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The Provia A1 navigator GPS isn't your typical utilitarian GPS that gets your from point A to point B. No siree, Bob! The Provia A1 navigator is more like the iPhone with it's sleek design, 7" touchscreen, and cool 3D graphics. This Provia A1 GPS just begs to be carried around just so you have cool gadget bragging rights. The Provia A1 navigator is from Korea’s HTMS and features a Samsung 800 x 480 resolution widescreen touchscreen 7-inch display. It has handwriting recognition for quickly keying in address or other other information. Navigation uses super-detailed, razor-sharp 3D maps, complete with models of buildings and other landmarks.

Since it's 3D, you can see highway overpasses/underpasses and know which road you're supposed to be on. 2D GPS navigation units can often confuse the driver with parallel roads at different height levels since they don't clearly indicate which "level" the driver is supposed to be on.

The A1 is a complete media player with audio and fullscreen video playback. Even cooler, it has a "picture-in-picture" (PIP) mode, so you can simultaneously watch a movie and get directions. It also features a DMB receiver so you can receive over-the-air (OTA) digital television broadcasts. This bad boy plays DivX, XviD, H.264, WMA, WMV, OGG, mp3, MPEG-4, and a bunch of other formats.

If Sony were smart, they'd come out with a Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) with built-in GPS, GSM cellular service, and wireless Internet functionality. This hypothetical device would blow away the Apple iPhone. It would offer awesome 3D gaming, cell phone functionality, Internet/email access, video playback, and GPS navigation. The device would have everything you need for long trips with the kids. They can play videogames, watch videos, or access the Internet. What more do you need? Sony, an expert in electronics, TV screens, and gaming, is the perfect company to take on the Apple iPhone.

I wouldn't be surprised if Sony came out with such a cool converged device. Wonder what Sony would call it? Sony PlayStation Multimedia Video GPS Phone? Or Sony PSMVGP for short?

Via Technabob

SanDisk announced 6GB and 8GB microSD High Capacity (microSDHC) flash memory cards one-upping their previous maximum capacity of 4 gigabytes announced in February.

SanDisk's Jeff Kost bragged, "any mobile phone with a compatible microSDHC slot will have just as much storage as the largest-capacity iPhone." The ironic thing is Rich Tehrani recently bought a 4GB microSDHC card for his Windows Mobile 5 phone (Verizon XV6700) and it only supports 2GB maximum, so he had to return it. So unfortunately, most existing phones won't support the new higher 6GB and 8GB capacities either. So buyers beware! Check your device's specs before you buy a microSDHC memory card.

But certainly newer phone models can take advantage of the extra storage. Of course other devices will also be able to take advantage of microSDHC such as mp3 music players, hand-held computers, and digital cameras. An 8GB microSDHC card can store more than 2,000 digital songs, or more than 5,000 high-resolution pictures, or up to 5 hours of high-quality MPEG 4 video.

Retail release of the cards and availability to phone manufacturers and network operators are planned for later in 2007. Pricing has not yet been determined.

Note: SDHC is the designation for any SD or SD-based card that is larger than 2GB and adheres to the new SD 2.00 specification required for cards and hosts to support 4GB to 32GB capacities.

Amazon.com today announced it will launch a digital music store later this year offering millions of songs in the DRM-free MP3 format from more than 12,000 record labels. According to Amazon, every song and album in the Amazon.com digital music store will be available exclusively in the MP3 format without digital rights management (DRM) software. A major corporation (Amazon) convinced the record labels to offer their music with no digital rights protection? Unbelievable! I'm speechless. So while the RIAA continues to sue college kids for downloading DRM-free MP3s off the Internet, the RIAA (supported by record labels) is going to allow DRM-free MP3s to be sold? What's to stop these "legally" downloaded MP3s from then being uploaded onto P2P networks? Perhaps since that is being done already en-masse, the record labels figure "if you can't beat em' join em'".

Amazon's DRM-free MP3s will free customers to play their music on virtually any of their personal devices -- including PCs, Macs, iPods, Zunes, Zens -- and to burn songs to CDs for personal use.

