Refreshed GPS-Centric HTC Touch Cruise Tracks Your Every Move

HTC is updating the nav-focused Touch Cruise, which now features a new active-geotagging app called Footprints, which can easily stamp your location on notes, audio clips and photos.

Aside from footprints, also new over the original cruise is a redesigned case, Touch Flo, and forthcoming U.S. 3G on AT&T's 850/1900 MHz bands (that version will sell in the spring, unlocked, for $500-$600). Full specs and release follow below, and a full hands-on over at Mobile Review can be had as well. [via Phone Scoop]

ALL NEW HTC TOUCH CRUISE WITH HTC FOOTPRINTS™ HELPS CAPTURE AND RELIVE LIFE’S JOURNEYS

Compact and Sophisticated Design Delivers an Advanced Location-Based Experience That Changes How People View Their Locations and Memories

tcpTaipei, Taiwan – January 22, 2009 – HTC Corporation, a global leader in mobile phone innovation and design, today announced its latest personal navigation handset with inbuilt GPS. The new HTC Touch Cruise™, an update to 2008’s popular HTC GPS device of the same name, boasts a new, more compact design and a host of new capabilities to offer a richer and more intuitive experience in one powerful package.

Introducing HTC Footprints

The new HTC Touch Cruise is the first mobile phone to offer HTC Footprints, an application experience that enables people to permanently chronicle their special moments by capturing a digital postcard on their phone. Once captured, Footprints provides the ability to take notes and an audio clip of that favourite restaurant or special place while identifying its specific geographical location. In addition to identifying each postcard with its specific GPS co-ordinates, Footprints also auto-names each postcard with its general location or area.

Flipping back through their photos, HTC Touch Cruise users will be able to retrace their steps to that exact location in just a few touches. Unlike other devices with geo-tagging functionality, HTC Footprints works effectively outdoors and indoors, offering a more accurate record of location for future reference and navigation.

“Just as we have seen GPS technology transform how people navigate to new places, we are now seeing location-based applications like HTC Footprints changing how we interact and carry our memories,” said Peter Chou, President and CEO, HTC Corporation.

HTC Touch Cruise Car Cradle

The HTC Touch Cruise is also an advanced in-car navigation system. When placed into its accompanying car cradle, the HTC Touch Cruise automatically transforms its user interface into an easy-to-use, one-touch interface that provides seamless turn-by-turn directions.

Boasting a compact and sleek design with a 2.8 inch QVGA display, the HTC Touch Cruise is a further demonstration of HTC’s continued commitment to innovation, providing consumers with a variety of devices designed to meet their individual needs. Using HTC’s TouchFLO technology, the HTC Touch Cruise provides fingertip access to phone, contacts, email, messaging, calendar and GPS applications, making it a strong all-around device.

The new HTC Touch Cruise will be available to customers across all major global markets in spring 2009.

Notes to editors

Key HTC Touch Cruise Specifications

* Size: 102 x 53.5 x 14.5mm
* Weight: 103 grams
* Connectivity: WCDMA/HSPA: 900/2100MHz. HSDPA 7.2 Mbps
* Operating system: Windows Mobile® 6.1 Professional
* Display: 2.8-inch TFT-LCD touch-sensitive screen with QVGA resolution
* Control panel: HTC TouchFLO™, 4-Way navigation wheel with Enter and HTC Footprints™ buttons
* Camera: 3.2 MP, with fixed focus
* Internal memory: 512 MB flash ROM, 256 MB RAM
* Expansion Slot: microSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)
* Bluetooth: 2.0 with EDR
* Wireless: Wi-Fi 802.11b/g
* GPS: GPS/A-GPS
* Interface: HTC ExtUSB (mini-USB 2.0 and audio jack in one)
* Battery: 1100 mAh
* Talk time: GSM: up to 400 minutes
* Standby time: GSM: up to two weeks
* Chipset: Qualcomm® MSM7225™, 528 MHz

There's also hope and change in the land of the brick: Behold the Presidential inauguration of Barack Obama in Lego bricks, complete with every single character that will be at the Capitol, including Lego Oprah.

They have every single character there, from his wife Michelle and his daughters Malia Ann and Sasha—the youngest resident of the White House since JFK Jr—to Vice President-elect Joe Biden and his wife Jill, President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush, VP Dick Cheney and wife Lynn, George Bush Sr. and Barbara Bush. as well as Dr. Rick Warren.

The fun thing is that every single one of them can actually be recognized (specially Barbara Bush, that's genius), according to Lego designers who did the brick caricatures of the main characters as well as Senator Dianne Feinstein, Aretha Franklin, John Williams and performers Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo-Ma, Gabriela Montero, Anthony McGill, the Unites States Marine Band, the San Francisco Boys Chorus and the San Francisco Girls Chorus. Even Oprah Winfrey is in the crowd.

