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Sagem Orga Crams AGPS System Aboard SIM Card For Non-GPS Phones
Posted by Kit Eaton at 10:06 PM on November 21, 2008
Sagem Orga, in partnership with BlueSky is targeting the array of mobile phones (and presumably mobile-internet enabled PCs and such) that currently don't have GPS with this new invention: a SIM card with AGPS aboard. Clever stuff indeed, packing all the chips for a "highly accurate GPS receiver", wiring and antenna into a thumbnail-sized space. We've got to wonder how good its satellite fixes will be with such a small device though, and since it looks like every gadget that comes out has GPS aboard nowadays, adding GPS to a device via its SIM card might just be a temporary stopgap option. But it'll undeniably have lots of applications when it hits the market. [BGR]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
DisposableInterloper
Posted 11:49 PM 21/11/08
So, how is the phone supposed to read the GPS data? Last I heard, SIM cards were neither particularly fast nor good for much beyond storing your contacts and letting your carrier identify your phone.
DisposableInterloper
LoganSix
Posted 11:44 PM 21/11/08
Can I buy a vowel or something to make that title make sense?
LoganSix
danjuan
Posted 12:18 AM 22/11/08
@LoganSix:
The title is full of vowels except for the letter U.
danjuan
hmooby
Posted 1:35 AM 22/11/08
One more thing...there is not "wiring, antenna, or receiver" on this thing...please get your gadget right next time... especially when you're a gadget site... didn't mean to be a PITA...:P
hmooby
hmooby
Posted 1:33 AM 22/11/08
@ baltwade
CORRECT...aGPS doesn't do satellites and stuff like that. They get their locations from cell phone towers...kinda like a gps wannabe...
hmooby
baltwade
Posted 1:26 AM 22/11/08
I'm probably way off here, but I thought all phones had GPS for things like 911 call tracking but only a few phones had software access to that information. Also, isn't AGPS different from plain old GPS in the fact that it gets the majority of it's positioning from things like cell towers and not actual satellites so you wouldn't actually need a good satellite antenna.
baltwade
Geisrud
Posted 1:26 AM 22/11/08
@LoganSix: It was a bit like reading alphabet soup at first glance.
Geisrud
DisposableInterloper
Posted 1:51 AM 22/11/08
@hmooby:
That's incorrect. A-GPS can recieve satellite GPS data like any other GPS device. It's supplemented by triangulation from cellphone towers, and in the case of the iPhone, WiFi hotspots with known GPS coordinates.
DisposableInterloper
DisposableInterloper
Posted 1:46 AM 22/11/08
@baltwade:
Cell phones have a feature that allows a phone to triangulate its rough location. Emergency services may use that feature to find your location.
A-GPS is basically vanilla GPS, but it also leverages that nifty GSM feature to give your rough location quickly while you wait for a GPS lock (or in lieu of GPS if you can't get a lock), so it's a bit more useful a bit earlier.
DisposableInterloper
jswilson64
Posted 2:08 AM 22/11/08
I call BS until I can buy one.
jswilson64
godwhacker
Posted 3:31 AM 22/11/08
guess i will have to wait till i get my g1 not to buy this
godwhacker
YasinCassiopeia
Posted 5:06 AM 22/11/08
With the number of times AGPS has been mentioned on here in regards to the iphone you would think there would be little confusion what AGPS is. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS_Phone
YasinCassiopeia
oldmanstan
Posted 5:51 AM 22/11/08
something like this might be useful on, for instance, verizon blackberrys since verizon, in its infinite desire to rape its customers, disables the gps.
oldmanstan
aec007
Posted 10:16 AM 22/11/08
At least the company is called Sagem-Orga and not Orgasagem...
aec007