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Tech Digest: Daewoo announced at IFA (Berlin), that they will be releasing three new satellite navigation systems into Europe – seemingly targetted at walkers and cyclists.

The DPN-3500 has a 3.5-inch LCD display and the DPN-5600 has a 5.6-inch display, and both sound to be fairly standard portable sat-nav devices.

The third sat-nav device, the ANK-6160, also boasts a Digital Multimedia Broadcast (DMB) receiver which is supposed to allow you to receive audio and video data such as radio/TV programmes and service information.

As yet, no pricing information is available.

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JCN Network: Pioneer will be releasing their AVIC-HD3BT hard disk Sat Nav system into the Russian market.  It’s claimed to be the first all-in-one hard disk drive-based navigation system for the region’s consumer market.

In Russia, there’s been a lot of interest in in-car audio/visual entertainment centering on DVD media. With its recent energetic economy, consumer appetite in navigation systems is growing stronger.

Pioneer launched the world’s first GPS car navigation system designed for the Japanese consumer market in June 1990, followed by the European and North American consumer markets in 1999 and Chinese market in March 2006.

The navigation software includes Russian interface and voice guidance. The hardware seems to be similar to the European AVIC-HD1BT

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Guardian Unlimited: The UK Government is to invest another £21 million (around €30 million) in a European space mission to build a new satellite navigation system.

The investment forms part of a £2.4 billion scheme to provide Europe with its own independent system by 2010.

Surrey Satellite Technology built a test satellite which was successfully launched from Kazakhstan late last year.

And Astrium UK and LogicaCMG are major partners in Galileo Industries, the consortium of European companies building the first four test satellites

In-car direction terminals and other tracking technologies rely at present on the US military-based Global Positioning System (GPS).

Galileo will be a civil system, run by a private consortium and offering guaranteed levels of service.

The full constellation of Galileo satellites is expected to be in operation by the end of 2010.

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Stuff: Ahead of the Tokyo Game Show in September, news has been leaked of Sony’s plans to release GPS receiver and camera accessories for their PSPs.

The add-on GPS receiver will be most likely designed for car use, but there would be no reason why you wouldn’t be able to use it on foot as well.

Here’s an unofficial first look:

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Tech Digest: Sat Nav makers Navman have teamed up with Lonely Planet travel publishers to offer users descriptions and pictures of places of interest around the world.

Users will also be able to search for popular places of interest withouth knowing the exact address – all they’d need to to is identify a photo of the place they’re looking for.

This new innovation is Navman’s NavPix system, which combines a picture of a place with its exact geographical coordinates.

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Engadget: TomTom will be releasing their entry-level TomTom One sat nav device in North America.

Retailing around $500, the specs are pretty much the same as the original, but with a new loook and reduced size.

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This fall, Philips is to introduce a range of portable navigation devices. Three devices will compete with those of Dutch TomTom.

According to Philips, the PNS series – Personal Navigation System – will offer the safest and most practical GPS solution inside and outside the car. The devices are likely to appeal to first-time buyers, since user-friendliness (‘Sense and Simplicity’ being the brand’s tagline) was one of the main concerns during pre-production.

All 3 models (PNS 100, PNS 200, PNS 150) are supplied with special cradles with built-in amplifier and speaker with few control buttons. They all have small dimensions: 10 cm long and less than 2 cm thick, weighing only 160 grams.

Philips’ navigation devices will be priced at 399 euro to 599 euro.

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