feature enhances the enjoyment and adventure of sightseeing in an otherwise unfamiliar location. Other multimedia functions of the nüvifone include a built-in video camera, MP3 and MPEG4/AAC.

Garmin anticipates that the nüvifone will be available in the third quarter of 2008. Specific details about pricing and sales partners will be announced in the future.

Navigators Everywhere, Especially on Holiday Gift Lists – New York Times
JUDGING from the holiday-season popularity of G.P.S. navigators, there are few gestures more satisfying than telling the person you love, “You have no sense of direction, but don’t worry — modern technology can help.” This year, the Global Positioning System seems to have been invented merely to be tucked into great gadgets — smartphones, portable in-car navigators and even hand-held devices you can use on hiking trips or during workouts. Under this seemingly slim rubric is an array of products to fit many lifestyles and interests…

Secrets in Rare Cartography – EurekAlert!
Whales were the economic drivers of the 1850s. So important was this resource that the founder of the U.S. Oceanographic Office, Matthew Fontaine Maury, created a map showing the worldwide distribution of sperm and right whales in 1851. “Whale oil then was like petroleum is today,” says Christopher Baruth. “This is a graphic device that showed where the whales were located by type and season.” Quietly housed at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) since 1978, the AGS Library contains more than a million items, half of which are maps and charts, some dating to 15th century, and some that aren’t available anywhere else, even at the Library of Congress…

The project has already captured images at street level in 17 US cities and attached them to the highly popular Google Maps online application.

It was launched in the US in May, and quickly attracted controversy after claims several images breached privacy.

Some images identified men outside strip clubs, women sunbaking in parks and even captured a woman’s g-string as she emerged from her car. Soon after, Google modified several images to remove or mask the identity of individuals.

Google Australia’s head of corporate communications Rob Shilkin said Australia’s privacy laws were tighter than those in the United States, and that no one’s privacy would be compromised.

“We’re giving very considerable thought to how best to safeguard Australian’s privacy, including consulting experts and community groups, while enabling all Australians to benefit from this new feature,” Mr Shilkin said.

“We’re focusing on finding ways to ensure that individuals’ faces are not identifiable in pictures taken in Australia and that licence plate numbers are not identifiable in Australia.”

Cameras mounted on top of “Google-labelled” cars will travel around Australian cities and towns, pausing to take a 360-degree photo, record the location of the image using GPS, and then move to the next location.

The images will be collected throughout summer and are likely to appear online in the second half of next year. (via news.com.au)

“Take your favorite restaurant, for example. Now you can find it on Google Maps and move the marker to its front door. You might just save someone’s date with this information! Fixing markers can be downright addictive. I’ve spent hours using Street View to locate businesses and houses, and then moving their markers.”

To avoid vandalism the software also records the original location marker so that users can compare the two wiki-style and correct incorrect changes. Users require a Google Account to take advantage of the new feature.

Garmin turns to Navteq; drops bid for rival mapmaker – Chicago Sun-Times
Garmin, the world’s leading GPS maker, took a new direction today, backing off from a $3.4 billion offer to buy digital mapmaker Tele Atlas while extending its pact with Chicago-based Navteq, the Chicago digital mapmaker. The GPS and mapmaker industry has been up for grabs since Nokia, the leading cell-phone manufacturer, announced last month it is acquiring Navteq for $8 billion.

Chinese take-away: Guidebooks – The Age
Travellers heading to Beijing for the Olympic Games may want to reconsider taking a guidebook. The Chinese Government has banned Lonely Planet’s popular China Travel Guide over what it deems controversial content. After repeated reports of confiscations from travellers, China’s ministry of foreign affairs confirmed that the guide was banned last year because of a map that depicts the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan as separate countries.

Nokia unveils the Nokia N82, the latest multimedia computer optimized for photography, navigation and internet connectivity. With the tools to discover the places and moments worth capturing, and the capabilities to capture and share them instantaneously, the Nokia N82 offers photography enthusiasts an enhanced camera experience.

Discover, capture and share
The Nokia N82 enables you to explore your surroundings and find your way with navigation and routing; document your adventures with the high quality imaging capabilities; and instantly share your experiences with one click upload to the web.

Featuring A-GPS, 5 megapixel camera, Xenon flash, Carl Zeiss optics and internet connectivity, the Nokia N82 also incorporates all the multimedia computer features common to Nokia Nseries. Like its predecessor the Nokia N95, the Nokia N82 is the latest epitome of a truly converged device that is not one thing but is many.

Discover the world
The powerful A-GPS and preinstalled* Nokia Maps help you explore and locate new places, whether in another country or just around the corner. All Nokia N82 standard sales packages come with a free voice guided navigation trial*, and you can purchase additional features, such as city guides and longer subscription to the navigation.

With access to more than 15 million points of interest, you can locate and navigate to the most interesting sights, bars or restaurants wherever you are. You can also send map excerpts and routes to friends by MMS or save map screen shots to the gallery.

Capture your experiences
With a 5 megapixel camera, powerful Xenon flash and Carl Zeiss optics, the Nokia N82 delivers remarkably vivid photographs, even in low-light conditions. Fast camera activation, autofocus with a dedicated autofocus assist lamp, fast reloading between shots and DVD-like quality video capture make it a truly convenient and credible tool for capturing and telling your life stories.

Thanks to the 2GB microSD card in the standard Nokia N82 sales package*, you can store up to 900 high-resolution photos or up to 84 minutes of high quality video on the device.

