Google Maps Navigation will be available on Android powered devices sporting the 2.0 (”Eclair”) update. This currently only concerns mobile phones. As a result of the specific targeting of mobile phones, Google is able to do something with their navigation software that most companies can’t rely on. They can pretty much count on internet connectivity to power their software. When you decide to navigate to an area, everything is sent to you via that internet connection. Your search results come from the internet. Your maps come from the internet. Your points of interest come from the internet. Anywhere you can access your phone’s data service, you can access Google Maps Navigation.

Google has assured users that the maps program caches several minutes of data, so that service that fades in and out should go unnoticed. The benefits of relying on internet access are numerous, however. For instance, with my TomTom navigation unit, I currently have to sync it to my PC every time I want to update it. With the Google service, it uses the Google Cloud to keep the program up to date. Because Google already has a bazillion different services, it already has the data it needs. It can pull POI (Points of Interest) data such as gas stations, restaurants, businesses, etc from their directories. It can pull it’s maps, satellite views, street views, and traffic data from their respective services.

Google also uses it’s voice search capabilities, which are already present on it’s android devices, to allow users to search for places. You can search by address, by business name, or by a vague description that may be well known on the internet (Such as, “Navigate to the museum in San Francisco with the King Tut exhibit”).

In the end, Google ties everything together with a package that is going to put GPS navigation device makers on their heels. Everything works together very well. Users can place different “layers” over their maps (Such as showing satellite imagery in order to get a better look at the actual layout of your surroundings). They can do searches in the middle of their route (To find gas or food, for example). The options are virtually endless, and exceed all but possibly the most expensive GPS devices on the market.

If the situation wasn’t already bad enough, Google plans to offer this service with the typical Google twist: For Free. Most GPS devices are also free after you buy the device. But you generally have to pay premiums for map updates anytime they become available. My TomTom runs about $70 per map update, with subscriptions available to slightly reduce the price, for example. In addition, some items (such as Traffic and Gas data) cost additional fees, and sometimes require additional devices to work.

Google has a hit on their hands, and the initial stock hits that Garmin and TomTom took show that. For the moment, the only relief exists in the fact that the service is limited to Android based phones. But given Google’s relationships with the iPhone and other devices, that likely won’t last long. My only question in this situation is, How do the phone providers feel about Google stealing their navigation service business? My Sprint plan includes Sprint Navigation, but other providers sell their services at a premium.

It appears that when the cult comedy Futurama returns to TV screens with all new episodes in the Fall on Comedy Central, they’ll be using so without ANY of the central cast.  Billy West (Fry, Professor, and Ziodberg), Katey Sagal (Leela), John DiMaggio (Bender), Maurice LaMarche (Kif Kroker) have all been let go by Twentieth Century Fox due to “salary demands.” Now its up to Matt Groening and David Cohen to find an all-new voice cast for all their main characters.

R.I.P. Dr. Zoidberg

Needless to say,

The presentation is a bit long, and it gets a little techy. But you can get a great picture of some of the ideas it presents. And you will not want to miss the last couple minutes of the presentation for just one great example of the potential it has.

Apple Headquarters in Cupertino, CA housed the iPhone 3.0 preview event. And let me first of all thank Engadget for doing such an amazing job of covering this preview.

Let’s get right into it. The major announcements include:

Cut, copy and paste. This works across apps and with multiple photos in email. Also, shake to undo/redo.

MMS at long last! Also forward and delete multiple messages.

Unlocked Bluetooth functionality on 2G iPod Touch.

A2DP stereo Bluetooth.

Spotlight – Universal search feature added to the left of the main home screen.

Tethering built-in to the 3.0 software, but implementation is ultimately up to the carriers.

Peer-to-peer connectivity over Bluetooth for gaming and other info-swapping. (ie contacts)

Paid apps will have the potential to be subscription fee-based, and can include optional paid content that can be bought from right inside the app.

Developers can now build apps that call out to Google Maps.

Turn-by-turn directions with access to Core Data. (Access to Google Maps not included – aka B.Y.O.M)

Devs can also connect with hardware accessories over in their apps now. Connectivity works through the dock connector or over Bluetooth. (keyboard?)

Long-promised push functionality will at last be included, but apps won’t run in the background. (kills battery life)

Developers can add streaming video and audio to their apps, along with in-game voice use.

