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There’s not anything incorrect among Alpine’s new $550 PND-K3 Portable Navigation System, that was principally unveiled at CES now January, there just now sucker anything and everything too stand-out either. The unit operates a 4.3-inch screen, sports maps of North America and tethered islands, includes a 3D view and 6 million points of interest, vocalizes turn-by-turn directions and street names, performs Bluetooth hands-free and has conservative MP3 and WMA capabilities off its SD card slot. The “big” feature right here is menu and map customization via 8 selectable color schemes, but the lack of dwell income news this moment value span sucker thriving Alpine any points. If you are noticing all the present appealing, you if be able to decide on one up as of today.

While particular charges once any firmware update are to be expected, there appears to be a reached the conclusion uptick in the rate of studies of queries investing in the iPhone’s GPS (ranging out of total wonkiness to all out failure) following the several current 2.0.1 update. As the responses on the MacRumors forums indicate, however, the topics are far according to throughout the council (or confined to the iPhone 3G), and GPS matters haven’t spot on continued which rare of an arrival before presently current update either. So, we will open it up to you, dear readers — suffer you had any newfound iPhone GPS problems?

Photos of a purportedly unannounced Blackberry codenamed “Daytona” are making the rounds in Spain this morning. This new RIM device clearly marked “evaluation unit” on the back is said to sport a 2 megapixel camera with LED flash, GPS, and that glorious WiFi we’re all missing on the 8800. Spanish site Xataka speculates that this media savvy device will carry an 8300 model number when it hits at the start of summer. Perhaps, but we’re still wondering when we’ll see the notorious 8820.

Update: A video has been posted by the Mentesdigitales site. Check that and more pictures after the break.

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Check it, Europeans — Clarion has just dumped a new duo of PNDs on the market, and they’re both geared up to route you all over your humble lands. It appears that the only major difference between the MAP680 and MAP780 are the actual maps loaded in; the former is available in four regional versions, while the latter features a full 43 European countries. Specs wise, we’re lookin’ at a 4.3-inch widescreen display, text-to-speech, built-in TMC tuner, 3D display of buildings / POIs, lane assistant, Bluetooth (with phone book transfer and audio streaming), a 400MHz CPU, multimedia player and 2GB (MAP780) / 1GB (MAP680) of internal memory. No word on a price or any of that good stuff just yet, but feel free to get more acquainted with the pair in the gallery below.

[Via NaviGadget]

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XRoad has released a few of its GPS units ’round these parts, but it looks like it’s sticking close to its home base with its latest V7 model, which will apparently be exclusive to Korea. If that doesn’t preclude you, however, it looks like you can expect a pretty decent unit, with the new V7 3rd version boasting a 7-inch 800 x 480 display, all the usual PMP functions, 4GB of flash memory, an FM tuner, a DMB mobile TV tuner, picture-in-picture, real-time traffic information, and a generous 4200mAh Li-Ion battery, to name but a few features. No word on a price or release date just yet, but we wouldn’t expect it to be too far off the $600 or so the previous model demanded.
[Via Navigadget]

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Finally, the EU’s Giove-B GPS satellite was shot into space by the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Strapped atop a Soyuz-FG rocket, the Giove-B reached orbit at 8:01am this morning, and is the second satellite launched for the nascent next-generation European Galileo satellite navigation system. This particular model is kitted out with dual redundant rubidium atomic clocks that the ESA says are “the most accurate in space”. The next bird — just three of thirty — is slated to go up in 2010 with a full-system launch around 2013. Until then, it looks like they’ll be stuck using the US’s crappy, less-sensitive GPS network (boo hoo).

[Via Physorg]

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Now, we’re not certain whether the 81xx actually arrived in a basket wrapped in old linens, but whatever the case, the FCC was kind enough to take Navigon’s forthcoming PND in and put it through the necessary paces. After doing a little 2 + 2, we’re going ahead and assuming that this unit is the 3D map-lovin’ 8110 that we played around with briefly at CeBIT. As you’d expect from an FCC filing, there’s no mention of when this thing will be freed for selling here in the US, but we don’t expect it to lag behind the 2100 Max for too awfully long.

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With prime motorcycling weather nearly here, TomTom has prepped an update to bring a handful of new features to its RIDER 2nd Edition. Aside from including Map Share technology and the “Help Me” menu, the enhanced 2nd Edition GPS will also provide a latest map guarantee, trip statistics and itinerary planning. Reportedly, the upgraded unit will go on sale early next month for £349.99 ($691) / £399.99 ($790) depending on whether you’re picking up UK / Ireland maps or all of Europe, but existing 1st Edition / 2nd Edition owners can snag the update gratis via TomTom HOME. No word on a North American release just yet.

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Better get used to it ’cause wood emblazoned consumer electronics is a trend that’s apparently here to stay. This time, it’s Burl Walnut (not bamboo) on this N3 which Cowon puts up for sale in Korea on April 28th. We’re not sure when deforestation become synonymous with ecological so we’ll assume that Cowon’s going for recyclability here and involved in some form of sustainable forest management program. Surely this isn’t just some marketing ploy. The 2GB DMB with GPS device will cost you ₩419,000 (about $437) — a $20 premium over the standard 2GB N3.

[Via Akihabara News]

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Though it pains us so, there’s not an awful lot of information out there just yet on MeLE’s forthcoming do-it-all PMP. Spotted at AsiaWorld-Expo in Hong Kong, the admittedly beefy unit was seen sporting a 4.3-inch 480 x 272 resolution display, a relatively gigantic bezel and room for a 2.5-inch hard drive within. If we had to guess, we’d surmise that it’ll play nice with pretty much any useful audio / video format on the planet, but it seems the price and release date are still cloaked in mystery.
[Via SlashGear]

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