Share your stories
With high speed Wi-Fi connectivity and one-click upload to online communities, the Nokia N82 makes sharing your experiences and discoveries easy. When viewing a picture or video, simply one press of a button starts uploading it while you carry on using the device for other purposes.

Or you can impress your friends with multimedia slideshows – complete with music and effects – on the high resolution display or on a compatible TV.

The Nokia N82 comes with the new content driven 3D multimedia menu and includes a convenient orientation sensor that rotates the user interface automatically between horizontal and portrait mode. For quick and easy access to entertainment content, the Nokia N82 also supports the Ovi family of Nokia internet services, including Nokia Music Store, N-Gage games** and Nokia Maps.

The vans represent the next stage in maps. For nearly 42 centuries, maps changed very little. They became more accurate, but they remained a two-dimensional representation of the land and water underneath us.

But cartography has come a long way in the past 40 years. And Rochester and its surrounding communities have just been recorded.

Tele Atlas, a global corporation based in The Netherlands with American headquarters in Lebanon, N.H., is in the second phase of a three-year project, mapping the United States and Canada precisely.

They have completed the mapping and photographing of all the highways in the country and are now working on doing precise measurements of the secondary roads.

“This is being put in on an ongoing basis,” says Dan Adams, vice president of operations for the Americas. “On any given day we have about 700 people who are working on updating the databases.”

The newly compiled data is released to their clients every 90 days. Tele Atlas doesn’t provide maps for the end user. Instead, they provide the information to a company like Google, which uses it in their own mapping applications — like Google Maps. And the information collected is miles ahead of anything a paper map could display. The vans collecting the data are equipped with several computers, each continuously compiling images from multiple cameras. Gyroscopes measure the slope and cant of the road. The computers know if the road is tilted and if the vehicle’s Global Positioning System fails, there are sensors on each van to measure precise distances. Vans traveling in big cities are even equipped with cameras that will allow the end user to simulate looking up at skyscrapers.

The company is working with stereo imagery and LIDAR sensors, similar to radar. But Adams says the most exciting prospect for the future will be in working with the end-users themselves, which will allow very rapid updates to maps. It will help with very accurate updates on things like closed roads and repair work.

Adams notes that the company uses algorithms to figure the most effective routes for the vans to travel, but also relies on drivers to make decisions based on what he or she deems to be an important part of the road. Everything in the van, he adds, is completely automated. All the driver needs to do is turn on the computers and drive. (via Rochester Times)

Two 15th century maps stolen from the Spanish National Library in Madrid, Spain have been recovered, with the help of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation’s special art crime department.

The maps, from an edition of Ptolemy’s Geographia, were found at a home of a private collector in Sydney, Australia who claimed that he bought them at a public auction in London.

“The theft of cultural property is a worldwide problem which the FBI takes very seriously. This type of crime is not only an offense against an institution, but deprives the international community of its cultural heritage,” FBI Director Robert Mueller said. “We are pleased to assist the Spanish National Police and Civil Guard in returning these treasures to their rightful owners.”

Meanwhile, the investigating team has confirmed the robber’s identity. His name is Cesar Gomez Rivero, a 60-year-old man originally from Uruguay with Spanish nationality living in Argentina. The authorities of United Kingdom, Australia and Argentina have recovered nine other maps. In total, 11 stolen maps were recovered. (via AHN)

Mountain View-based Google Inc.’s mapping service will be integrated into Gilbarco’s Applause media system, which has been incorporated in its Encore pumps with color screens and Internet connections.

“Getting directions at the pump is safer than using Internet-enabled devices from the driver’s seat and far more reliable than just asking a stranger,” Kirsten Paust, VP of global retail systems at Gilbarco, said in a statement.

Participating stations will provide a color screen where users can go online to search for directions and landmarks. A hard copy will be available off the receipt printer.

Gilbarco plans to roll out early next month, initially at about 3,500 gas pumps. (via East Bay Business Times)

The satellite, designated GPS IIR-17M, is the fourth in a series of eight satellites that bring new capabilities to military and civilian users of the GPS system. Each satellite features a modernized antenna panel that provides increased signal power to receivers on the ground, two new military signals for improved accuracy, enhanced encryption and anti- jamming capabilities for the military, and a second civil signal that will provide users with an open access signal on a different frequency.

Lockheed Martin’s operations team conducted the on-orbit deployment and checkout of all spacecraft systems in just over six days, allowing Air Force Space Command’s 2nd Space Operations Squadron (2 SOPS) based at Schriever Air Force Base, Colo., to conduct the navigation payload initialization. The satellite was subsequently declared operational on Oct. 31 for both civil and military users.

“The team’s focus on operational excellence and mission success is at the heart of this program and we look forward to working side by side with our customer to sustain this critical system for military and civil users worldwide,” added DeGryse.

The satellite joins three IIR-M satellites and 12 other operational Block IIR satellites within the current 28-spacecraft constellation. The team is currently preparing the fifth GPS IIR-M satellite for its scheduled launch on Dec. 20, 2007 from Cape Canaveral.

The Global Positioning Systems Wing, Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif., is planning to launch the three remaining GPS IIR-M satellites next year, one of which will include a new demonstration payload that will temporarily transmit a third civil signal, known as L5.

The Global Positioning System enables properly equipped users to determine precise time and velocity and worldwide latitude, longitude and altitude to within a few meters.