The nav shakeout: Navigation is getting hot … maybe too hot?

As we wandered through the aisles at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, we were struck by the large number of navigation tools on display. Companies pushing navigation systems seem to be everywhere. That makes us wonder if there could be too much of a good thing.

Navigation is a great product and it is important for everyone to have access to the technology, but what does the world need with a dozen navigation companies? Are we going to see too much navigation for the market to handle? Will 2007 be the year of the navigation shakeout? Hmmm. Sounds like the makings of a pretty decent story.

Here’s our growing list of navigation products to watch:

Mio’s DigiWalker.

Alpine’s Media Station.

Dash navigation.

Directed Mobile Media’s NAV420 SIRIUS-Ready Portable Navigation System.

And there’s plenty more where that came from.

A few random tech questions to ponder

Here are a few questions that came to mind as we let all the tech wash over us in Las Vegas. Three quick and easy story ideas for you:

• Will a real competitor emerge to challenge Second Life in 2007? Café.com and Entropia Universe are hoping so.
• Will legacy tinted windows mess up navigational and wireless deployments in cars? Most car tinting films use some sort of metal. That metal messes with global positioning systems and some wireless communications standards. SunGard makes a film with no metal.
• Will cars come with wireless head phones in 2007? Probably yes. Here is a set of wireless headphones for cars from Unwired Technology.

Cool stuff worth tracking

• OnGuard security system for kids.
• The OqO. Really cool portable computer. Never goes anywhere.
• Robotic golf cart.
• Qtopia open source cell phone.
• Nice fuel cell backup power from Jadoo Power.
• All-in-one video compressor from iRecord

And finally … yet another cool desktop radio:

Meet the George