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Lately we have been seeing quite a few rumors about upcoming models of the Amazon Kindle. Just within the past few weeks we have seen some rumored information about a Kindle 2.0 that was expected to be thinner, a little more stylish and best of all, a little cheaper. In addition to the Kindle 2.0 we have also seen recent stories about a second version of the Kindle that is aimed at student market, this was was even “confirmed” by a recent story in the Seattle PI.

However it seems that everything that has been written recently may not be entirely true. Overall the cheaper Kindle 2.0 sounds nice, and the student edition sounds great, especially compared to a bunch of heavy textbooks, but it is a little strange to see a lower priced model coming, especially considering the success that Amazon is having with the current model and current pricing.

The latest news, which basically kills these rumors comes from Amazon spokesman Craig Berman who recently spoke with the New York Times and told them to not “believe everything you read.” He also went on to state that “there will be no new version of the Kindle this year. A new version is possible sometime next year at the earliest.”

So you can read into that statement however you want, as with any successful product its only likely that we will see a follow or second edition come. So there likely still is a student edition coming, just not in 2008, of course Craig Berman would not offer any comment as to whether they were developing a Kindle for a specific group.

Read [New York Times Bits]

Many GPS units come with the ability to get live traffic updates using a traffic receiver. However, it typically comes with a monthly subscription, which adds up to a lot of money over a year. Navigon has been nice to its customers who buy their high-end GPS models, such as the 7200T by adding in free traffic updates using its FM Tuner. Now, they have announced that all of their units, entry level or high-end, will come with built-in free traffic updates. To do well in this big GPS market, it is necessary for companies to add something unique to their products, which is exactly what Navigon has done. 

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Mozilla Labs announced yesterday the release of the Initial Prototype of the latest project meant to connect the web with language - Ubiquity.  From a quote on their blog, the folks over at Mozilla Labs hope to “find new user interfaces that could make it possible for everyone to do common Web tasks more quickly and easily.”

Ok. So, what the heck does that mean? An example of what they are saying their program would be useful for could be this. You just snagged some concert tickets from a radio contest to a show happening tonight. Coolness. Only you haven’t been to this venue before, and neither has the friend that you’re emailing and inviting. Not so cool. Heck...you haven’t even heard of the band. Do you even know if you want to go? Is there anywhere to eat on the way? Now, normally, you’d have to be searching out the address on some mapping site, looking up the band for some info on them, copying all of this into an email (including either links or the map itself as well). Lots of typing, clicking, searching, copying, pasting, right? Well, this is some of what Ubiquity hopes to get rid of.

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Navigon has recently shown off their new GPS, the 7200T. In efforts to make this their best GPS thus far, they have added a few new features including a revamped OS.

Within the new OS comes real time traffic updates, Reality View Pro, and Landmark View 3D. The traffic updates are free using the FM tuner tuned to Clear Channel’s Total Traffic Network. Usually, real time traffic updates cost monthly subscriptions. The other cool feature is the Landmark View 3D, which shows a 3D view of landmarks in the area. In addition, the 7200T sports the aforementioned 4.3-inch touchscreen, with a 16:9 display, 2GB of internal storage, SiRF GRF3i+GPS chip, microSD expansion, 64MB of RAM, and running on a Centrality Titan I 600MHz processor.

The Navigon 7200T is set to be available in October, retailing for $449.

Read [Navigon]

You’ve got to like the look of the Nurian Avatar F1.  Of course, looks are not everything from this piece of South Korean technology.  The Avatar F1 is kind of a PMP, MID, and UMPC all in one. 

This Avatar comes packed with an Alchemy AU1250 600MHz processor, is powered by a Windows CE 5.0 Core, and has a 30GB hard drive.  The Avatar F1 can play back many file formats to include MPEG1/2/4, DivX, Xvid, WMV, OGG and of course MP3’s.  It also allows the user to tune into mobile TV broadcasts and has output video with a TV out component dongle. 

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In efforts to showcase the best looking portable media player’s and digital audio player’s at IFA, iriver has announced a new PMP and a GPS with media capabilities.

The first device announced is the iriver P20, which was originally shown off at the past CES in January 2008. It sports a 4.1-inch AMOLED touch screen, which is a bigger screen than most PMP’s these days. In addition, the battery life is pretty good, 12 hours for music, 9 hours for video, and up to 8 hours with DMB TV. Although, I do think the battery life when just playing music should be a bit higher, but for video and DMB TV, it’s good. It is expected to come with either an 80GB or 120GB hard drive. 

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Imagine being able to power your smoke alarm in your house without ever needing to change your batteries. It would get it’s energy simply from the energy and vibrations from everything around it. That is the goal of Texas Instruments. They call it “energy scavenging”, and they say the reality is not that far away.

Employing the inventor of the original microchip Jack Kilby, Texas Instruments, currently the world’s third largest chip maker, is busy trying to break another electronic frontier.  This time by creating a chip that uses an infinitesimally small amount of energy to operate.  They actually did a demonstration showing a clock being run on...get this...grapes. 

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American’s are begging for alternative energy sources as of late, especially in their cars if it’ll save them money over time (see the several months you have to wait for a new Prius).  Hydrogen to many seems to be the next sustainable energy source.  Only one problem: there are only 60 stations for hydrogen across the country, only two of which do not require an appointment.  Thanks to this, the country’s first hydrogen cross country trip required flatbed trucks to carry the car when it ran out of fuel. Part of the point of the trip was apparently to show that in order for hydrogen to become viable more stations are needed, and I guess they accomplished that. Traveling 1,000 miles or more on a flatbed truck severely increases the carbon footprint of hydrogen cars. 

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Some further information about the rumored upcoming Amazon Kindle student edition is now claiming that Amazon has confirmed the device is in the works. According to a recent report from the Seattle PI, Amazon has confirmed that “they are planning to target colleges and universities with a new version of the Kindle.”

Based on the information available to date, the student edition Kindle will offer a larger screen, which I think makes sense when reading textbooks. Of course, we can only hope that text book pricing will be relatively inexpensive for the digital versions, because this could essentially kill, or seriously slow the used book market, which means no more quick cash at the end of the semester.

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The citizens of the UK are in for a nice treat with this new TomTom GPS they are getting soon. The TomTom GO 940 LIVE is an upgraded model to the TomTom GO 930 (pictured above).

The main differences between the 940 and 930 are IQ routes, Lane Assist, and Enhanced Positioning Technology. The LIVE in the name of the GPS stands for live HD traffic updates that comes from a subscription to HD Traffic. Another feature that the 940 comes with is Google Search. By using an available GSM connection the owner can access Google Search from the GPS. Unfortunately, the TomTom GO 940 is set to be pretty expensive costing 468 Euros, or around $871 US. In addition, the LIVE subscription comes with a complimentary 3 month trial, but after that it will cost $10-$15 a month.

TomTom GO 940 LIVE is ready to be pre-orded on Handtec, no word on actual shipping date.

Read [Handtec] Via [GPSLodge]