After an April launch, AT&T's significantly extending the reach of its AT&T Navigator service with the announcement today that a new Global Edition of the software will provide nav capabilities in 20 countries. That's probably welcome news to globetrotting businessfolk that happen to carry one of AT&T's GPS-capable worldphones -- and businessfolk seem to be exactly the demographic they're targeting with a healthy $19.98 monthly charge for the pleasure of not getting lost worldwide. Much of western Europe, the Caribbean, and six Chinese cities are on the roster, and the carrier is quick to point out that those cities will all be hosting Olympic events -- so, you know, if you need to make it from dressage to the 100-meter dash as quickly as possible, those might be the best 20 bucks you ever spent.

Yeah, so there's still lots of confusion on whether bona fide turn-by-turn GPS software will ever arrive on the iPhone 3G (though signs are pointing to "yes"), but considering that it's not there now, Autoblog took Apple's new darling for a spin in the Bay and churned out some impressions. If you're looking for the long and short of it, the iPhone 3G's navigational abilities aren't that impressive. The reviewer even went so far as to say that having a passenger manning the arrow buttons that showed your next move was "almost a necessity." Additionally, the GPS flaked out and lagged behind the current location quite frequently, which can definitely be a problem when attempting to navigate one-way streets in an unkind downtown. So, should you sell off your standalone navigator on the way to pick up your new iPhone 3G? Probably not -- at least not just yet.

As if the iPhone 3G launch could really have any more misinformation floating around, we've got yet another tidbit that needs clarification. Shortly after Apple's second iPhone was announced, out flew a report from Reuters suggesting that TomTom already had iPhone navigation software ready to go. French site Mac Generation was able to get ahold of TomTom spokesperson Yann Lafargue, and here's the gist of what he had to say. First off, the aforementioned Reuters statement was said to be inaccurate, though he did affirm that an iPhone version of the software was running in the labs and working "pretty well." Unfortunately, the question of "will you guys ship this for the iPhone?" was answered with a "We don't know" style response, but he did clarify that the questionable SDK verbiage we saw wasn't an obstacle at all. Check out the full interview in the read link below -- hope you're fluent in French and / or machine translation!

That sound you hear is the not-yet-released nüvifone trembling in fear, as TomTom has just announced that an iPhone-ready version of its famed navigation software is practically ready to rock 'n roll. More specifically, a TomTom spokesman was quoted as saying that its "navigation system runs on the iPhone already," and he made the statement hot on the heels of the iPhone 3G announcement. Sadly, he wouldn't disclose an estimated release date for the software, but it's safe to say that the TomTom touch could make Apple's darling a formidable nüvifone opponent.

[Via GPSReview]

After a pleasingly brief public beta, Nokia's glazing its Maps 2.0 navigation app with a thick coating of gold and sending it off into a waiting world of S60-toting fiends to fend for itself. The new version underpins the GPS receivers in Nokia's 2008 smartphones but is also available as a free download for a variety of existing devices, offering key improvements that make it a totally viable nav system -- satellite view, traffic data, and a significantly retooled UI, most importantly, plus the addition of a dedicated pedestrian mode for those times when geographical confusion strikes while on foot. Optional packs add goodies like city guides and the all-important voice guided car navigation and ultimately make Maps 2.0 a non-free venture, but really, no full-featured nav system is -- and the initial download does quite a bit out of the box. Hit the read link to kick off the download.

[Via All About Symbian]

As great as on-device navigation can be, the monthly fee can be really hard to swallow, especially considering that dedicated nav units offer all the functionality (or the most important parts, anyway) free of ongoing charges. Granted, services like TeleNav offer ongoing map updates, traffic maps, weather conditions, and so on -- but for many, the $10 pop every 30 days doesn't justify itself. Enter Garmin -- the 800-pound gorilla of dedicated nav units -- with its new lifetime service for BlackBerrys, promising all the spoils of Garmin's mobile navigation service for as long as customers own their trusty GPS-equipped BlackBerry for $99.99. Folks that find themselves investing in a new phone every six months need not apply, obviously, but for those who consider their marriage to a particular BlackBerry to be a long-term commitment, this might be a nice little proposition.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Among the hopefuls for Google's Android Developer Challenge (which ended yesterday, by the way, so put down your pencils and turn in your papers) is this little gem, Enkin. Put simply, the navigation app's ace card is its "live mode," which combines a plethora of sensory data -- camera input, GPS, directional information, motion detection -- to show the user an augmented view of what they're actually looking at in their environment. Augmented with what, exactly? Placemarkers that indicate landmarks, that's what, and the possibilities are pretty endless -- restaurants in the immediate vicinity, a gentle reminder of your car's location in the parking lot, the list goes on. Nokia's been toying with this concept for a good long while now but they've failed to commercialize it, so here's hoping will finally see a usable product on a retail device.

