SlashGear

Manufacturers seem to be oscillating rapidly between dedicated-use and convergent designs – do you want a separate, super-slim cellphone, GPS unit and handheld console, or would you rather have a do-it-all Windows Mobile 5.0 device that will take a stab at doing all of that?  Falling into the convergent camp is pdc’s Guide Dog GPS unit – running Windows CE, the company is claiming a cavalcade of “world’s firsts”, including the first CE device with a four-inch touchscreen, the first navigation kit with built-in antenna (um, this one doesn’t sound right, although I’m sure they’ve got some obscure rationalisation for it) and first navigation device with built-in 2D/3D gaming.  Oh, and it’s apparently the world’s thinnest GPS device, coming in at 23mm thick.

MP3 and MP4 media are also taken care of, as well as web browsing, email and VOIP, since under the fancy finger-friendly skin this is basically a GPS enabled CE handheld.  pdc are also making a big deal of the Guide Dog’s support for PSd (Personal Storage Device), seemingly an SD-style memory card with built-in USB plug, but you can use MMC, SD and MMCplus cards too.  As for further functionality, the Guide Dog will handle DVB-T, a parking sensor, Bluetooth, GPRS and handsfree kits.

All very exciting, I suppose, but considering the growing number of Windows Mobile 5.0 devices that have built-in GPS, is the window of opportunity for the Guide Dog progressively closing? 

pdc [via Crave]