Ex-Palm trio loads up on Vitamin D

The great thing about security cameras is the fact that they let you record things without needing to have a human being physically there.

The downside is that, in most cases, it takes a human being to figure out whether there is anything interesting there. Sure, there is motion-sensing technology, but such systems are often fooled by animals, cars, or even by a tree rustling in the wind.

Three former Palm executives think they have some software that could help shake things up. Their company, Vitamin D, is releasing a public beta on Monday of software that can detect and isolate human motion, potentially allowing the growing number of surveillance cameras out there to be a whole lot more useful.

The software, which works on either PCs or Macs, puts a yellow box around any human motion it detects and can be further refined to show only someone coming or going from a particular area–say entering or leaving through a particular door. The software is designed to work with any IP camera or even an inexpensive Web cam.

Getting in the surveillance game is admittedly a bit of a shift for early Palm employees Greg Shirai and Rob Haitani–two guys who have spent most of their careers creating consumer gadgets.

But, after years of listening to Palm and Handspring founder Jeff Hawkins talk about his brain research, Shirai and Haitani, along with Celeste Baranksi, another ex-Palm executive, thought they had a way to make a business out of it. “We were always fascinated by what Jeff was doing,” Shirai said. Vitamin D’s software is powered by artificial intelligence technology licensed from Hawkins’ Numenta start-up.

Shirai and Haitani say they are starting with the security camera industry because that’s the first application the technology can be used in. But over time, they hope to refine the technology such that it can have broader uses, such as powering object-based search within video streams.

Haitani gave a preview of the technology at this year’s Demo conference. There’s also a video of the technology in action on Vitamin D’s Web site.

Using artificial intelligence makes the system remarkably adaptable, Haitani said, something that is not the case even with very high-end systems that use various rules to try to identify humans.

Vitamin D’s software, for example, is able to pick out two people carrying a lawn mower, someone crawling, or even a person pushing a stroller–all shapes that don’t look a lot like what an algorithm might think of as human.

“You can see how the shape-based rules quickly break down,” Haitani said.

The technology isn’t perfect. It isn’t well suited to nighttime work, or anything where there isn’t sufficient light. “We actually would not do well in poorly lit scenes,” Shirai said.

Shirai and Haitani have been using the software at their homes and office to try it out. They haven’t caught any thieves yet, though there was one scare, Shirai said.

He noticed a group of people struggling at the company’s front door early one morning.

“I thought, oh my gosh, there are these people breaking into our office,” Shirai said. In reality, he had found something far less sinister–what time his office’s cleaning crew came each day.

Haitani said he also learned that his house is frequented by hummingbirds when he is not there. “Apparently my front lawn is this crossing path,” he said.

For those who have security cameras, particularly consumers and small businesses, Vitamin D’s software can offer significant time savings. Going through all the motions detected in hundreds of hours of video–even if one only spends 5 seconds on each clip–could require hours of work. By contrast, narrowing it down to just humans might cut that workload down to just minutes, as the two demonstrated last week, showing me examples from their collection of surveillance tapes.

The software will be free during the public beta, though the company hopes to start charging for a final version in the first half of next year.

Other potential customers could be law enforcement or even the intelligence community. Indeed, In-Q-Tel, the investment vehicle for the intelligence community, is among Vitamin D’s early investors, along with HTC, the cell phone maker that Haitani and Shirai know well from their Palm days.

Reference:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10392844-56.html

China to launch French-made communications satellite

BEIJING, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) — China will launch a French-made communications satellite for the Hong Kong-based APT Satellite Holding Limited in the first half of 2012.

A contract for the launch service was signed here Sunday.

The satellite, dubbed APTSTAR-7 and made by the Thales Alenia Space, will be sent into space by China’s Long March 3B/E carrier rocket at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwestern China, according to a statement issued by the China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC), the contractor of the launch on Sunday.

The satellite, with a designed life span of 15 years, will function for the service of live television broadcast and communications in Asia, the Middle East, Australia Africa and parts of the European Union.

