Pharos Debuts Hybrid Navigation Services on Sleek New GPS Smartphones
Pharos Traveler 117 and 127 offer full-featured navigation and lightning fast 3.5G connectivity on an unlocked, Windows Mobile handset

TORRANCE, Calif. — November 12, 2008 — Pharos Science & Applications, Inc., a leading provider of location-based information and services, today introduced two new GPS smartphones that feature the award-winning Pharos Smart Navigator software, the first hybrid navigation system designed specifically for Microsoft Windows Mobile devices. With Smart Navigator onboard, the Traveler 117 and 127 deliver voice-prompted, turn-by-turn directions and a suite of real-time location information services on a sleek, stylish handset. Able to operate on any Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) network, the Traveler 117 and 127 give users the freedom to use the network of their choice and the power to take advantage of download speeds up to 7.2 megabits per second (Mbps). The Traveler 117 and 127 carry a suggested retail price of $529.95 and will be available on December 1, 2008 from major online retailers including Amazon.com, Dell.com eXpansys.com and Newegg.com.
“Windows Mobile provides the flexibility and customization to enable partners like Pharos to consistently deliver innovative navigation solutions for our devices,” said Tim McDonough, senior director, Mobile Communications Business, Microsoft.  “The Traveler 117 and 127 provide our customers with an exciting new way to navigate on a Windows Mobile device all the while staying connected to the things in life that matter most.”
“The Traveler 117 and 127 represent a leap forward in how we provide satellite navigation on a smartphone,” said James Oyang, PhD, President of Pharos. “The unique, hybrid nature of Smart Navigator enables us to provide more accurate and reliable navigation customized for a handset’s compact screen size.”
Traveler 117
With 3.5G connectivity and a roomy, 2.8 inch touch screen, the Traveler 117 is a powerful smartphone that is ideal for making calls, surfing the web or watching videos. With the touch of a finger, users can access work or personal e-mail or find the latest gasoline prices, movie show times, weather conditions or news headlines through Microsoft Live Search. Smart Navigator provides users with robust navigation support, including real-time traffic, maps on demand, dynamic points of interest (POI) search and an innovative Follow Me service that enables groups or families to view one another’s GPS-derived locations on their wireless Windows Mobile devices with GPS capability or on the Internet.

Traveler 127
Sporting a QWERTY keyboard for rapid text entry and a 2.5 inch touch screen, the Traveler 127 is designed to meet the heavy messaging requirements of the mobile professional. Able to download content at speeds of up to 7.2 Mbps, the Traveler 127 takes advantage of the fastest broadband speeds available to deliver an unrivaled mobile office experience. Users can access work e-mail and the complete suite of productivity applications in Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional Edition. The Traveler 127 includes a dedicated camera for video conferences as well as satellite navigation to help users find their next meeting while on the road.

Smart Navigator
Smart Navigator offers reliable, easy-to-use navigation software augmented by real-time location information services. Just yesterday, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) awarded Smart Navigator its prestigious “Best of Innovations” award in recognition of its groundbreaking design and engineering. For more information about Smart Navigator, please visit http://www.pharosgps.com/buzz/buzz_pdf/smartnavigator.pdf.

Traveler 117 and Traveler 127 Specifications

Operating System: Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
Processor: Qualcomm MSM7201-90, 400MHz
Memory: 256MB Flash ROM, 128MB SDRAM
Phone: unlocked GSM quad band 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, EDGE / GPRS
3.5G tri band 850/1900/2100 MHz, UMTS 384Kb/s, HSDPA 7.2Mb/s, HSUPA 2Mb/s
Talk time: up to 4 hours talk time and 200 hours standby time
GPS: NMEA0183/AGPS compatible
Wireless: Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth™ v2.0+EDR
Camera: 2.0 megapixel camera for picture or video; 0.3 megapixel front camera for video conferences
Battery: 1410 mAh Li-Ion, rechargeable/replaceable
Weight: 4.8 ounces

