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Twice: Pioneer reported lower operating revenue, operating income and a higher net loss for fiscal 2008, ended March 31, as well as confirming plans for improving profitability.

In its consolidated business results for fiscal 2008, consolidated operating revenue decreased 2.8 percent year-on-year to $7.74 billion, mainly due to lower plasma display and DVD recorder sales, despite higher sales of DVD drives, Blu-ray Disc-related devices, car audio products and car navigation systems.

Operating income decreased 12.7 percent year-on-year to $109.1 million chiefly due to a larger loss in the plasma display business, despite higher earnings in the car electronics business.

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infobolsa: Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. yesterday announced it has developed the “ML673520A” system LSI for automotive systems.

The chip increases speed of compressing and recording digital audios by ten-fold and includes a function to playback three tunes simultaneously.
“The ML673520A is a system LSI based on OKI s strong track record and skills in designing high-function LSIs.

It provides an excellent solution for automotive systems as the market shifts to digital audio,” said Hiroshi Enomoto, President of Silicon Solutions Company at OKI.
“For nearly 30 years OKI has been offering automotive system semiconductors for engine control and car navigation systems, and has been developing LSIs for portable audio players to handle digital audio data for consumer electronics.” The LSI is suitable for car audio systems and AV-integrated car navigation systems compatible with digital audio.

The LSI includes a RISC CPU and an audio DSP as well as various communication functions and is compatible with standards such as USB2.0 host controller, MOST (Media Oriented System Transport), MediaLB (Media Local Bus) and CAN controller.

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GPS Business News: In an interview with Michael Halbherr, the head of Nokia’s location-based services, Reuters revealed last week Nokia expects to sell half of its mobile phone with GPS by 2010 or 2012. This year alone, Nokia expects to sell 35 millions of these phones.

If the global market for cell phone continues to rise at 10% a year, and Nokia maintains a 40% market share, the Finnish company could probably sell over 300 million GPS-enabled cell phones in 2011.

Additionally Michael Halbherr stated that many of Nokia’s non-GPS cell phones will be equipped with cell-id or Wi-Fi positioning technologies.

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SpaceRef.com: Do you have a great idea for the use of satellite navigation? If so you could win one of the prizes in this year’s European Satellite Navigation Competition, supported by ESA through its Technology Transfer Programme Office.

The 2008 European Satellite Navigation Competition (ESNC) was inaugurated on 1 May. Now in its fifth year, the competition is again seeking quick-to-market innovative ideas for the use of satellite navigation in non-space businesses.

Since the competition began in 2004, an amazing 650 outstanding ideas on how to use satellite navigation have been presented. In 2007 alone, more than 250 proposals were submitted from all over Europe.

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I4U: Digitimes reports that Philips is likely to completely get out of the PDP TV market in 2009.

Funai, who operates the Philips TV brand, says that the company and Philips have no plans to develop new PDP TVs from the end of 2008, indicating that Philips will officially quit Plasma TV operations in 2009.
Philips is still expected to ship 500,000 Plasma TV sets this year.

Funai just recently signed the licensing deal with Philips. Under the deal, set to take effect Sept. 1st, Funai will pay licensing fees to Philips in exchange for the exclusive right to use the Dutch firm’s Philips and Magnavox brand names.

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The Press Association: LG Display, the world’s second-largest LCD maker by sales after Samsung Electronics, plans to build a sixth-generation production line that will likely begin operations in the second quarter of 2009, the company said in a statement to South Korea’s stock exchange.

But the announcement drove down the company’s share price amid worries that the additional output will worsen an anticipated supply glut of the panels, used for TVs and computers.

“The LCD industry will experience oversupply from October this year,” said James Kim, an analyst at Lehman Brothers.

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Reuters: Mobile navigation device company Garmin is the mystery bidder behind a takeover approach for Raymarine, the Sunday Telegraph reported, citing sources close to the deal.

Garmin’s approach could be worth as much as 250 million euro, it said.

Raymarine, which makes navigation equipment for the marine market, said last month it had received an approach from an unnamed party, sending its shares rocketing.

The UK company makes a range of nautical devices including satellite navigation for boats, autopilots, satellite radio and radar systems. It is seen as an attractive target for larger players as the market for satellite and mobile navigational devices consolidates.

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NaviGadget: As you may already have heard Dash recently opened their platform to third parties to allow them to create new applications and even add new electronics to be used with your internet connected GPS navigation system Dash Express.

There are already a few application out there such as the home search, event calendar, last played songs on the radio, speed camera warnings, and of course weather.

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The Register: Women love men with chiselled jawbones, so we’re told, but will the ladies still go for you if they know you’ve made it 50 per cent smaller? Well, if you’re talking about Bluetooth headsets, then the answer is probably yes.

In 2006, manufacturer Aliph introduced the original Jawbone – a Bluetooth headset that uses patented technology to “feel your speech” and distinguish between background noise and your conversation.

The latest model, unimaginatively called the New Jawbone, is 50 per cent smaller than the original, meaning it now weighs just 10g. So-called “faster processing” is also present to help eliminate “unexpected noise bursts,” such as, “Oi! The light’s green!”

Like many other Bluetooth headsets, the new Jawbone has just two buttons, which are positioned on the device’s outer surface and allow users to control all of the headset’s functions.

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Navigadget: We’re sure you’ve heard of stories of huge trucks trying to drive through tiny towns, or hitting overhead bridges because of blindly following their GPS navigation systems.Pronav is here to fix those problems with maps and data designed for oversize vehicles. It considers your vehicle’s dimensions, as well as any legal or road network restrictions.

You actually enter your vehicle’s dimensions including; width, height, weight, weight per axle and length, as well the goods you are carrying (normal, corrosive/explosive) and ProNav will calculate a route optimized to your vehicles parameters and ensure you are not confronted with any restrictions that are not suitable for your vehicle or cargo.

In addition it can provide warning information such steep hills, sharp bends, and even crosswind areas.

The device is currently only available in the U.K. and comes with comprehensive database of London loading bays (including red route bays) which you can easily find around your destination and route directly to. Also included is a database of London cafes that serve breakfast for under £5, as well as a national database of HGV gas stations.

A nice final touch is that you can switch your ProNav into a regular GPS navigation system to provide you with regular street level navigation where you can’t go with your truck…

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Crunchgear: The Samsung F400, announced in February, is finally available. It is a dual slider with some B&O technology to add more fidelity to music on the go. It has a 3-megapixel camera and comes with a 1GB memory card in the box, ensuring you’ll have at least a little space for your tunes.It will be available in France in May and the rest of the world — probably not the US — soon after.

Discover full specs at Crunchgear.

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T3: Now here’s a nice antidote to most mobiles’ Johnny Sensible Trousers sensibilities.The Mimique by RKS is a colourful, completely touchscreen phone that you can download your own skins to, so you can personalise its look. It’s all thanks to Google’s open source Android platform.

So say goodbye to all those generic black phones and get a brightly coloured one instead. Sadly it’s just a concept at the moment, so you’ll have to wait. But it’s a sign that things are moving in the right direction.

More about “Mimique” at Pocket lint or at the official website.

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