As the only Chinese company engaged in international commercial satellite launching services, CGWIC, a subsidiary of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, has launched 36 foreign satellites.

Windows 7 upgrade version: The dos and don’ts

There’s a bit of a tempest in a teapot brewing over what one can and can’t do with a Windows 7 upgrade disk.

My hope with this post is to help things simmer down as opposed to boiling over, but we’ll see. So here goes.

The upgrade version of Windows 7 (as opposed to the higher-price full version) lets one move from any properly licensed version of Windows XP or Windows Vista to Windows 7 on that same computer. Only certain of these upgrades, however, can be done as a simple update–what Microsoft calls an “in-place upgrade.” Users moving from Windows XP, switching from 32-bit to 64-bit versions, or moving from a higher-end version of Vista to a lower-end version of Windows 7 can use an upgrade disc but will have to do a more cumbersome upgrade, known as a custom, or “clean,” installation.

The difference between an in-place upgrade and a “clean” installation, in this instance, means backing up one’s data, installing Windows 7, restoring the data, and reinstalling all Windows programs. Windows 7 upgrade disks can be used to do this clean installation and will recognize the previously installed version of Windows. So if you don’t have any previously installed Windows on the machine, you will want to get yourself a full copy of Windows 7.

While it might be technically possible to use the upgrade disks to do an installation of Windows 7 without a previous version, doing so, as Microsoft points out, is not properly licensed.

Some of the confusion has come after enthusiasts noted a way to get an upgrade disc to install on a fully erased hard drive.

Again, the main issue here is whether one is properly licensed to do so. If you have a licensed copy of Windows XP or Vista for that computer, you are good to go, and Microsoft technical support should be able to help you activate that machine. If not, you may be able to get it to install, but you could well run into technical or legal hurdles.

I think that ZDNet blogger Ed Bott put it well in his post on this topic:

The answer is really simple. If you qualify for an upgrade license, then yes, you can use any number of work-arounds to install the operating system legally. If you don’t qualify for an upgrade license, then those same workarounds might technically succeed, but your license is not valid.

Will you get away with it? Probably. But if you’re running a business, you run the risk that an employee will turn you in to the Business Software Alliance, which could lead to an audit, civil charges, and eventually some stiff penalties.

It should also be pointed out that beta test and pre-release versions of Windows don’t count as a previously licensed version of Windows, but if you have the RC installed over a previous version, for example, you can do a custom upgrade rather than having to reinstall XP or Vista before installing 7. (The upgrade version can detect the previous versions used before Windows 7.)

Nor is it allowed to count the version of Windows that came installed on a previously bought PC, if that’s not the machine you’re upgrading. (Retail boxed copies can be transferred from one machine to another; ones that came pre-installed on the PC are licensed only for that machine.)

This is also relevant to Mac users who want to run Windows 7 on their machines. Such users also need to have a previously licensed full copy of Windows to properly qualify for upgrade pricing, whether they are using Windows in Boot Camp or using a virtualization product like Parallels or VMWare’s Fusion.

I hope that this overview helps more than it adds to the confusion. Either way, please let me know.

Reference:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10388567-56.html

Thailand recalls ambassador to Cambodia over Thaksin job

Published: 5/11/2009 at 04:03 PM
Online news: Asia

The government recalled its ambassador to Cambodia on Thursday after Phnom Penh gave a job to fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, further raising tensions between the countries.

The Cambodian government announced on Wednesday night it had appointed Thaksin an economic adviser, riling Bangkok, which is trying to bring Thaksin home to serve a two year jail sentence handed down by the Supreme Court, three years after he was ousted in a coup.

“We have recalled the ambassador as the first diplomatic retaliation to let the Cambodian government know the dissatisfaction of the Thai people,” Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva told reporters.

“Last night’s announcement by the Cambodian government was harmful to the Thai judicial system and really affected Thai public sentiment,” Mr Abhisit said.

