This week Mozilla Labs unveiled Geode, a location aware extension to its popular Firefox web browser. Geode uses Skyhook Wireless Wi-Fi positioning system to locate you if you have Wi-Fi embedded into your computer. Web developers can use the available API to make their websites geo-aware for local search or any other application.

Privacy
Obviously there are some privacy rules applying to disclose people’s location: a pop up is displayed below the browser toolbar to ask you whether you want to be located by the website and offers a choice of accuracy: exact location (around 50 meters with Wi-Fi in urban areas), neighborhood, city or nothing. This setting can be applied automatically for each particular website if the user does not want to re-enter his choice at every connection.

Ambitions
Today Geode is only an extension to Firefox, but Mozilla is already preparing the next phase of a future location-aware browser. “Future versions of Firefox plan on supporting the new W3C Geolocation Specification, which adds the native ability for Web sites to request, and you to optionally grant access to, your location”, said Mozilla. “We’re still working out the specifics, but we’re hoping that location will be provided by one or more user selectable service providers and methods, e.g. GPS-based, WiFi-based, manual entry, etc.” The upcoming beta releases of Firefox 3.1 will include this location feature.

Internet giants
Google, with the recent launch of its web browser Chrome and its geolocation API in Gears, is building up the same kind of capabilities. Yahoo! is also entering this field with its location aggregator, FireEagle.

Once the W3C geolocation specifications are final these developments will ultimately lead to a real location aware browsing experience that will in one hand improve the user satisfaction and in the other hand open up a very large market for more targeted advertising.

The good thing for Skyhook Wireless is that Wi-Fi positioning is likely to be the preferred form of location on computers both because Wi-Fi has now become a common feature on most PCs and because GPS positioning offers very poor indoor performance. Therefore, it would not be surprising to see the Internet giants: Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, acquiring companies in this field in the near future.

The Times of India had an interesting article earlier this week about GPS-enabled handsets take off in the country. While the penetration in the mobile phone market is estimated to be not much than one percent, it could grow up to four percent in a year or so thanks to Nokia, HTC and others.

The Indian market currently represents 10 million handsets per month and urban consumers are more and more interested in location-based features.

The biggest handset vendor, Nokia, is relying on its newly acquired NAVTEQ for map data, while the competition is looking at other map providers; Motorola and Sony Ericsson are said to have tied up with MapmyIndia.

Read more here

Mobile navigation provider Wayfinder today announced that it has extended its agreement with Sony Ericsson. The company said “it will enable Wayfinder to preload a richer, longer term navigation offering on a range of current and future Sony Ericsson mobile phones”.

To date, Wayfinder has provided a three-month trial of its Navigator application on a range of Sony Ericsson handsets, including the recently launched GPS-handsets W760 Walkman and C702 Cyber-shot and the upcoming C905 Cyber-shot phone. Additionally Wayfinder has provided a 1 year license to users of the P1i smart phone from Sony Ericsson. Wayfinder Navigation was also included in the Z780 clamshell phone, however, this model was never released in large volume and seems to have been discontinued.

Under the new agreement, the Sony Ericsson phones will feature full navigation capabilities, including lane and sign post information, which is now available as a 12 month regional, continental European or lifetime navigation offering.

Mobile navigation provider Jentro Technologies and French mobile operator Bouygues Telecom announced today an agreement to launch Berlitz Mobile, an advertisement-funded navigation and local search solution. Bouygues is the third wireless operator in France with 8.7 million customers. The Berlitz Mobile solution will expand to other European operators in the future, said Jentro.

This navigation solution will be marketed as a Berlitz Mobile branded solution, powered by Jentro, and will provide free turn-by-turn navigation to Bouygues mobile phone subscribers. In addition to free navigation, Berlitz Mobile will also offer local search functionalities and content features such as Berlitz’s Travel Guides (60 cities all around Europe) and Language Guides allowing to translate phrases from French to other languages. These Guides are also sponsored by the advertising and free to the users.

The Berlitz Mobile solution platform will incorporate Jentro’s advertising distribution proxy that will enable dynamic ads appearing on splash screen, waiting screen, turn-by-turn navigation, map screens and destination reached screens.

This solution will also feature Jentro’s Zenlet technology platform. Zenlet are location-aware widgets through which content and functionalities can be added to the core navigation and search solution.

“Bouygues Telecom’s content philosophy is openness”, said Martin Kaiser who is responsible for marketing and commercial deals around these contents at the wireless operator. As a matter of fact Bouygues is already working with two other navigation suppliers: Maporama/Locationet which has already deployed an ad-funded navigation application (read more here) and Webraska which is deploying its subscription-based navigation application towards a “prosumer” target (the Blackberry Bold was launched by “Bouygues Telecom Entreprise” last month with a one year Webraska’s navigation license).

“There is a large demand of our customers for location-based services”, said Kaiser. “When we asked them what they wanted to do with 3G connectivity they said navigation when we were thinking about other multimedia services like TV”.

Additionally, he said: “we don’t believe the subscription model is well adapted to navigation on mobile phones. This kind of application is well suited for a pedestrian use but it will not replace a navigation device in a car”.