Love it or hate it, AT&T's been offering TeleNav navigation services on a number of devices for a while now -- but it looks like the carrier's trying to up its clout just a smidge by rechristening the service with its own name. We've been hearing that TeleNav will become AT&T Navigator tomorrow -- on AT&T, anyway -- and to commemorate the occasion, the Motorola Z9 slider will be launched as the inaugural device to use the rebranded service. We should be able to validate or debunk this in just a few hours now, so stay tuned.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in, with special thanks to Rick for the image]

The Nokia Navigator is back, and this time around, it's got enough 3G to satisfy pretty much everyone. Succeeding the 6110, the 6210 Navigator slider obviously puts an emphasis on providing directions to your destination, and a few nifty features help it excel at the task. First up, it features the just-announced Nokia Maps 2.0 app, which provides pedestrian in addition to the typical auto navigation -- a logical feature, considering this thing spends much of its life in your pants, not mounted to your windshield; secondly, it sports an integrated accelerometer that can keep the map updated at a reasonable rate while you're trolling about on foot ; third, the car mount is standard fare in the retail box, along with a 1GB microSD card. The S60 Third Edition handset also features an FM radio, Bluetooth 2.0, 3.2 megapixel camera, 120MB of internal storage, and -- get this -- can be used for navigation without a SIM card. Imagine that! It'll come in no fewer than four versions -- one with EDGE only and three with various flavors of HSDPA for different corners of the world -- in the third quarter for €300 (about $435).

Previously available only to a select group, Nokia is turning the beta version of its Maps 2.0 navigation app onto the masses. In addition to the car mode existing users will be familiar with, 2.0 adds "Walk," a new mode tailored to pedestrian use. Another new feature is the ability to purchase "multimedia guides" for destinations that hook you up with photo, video, and audio streams that detail places to go and things to see on your magical journey. As we'd previously mentioned, 2.0 also adds real-time traffic information and hybrid satellite views, both features that help to bring Maps in line with Google Maps for Mobile. The beta is available immediately, while a final cut is expected to be available in the second quarter of the year.

Separately, Nokia has announced that it'll be bringing its Maps franchise to Series 40, swinging open the door to high-function navigation on the company's mass-market, non-smartphone handsets. It'll be ready in the first half of 2008, though no plans have yet been outed regarding availability on specific Series 40 devices.

Though the refresh late last year was a welcome bonus, Nokia's Maps app that gets bundled with many of its S60 devices still lags Google Maps for Mobile in several key areas -- real-time traffic and satellite view, just to name a couple. Great news, though: Nokia's been hard at work crafting its next-gen navigation client, and it looks like it's shaping up to be a real gem. The software has been seeded to a few key folks in the public domain (but isn't yet available for download to the masses) so we're starting to see some first impressions trickle in, and in short, it looks like everything's better than it was before. The auto navigation screen is clearer and uses translucency to prevent large swaths of the map from being concealed, there's a new pedestrian mode, and satellite views and traffic data are now both available. There's no word yet on when the beta or the final version might go public, so we'll all have to be satisfied with the previews for the time being.

Google Maps is good -- some might say great, actually -- but one of the biggest beefs from the get-go was its inability to use GPS receivers, and when it finally "supported" them, many didn't work. Symbian-Guru had obviously been circling the Google Maps camp like a hawk (as have many N95 owners), waiting for the day that the Nokia superphone's integrated GPS would work. Don't get us wrong, Nokia Maps is a fine application, but Google Maps has a certain mystique about it (traffic and satellite imagery, perhaps?) that make it worthwhile, too. Anyhoo, there's a native version of Google Maps for the N95 available immediately, featuring the aforementioned GPS support plus a direct save-to-contacts feature that's sure to see some heavy use. Grab it now!

[Via Symbian-Guru]

Garmin -- your favorite GPS team ever -- are about to drop some serious map-styles all over your mobile phone. The company today announced a new set of microSD cards preloaded with its navigation software and standard maps of the US or Europe. The cards will turn your average, boring, ugly phone into a bona fide GPS superstar. Dubbed the Garmin Mobile XT, the card will tout all of the features of a typical hardware Garmin GPS unit, like turn-by-turn directions, route planning, and voice prompts. Additionally, the card provides access to the GPS-maker's online service, which lets you get real-time fuel prices, traffic reports, and weather updates. We know, you're thinking all of this sweet and easy action is going to cost you an arm, leg and first-born... but you're wrong. The company is offering the card right now for the painfully affordable price of $99, with no monthly fees or other costs, thus making this purchase seem attractive even if you don't really need it.

GPS, expanded memory -- how is one to choose? Heck, is it fair to even ask one to choose? Spectec thinks not, and if you're sporting a Windows Mobile device with a miniSD slot, you might just be in luck. Its SD effort was impressive enough, but the Taiwanese firm's SDG-811 somehow manages to pack a SiRFStar III GPS receiver into a miniSD card that extends a mere 3 centimeters beyond the edge of the slot, perfect for breathing some new life into that Wizard or Apache. The SDG-811's trademark parlor trick, though, is an integrated microSD slot, effectively giving your device a second shot at expandable memory after the miniSD slot has been consumed. No word on a release date yet, but Expansys is happy to take names in the meanwhile.

[Thanks, John D.]

Read - Spectec SDG-811 product page
Read - Expansys Hong Kong's pre-order page

We've seen our fair share of phones that double as navigation systems, but what exactly would happen if we flipped the focus around? Ahh, this is what would happen! Enter the CNS-4320 from Korea's DiXCOM, a fairly standard-issue nav unit that throws in a GSM radio with GPRS data to serve up text and multimedia messaging along with a Bluetooth handsfree profile (provided the requisite SIM card is installed, of course). The Windows CE 5.0-based device features a SiRFStar III GPS receiver, media player, memory expansion via SD and MMC and TMC traffic data reception all glorified on a 480 x 272 touchscreen. Unfortunately, the company doesn't seem to offer any suggestions on what we're to do when we've reached our destination and we wish to continue the call without carrying a nav system around in our pocket, but with the CNS-4320's lithium polymer pack, at least you can do that if you're so inclined.

[Via SlashGear]