He said aid to Cambodia would also be halted, but checkpoints along the border between the two countries would remain open.; Ordinary commerce between Thai and Camvodian people would not be affected.

A government official said earlier that the ambassador to Phnom Penh would be recalled by Thursday evening in retaliation for Cambodia’s “interference” in Thai politics.

“The reason is that the appointment of Thaksin is considered interfering in our internal politics because Thaksin is still actively involved in politics,” Chavanond Intarakomalyasut, secretary to Thailand’s foreign affairs minister, told AFP.

Democrat Party spokesman Thepthai Senpong said Thaksin’s new job with the Cambodian government was no more than a consolation gift from a friend.

Mr Thepthai said he did not think Thaksin would actually do anything.

It was an internal matter for the Cambodoian government and the Thai government would not try to interfere.

However, if Thaksin happened to stay in Cambodia, the government would have to seek his extradition, he said.

Interior Minister and Bhumjaithai Party leader Chavarat Charnveerakul said Thaksin’s appointment would be unlikely to affect the Thai economy.

“Even if he were not economic adviser to the Cambodian government, he would still try to get closer to Thailand,” Mr Chavarat said.

Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij said he was more worried about what damage Thaksin would inflict on the Cambodian economy.

Thaksin said on his that he felt honoured by the appointment and thanked Prime Minister Hun Sen.

“I have just received a copy of King Sihamoni’s royal appointment from Mr Hun Sen. I thank Mr Hun Sen for giving me such an honour. But I would have more enjoyment if I ccould work to eradicate Thai people’s poverty,” Thaksin tweeted on his twitter account on Thursday morning.

In a statement read on state television yesterday, the Cambodian government said all charges against Thaksin were “politically motivated”, and said it would not allow his extradition to Thailand if he decides to stay in Cambodia or travels in and out of Cambodia to fulfill his duties.

Noppadon Pattama, a former foreign minister and close associate of Thaksin, said Mr Hun Sen appointed Thaksin economic adviser because he could see his potential.

He rejected criticism that Thaksin had achieved his target strategy of a “world surrounding Thailand”. Mr Noppadon said the world would not surround Thailand and attack the Thai government, but the world would try to help resolve Thailand’s problems.

Thaksin remains a hugely influential figure in Thailand, where he has stirred up mass protests by the so-called “Red Shirt” movement against Abhisit’s government in the past year.

Ties between Cambodia and Thailand have been difficult since July 2008 amid an ongoing border conflict over land surrounding an 11th century temple which has claimed several lives.

Reference: http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asia/159212/thailand-cambodia-pull-envoys-in-thaksin-row

Thaksin interview sparks furore

Published: 9/11/2009 at 05:37 PM
Online news: Local News

Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra made very offensive references to the monarchy in an interview with The Times published online on Monday and gave inaccurate, misleading information, Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said on Monday.

Thaksin was interviewed by the Asia editor of The Times, Richard Parry, at his home in Dubai and the transcript was published on the Timesonline website on Monday.

The foreign minister said he found many of Thaksin’s comments in the interview to be strongly offensive, inaccurate and unacceptable by the majority of people.

The interview reflected Thaksin’s uneasiness about not being able to persuade people to be on his side, Mr Kasit said. He believed Thaksin, in giving the interview, had a hidden objective.

The Foreign Ministry would issue a statement to the foreign media setting the facts straight, he said.

The Justice Ministry would decide whether Thaksin would be charged with lese majeste, Mr Kasit said.

Thepthai Senpong, spokesman for Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva, also slammed Thaksin over his latest interview, saying it was most offensive to the royal institution.

Richard Lloyd Parry, the asia editor for The Times , interviewed Thaksin in Dubai. He reported that Thaksin called for reform of the monarchy and had spoken of a future “shining” era when HRH Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn, the son of His Majesty the King, takes the throne.

Mr Thepthai called on all parties to take action on this matter, saying that it affected the feelings of Thai people.

Democrat Party spokesman Buranat Samutarak said that this is not the first time Thaksin has offended the high institution.

