The LOK8U GPS child tracker watch by nu.m8 has got a lot of servers wagging. I'll do my best to avoid all the usual outrage but suffice to say, I'm not convinced it's the best idea I've ever seen.

It's essentially just a standard watch with a GPS chip fitted and you can then go to the nu.m8 locator site and get a lock on your kid. The watch itself is waterproof, robust and "designed to look cool" so that your kid will a) wear it, and b) not get kicked in for doing so. The trouble is, of course, that all the other kids will know what it means.

So, go on then, guess how a mobile phone app can tell if you're driving or not? Speed of texting? Pauses while texting? More errors than usual? Drastic directional adjustments detected by the iPhone's accelerometer as you hastily steer away from the bus stop, off the pavement and back onto the road?

Nope - Texecution uses GPS to locate the position of your phone, and therefore you, deactivating the phone's SMS features when you seem to be moving at more than 10mph.

There is, of course, an override function for when you're a passenger, on buses and trains, or running really fast to catch a bus or train and trying to text the driver to alert him to your presence, with users able to request authorisation from the phone administrator (er, probably you) to send a text while in motion.

So it's a bit pointless, really, and messing about with authorisation and overrides while driving will actually make sending a sneaky text harder and therefore more likely to cause a pile-up and series of fatalities. But its heart is in the right place. Buy it here for $9.99, should you (a) live in America and (b) own a T-Mobile G1.

(Via Techcrunch)

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Adding further fuel to the fire of evidence that Android will become the mobile OS of choice in 2009, GPS manufacturer Garmin has announced that it'll be building an Android-based mobile phone. The release is promised for the second half of the year.

It's unclear as to whether this is an entirely new handset or a upgrade to the still-not-released Nuvifone, but either way, this should be a touchscreen GPS mobile device that packs a powerful punch. Current plans are just to launch the device in Taiwan, but given that the company's GPS units are sold all over the world, I wouldn't be surprised if this followed too.

Garmin (via Phandroid)

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If you're a skiier, you'll know the value of not getting trapped under an avalanche, but most decent skiing jackets these days come with GPS in them, for those 'just in case' situations. Why do you need a dedicated GPS unit, then? Because Flaik, the company who makes it, has gone all Web 2.0 and tacked on a social network.

Despite Flaik's website not being properly launched yet, and being epically broken in Chrome, it seems that the GPS unit will let you do all kinds of crazy stuff like running real-time competitions against people you don't know, tracking the location of individual skiiers, and calculating run-by-run and day-by-day statistics.

Obviously this is for hardcore skiiers only, and there's no word of price, but it apparently launched last month in Colorado. If anyone's able to provide any more info, then drop us an email, because this looks like it could be fun.

Flaik (via CrunchGear)

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Have you ever set up a Nativity scene on public display? Did your baby jesus get nicked?Apparently it's a rather common problem, but a company called LightningGPS, who make GPS tracking units, are giving away units to churches, schools and community centres setting up their Nativity displays.

Sadly it's an America-only offer, but I know we have a few American readers, so you might want to let your local pastor know. You can sign up for the offer here. Now what I want to see next is a Google Maps mashup of all the baby jesuses across America, and their recent travels...

LightningGPS (via PRWeb)

As someone who has had to search the local woods for a runaway dog, I know how frustrating and worrying it can be when it's getting dark and the dog is nowhere to be seen.

As a whistle and dog treats don't always cut it, particularly if the worse happens and your dog is stolen, along comes a technological solution - put a GPS tag on your dog's collar so you can always find him.

Retrieva has teamed up with Orange to develop the Tracking and Anti-theft collar which is both waterproof and tamperproof.

Whenever the dog leaves home without the owner's knowledge, or someone tampers with the collar, a text message is sent to the owner's mobile phone. Similarly, if the dog goes missing while on a walk, the owner can request that the dog's location is transmitted to a mobile phone for plotting on a map.

I love Medion. They always manage to put out technology with really good specs that doesn't cost the earth. This Sat Nav is rather pricy compared to its competitors. It's got some nifty features, though, and a whopping 5" screen, to compensate.

Let's start with the price. £175. That's more than double the price of some of the other sat navs on the market, according to a quick Amazon search. So what are you getting for your cash?

The Novus Mini Coyote lets drivers radio in the location of hidden, newly-placed and mobile speed cameras, compiling a central database that will alert aggressive BMW drivers to when they need to slow down.

It isn't illegal - but presumably soon will be. We can't imagine THE LAW putting up with this sort of anti-social, rule-flouting behaviour for long. Here's how Novus describes its all-seeing, all-warning anti-radar machine...

"Mini Coyote is always up to date as it maintains a GSM/GPRS communication link with the Coyote servers to exchange information relative to fixed and mobiles speed cameras as well as frequent danger zones. Mini Coyote is very simple to use, it helps you travel securely and avoid the dangers of the road."

The Mini Coyote launches next week and can be pre-ordered from Novus here for £199. If you want one you'd better be quick, before owning and distributing them attracts a minimum five-year sentence and gets your car towed and crushed into a small cube.

(Via The Times)

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TomTom has announced that its latest satellite navigation system, the Go Live x40, is the first to contain a petrol price-tracking tool.

In the current economic climate (are you fed up with hearing that yet?), an automated tool which helps motorists to find the cheapest petrol is arguably more useful than having access to all the historic landmarks in Dorset (great though that is).

In fact, TomTom has calculated that each driver using the system could save an average of £162 every year (based on the user driving an average of 12,000 miles per year, 7.4 miles/ litre, at a saving of 10p per litre, in case you were wondering).

Want a satnav, but haven't taken the plunge yet? Well, now's a great time, because Tom Tom has just announced TomTom ONE and XL Assist. These packages come with 12 months of free breakdown assistance in the UK or Western Europe, depending on how much you fancy paying.

