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Reuters: The European Union launched a free satellite navigation network on Thursday that could help pilots, drivers and blind people by fine-tuning the accuracy of the U.S. global positioning system (GPS) to around 2 meters.The EGNOS system will use three satellites and 34 ground stations to narrow the horizontal accuracy of GPS from around 7 meters previously and improve its vertical accuracy to help pilots during landings.

The “Safety-of-Life” service for aircraft navigation could be in place next year, the EU executive said in a statement.

Farmers could also benefit from improved precision for spraying fertilizers, and new applications could emerge on roads, such as automatic tolling and pay-per-use car insurance.

“It will make all personal navigation applications much more precise, giving birth to new possibilities like guiding aids for blind people,” the Commission said.

The system was pioneered by the Commission, the European Space Agency and aviation safety authority Eurocontrol.

It paves the way for the better known Galileo project, a European satellite system which will rival GPS and could be up and running in 2014.

The 4 billion euro ($5.8 billion) Galileo project, Europe’s biggest single space program, has been plagued by delays and squabbling over funding that ended only when the EU agreed to fund it from the public purse.

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Oh Gizmo: Remember back when the Nintendo Wii came out, how there were reports of idiots tossing their Wiimotes through their fancy TVs?

Well that sort of thing is still an issue for people with LCD and Plasma TVs, and not just from flying game controllers. Since the screens are easily harmed, one company has decided to specialize in protecting these expensive pieces of equipment.

TV Armor is a simple way to prevent objects from impacting (and thus ruining) the screen of your HDTV. The solution is about as low-tech as it gets, consisting of a thin layer (¼-inch) of acrylic held on by Velcro straps. The acrylic is considered optical-grade so that it won’t reduce the quality of the image.

The TV Armor won’t win any awards in the looks department, but it isn’t hideous by any means. The acrylic blends in rather well, and the Velcro straps are barely visible. You’ll need to set back $69-$289 (47-198 euro) depending on the size of your TV. It’s a little salty, but far less than you paid for your fancy-pants TV no doubt.

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Techradar: One of the biggest criticisms of the new camcorder-equipped iPod nano is that the lens isn’t placed where you’d expect it to be.It’s not on the back at the top behind the LCD screen like a mobile phone or a Flip Video. It’s actually on the back, at the bottom behind the clickwheel.

The practical upshot of this is that if you hold the iPod nano like normal, with your thumb on the clickwheel, the rest of your hand ends up obscuring the camcorder sensor.

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About: Panasonic has been pushing hard, really hard, to get 3D into the home. In the past year or so, Panasonic has been on the road and at trade shows demonstrating its 3D technology to manufacturers, dealers, press, and potential consumers. I have actually seen Panasonic’s 3D demonstrations during this time period and have been impressed with the results. However, good results are only part of the equation, cost and movie studio content support are even bigger factors, especially in current economic times.Keeping all this in mind, Panasonic has announced that it will be taking the first step into the consumer market in 2010 with a 3D-enabled 50-inch Plasma Television and, hopefully, a companion 3D-enabled Blu-ray Disc player (…).

This is especially important as a new breed of 3D-enabled Blu-ray Disc players would be required to view 3D content using Panasonic’s system. Also, no price or content information is available yet, but I am sure this system will be displayed at the annual CES in January and information on pricing and content should be forthcoming by that time.

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Navigadget: TwoNav Aventura is a new handheld GPS navigation device that is quite different than most other handhelds out there. It can accept any kind of maps, provided you are capable of creating vector maps and raster imagery. You can even scan your own according to gpstracklog and calibrate it to use on TwoNav Aventura.

Another feature of TwoNav Aventura (perhaps where the “two” is coming from) is that it can also act as a GPS navigation system for your vehicle, giving you door to directions.

Apparently it is being released in Europe this June for 650 Euros [...].

Here are some specs:
* Li-Ion battery
* Battery slot can be replace with 3AA battery slot
* Up to 20 hours battery life
* electronic compass
* barometric altimeter
* rainproof
* SiRFStar III GPS chip

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Gizmag: Could the end be nigh for plasma and LCD screens? Seiko Epson has recently announced a further development in ink-jet technology, which does away with some of the problems still dogging the much-vaunted organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display technology. In particular, Seiko Epson has signaled it is moving toward a 37-inch HD OLED screen by creating a uniform deposit of organic material while removing the uneven layering of the ink-jet method.