In the interview, Thaksin said that His Majesty the King was above politics but that “circles” around the palace were interfering with the running of the country.

“That’s the problem in Thailand. The monarchy is not the problem. The monarchy is good for Thailand. Thailand needs to have a monarchy but it should not be abused or played by the palace circles,” he was quoted as saying.

Asked if the “royal institution” needed reform, he said: “Yes, yes.”

“I can assure you His Majesty is above [politics], but those in the circle have a network,” he said.

“They want to get rid of me because they say I am trying to turn Thailand into a republic and topple the monarchy. That’s not true. I have a very high respect for the monarchy and royal family.”

Thaksin later issued a statement saying his interview as reported was a “complete distortion” of his comments and caused misunderstanding and confusion to readers and the Thai people.

“It (the article) was a complete distortion of my interview. The falsified article has caused confusion among the readers and the Thai people. The headline made by Times Online is not true. I never said that in the interview,” Thaksin said in the statement.

The fugitive politician said that his comments made during the interview were not offensive to any institution. On the contrary, during the interview he defended the monarchy as being above politics and said the Thai people adore the institution. Nobody should implicate the monarchy in politics, he said.

“I am very upset with the way Timesonline treated my interview. This happened despite the fact I stressed to the interviewer that the monarchy is highly-placed and delicate and that he should report exactly what I said.

“Therefore, I condemn Timesonline for publishing this false and confusing article.

“I would like to repeat again that my family and I are loyal to His Majesty the King and Her Majesty the Queen and, like all Thai people, ready to sacrifice our lives to protect the monarchy.”

Reference: http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/159567/govt-thaksin-interview-offensive-to-the-monarchy

Parliament: Thai PM wants Najib to meet with southerners

By LEE YUK PENG

KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has been invited by his Thai counterpart Abhisit Vejjajiva to meet up with southern Thai leaders in December.

Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman said this in his reply to Datuk Ibrahim Ali (Independent-Pasir Mas) who asked about the situation in southern Thailand.

“The Prime Minister has been invited by the Thai Prime Minister to meet up with the leaders in southern Thailand.

“We appreciate the action taken by the Thai Prime Minister. Thailand respects our position. What happens in southern Thailand will also affect our border,” he said.

Anifah said Malaysia has adopted a neutral stand as its foreign policy except when it is invited by a neighbouring country to look for a solution, in which case Malaysia would give its co-operation when required.

Last Thursday, Bernama reported that Thailand’s influential Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban had poured cold water on calls by the separatist group, Pattani United Liberation Organisation (Pulo), for Malaysia to act as a mediator in the southern Thai conflict.

Suthep, in charge of security matters, told the media in Bangkok that he personally believed that the suggestion would not work.

Earlier Monday, Anifah also told Datuk Idris Haron (BN-Tangga Batu) — who asked about the relationship between Malaysia and Indonesia — that his ministry is aware of the existence of a “third party” which had tried to strain the good ties between the two countries with petty issues.

These issues include Manoraha Odelia Pinot, the estranged wife of Kelantan prince; the Ambalat territorial dispute and the issue of the Balinese “pendet” dance by the Disovery Channel in a promo of a documentary of Malaysia.

“This third party is making use of such issues as a political tool,” Anifah claimed. “We are monitoring the siutation.”

Reference:
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/11/9/nation/20091109130001&sec=nation

Obama to meet Myanmar, other ASEAN leaders

By JIM GOMEZ Associated Press Writer
Published: Saturday, November 7, 2009 at 3:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, November 7, 2009 at 2:14 a.m.
MANILA, Philippines – President Barack Obama will meet leaders of Southeast Asian nations, including Myanmar, in a high-level affirmation of Washington’s new policy of engaging the military-ruled country despite its dismal human rights record.

The Nov. 15 meeting between Obama and leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations will take place on the sidelines of an annual summit of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Singapore, U.S. Ambassador for ASEAN Affairs Scot Marciel said Saturday.

