Assisted GPS
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US Army looking to resupply troops via mortar bombardment
The US Army is working on a new means of rapidly resupplying its troops using hollowed out artillery shells. The system, while still in its concept phase, could eventually help deliver critical ammunition and medical equipment to its forces, even in the middle of a firefight.
Zoombak's pet, automobile locators officially launch
It's been a tick since Zoombak's pet locator snuck into the FCC's database, but the time has finally come for the unit to go commercial. The outfit has at long last launched its A-GPS-based locator that can be used in both automotive and pet applications to find your favorite critter anytime of the day or locate your rebellious youngin' who decided to take the family minivan for an extended Sunday drive. Owners of the device can create "safety zones" around particular locations and can be alerted via e-mail / SMS whenever something goes awry. As for pricing, you'll be looking at $199 to keep an extra close eye on Fido or $249 for your vehicle, but don't forget to factor in the $9.99 monthly service fee for "unlimited locating."
SiRF toots its own horn, readies location-enabling features for Android
It's not like we weren't already aware of SiRF's participation in the Open Handset Alliance, but nevertheless, the company is sounding pretty ecstatic about the software developer kit it "just received." Reportedly, the outfit is already hard at work on "end-to-end location-enabling features" for Android, and in case you couldn't guess, it's also providing Android platform support for a plethora of products based on its famed SiRFstarIII architecture. Essentially, the firm is hoping to take advantage of having location as a "native feature" within Android, and it makes the obvious sound a whole lot more intriguing by teasing us with visions of "out-of-the-box locative experiences" involving geo-tagging, geo-searching and social networking. Still, we'll tip our hat to any form of tight integration, but this here's probably nothing to get riled up over.
Nokia to add Assisted GPS to all new GPS devices
Looks like Nokia's getting serious about Assisted GPS -- in addition to adding support for the network-enhanced location service to the latest N95 firmware, the company has announced that the 6110 Navigator and all future Nokia GPS devices will support the technology. No word on what those devices might be, but here's hoping this means we start seeing GPS chips pop up in a lot more phones.[Via PhoneMag]
Firmware v12.0.013 available for Nokia's N95
While the rest of us sit and wait on a potential 8GB iteration, current N95 owners now have a bit more utility to look forward to care of a new firmware update. Version 12.0.013, which looks to only be available on phones with Euro product codes (0534841 and 0534844) at the moment, provides a few subtle changes that essentially get lost in the addition of Assisted GPS and the amount of RAM available. Interestingly, the full rundown of changes seems to be still rolling out, so be sure and visit the read link for the growing list and do tell if you notice alterations on your own.