Shake to shuffle iPod playback.

A new app called Voice Memos which lets you record notes and reminders.

A revised Stocks app with news stories and a landscape view.

Landscape view available for Mail, Text and Notes.

CalDAV support has been added to Calendar, along with subscriptions support in the .ics format.

Apple’s major apps have all been expanded with search functionality.

Note syncing to Mac and PC.

YouTube account support.

Form auto-fill.

Phishing protection.

A developer beta of OS 3.0 is available today, and the 3.0 update will be coming to consumers this summer as a free update to all iPhone 3G customers. It’ll also work for 1st gen iPhone owners, though they won’t receive A2DP or MMS due to hardware limitations. iPod touch owners will be able to update for $9.95, (Déjà vu, anyone?)

During the Q & A afterwards Engaget found out that due to “hardware limitations” MMS and A2DP are not going to be available on first gen iPhones.

The new design eliminates the click-wheel completely and opts for an earphone cord-based click system. The controls are located a few inches below the right earbud and has 3 parts: + and - for volume control and a middle button for the majority of the controls. The new system allows for one-click play/pause, two-clicks track forward, and three-clicks previous track. Holding down the button allows for a completely new experience – VoiceOver. This brand new feature actually speaks the artist and track information by holding down the button. If the button is held down long enough, a tone will sound. After that, the Shuffle will speak the current playlist and the begin listing all the playlists. Simply click again when you hear your desired playlist, and you’re good to go.

With the new 4GB capacity, enough for 1000 songs, it’s no wonder that Apple has finally brought multiple playlists to the iPod Shuffle line.

The new Shuffle retails for $79 and is available in black matte and silver matte, the same color scheme as the iPod Classic.

On the upside is the new, smaller size; the belt clip as a mainstay; VoiceOver; and the larger capacity.

On the downside is the lack of color options and the removal of the click-wheel. While this doesn’t sound like a downside, users who may want to use their own earphones are out of luck. An adapter is said to be in the works, but who really wants to pay more to use their current earphones – effectively driving up the price of the Shuffle?

Top-sided tabs are a little odd if you’re used to the traditional location just above the current window. It may take some adjustment, but it does seem to free up some real estate for the page currently being viewed.

Top Sites is a contact-sheet-style page  that displays the internet’s most popular sites. You can’t add specific sites, but it does learn your visiting habits. Initially it lists sites such as: Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook, and eBay, but just visit your favorite geeky site (geekshow.us of course) a few times and pretty soon it will show up on Top Sites.

You can change the size of Top Sites to display 6, 12 or 20 webpages.

Another nice feature is the ability to search or browse your history in a Cover Flow-style view. Very nice if you want to go back to that one site, and you don’t remember the name, but you remember what the site looked like.

I’ve been using Firefox for the past few months because Safari 3 was just too slow, and the longer I left it running, the slower it got. The last few days I have basically been running Safari and I have had absolutely no issues. No slowdowns, no bugs, and no crashes.

Available free for MacOSX 10.5 and Windows. Download it here.

Going into this years Mobile World Conference (MWC) the hottest topics of discussion were new Android phones and new mobile app stores to rival the Apple app store.

So far only the G1 has been available to test the potential of Google’s mobile phone operating system, Android. Although the G1 hardware has had mixed reviews the operating system itself has generally been praised. The market had poised itself for a whole mix of new Android phones to flood the market. So, what came out of Mobile World Congress this year? Answer, the HTC Magic. One phone – not the flood that was expected. It does look like a very nice phone, but then there is nothing else to directly compare it with.

The Apple App store for the iPhone and iPod Touch has been one of the biggest success stories in the past year. Other manufacturers want to get a piece of this very lucrative pie and ‘OnlyAndoid.com’ was launched late last year to support the Android operating system. The handset giant Nokia and Microsoft have now announced their own versions of app download markets for their own operating systems.

From May, Nokia will open up the ‘Ovi Store’ to offer apps and multimedia for their own range of phones. Microsoft will launch ‘Windows Marketplace’ later this year to support their range of ‘Windows Phones’.

Below are my top three phones to be announced at this years congress. All are high end phones that have the standards of wi-fi, 3G and GPS. These are the phones that I feel will make it big in 2009.