For Jentro this is the second advertising-funded navigation solution launched in Europe. The first one was in June 2007 with Das Oertlich, a local search portal owned by Deutsche Telekom . Called ö-navi, this solution is said to have 300,000 users today.

GPS semiconductor vendor SiRF announced today SiRFlinkIII, a single-chip solution which combines a GPS RF front end and a complete Bluetooth solution optimized for use with SiRF’s multifunction System on Chip (SoC) platforms, SiRFatla and SiRFprima.

The two benefits promoted by SiRF are that, first, there is no interference between the Bluetooth and the GPS signals allowing a perfect GPS signal reception even at full power Bluetooth operation and, second, a cost reduction since the Bluetooth baseband and the GPS FR front end can share components such as such as power regulators and clock sources.

“SiRFlinkIII is designed to address our customers’ need to build cost-effective mobile navigation and location-aware devices with wireless connectivity for enhanced functionality, such as hands-free calling, without compromising the location performance,” said Kanwar Chadha, vice president of marketing and founder of SiRF. “By pre-integrating SiRFlinkIII with our multifunction SoC platforms, we are able to optimize the system-level performance while minimizing the design complexity for our customers to enable them to accelerate their time to market.”

The SiRFlinkIII combo radio IC passed Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR qualification tests as well as interoperability testing with more than 150 popular mobile phones in the market, said SiRF. The SiRFlinkIII solution is pre-integrated with the SiRFatlas and SiRFprima SoC platforms, enabling it to include valuable features for Bluetooth operation in PNDs, such as noise and echo cancellation for superior voice performance, and is available with popular Bluetooth profiles such as HFP, A2DP, DUN and others from leading Bluetooth profile vendors.

SiRFlinkIII is the new face of SiRFlinkI which was initially announced in January 2006. The solution leverages the RF IC design capabilities of Sweden-based Kisel Microlectronics that SiRF acquired in April 2005 and the Bluetooth expertise of Impulsesoft, a Bangalore-based firm specializing in Bluetooth software that SiRF bought early 2006. In 2006 the launch of this Bluetooth solution was supposed to be a matter of months, it is finally available today.

This year has seen the emergence of a new player in the GPS business, CSR, one of the top Bluetooth semiconductor companies intending to slash GPS prices in building a software GPS stack on its Bluetooth chipsets. With this Bluetooth combo, SiRF will be in a better position to fight this battle and defend its market share in the PND business.

Sentinel Content and Commercial Radio Australia (CRA) revealed today that they have successfully begun live demonstration broadcasts of real-time traffic information on digital radio in Australia. Digital radio services will begin in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth in the first half of 2009.

Sentinel - a subsidiary of Sentinel Geosystems which develops a safety camera database and distributes Road Angel devices - has been working closely with CRA since March this year to access and develop the first live Australian demonstration of traffic reports and other traveller information broadcast over Transport Protocol Experts Group (TPEG) Traffic using digital radio technology.

And Sentinel Content intends to go beyond traffic information; “You will also get real-time petrol pricing, not just where you are, but where you are going,” said Sentinel Content’s General Manager, Danny Woolard. “And when you get there you can get information ahead of time about how many parking spots are left in a car park as well as accommodation pricing and vacancies.”

Sentinel has been working with German technology partner GEWI, to deliver the technical TPEG Digital Radio standard.

Sentinel’s Road Sense Traffic and its other live information services can be accessed through Sentinel’s demonstration web site myDrive.com.au and 197drive.com.au; a premium rate SMS text message service. The company has also recently released a GPRS-TMC server to deliver traffic information direct to mobile phones and connected in-vehicle GPS satellite navigation devices.

Source traffic information for Road Sense includes real-time data from Australia’s road authorities and independent sources of road incident data. Sentinel’s journalistic traffic editors and data entry staff based in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, also check and collate information for accuracy and quality as incidents occur on the road network. The information also includes planned and scheduled events that affect traffic flow.

Incident vs flow data
Sentinel Content wants to position itself as a contender to Intelematics Australia which has deployed a RDS-TMC traffic system. However, Sentinel Content essentially delivers incident data while Intelematics relies more heavily on flow data. Intelematics most important source of raw traffic flow data is derived from the loop sensor network embedded in the road pavement on the approach to signalized intersections. In Australia virtually all urban - and many regional - signalized intersections are networked to central traffic light control systems in each state. Intelematics also supplements the sensor-based data with information from probe vehicles.

Garmin announced on Friday that it has signed a letter of intent for the acquisition of Sportmanship International AB, its distributor of consumer products in Sweden. The acquisition is expected to be completed in December 2008.

Financial terms of the transaction were not made public. Following the acquisition, Sportmanship is expected to change its name to Garmin Sweden AB. The company will retain its management, sales, marketing and supporting staff, consisting of 28 people.

Garmin continues its strategy of distributors’ acquisition across Europe: Sportmanship is the eighth company of this kind to be bought by the U.S. company.