Traveler 117
Size: 4.44” (L) x 2.28” (W) x 0.60” (T)
Display: 2.8" Resistive TFT LCD, 480 x 640 VGA with 18-bit 262K color capability

Traveler 127
Size: 4.57” (L) x 2.44” (W) x 0.60” (T)
Display: 2.5" TFT LCD with touch panel, 320 x 240 QVGA with 16-bit 65K colors

Pharos Pioneers Hybrid Navigation for Smartphones and Personal Digital Assistants
Consumer Electronics Association hails the release of Pharos Smart Navigator with a “Innovations” award

TORRANCE, Calif. — November 12, 2008 — In a move that continues its tradition of breaking new ground in the navigation market, Pharos Science & Applications, Inc., a leading provider of location-based information and services, today unveiled Pharos Smart Navigator, the first navigation software plus services product designed specifically for Microsoft Windows Mobile devices. Smart Navigator offers a unique hybrid approach that combines onboard navigation software with real-time location services for traffic, maps, incremental map update, dynamic points of interest (POI) search and the innovative Follow Me service. Smart Navigator makes its consumer debut on Pharos’ new Global Positioning System (GPS) smartphones, the Pharos Traveler 117 and 127, also announced today.
“Pharos continues to develop innovative GPS solutions that expand the navigation possibilities on a Windows Mobile device,” said Tim McDonough, senior director, Mobile Communications Business, Microsoft. “Smart Navigator is a great example of an application that combines precise, consistent navigation with the familiarity and flexibility that Windows Mobile users have come to expect.”
“GPS is becoming a standard feature on mobile devices, but it requires smart, easy-to-use software to unlock the potential of satellite navigation on a pocket-sized device,” said James Oyang, PhD, President of Pharos. “Smart Navigator gives customers consistent access to full-featured navigation optimized for Windows Mobile devices.”

Smart Navigator
Smart Navigator is the first navigation software to seamlessly combine on a Windows Mobile device navigation capability with real-time location information services including traffic, dynamic POI, maps and Follow Me, a service that enables groups or families to view one another’s GPS-derived locations on their wireless Windows Mobile devices with GPS capability or on the Internet. With Smart Navigator, users can instantly access maps of the United States (US), Canada, or other countries; intelligent route calculation, and turn-by-turn route guidance, via graphic and text instructions as well as voice prompts. Smart Navigator will navigate using maps resident on the device, or if needed, will download maps on demand wirelessly from Pharos. Its routing calculation can occur either on the smartphone or on Pharos’ server.

Smart Navigator Real-Time Navigation Services
Follow Me: Allows groups or families to view one another’s GPS-derived locations on their wireless Windows Mobile devices with GPS capability or on the Internet.

Smart Traffic: Provides real-time traffic incident and speed data as well as video feeds derived directly from State Departments of Transportation, highway patrol agencies and other sources.

Smart Finder: Finds nearby business or attraction locations, addresses and phone numbers from the Pharos POI server whenever and wherever users need it. Pharos POI hosts approximately twelve million POIs including national parks, beaches, forests, earthquake faults, and many other natural and historical features from the US Geologic Survey.

Maps On Demand: Enables users to download regional maps based on their GPS position location or corridor maps based on routes to their destinations. Dynamically cut maps ensure that the user is centered on the requested map area, and the program automatically calculates a new route when users have strayed off course and then displays the newly mapped route. Maps can be downloaded for $1.99/one day of access, $4.99/one week of access, $6.99/one month of access or $49.99/one year of access.
Key Features
Automatically selects day or night display mode based on local sunrise and sunset
Automatically upgrades over the wireless Internet
Intuitive object and task-oriented on-screen menu
Advanced multiple-stop routing to plan and optimize schedule
Route calculation by specified address, intersection, POI, Outlook contact, saved favorite, recent destination with options of by shortest distance, fastest path, avoiding highways or toll roads, or pedestrian mode
Screen displays next turn direction, next street name, distance to next turn and distance or estimated time of arrival to destination (as well as current street on full arrow view)
Records trips and displays a bread crumb trail
Exports trip records to Microsoft Virtual Earth or Google Earth by using Pharos Trips & Pics software (free download for Smart Navigator users)
Pricing and availability
Smart Navigator will be available to consumers in December from major vendors for a suggested retail price of $99.95. Bulk licenses of Smart Navigator for device manufacturers and mobile operators can be obtained directly from Pharos.

