Panasonic ousts four new Lumix point-and-shoot cameras: two compact superzooms and two rugged

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  • January 31, 2012 at 4:24 am

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Panasonic ZS20 superzoom point-and-shoot camera - top

Panasonic has just announced four new Lumix point-and-shoot cameras, which, combined with a bunch of lower-specced compacts announced at CES, it has now completely blanketed the market.

The new flagship point-and-shoot camera is the Lumix DMC-ZS20, with a 20x (24-480mm) zoom and at just 1.11-inches (28.2cm) thick, Panasonic is calling it the world’s slimmest 20x zoom camera. The camera has a 14.1-megapixel sensor and is capable of shooting 1080/60p video. You will also be able to take advantage of its geotagging abilities with the included GPS.
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Sony enables GLONASS on a bunch of Xperia handsets for faster and better location fix

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  • January 21, 2012 at 5:13 am

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Sony adds GLONASS support to its Xperia smartphones

Why have support for just one satellite navigation system when you can have two. Qualcomm announced support for GPS and GLONASS for its Snapdragon S2 and S3 SoCs last month and now Sony has just posted on its developers blog that it would enable GLONASS support on a bunch of its current Xperia devices and the upcoming Xperia S and Xperia Ion.

We’ve seen support for GLONASS increasing since the Russian satellite system was completed in October 2011, but here is a quick intro first. GLONASS is a radio-based satellite navigation system and the Russian equivalent to the US developed GPS. The first GLONASS satellites were launched during Soviet times but the system has had a bumpy ride since then. Following a number of upgrades it can now rival GPS – because of the positioning of its satellites, GLONASS is more accurate than GPS in northern latitudes.
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Samsung Galaxy Note includes support for GLONASS, bids ‘do svidaniya’ to slow GPS fix

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  • September 12, 2011 at 1:12 pm

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Samsung Galaxy Note with GLONASS support

So, here is something we missed when we initially looked at the new Galaxy Note; when we had another look at the official mini-site we noticed that Samsung has included support for GLONASS in addition to GPS.

GLONASS is a radio-based satellite navigation system, the Russian equivalent to the U.S.’s GPS. GLONASS was initiated during Soviet Union times but had then fallen into disrepair, it has since then been upgraded in various stages and can now begin to rival GPS — GLONASS is actually more accurate than GPS in northern latitudes because of the positioning of its satellites.

The biggest benefits, however, come when you combine both systems together, GLONASS and GPS; this allows a device to get more accurate positioning and/or faster fix, particularly in deep urban environments. This is because you suddenly have access to the US GPS 31 satellites and the Russian GLONASS 24 satellites for a total of 55 active satellites.

Below is a test that was ran showing the improvement in accuracy by using both systems together:
Better fix accuracy using both GPS and GLONASS

Now, the specifications for the Galaxy Note mention “A-GPS, Glonass”, so there is good possibility that Samsung can enable the device to use both, for better positioning. Well, we shall see soon, when the Note finally lands later this year.
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