HTC Magic

The phone formally known as the G2 has now been renamed the Magic. This is a slimmer, cleaner version of the G1 and in my view a lot nicer. Gone is the slide out keyboard and this has made the device smaller and lighter. All the other specs are very similar to the G1 with the 3.2″ touchscreen providing the majority of the control for the device. The Android operating system has changed slightly to the ‘cupcake’ version to try and address some of the teething problems with the first version. The device will now also record video.

This device appears to be aimed at the group of people who didn’t like the form factor of the G1 and may like the new body of the Magic. Unfortunately the lack of device options that are on the market may still limit the spread of Android (although it didn’t seem to stop the iPhone!)

Sony Ericsson Idou

Sony have gone for the high end multimedia features for their latest phone. The Idou is packed with a 12.1 MP camera (seems a tad over the top for the size of the lens) and a 3.5″ 16 million color touchscreen (same size as the iPhone). What looks interesting with this phone is that will have a similar interface to what is currently used on the PS3 and PSP. I do like this interface, it is very clear and easy to use. Combined with a touchscreen, this is definitely an interface that could rival the iPhone.

The operating system looks to be a variant of the Symbian S60 so there should be plenty of apps available to compete with all the other app markets that are in development.

Samsung Omnia HD

Thanks to the iPhone, touchscreen phones are top of the pops when it comes to phone tech. To complete my trio of the best of MWC comes another touchscreen phone, the Samsung Omina HD. Yes the ‘HD’ gives away the Samsung’s killer feature – it can record 720p HD video at 24 fps. It comes with a 3.7″ AMOLED (active matrix organic light emitting diode) display that has the iPhone style capacitive touchscreen technology. This makes the screen very responsive and thanks to the OLED tech, it should look very impressive.

Like the Sony, this phone will use a version of the Symbian S60 operating system so can make use of the solid base of apps available on the market.

Now what could trump all of these phones is the rumour that Apple will be releasing a new iPhone this summer. As with all new Apple rumours, Apple are saying nothing and very little information can be found about what this new version would look like. I personally do not expect anything radical from Apple (there’s not that much wrong with the iPhone design). If Apple do release a new iPhone I would expect more memory (64GB), a weight reduction, color options, a better camera (with video) and some new OS options.

GadgetGeek – Tech Reviews, News, and Future Views

The Kindle 2 will have 2GB  of internal storage and can be easily expanded via the built in SD card slot. The onboard memory will allow around 1,500 books so more than enough for the average trip on the train.

The screen quality has been increased from 4 shades of grey to 16 shades to allow better reproductions of photos on the 6″ screen.

If your don’t feel like reading then use the ‘Read-to-Me’ function and the Kindle will read the book via the in-built speakers or through headphones.

I’ve been interested in getting an electronic book reader for a couple of years now. In the UK, we only have access to a couple of models including the Sony Reader. I would love to get my hands on a Kindle. The ability to download books and newspapers wherever I am is very appealing. The E-ink displays are very clear and easy to read.

The Kindle 2 should be available from 24th Feb for purchase via the Amazon.com website.

GadgetGeek – Tech Reviews, News, and Future Views

The update is supposed to fix issues with stability in Safari, Apple lossless files skipping, and correctly rendering photos saved from mail.

Get updating people!!

With the announcement of DRM-Free iTunes music January 6th, I hoped upon hope that the move was retroactive. No such luck. So, it will cost me $.30/song to re-download my newly non-protected music. I have more than 200 songs; that’s over $60. Uh – No thanks.

Here’s a way to do it with 2 pieces of software. 3, if you want ID3 tags and album art. All Free.

iTunes (You will already have this, of course) Otherwise get it here

iMove HD available here (154MB file)

Jaikoz Audio Tagger available here

You will use iMovie HD to strip the DRM, iTunes to convert it to MP3 or AAC. And Jaikoz to automatically correct the ID3 tags and add album art.

When you fist open iMovie HD, it’ll ask for a title for the project. The title makes no difference because you won’t be actually saving a movie file. In the iMovie HD window, select the ‘Media’ tab located between ‘Themes’ and ‘Editing’. You will notice the media browser at the top right portion of the interface . Select the ‘Audio’ tab and locate the playlist which contains purchased music, or search by artist/title.