Garmin has announced a new reference to its broad range of Personal navigation Devices, the GPSMAP 600 series that combine in-car and marine navigation on a 5.2 inches touch screen in a rugged casing. The GPSMAP 640 will be available in the United States for a suggested price of $1,200 while the GPSMAP 620 is designed for the rest of the world and retails for $1,000.

The U.S product comes with comprehensive street maps of North America and worldwide shaded relief mapping in addition to detailed U.S. coastal BlueChart® g2™ charts. The international product provides a worldwide basemap with shaded relief and supports optional street map and marine chart data through an SD card slot.

The device is sold with one marine mount and one auto mount and automatically starts up in marine or road mode depending on the mount it connects to. For US customers the optional GXM 40 antenna can be connected to the device to receive various services from XM Radio. For boating it can graphically display XM WX Satellite Weather data directly on the unit’s screen; and for driving XM NavTraffic offers real-time traffic information. Motorists and mariners also have the option of receiving nearly 200 channels of commercial-free music, news, sports talk and entertainment with XM Satellite Radio.

With this new line of devices Garmin continues to extend its product range in the “crossover” segment. Its previous multitasks device, the nüvi 500 series, was dedicated to in-car, outdoor, scooter and boating navigation. With the GPSMAP 600, boating enthusiasts are the key target, the versatility of the device allowing them to have just one unit for their car and their boat. However, Garmin surely does not expect huge sales from this product, the company said during its last quarter financial conference it expects 11 percent revenue decline in its marine business this year due to the macroeconomic conditions and fuel prices.

CE trade magazine TWICE reported last week that U.S. retailer BestBuy will start selling two connected PNDs under its own brand on October 19. The two devices, a 4.3-inch, Bluetooth Insignia NS-CNV20 at $499 and a 3.5-inch Insignia NS-CNV10 at $399, will be available with the Insignia brand name under which BestBuy already sells a large range of consumer electronics products from digital cameras to TV sets.

Both devices have a built-in wireless connectivity allowing to perform local search with Google and to download traffic information. The user will also have the possibility to send an address to its device from Google Maps. The connectivity is free for the first year of use, no detail has been revealed regarding the cost of the subscription renewal.

It is interesting to see a retailer such as BestBuy taking the lead on offering connected PNDs in the United States. So far the only available device of this kind was Dash Express but it was only sold online.

Shares of PND maker TomTom hit an all-time low on Friday, trading under €11. On Thursday an analyst raised concerns it may need to refinance its debt before end-2009 and as consumer spending slows.

"We are concerned that high gearing and exposure to weak consumer spending may result in a need for refinancing before the end of 2009," JP Morgan analyst Rod Hall said in a note on Thursday.

TomTom shares, which were initially listed in May 2005 at €17.50, have lost 25 percent since last Thursday, when the company held an analyst day, and over 80 percent since October 29 last year, when shares hit a record high of 66.70 euros.

At the Paris Motor show today Mio announced a partnership with Skoda to make available a Mio Personal Navigation Device as a navigation option to Skoda Fabia, Fabia Combi and Roomster.

The Mio device developed for Skoda will be similar to these of the Mio Moov range. However, Mio and Skoda have implemented an active cradle that will both free the windscreen of any suction cup and eliminate cables on the dashboard. This active cradle also brings more security to the user, the solution having successfully passed the Euro NCAP crash test, said Mio.

The Mio navigation device will be available in October at Skoda dealerships and the cradle installation will be made by Skoda agreed partners.

UPDATED
The cost of the solution will be €299, including installation. Skoda used to have the same pan-european partnership with ViaMichelin when the French company was still doing PNDs.

Wireless operator Orange today unveiled at the Paris Motor Show a platform to generate road traffic data based on signal events in its wireless network. This platform, developed in the last two years by a team of Orange Labs R&D is able to transform its GSM signal data into real time average speed on any road segment.

The same kind of technology is used by TomTom for its HD traffic service in cooperation with Vodafone’s European affiliates, Airsage with Sprint in the United States and IntelliOne with Rogers Wireless in Canada. However, this is the first time an operator is developing this technology by itself. “We have the total control of the platform both in term of technology and network”, said Jean-Luc Klein, Telematics and Automotive applications project manager at Orange. “Our R&D has a real know-how in wireless network engineering and modeling; with this platform we applied it to generate traffic data".
Orange Labs started working on this technology two years ago and is now finalizing its platform which will be operational in France in 2009. A prototype of the system is already running live 24/7 and provides traffic information in the French western city of Toulouse. However, “the idea from the start is to deploy it Europe-wide”, said Jean-Luc Klein. “After France we intend to deploy it in Spain, the United Kingdom, Belgium, and ultimately Poland, Romania and Slovakia.”

Orange is currently working with Mediamobile/V-traffic, a French provider of traffic information to fine tune its platform. However, the wireless operator wants to have a broad approach to the market. “We want to position ourselves has a provider of quality traffic information to anybody on the market.” At this stage Orange is still working on a B2B business model for this new service.

There is now doubt this new traffic information feed will be of interest to many traffic service aggregators and their customers. European navigation providers competing with TomTom are currently lacking a service to fight against its HD traffic feature. The Orange service could be a perfect fit for these navigation players.