To date, OLED technology has been used for smaller-scale screens, due to an inability to reliably form uniform organic layers on larger panels or substrates, as they are known. Until recently the most widely used process for depositing organic materials was vacuum thermal evaporation (VTE). This method, however, is fraught with technical complications and is one of the main reasons that mass production has been hindered.

Read more at Gizmag 

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Futuremusic: Run to your browser and pick up these puppies for your favorite Dachshund and iPod lover. Although the sound quality most likely will come up wanting, is there no better way to say “I love you” – we think not…

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Electronista: Nokia’s long-in-progress sequel to the N800 series tablet may largely be a more advanced version of the N97 smartphone, a leak on Monday hints. Possibly called the N900, MobileCrunch claims it would have a 3.5-inch touchscreen and a slide out (if non-tilting) QWERTY keyboard but would carry a much sharper 800×480 resolution, a faster TI OMAP processor and 1GB of memory thanks to a 768MB virtual memory cache.

It would run the Linux-based Maemo OS instead of Symbian. Many of its other features would also remain familiar, including the combination of 32GB of internal storage and a 5-megapixel camera with dual LED flash, but it would gain new features in software thanks in part to the faster hardware. It would be capable of capturing 800×480 video and would run Firefox as its browser, including with full Flash support. Despite the form factor, it would still have GSM, EDGE and HSPA-based 3G and could make cellular calls as well as using the access for data.

If accurate, the N900 would ship as early as July for Asia, the Middle East and T-Mobile’s worldwide divisions; T-Mobile USA would get the tablet with native 3G in August or September, and the rest of Europe would have access in October.

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Anythingbutipod: Those that know me know that my MP3 player has more podcasts and audiobooks on it than music. I’m out and about a few hours a day and have a job on the side of the studies which is more or less a muscle memory job. Listening to the same music over and over would drive me crazy, so some years ago I started using podcasts and audiobooks to keep myself entertained instead.

When it comes to getting audiobooks, you have several options, from libraries to audiobook services online. Then you have to select a player – if you want Audible support, you need a player that can support it and so on. Then there are players which have special audiobook sections that give you extra options regardless of what format the book is in, while others treat audiobooks as music. Read on for a guide on how to get started with audiobooks.

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Gizmag: Mobile phones and the beach are generally not a great mix, but for anyone looking to stay in touch while soaking up the rays there are a few more details filtering through regarding Sharp’s waterproof, solar-powered phone. [...]. There’s no word on if or when the phone will be released outside Japan.

The new phone will claim a world’s first in being the first waterproof phone to embed a solar panel into its lid. The solar panel can charge up to 80% of the battery’s capacity and can draw enough power from ten minutes of direct sunlight for a one-minute call, or two hours of standby time. Other details about the Solar Ketai are thin on the ground. Going by the picture it won’t be a touchscreen model like Samsung’s previously announced Blue Earth solar powered offering, but with still no release date set for the Blue Earth, it could beat its solar-powered competitor to market.

The Solar Ketai by Sharp is expected to be priced somewhere in range of 40,000 to 60,000 yen, (approx. 300-450 euro) and will be released in June through Japan’s KDDI – just in time for summer.

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Reuters: Nokia on Monday began rolling out its much-anticipated online software and content store, Ovi Store, as it aims to follow the success of Apple’s App Store.Nokia said it had started moving Ovi Store to production servers, preparing for the global commercial launch, and the store was opened to users of a few of its phone models in Australia and Singapore on Monday.

Nokia has promised to open the store globally this week.

To cope with slowing phone demand Nokia is building a new business from mobile Internet services — like games or maps — but is scaling back separate investment plans due to the slowdown, and focusing on merging the delivery of services.

Nokia, which made its first ever quarterly pretax loss in January-March, is cutting annual costs at its key handset unit alone by more than 700 million euros ($979.7 million) to counter plunging demand.

The Apple App Store has proved extremely popular, with one billion applications downloaded in less than a year, and operators and technology firms including Vodafone Nokia, and Microsoft now want a piece of the pie.

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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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