Once you have selected the song, drag it to the iMovie timeline where it says “Drag audio here to build your project.” Or select “Place at Playhead.”

iMovie needs a picture, any picture to be added to the timeline in order for it to be tricked into thinking that it’s going to be exporting a movie. Once iMovie HD is done processing the image, you want to slect ‘Share’ at the top in iMovie’s menu bar and choose ‘Share’ in the drop-down menu.

Ensure that ‘Expert Settings’ is selected in the “Compress movie for:” drop-down menu. Selecting ‘Expert Settings’ mode will provide the options to export the file as an audio file. Select the ‘Share’ button.

In the Export… dialogue, select “Sound to AIFF.” (Apple’s version of a WAV file.) In the Export drop-down menu, Choose a directory you will remember for iMovie HD to export to, you can also title the file here, and select ‘Save’. Depending on your machine configuration, iMovie will compress and export the movie project as an audio file in a couple of minutes.

Locate the exported AIFF audio file and drag to your iTunes Library. Right-click on the file and select “Create AAC Version” or “Create MP3 Version.”

Once completed right-click and choose ‘Get Info’ on the new file, edit meta data, and add album art. Or drag and drop your file(s) into Jaikoz. You may want to trash the originally purchased (unless you want to keep it for nostalgia) and AIFF audio files from your iTunes library.

Jaikoz’s main window is a little confusing, so just follow along. You want to drag your newly created DRM-free files directly from iTunes to the middle pane of Jaikoz. The free version of Jaikoz allows 20 edits per session. If you want to edit more, either restart the application after every 20th edit or pony up the $22 for the full licensed version.

Once the files are loaded into Jaikoz, highlight all the tracks. Right-click and choose “Auto Correct”

This is the easiest and best option. Jaikoz is a little slow (at least for me.) It uses the MusicBrainz database which is user-editable, ala Wikipedia. Sometimes this option doesn’t work OR it chooses the Greatest Hits of an artist, but you are wanting a particular album. In this case, right-click the file and select “Remote Correct,” Then a drop-down menu opens for you to choose “Manual Correct Tags From MusicBrainz.”

This feature is something that other [free] taggers do not offer. You can select any of the available options for that song/album/artist. The reason why it may have chosen greatest hits as its selection is because MusicBrainz data is ranked. The greatest hits might have a score of 89, but the album you want has a score of 66. Select the right one and choose “OK.”

Once you are satisfied, right-click the corrected tracks a choose “Save Changes.” Then right-click once more and choose “Close Files.” Rinse and repeat.

If none of these work for you, there is a third way. Go to MusicBrainz.org and search for that artist and find the album/track if available. Once selected, find the MBID for the track, release, or artist. Copy that in to the corresponding area in Jaikoz. There is a “MusicBrainz” tab along the lower third of the screen.

If you previously tried to auto correct this track, you will notice information already listed in this tab. Just delete all the fields and add the one you copied from MusicBrainz.org to the appropriate field. Once that is done, right-click track. Under “Remote Correct” choose “Update Tags From Existing MusicBrainz Id.”

Hopefully this works for you. If it doesn’t add the album art, iTunes does have a built-in option. Choose “Get Album Art” from the advanced menu. Unfortunately, it automatically checks every track in iTunes and not just selected ones.

“We are extremely disappointed by this outcome. The company had been in continuous negotiations regarding a going concern transaction. Regrettably for the more than 30,000 employees of Circuit City and our loyal customers, we were unable to reach an agreement with our creditors and lenders to structure a going-concern transaction in the limited timeframe available, and so this is the only possible path for our company,” said James A. Marcum, vice chairman and acting president and chief executive officer for Circuit City Stores, Inc.

In a letter to Apple employees, Steve Jobs acknowledges that his health issues were “more complex than [he] originally thought.” Jobs says he plans to return by the end of June.

(Just in time for WWDC…Coincidence?)

Windows 7

This is the successor to Windows Vista which, as most people will agree, never lived up to all the hype. Microsoft look to be following the Apple philosophy of quick and simple for this new version of Windows. The boot up times are expected to be significantly quicker than previous versions (I hope they also address the deteriorating boot up times you get the older the installation and the more software you install). Both the UI and appearance have been slim-lined from previous versions with the Task Bar now taking on more of a MAC-OS inspired Dock feel. The software has been designed to run on a wide range of machines including cheap netbooks (Microsoft are desperate to get rid of XP and I guess this is their answer!)

