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World's first GLONASS-enabled smartphone ships in Russia, GPS ponders a recalculation
Well, would you look at that? The planet's first GLONASS phone is now available, but it looks as if you'll need to soar over to Russia in order to use it. Of course, if you've followed the GLONASS story at all you wouldn't find that shocking in the least, and if you choose to pick up the ZTE-built MTS GLONASS 945 on your next trip, you'll be treated to full-on GPS support back in the States. It's a Froyo-based device with a 3.2-inch capacitive touchpanel, 2 megapixel camera, 130MB of memory, Bluetooth / WiFi and a price tag of just under 11,000 Rubles. That's around $400 in real money, which you'll probably find suits you best in your wallet if you've already picked up the all-too-similar Vodafone 945. Here's hoping the world's second GLONASS phone is a bit more compelling in the design and feature standpoint, yeah? [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Better Place's electric taxis coming to SF Bay Area, thanks to $7 million grant
San Francisco, San Jose and Palo Alto, California were all too happy to endorse Better Place's electric vehicle infrastructure two years ago, but now the powers that be have invested some cash to get this show on the road. The Bay Area's Metropolitan Transportation Commission has dropped $6.9 million to purchase and build 61 electric taxis and four robotic battery swap stations to put freshly juiced cells in place -- just like Better Place has been doing with Tokyo taxis since April 26th. Yellow Cab Cooperative and Yellow Checker Cab will operate the zero-emission vehicles, though CNET reports that they've yet to choose a particular type -- perhaps we'll finally see Mitsubishi's i MiEV with a steering wheel on the left-hand side? PR after the break.