The Price: $299

The Verdict: The bottom line is that the Pharos Drive GPS 250 will get you from point A to point B. In my experiences, the device grabbed signals quickly and it worked fairly well in most normal situations—including an urban environment amid tall skyscrapers. Voice prompts were easy to follow, route calculations were generally accurate and recalculations were fast. That having been said, the route selections occasionally had me driving on some bizarre paths, the touchscreen functionality and the data input UI were ghetto, and the interpretation of road names often had me laughing my ass off. Still, the Pharos GPS 250 can hold its own amid more well known brands. All-in-all, not a bad choice for the price, and you could always sacrifice a little screen real-estate (3.5" as opposed to 4.3") and pick up the Drive GPS 150 for $200.

[Pharos]

We'll skip the Windows Mobile 5 stuff that the Pharos has in common with all other WM5 phones, and just say that reception and call quality are on par with HTC's phones. Which is to say, pretty great.

Let's focus on the GPS features. How did we like them? A lot, once we got past the arduous task of learning how to use the UI. Oh, and it's definitely not for use when actually driving.

The phone itself is like a thinner version of the Cingular 8525, which makes sense since the 600 doesn't have a keyboard. This in turn means you're not going to be doing a whole lot of text inputting like you are on the 8525, but that's not a huge deal. You're mainly going to use this for going places.

First off, when you're using the GPS, you're going to only get about four-ish hours of battery life on a single charge. Your phone has a hard enough time reaching the nearest cell tower, so imagine how much more juice it needs to talk to space. You never see the Star Trek communicators in the original series being recharged because they run off sweat. Sweat and bad acting.

When you're actually using the mapping app, you can toggle between a combination of 3D, 2D and list directional view. Searching for directions is pretty easy despite not having a hardware keyboard thanks to its large on-screen virtual keyboard.

Its GPS features are pretty great once you've learned how to use the device—which is actually the hard part. The GPS screen is totally non-intuitive, with not very many controls on the main screen. If you want to do just about anything, you're probably going to have to dig deep down into the menus to find your option. Don't do this when you're driving unless you really feel like finding out how your steering wheel tastes.

Examples. Switching from 3D to 2D views requires clicking on the sky (wtf?), but switching from 2D back to 3D requires going into the second screen of the menus and hitting 2D/3D view. Also, centering back onto your current location isn't wired to a hard button. You'll have to hit the "cancel" button for that. Again, that's not at all intuitive.

But once you've played with it for a couple hours and figured out its tricks, you'll know that the actual navigation is quite fine. There's no huge delay between making a turn and having the phone tell you verbally what your next move should be. Although it didn't always give us the best directions to where we wanted to go, it did get us there, which is a hell of a lot better than not.

All in all, we're happy with the phone both as a Windows Mobile phone and as a GPS mapper. The price may be a bit steep ($600), but it's about as much as you'd expect to pay for a GPS and a WM phone together. Thanks to its only mediocre UI, it's not a phone that you should be using while in the driver's seat. You should either let the passenger use it to navigate or pull over altogether. – Jason Chen

Standalone GPS navigators cost between $400 and $800 (but some are even cheaper, like this Garmin unit on sale for $310 at Amazon), so this software and hardware combination's $129 price might be worth it if you don't mind using your laptop as a GPS device. Might want to get an accessory outlet adapter for that laptop if you're going on a long trip. – Charlie White

Update: check out a pic of the Microsoft /Pharos GPS hardware, after the jump.

Press Release [Microsoft]

Well, here it is. Not much to look at, but the Microsoftians say it's much better than the unit that shippped with Streets and Trips 2006.

Pharos Announces Pharos Traveler GPS 505 [DesignTechnica]