The Beta is available now with the full software not expected until late 2009 or early 2010. Microsoft have announced this week that there will be unlimited downloads of the Beta software until January 24th, so go get yours now.

Palm Pre

I’ve never owned a Palm, but looking at the pictures and specs on this new one and I could be tempted. It comes with Palms first new O/S in years and looks very tasty. Its form factor is aimed directly at the iPhone and Blackberry designs with a 3.1” multi-touch screen AND a Blackberry style QWERTY keyboard. It has the standard smartphone 3G and GPS and also a 3MP camera and flash. The Pre uses the new Palm Synergy feature to bring your Outlook, Google, and Facebook calendars together for one logical view of your day. And if you have the same contacts in different places, Pre can link them together, making it easy to find the information you need.

No date yet on when this is expected on the market.

Sony X1000 Walkman

This is Sony’s latest Walkman and appears to be created as a direct competitor to the iPod Touch. It comes with a bright 3” multi-touch OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) screen. Which I suspect will become the standard with new screens over the next couple of years. It has Sony’s very good hardware noise reduction built into the device which will enhance the already excellent sound quality that Walkman’s have (in my view better than iPods). Sony Walkman’s have always had excellent battery life and I expect this one will beat the poor battery life of the iPod Touch, especially with that cool OLED screen. The first players will come in the 16 Gb and 32 GB sizes (sound familiar?)

Expect this in the shops sometime this summer.

Asus Eee Keyboard

Now this is different. Asus have gone and stuffed all the innards of a PC into a keyboard!

It has a large 5” touchscreen and full wi-fi capability. Just connect it to a monitor or your TV through its wireless HDMI (yes wireless HDMI – I like it). It runs Windows XP Home, includes a 1.6GHz Intel Atom microprocessor, 1Gb of DDR2 DRam and a choice of 16GB or 32GB solid state drives for storage. It doesn’t have a built in DVD player, but if you are only going to use it for the internet and email this would not be a big issue. I like this concept and hope that this works well and has good battery life. I could really see this as a nice addition to my living room.

Expect this around September this year.

If I end up getting any of this cool tech, I will of course give your a much more detailed review.

At the Phil Schiller-presented keynote Apple announced changes to iTunes, iLife, iWork, and new 17″ MacBook Pros.

iLife ‘09 - Updates to iPhoto include 2 new sorting options (Faces & Places), Facebook-like tagging, support for uploading directly to Facebook & Flickr, Slideshow themes and more Travel Book themes.

Garage Band has 9 free guitar and piano lessons. Also offering $4.99 Artist Lessons featuring John Fogerty, Sting, Nora Jones, Patrick Stump & Sarah McLaughlan. Garage Band – More like Rock Band.

iWork ‘09 – New transitions for Keynote. A Keynote App called Keynote Remote that allows the user to view and control slides from their iPhone or iPod Touch. New features for Numbers were also announced.

Also new subscription-based iwork.com was revealed. This Google Docs-like feature is in beta. Users of iWork ‘09 can choose to upload copies of any iWork-compatible document directly to iwork.com. They can then share it with any number of people, and each person gets a unique URL-link in which to edit the document, in either a current web browser or as a downloaded iWork document, MS Office document or PDF.

17″ MacBook Pro - Starting at $2799, these new aluminum enclosed laptops offer up to 8GB RAM (4GB included), 2.66GHz, and a new non-removable 8-hour battery.

iTunes - New flex price points: $.69, $.99, & $1.29. 8 million songs & music videos are DRM-free as of today with all 10 million by the end of the quarter.

iTunes song are now available for download over the 3G network. Same price, same quality.

