CTIA Week: Dash, Local Search & Rumor
Waiting for news from CTIA this week to see how many useful PR’s would come up but seems like Dash is the real deal (Amazon only, $400 plus monthly service fee).
Dash has enough features to change the PND landscape.
First you have Linux in the form of OpenMoko, plus a GSM phone from Jasper Wireless (a M2M operator) included, so the data is fresh.
From this PR it seems that deCarta and Inrix are behind the traffic data for it.
Then you have an API for application development. RSS Feeds, Twitter, whatever you care for is a possibility or already implemented.
Cool stuff. Review by Walter Mossberg at the WSJ.
And
Garmin even announced a way to send location data from Google and Mapquest to their devices. Not the same, but something to say this week…
WSJ also talked about LBS Privacy (via APB) and Loopt closed a deal with Verizon.
Radar talks about location-based writing projects.
Desktop-based Local Search
If you are trying to find out what’s is open, you got two choices with What’s Open and GeoSpot which uses an Ajax-based interface to fill-in the what, where & when input fields and position the map based on the selected search result option. What about support for mobile?
Remember PowerBuilder? If you still playing with it here is an article about how to write code for its PocketPower version using GPS coordinates from a Bluetooth device (TomTom, Garmin).
TI gives Sirf some competition, Assisted-GPS chip combined with Bluetooth and FM (via GPSWorld).
Forbes also painting dark clouds for the GPS Biz.
And to close under the rumor mill category: next iPhone will have A-GPS from Global Locate.
That’s it. First round is over. Verizon opens up. Second still going. FCC deadline for the bidding of the 700 Mhz spectrum is Dec 3rd. Will Google blink? Check 