The TomTom ONE has a 3.5" screen, whereas the XL has a 4.3" screen. Other than that, they're pretty much the same - both come with the compact design, maps of the UK and/or Europe, and personalization choices that you've come to expect from TomTom.

The TomTom ONE UK/Ireland costs £130, and the XL UK/Ireland costs £150. Upgrading mapping to 22 European countries costs £20 on top of that, taking the ONE to £150 and the XL to £170. An optional traffic info receiver costs £50. One for Dad for Christmas?

TomTom Assist

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Google, HTC and T-Mobile have all just pulled the covers off the T-Mobile G1 - the official name of the long-awaited "Google Phone."

The handset features the "Android Market" - its equivalent to Apple's App Store - and it does indeed use the Amazon MP3 shopping service as rumoured this very morning. As for release dates - the US gets it on October 22, the UK gets it in "early November," while the rest of Europe must wait until early 2009.

An on-demand video of Google and T-Mobile's New York announcement is available here - you might want to save a copy for future generations. A very nice official shot of the G1 with its QWERTY keyboard out and the UK contract details can be found after the break...

I received an e-mail a little earlier today that very nearly ended up in my junk folder but there it was from an anonymous source saying that sat navigators TomTom may have just secured a deal with Google.

If indeed it is the case, it may be just the bit of business to protect TomTom against the incoming wave of smart phones with GPS navigation included for free. With Google on board, TomTom would have all the access to a wealth of information that the likes the of the iPhone has except in this case with a decent turn by turn GPS.

A keen marijuana user hit upon the great idea of using some off-the-track American park land to grow himself a few special plants.

In these environmentally worrisome times, you'd think he'd be applauded - but no. When a box turtle equipped with a GPS tracking device stumbled into his little outdoor hydroponics lab, the park ranger followed, found his stash and grassed the amateur gardener up to The Law. The Law then staked out the exotic vegetable patch and arrested the guy, who would've gotten away with it if it wasn't for that meddling reptile.

Sat-nav devices with travel guides on aren't a new thing, and in fact Lonely Planet has already partnered with Route 66 and Navman, but the newly announced alliance with Nokia may be the global travel company's biggest to date.

The deal will see Lonely Planet content made available on Nokia Maps 2.0, with travellers able to purchase and download the city guides they want, ready to use when globetrotting.

Taking over from the company's 2110 max is the Navigon 2150 max GPS unit.

New features include an integrated Bluetooth handsfree kit and text-to-speech functionality, which means drivers hear the exact name of the road they should turn into rather than just 'left' or 'right'. There's also a 4.3-inch display, maps for 39 European countries and the option to buy a lifetime subscription to traffic management for a one-off fee.

Available now, it retails for £229.99.

Navigon

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We discovered yesterday that people using in-car satellite navigation systems can't be trusted not to gawp at their mapping device when they should be looking at the road. Fortunately, one company has found a way that might reduce the level of distraction presented by these chittering GPS systems - by hiding them away inside the rear view mirror.

This is called the SmartMirror and it's powered by Navigon Mobile Navigator 6.5. The hardware sports a 4" touch screen, an SD card slot for the map data, integrated speakers and Bluetooth. It also has two video inputs, so one could be a reversing camera and the other... well, maybe the other should be a front-mounted camera in case you find the SmartMirror so distracting you can't see what's happening ahead of you.

The SmartMirror will be hitting the US at the beginning of August for a weighty $799. We'd hope to start seeing these or something similar winging our way soon; before drivers equipped with traditional GPS devices kill us all.

Azentek (via Navigadget)

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A recent survey has revealed that satellite navigation systems have 'caused' up to 300,000 accidents on Britain's roads. More than 1.5 million people also claimed that they have performed sudden manoeuvres, changes in direction and blithely driven the wrong way down a one-way street at the bequest of their dashboard menace.

But the sat nav isn't actually causing anything. It has no control over the vehicle. It just sits and makes noise and flashes topographical images at the half-wit who's supposed to be in control of a half ton of fast moving plastic and steel.

Yet of the 2,000 people polled, one in five blamed the device for making them lose track of traffic on a busy road. Remember that the next time you're out on the road, driving amidst the 14 million sat nav users, that one in five of them could AT ANY MOMENT be rendered blissfully unaware of the speeding traffic around them by just the presence of a GPS device.

Garmin has introduced its "Rugged Navigation" nüvi 500 Series of Portable Navigation Devices, equally at home directing you whether you're walking, cycling, scootering, driving, or boating, thanks to NavTeq's mapping data and the ability to accept different types of mapping including TOPO for outdoor navigation and Blue Chart cartography for marine usage.

The nüvi 500 Series devices are fully waterproof, can be easily fitted to a scooter or bicycle, and are made from UVA/UVB and fuel resistant materials. It features a 3.5-inch colour touchscreen, and removable, rechargeable battery.

Navigon's first GPS unit with Panorama View 3D has launched in the UK - the Navigon 8110.

Apparently, the 3D offers a safer driving experience, with more realistic views of awkward junctions and motorway exits. Other features include a 4.8-inch display, European maps, TMC Pro for re-routing, Bluetooth connectivity for your phone, USB connectivity (to add your MS Outlook contacts), free map updates, an MP3 player and an FM transmitter.

Expect to pay £389.99.

Navigon

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Vodafone has announced an upgrade to its satellite navigation service, now offering its customers free access to directions and places of interest.

Partnering with Multimap, the Find & Go service allows users to search for a destination on their home PC and then send the search result to their mobile phone free of charge. They then have access to turn-by-turn spoken driving or walking directions, route alternatives based on traffic conditions, and landmark information.