GadgetGeek

Tech Reviews, News, and Future Views

Hi all. I’m a geek Chemical Engineer who lives in London, UK. Chemical Engineer you say, now what’s that? Well, for those who don’t know, Chemical Engineers design all the processes that in general make all the material ’stuff’ in the world – metals, plastic, gasoline, toothpaste, beer – you get the idea. For the last 17 years I’ve been working for one of the worlds biggest oil companies, designing and improving equipment to bring down the price of gasoline at the pump – clearly I’ve done a great job of this. I now build computer models of oil refineries to help decide which crude oil to run in a refinery. I have a bachelors degree in Chemical Engineering and many years of playing with as many gadgets and toys I can get my hands on. I had my first computer in 1981 (the classic Sinclair ZX81, which you US guys may never have heard off).  This had 1K of RAM (yes 1KB!, not 1MB) and loaded software through a tape deck. Over time I have graduated through many computers, games machines, mobile phones and MP3 players. I still own my first mobile (cell) phone from 1994 (the very one that Mulder & Scully used – the reason I had to have it), a Dell laptop from 1995 and the original iPod (before the world went mad for it). I don’t profess to be an expert in all things ‘tech’ but I have been playing with this stuff for years so hopefully have a good grounding. To get my current base tech level established – I use a MacBook Pro and an Acer Vista laptop, I have a Nokia N95 phone, an iPod Touch and a Zune. I also use a Nokia N800 for mobile web surfing and play most of my games on either my PC, PS3, Wii, DS or PSP.  My world of other gadgets I will keep secret for now and will share with you through my articles.

I’ve always had a avid interest in all things ‘tech’ and also in general science topics. I’m not a professional writer, but I have written many technical documents on the design and operation of oil refineries so it’s not a completely new world for me.

For my geek credentials – clearly I love all things gadget and tech. I’m also a big Star Wars fan (I have the full screenplay to Episode IV in my head and I own a storm trooper outfit – I know this may be a geek step to far!). I love Buffy & Angel (the reason I first got into the Geekshow.us world), I also like Star Trek (all versions), Dr Who, Torchwood, Stargate, Firefly – well pretty much anything sci-fi. My list of movies would be very long, but needless to say all and everything good. I read a few comics and love a good FPS on my PC.

My recent claim to fame is that I met James Marsters and had a brief chat about music and stardom. He kept the, mainly female, crowd very happy with his stories of Buffy and his first sexual encounters. I did attend the London Film & Comic con this year and got to meet Patrick Stewart, Claudia Black, Peter Davidson, Christopher Lloyd among many others. Great experience and it’s impossible to me in the presence of Patrick Stewart without feeling like you are meeting Jean Luc Picard.

I’ve been listening to the Geekshow.us podcasts since April 2006 and worked my way through all the Buffy and Angel episodes and GeekiNtertainment. The episodes of Geek By Night in the past year have been great and have made me want to listen to more audio dramas.

I’m looking forward to letting you all have my thoughts on all things tech. My articles will cover gadget reviews, cool technology, geeky computer stuff and my own take on the future of tech. I hope this will be of interest to you all, but please feel free to contact me on any topic and I’ll be happy to do my best to help you out.

I got my hands on the update the day it came out and decided to wait a week or two before coming to any conclusions. Downloading apps from the Apple store is a breeze. You have two options to get your apps, from iTunes or from the new AppStore icon on the phone itself.

There were tons of free apps when the store launched and three times as many paid apps. Some apps are useless, while others are the best thing since sliced bread. My wife and I have had issues with some apps randomly crashing and/or taking the whole system with it. It seems that we experience this less and less since we are no longer just playing around and actually using the apps we are comfortable with.

There are a couple of new features added to the phone but the one most people asked for was a contacts button. Before, you had to go into the phone and there was an icon at the bottom for viewing and editing your contacts. Now there is an icon on the home screen that can be placed anywhere.

If you don’t have the 3G iPhone with GPS, you are not totally shut out when it comes to location specific apps. Using the cell tower triangulation technology, most apps will work fine. The apps that require more precise coordinates may seem buggy, but that’s to be expected without GPS.

The biggest expectation I had for this update was the ability to play games now. Sega has announced that the iPhone is about as powerful as the Dreamcast. This was no lie. With games like Super Monkey Ball being a launch title, this phone looks like it could be a great new gaming platform. The battery, however, is the only thing holding it back. Playing a simple tile game seems to drain my battery so fast that I have to plug it in to play.

Overall, I would say that Apple has finally made the iPhone worth the price, especially since they lowered the price. Now my only quarrel is with AT&T. Please lower the monthly cost. $200 a month for two phones is killing me!

One last thing I have to add, a new WordPress app was added to the store the other day, so this whole review was written on my iPhone.