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If being ‘Slim and Stylish’ is your fashion mantra, apparently you will love Mio Moov Spirit Flat S568 Satellite Navigation System. This satellite navigation device comes with premium features and provides you with an effortless interaction through its touch controlled keys, and its new Slide Touch operation. Have a glance through the features of this Mio Sat Nav and see how it could gift you with the best possible navigation experience to have a memorable Christmas trip.

Mio Moov Spirit Flat S568 Portable Navigation System showcases a brilliant performance both in and out of the car. Walking mode uses 2D maps,and helps you to find ways easier. But, while in drive you can use 3D map perspective. There is a pre-loaded safety camera data that enables you to keep safe from getting caught during your much awaited trip. Both visual and verbal warnings are provided by this sat nav to keep you within speed limits. The realistic 3D view of junctions and a new approach to lane guidance assures that you never go wrong in a new place.

While visiting to a new place, you may have knowledge about some great museums or good restaurants. Why do you want to miss them? Mio Moov Spirit S568 can help to find them faster with its extensive list of points-of-interest. A click on the ‘Explore’ icon in the menu of the device can highlight all interesting places to visit in that place. This makes it an apt sat nav to carry during Christmas trips. Moreover, there is a built-in NavPix photo album, where you can browse through a large collection of photographs of interesting places. You can even upload more photographs by simply synchronizing the device with PC. A simple touch on these photographs can take you to that place. Regarding its memory, it has 128MB RAM and 2GB ROM, which could be expanded using a microSD memory card.

An interesting factor about the maps of Mio Moov Spirit S568 is that it comes with white background, and have a clutter free look. Thus, the routes stand out clearly and its 4.7” colour touch screen of resolution 480 X 272 pixels displays them with good readability. At night, the display automatically changes to night mode. There is a superior real time traffic information, hence, you will be aware of what lies ahead of you. As it supports economical routing, it cuts down unwanted junctions and help you to save fuel and time. The local search feature incorporated into it enables search via desktop, and keeps information at your finger tips.

Furthermore, the entertainment feature of Mio Moov Spirit Flat S568 Sat Nav is remarkable. It has an in-built FM transmitter and an MP3 player, which intelligently fades out with navigation instructions. Built-in speaker provides a class sound quality too. The battery employed in it is integrated, but it is rechargeable. The device measures 85mm high,132.7mm wide and 14.5mm wide. It weighs around 160gms. Mio Moov Spirit Flat S568 is a reasonably priced sat nav and worth your money with its extensive, premium quality features.

As Google unveiled free navigation system for mobile phones, Sat Nav market trembled, and the immediate shock was evident in the price fall of leading sat nav maker’s market share. Garmin’s share was dripped down by 18%, where as TomTom had a slap of 13 %.

Initially, Google Maps Navigation was made available only on mobile phones that run on Android 2.0 platform. But now, Google has extended its availability to mobile phones that run on Android 1.6 and higher. With this some older devices like myTouch 3G and T-mobile G1 got access to Google Maps Navigation. Could this be a wake up call to the sat nav providers?

Google Maps Navigation will provide turn-by-turn navigation, automatic re-routing, and 3D street level views. Real Time Traffic information is made available to avoid traffic jams. Concisely, Google Maps Navigation provide everything that a stand alone sat nav can do. Moreover, there is no hassle of regularly updating your device, because the latest, and accurate maps will be sent to your android phones by Google over the mobile phone network. With Google offering such prominent features, there is no wonder that the established sat nav makers are worried on Google Maps Navigation’s arrival.

But there are some key factors to notice before we write satellite navigation system’s obituary. To begin with, consider the cost of an android phone when compared to a stand alone device. It is obviously higher and may not be affordable to all. There is also a problem of GPS handsets getting heated faster.

Another major factor is the speed. This is where sat nav devices score. With their advanced lane guidance and spoken instructions, Sat navs show lanes precisely, and also re-calculates it faster if you take a wrong turn. But mobile phone performs less in this aspect. It takes more time in calculating it. This is not because of any software problem, rather it is because of the weak mobile phone signals. May be that is why TomTom app recommends the users to buy a cradle to hold your iPhone, charge it, as well as to boost its signal quality.

Another concern would be the size of the mobile phone when compared to the size of a sat nav. It will be harder for a mobile phone to fit with all stuffs of a GPS kit. Google is said to be already working on this problem. ‘Caching’ maps could be a solution, rather than ‘live-streaming’ them on to the handset. As iPhones are already caching an entire online store of Ocado into it, it is not impossible to cache maps into a mobile phone.

When such issues are sorted out, Google Maps Navigation can replace traditional sat navs by all means. Ultimately, the handsets are becoming (or became) a multitasking gadgets, handling everything from social networking to GPS. Perhaps, the current sat nav devices must concentrate more on delivering better user experience than these free alternatives for their survival. In order to cope up, sat nav manufacturers have tried coming up with applications for mobile phones/iPhones, better maps, car kits for iPhones and so on. Let us wait and see who wins the match.

Farhang Foundation and SoCiArts are proud to announce the second annual Farhang Foundation Short Film Festival. This year, filmmakers from all walks of life, Iranian and non-Iranian, are invited to create a music video (less than 9 minutes) of any genre or style, visualizing an aspect of Iranian arts, history, culture, crafts, geography, cuisine or lifestyle.

Farhang Foundation will be looking for music videos that inspire and spark the audience’s interest in learning more about Iranian art, history and culture.

All entries will be judged for creativity, quality, and originality.

To learn about Farhang Foundation please visit: www.farhang.org

Submission Opening November 1, 2009

Submission Deadline February 1, 2010

Winner Announcement March 1, 2010

Award Presentation March 14, 2010

Winner’s Prizes
First Prize: $10,000 USD
Second Prize: $5,000 USD
Third Prize: $3,000 USD

For festival guidelines, terms and conditions please visit: www.sociarts.com/farhangfilmfest