Myanmar’s prime minister, Thein Sein, will attend the meeting, which marks the 32nd anniversary of Washington’s relations with ASEAN, senior Myanmar diplomat Min Lwin told The Associated Press in Manila.

The junta chief, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, typically shuns official meetings outside Myanmar.

The talks are to be the highest-level contact between Myanmar and the U.S. in decades.

Officials have not said if Obama will meet privately with Thein Sein. The last U.S. president to meet a Myanmar head of state was Lyndon B. Johnson, who held talks with then Prime Minister Ne Win in September 1966 during a state visit to Washington, according to Richard Mei, the U.S. Embassy spokesman in Myanmar.

Under Obama, Washington has reversed the Bush administration’s policy of shunning Myanmar in favor of direct talks with the Southeast Asian country that has been ruled by the military since 1962.

Myanmar welcomes the shift in U.S. policy, Min Lwin said, describing the change as “positive.”

Marciel and Min Lwin were in Manila along with other senior ASEAN diplomats to finalize the agenda for Obama’s meeting with ASEAN leaders. The talks will focus on trade, energy, health, climate change, food security, disaster response and security issues, Philippine Foreign Undersecretary Enrique Manalo said.

“What we’re trying to do is to step up and increase our engagement with ASEAN,” Marciel said.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo has said ASEAN welcomes the Obama administration’s new policy of engagement with Myanmar, adding that Southeast Asian governments have continued talking with the junta while constantly prodding it to move toward democracy.

“All of us talk with Myanmar,” he said. “There is no harm in talking.”

ASEAN has faced a barrage of criticism in past years over its failure to coax democratic reforms from the junta or to win freedom for detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and some 2,000 other political prisoners.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi has been detained for 14 of the past 20 years, mostly under house arrest.

Despite their new approach to Myanmar, also known as Burma, U.S. officials have said that tough sanctions against the junta will remain until talks with its generals result in long-demanded democratic reforms.

Seven ASEAN member states – Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam – belong to APEC, which includes the U.S. and other Western nations. The three ASEAN members not in APEC are Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.

Reference:
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20091107/API/911070589?Title=Obama-to-meet-Myanmar-other-ASEAN-leaders

Microsoft opens Windy City data center

CHICAGO–On most days it takes the right access badge and a biometric scan to make it inside the doors of Microsoft’s massive data center. But on Wednesday, the company allowed a group of reporters, customers, and partners to tour the 700,000 square foot facility.

The data center, along with another just-opened facility in Dublin, Ireland and existing centers in San Antonio and Quincy, Wash., serve as the guts behind Microsoft’s online ambitions, from Bing to Hotmail to Windows Azure.

But, for all its strategic import, the ground floor of the Chicago plant looks more like a truck parking lot than a traditional data center. In each parking spot, though, Microsoft can drop off a container packed with up to 2,000 servers.

Right now, only about a dozen of the 56 container spots are filled, but Microsoft executives said they expect that to change quickly. The software maker expects to eventually spend up to $500 million filling up the Chicago site with gear.

The site was originally slated to open months earlier, but Microsoft delayed things due to the economy. Eventually, though, it decided to move forward.

“Investing in these uncertain economic times is always a tough choice,” said Arne Josefsberg, general manager of infrastructure services Microsoft’s data center operations. But, he added, “We take a very long-term approach to the business.

The data center itself is housed in an unmarked warehouse in one of the Chicago area’s many industrial districts. (The software maker didn’t want the exact location disclosed.)

Microsoft picked the spot because of its convenient spot close to cheap and abundant power as well as the fact it sits atop a major Internet connection point that houses major east-west and north-south fiber routes.

“It’s a lot about location, location, location,” Josefsberg said.

I’ll have a ton more to say in a follow-up post, including a bunch more pictures and some video interviews, but I wanted to share a few initial thoughts before hopping a plane to the Seattle area, where I will be working for the rest of the week.

