NetbookTech

Looking to differentiate themselves a bit more from the competition, Dell announced that they would soon begin to offer the Dell Wireless 700 location solution for the Mini 10 product line. The Wireless 700 is an internal GPS card with built-in Wi-Fi locationing allowing you to calculate your position using either Wi-Fi access points or GPS satellites.

The solution is powered by both Broadcom’s A-GPS solution as well as Skyhook Wireless’s Wi-Fi position solutions. According to Lionel Menchaca of Direct2Dell, here’s how the Wireless 700 works:

“The Dell Wireless 700 uses Wi-Fi access points and Long Term Orbit (LTO)-based Assisted-GPS (A-GPS) technology to determine location information. It provides a fast, accurate and reliable location source to applications and services by leveraging the strength of each underlying position technology …

The Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS) can determine the location of Wi-Fi enabled devices. All Wi-Fi Access Points broadcast a signal beacon known as a MAC address, notifying nearby devices of their presence. WPS refers to the mapped locations of millions of Wi-Fi MAC addresses to pinpoint the device location. WPS is complementary to GPS. It works best indoors and in urban areas, while GPS is limited by physical obstructions of ceilings and tall buildings”

On the software side of the equation, Dell will be packaging CoPilot navigation software which provides turn-by-turn navigation, 2D/3D map views, and trip planning (allowing you to save up to 50 addresses at a time for the trip).

The Wireless 700 will initially support Windows XP only although Vista and Windows 7 is planned for later.

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