Perhaps the nicest thing about DRM-free MP3s is that there are no restrictions on its personal use. Apple on the other hand with all music sold through iTunes uses the FairPlay system that restricts the use of the downloads. Purchased music can only be moved between five computers and played on an Apple iPod. Amazon's MP3 songs can be played on any MP3 player (including the iPod) as well as burned to a CD, or copied to as many PCs or Macs that you want.

Whether that is enough to knock Apple iTunes off their digital music download throne remains to be seen.

The Windows Vista team has been working very closely with Apple to fix a problem whereby iPod's data becomes corrupt when you eject your iPod. Wow, Microsoft working closely with their arch rival to fix a bug? Considering Microsoft Zune's lackluster sales, you'd think Microsoft would not be so quick to fix this problem. Imagine if millions of Apple iPods start becoming corrupted. Precious MP3 music files and video files gone forever (if you don't have them backed up on your PC). Think of the user revolt and public relations backlash against Apple. Then again, Apple is pretty much immune against just about any sort of user revolt or attacks. Microsoft would be blamed even if it wasn't their fault, so it probably behooved Microsoft to get this fixed quickly. I have to say, Microsoft has taken a much "nicer" tact toward their competitors than they did in the 1990s where Microsoft used just about every trick they could to get people to use their products. Netscape and Real Networks could fill you in on that.

In any case, according to the Windows Vista Team site, "we're publishing at the Microsoft Download Center a recommended final compatibility update for users of Windows Vista and the Apple iPod; this same update will be automatically available via Windows Update on Tuesday 22 May.  The release is for users worldwide and works with the latest version of Apple iTunes to correct an issue that caused some iPods to become corrupted when ejecting them using Windows Explorer or the "Safely Remove Hardware" function in the System Tray.

The good news is that this problem only applies to Windows Vista according to the Microsoft KB article - "Consider the following scenario. You have an Apple iPod that is connected to a Windows Vista-based computer through a USB connection. Then, you disconnect the iPod from the computer. In this scenario, the data on the iPod may become corrupted."

Download iPod patch

Everyone and their brother/sister has an iPod, right? Sure Apple offers multi-colored iPods, though the white model is still the most popular. So how do you stand out from the crowd from all the other iPod users? What if you want to "bling bling" your iPod with some diamonds or gold just to be different? After all, you can get some blinged out mobile phones, including the gold RAZR V3i phones carried by Dolce & Gabbana boutiques. You can even get some blinged out diamond-encrusted Bluetooth headsets such as the Pama Diamante Bluetooth Headset (left), so why not a blinged out iPod?

Well, look no further than Amosu's line of Apple iPods with 24 Carat Gold!

A 80GB gold-plated Video iPod retails for £399.00, while the 30GB model goes for £299.00 So if you need to get your iPod blinged, go check it out. Just don't be showing it off in while riding any New York subways - you're just asking for trouble.

Apple TV has become the ultimate hacker magnet allowing users to use the Apple TV in ways Apple hadn't intended. As discussed recently, Apple TV was hacked to allow Asterisk, the open-source IP-PBX to run on it. Check out the Apple TV Asterisk tut. Now it appears that just a few weeks after launch, CNet is talking about an intriguing new feature for that will allow you to stream music from iTunes on your home computer to your cell phone leveraging Apple TV and Slingbox.


                                           Apple TV


It's a bit of a kludge since the iTunes music has to sync from your PC to the Slingbox and then to your mobile phone. Slingbox is actually working on making the Slingbox compatible with Apple TV. This would enable streaming of Apple TV content to a mobile device. In theory, both audio (mp3) and video content could be streamed from the PC to the Apple TV to the SlingBox and finally to a phone capable of running the SlingPlayer - i.e. Windows Mobile, Palm or Symbian. The Apple iPhone, due out soon supports EDGE (generally classified as a 2.75G network technology - not quite 3G) and is capable of 1 MBit/s peak speeds.