Reference:
http://news.cnet.com/beyond-binary/?categoryId=10134481

T-Mobile says Sidekick data may yet return

T-Mobile said late on Monday that it may yet be able to recover Sidekick users’ information that it had previously thought was lost as part of a massive server failure by Microsoft’s Danger subsidiary.

“Recent efforts indicate the prospects of recovering some lost content may now be possible,” it said.

Those who do suffer permanent data loss will get a $100 “customer appreciation card” good toward T-Mobile service or products, the carrier said in a statement.

“For those who fall into this category, details will be sent out in the next 14 days – there is no action needed on the part of these customers,” T-Mobile said. “We however remain hopeful that for the majority of our customers, personal content can be recovered.”

That marks a significant change in tone. On Saturday, the carrier and Microsoft had warned that any data not on a customer’s phone at that point was likely gone forever.

Monday’s business day came and went with little public comment from the companies, but apparently efforts to restore data were more fruitful.

T-Mobile did halt sales of the Sidekick as it investigated the issue.

T-Mobile continued to urge customers not to remove the battery on the device, reset the Sidekick or let it run out of power while the company works to restore its servers.

Reference:
http://news.cnet.com/beyond-binary/?categoryId=9901994

Visual Studio 2010 to launch in March

Microsoft is set to announce on Monday that it is ready with a second beta version of its Visual Studio 2010 and .Net Framework 4.0 developer tools. Both products are set for a final release on March 22, Microsoft said.

“Microsoft has reached the home stretch for Visual Studio 2010,” said Dave Mendlen, a senior director in Microsoft’s developer division. “This is probably the biggest release we’ve had in many years.”

Among the product’s features is a Tivo-like recording feature that Microsoft has now dubbed “IntelliTrace.”

“That’s our time machine,” Mendlen said. “We’re very proud of that.”

Other features new to the 2010 release include support for Windows 7 and Windows Azure as well as tools for building on top of Microsoft’s Sharepoint product.

With Visual Studio 2010, Microsoft is also taking the opportunity to scale back the number of different versions it sells, cutting the number of subscription options from seven to three. In a telephone interview, Microsoft Vice President S. “Soma” Somasegar said that move came from customer requests.

They told us “one place you can do better is making it simpler how you package your products,” Somasegar said.

Under the new plan, myriad Visual Studio options will be consolidated into Professional, Premium, and Ultimate. Microsoft is planning an “ultimate offer” promotion that will give many current subscribers access to the next-higher version of Visual Studio as well as 750 Windows Azure compute hours per month. Next year, the company plans to change that to offer varying amounts of Azure compute time based on the level of the Visual Studio subscription.

Reference:
http://news.cnet.com/beyond-binary/?categoryId=9702238

Microsoft cuts 800 more jobs

Microsoft said on Wednesday that it is notifying approximately 800 workers that their jobs are being eliminated as the software giant completes the layoffs it announced earlier this year.

In January, Microsoft said it would cut approximately 5,000 positions before the end of the next fiscal year, which ends in June. With the latest cuts, Microsoft said it has essentially completed those layoffs. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said in May that it was mostly, but not entirely, done with the job eliminations.

Actually, though, the latest cuts will push Microsoft past that 5,000 number. Once these cuts are made, it will have eliminated approximately 5,800 jobs since January, said Microsoft spokesman Lou Gellos.

Wednesday’s job cuts were spread across multiple businesses and around the globe, Gellos said. Microsoft didn’t announce any specific products that are getting the axe as a a result of Wednesday’s cuts, although it has cut a variety of products in recent months, including Microsoft Money, Windows Live OneCare and, just this past week, its small business accounting product line.

There could also be additional cuts, even as Microsoft does some hiring in key areas. Although January’s layoffs were the company’s first across-the-board cuts, it regularly reviews its businesses and makes adjustments as necessary, Gellos said.

“We’ll manage our businesses closely and do the things that we need to do,” Gellos said.