You can see the Lego Presidential inauguration at Legoland California until Memorial Day.

Love Potion Under Development: Like Roofies, But Friendlier

A neuroscientist at Emory University discovered the chemical he believes is responsible for the abnormal (for mammals) inclination humans have toward monogamy. He reasons that a true love potion might not be far off.

Though his research is geared to help the social skills of autistic and schizophrenic patients, the isolated chemicals have the same effect on all humans. He believes oxytocin, a chemical in the same family as cocaine and nicotine, to be the root of the biochemical reaction that compels humans to be monogamous, unlike 95% of all mammals. Even in this early stage, oxytocin enhances feelings of trust and empathy in test subjects, and an oxytocin blocker injected into the normally monogamous prairie vole causes the little buggers to have wild, uncommitted rodent sex.

Dr. Larry Young guesses that love potions could be developed from these advances fairly easily. Until then, I guess I'll just have to keep doing it the old-fashioned way: sending dirty limericks to Scarlett Johansson under assumed names.

U-Fizz Can Make Any Drink Carbonated, But That Doesn't Mean It Should

The Week in iPhone Apps: And We Have Reached A New Low

See if you can guess which icon represents said "new low." Have a guess? I bet you do. But thankfully, there were some legit cool apps this week too.

Zit Picker: The aforementioned low. I write about it only to warn fellow Gizmodo fans, with hopes of condemning this app to the graveyard. You pick zits with multitouch here. It's vile, and I wish nothing but failure for this app. Any press is good press you say? Take a stand. No more ridiculous bodily function apps in the store. Join me in the movement! $1

And now, the good stuff:

Quad Camera: The Japanese love their toy cameras, and they're also proving quite skilled at making creative camera apps for the iPhone. Quad camera mimics certain Lomo-cams that expose multiple shots on one frame by taking 4-8 sequential shots at a single click of the button, accompanied by a satisfying vintage shutter click sound. Cool stuff. $2

Fast Tap Camera: And the second cool-looking camera app is one that adds a functionality I've been looking for: expanding the camera's tiny shutter button to the whole screen. I've dropped my phone countless times trying to awkwardly hit the shutter button in a non-conventional shooting angle, and this solves that problem. Let the self portraits and hail mary shots flow. $1

Big StopWatch: Yeah, your iPhone already has a capable stop watch. But does it look as beautiful as this? I probably wouldn't pay for ornamentation alone, but this retro analog stop watch is a great piece of design work, and it's free, so why not?

IMPORT BIKE OF THE YEAR - YAMAHA YZF-R1
Yamaha ARE back with a vengeance. Their game plan for 2008 seems very solid and to kick off what they have in store for us, the company officially launched two machines from their international range, the YZF-R1 and the MT-01 in 2007. Of the two, no doubt it’s the racy R1 that is probably every Indian biker’s current dream bike. Yamaha is definitely out to redefine the rules of the game all over again and keeping in line with their exhaustive plans for India is the YZF-R1. The litre-class super sport bike is globally acclaimed for its performance and handling, aptly been given the name ‘The One.’ Yamaha has been making the R1 better each year and what we get in India is the latest 2008 model.

The 998cc engine dishes out nothing less than 180 bhp and with a 0-100 km/h timing of less than 4 seconds, the R1 is one hell of a machine. The very sound of the bike’s exhaust can set your pulse racing.

The twin under-seat exhaust pipes emanate divine music once the engine gets past the 6-7000rpm mark. Even when stationary, the sharp styling of the bike exudes speed. Being imported as a CBU from Australia, the price of the R1 is quite high. It’s still worth every penny spent considering what you get is an official superbike with company backed warranty and service. Yamaha have been the first to get big bikes here and their choice of model couldn’t have been better as the bike has a huge global following. Exactly why the R1 is the NDTV Profit – Bike India ‘Import Bike of the Year.’

Bajaj to concentrate on KTM bikes

The Pune based two-wheeler manufacturer, Bajaj Auto was in the news in the past for its plans to bring in the European motorcycle brand, Triumph to India. The Indian company was said to be forming an alliance/acquisition with the European manufacturer , but has now decided to put those plans to rest. Instead, Bajaj will now focus its attention on KTM and will be bringing in the 690 Duke shortly. Bajaj will also hike its stake in KTM from the present 25% to 30%.

It is also known that since last year a lot of the product development and R&D work for KTM has shifted to India. The first bike to hit the Probiking showrooms will be the baby Duke. The 690cc bike is expected to cost around Rs 5-6 lakh.