With these wireless speeds, if Steve Jobs ever permits the SlingPlayer to run on the iPhone, that could be a killer app for the iPhone when used in conjunction with either the Slingbox or the Apple TV. More likely, Apple will only permit their own DRM-infested audio/video player so you have to "pay up" to download music and videos from their iTunes store. I could be wrong. I hope I am. Though it is perfectly plausible that since both the Apple TV and iTunes run the same DRM protection, Apple could permit direct streaming from the Apple TV to the Apple iPhone. I mean you paid for the content, right? So I don't see why Apple would prevent you from streaming content you paid for to another device you own.

Wow, 100 million iPods sold. That's 100 million hard drives. That's more hard drives sold for the iPod than some countries have PC hard drives. Apple is a rare tech company that has successfully diversified itself between two totally separate product lines - the Apple computer and the iPod music MP3 player. Some may argue Microsoft has also done so expanding from software into hardware - mice, gamepads, and the successful XBox 360. Still, nothing has captured the mass audience's love and admiration more the Apple iPod. Well done Apple, well done. Congrats on the 100 million. What's next in your bag of diversification tricks? Or are you just a two-trick pony?

According to CNet, the much-anticipated Apple iPhone release is sooner than you think. The CNet article states, "Cingular is confirming that the release date will be June 11. A customer service manager at Cingular (we called 800-947-5096 and were transferred to sales) gave us that date late Thursday, but, alas, said he didn't have any additional information beyond that. That date is no coincidence. It's the first day of Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference."

Well then, let's hope riots, murders, and out of control eBay auctions don't hit the Apple iPhone launch like it did for the Sony Playstation 3.

SanDisk introduced an 8-gigabyte SD High Capacity (SDHC) card—the highest capacity now available in the SD format. The new 8GB SDHC card holds more than 4,000 high-resolution pictures, as many as 2,000 digital songs or up to 15 hours of MPEG 4 video. The 8GB SDHC card will come bundled with a SanDisk MicroMate USB 2.0 reader free of charge. SDHC cards require an SDHC-compatible reader, so providing the USB-based SDHC reader with the card ensures that users will be able to connect the 8GB card to their computers. The MicroMate reader also works with standard SD cards. 8GB of storage packs a pretty mean memory density "punch" for a memory device thinner than a Saltine cracker and about the size of a quarter.

As SD cards get larger memory storage they will not only be used in mobile phones, but they will perhaps replace hard drives in MP3 players, such as the Apple iPod. Of course, the first MP3 players to market used Flash memory cards before the Apple iPod even existed. I had a Creative Labs Nomad II with 64MB of Flash RAM. However, the iPod, a hard drive-based mp3 player, took off and smaller Flash-based storage MP3 players took a backseat. Now with larger 8GB cards available, the advantage is starting to lean back towards Flash memory MP3 players. Why do you ask? Power. Hard disk drives suck power faster than a Dyson vacuum cleaner! SD cards are much more power efficient, so you can listen to your music player much longer before recharging.

The SD High Capacity or SDHC card format was originally developed by SanDisk, Matsushita, and Toshiba for use in portable devices. SDHC is the new designation for cards in any SD format larger than 2GB that adhere to the new SD 2.0 specification. Previous specifications for SD cards limited capacity to 2GB, while SDHC supports capacities up to 32GB. The specification was developed by the SD Association, an industry standards organization, which also defined three classes for speed and performance capabilities. The 8GB SDHC card adheres to the SD Speed Class 2 rating, which guarantees a minimum data-transfer rate of 2MB/sec.

“As consumers add more digital entertainment and memories to their lives -- especially when they start shooting video with a digital still camera or digital camcorder -- they need more storage capacity in flash memory cards,’’ said Susan Park, retail product marketing manager at SanDisk. “The new 8GB SDHC delivers twice the capacity of what was previously our biggest SD card -- the 4GB SDHC -- introduced just eight months ago.”

The 8GB SDHC card with MicroMate USB 2.0 reader will be available in April in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The bundle will be available in Japan and elsewhere in Asia later in the second quarter. In the United States, the bundle will carry a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $189.99.

Now it doesn't look like any iPod games are going to make it to Apple TV (at least according to this report) -- even with a mid-March availability for the 'tube product.

But don't you think it would be nice if all of these games, programs, shows, music files, etc., all flowed smoothly from one device to another?

Dream on?

We can dream, can't we?