Update 12:05 p.m. PT: As noted by TechCrunch and others, among those let go on Wednesday was Don Dodge–one of Microsoft’s key voices in Silicon Valley and a director on the company’s emerging business team. Dodge wrote about the turn of events on his personal blog Wednesday.

Reference:
http://news.cnet.com/beyond-binary/?categoryId=9728257

There’s a map for that: GPS or smartphone?

As mobile phones become more powerful and GPS information easier to get, it’s getting to the point where we have to wonder if buying a standalone personal navigation device makes sense anymore.

Personal nav devices were the hot gift item for the holidays just two years ago, but things have changed pretty drastically in the last year. Prices on GPS devices are dropping and while they’re very reasonable, almost any smartphone sold today comes with some sort of GPS or mapping feature. So which is a better choice? Separate GPS device or smartphone with mapping software?

What’s best for you will depend, like anything, on your personal needs and preferences. Some things to think about:

Mapping software on phones will soon be standard
Right now, 90 percent of handsets will have GPS features included, according to the NPD Group. That’s a jump of 69 percent from a year ago. So in another year, it’s likely to hit 100 percent.

Other market research firms, like iSuppli, are predicting that by 2014, there will be virtually no more market for standalone devices for GPS. While that’s debatable, you might easily assume by looking at GPS device makers’ recent product decisions, they’re not even all that confident in the standalone device market anymore.

TeleNav, TomTom, and Navigon, companies traditionally associated with standalone devices, have decided to make their software available on smartphones. It was a big deal earlier this year when TomTom announced it would be offering its maps and voice-guided directions as an app for the iPhone. It was a big change for drivers because it added audible prompts–the iPhone otherwise is only able to provide text-based instructions through Google Maps. In addition, TomTom said it would make a car kit for the iPhone, which includes a vehicle mount and car charger. Other companies like Garmin, which makes standalone GPS devices, didn’t just offer their software to smartphone makers, they decided to be a smartphone maker too.

Service providers are hedging their bets as well. Not only are they offering GPS devices that are networked (like AT&T’s Garmin Nuvi 1690), they’re pushing smartphones that operate on their networks with lots of mapping functionality. Glenn Lurie, president of AT&T’s Emerging Devices division, disagrees that the dedicated GPS market will disappear. “It’s about giving customers a choice. There’s a market for both,” he said.

Calculate the overall cost
Personal navigation devices are cheaper than ever. Right now, they retail for an average of $176, according to data from The NPD Group. While that’s just an average (there are much cheaper and much more expensive models), it’s also about the average price you’d pay for a smartphone with a two-year service contract. But remember all the associated costs: How much you’d pay monthly with that two- year contract for the phone, as well as any extras for a car-mounting kit (TomTom’s iPhone app plus car kit is $220, for example), and for a mapping application or separate subscription service.

Google has recently added a new twist to this scenario, however. With its Android 2.0 mobile phone software, now running on the just-released Motorola Droid, Google is adding an application called Google Maps Navigation. With GPS-equipped phones, it can give turn-by-turn directions, and has voice recognition, and Google Street View. But more importantly: it’s free. While it’s not even close to being on every phone, Android is building momentum and will certainly will change the value proposition of smartphones as GPS devices going forward.

Decide how important it is to you to have a single device
If you’d rather not fuss with multiple gadgets in your purse or backpack, it’s an easy choice: just get a phone that can give you directions. If it doesn’t, there are plenty of reasons to get a GPS device.

Smartphones’ screens are generally smaller to make them pocket-sized. As a trade-off, their screens don’t make them ideal for in-car use as GPS devices. Also, phones with a GPS radio embedded in them will have their battery life affected. GPS devices that stay inside a car, usually have a car charger to alleviate the problem.

Of course, not everyone has a phone or even wants a phone that has mapping functionality. Or, you might be smack in the middle of a contract right now and want a GPS device sooner than a year or two. And what if you want to have a separate device that you can take hiking, or use separately while you’re talking on the phone? There are arguments to be made on both sides, it just depends on what matters most to you.

Reference:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-10392766-260.html