Continuing the Start Up Guide for the Samsung Transform on Ting, we toss the box and begin digging in to the phone itself in this episode. We'll look at connecting to a Wi-Fi network in advance of setting up our Google Account, setting up a lock pattern in Android on the Samsung Transform, and we'll also set up our voicemail box.

Maps is handy not only for finding locations on a map, but also for obtaining directions to get from one point or another. Not only that, it also allows you to enter your method of transportation and will offer different navigation instructions depending on your choice. In this episode, we'll show you how to search for directions and how to get directions using Maps on your Android phone.

There's no better way to see what stores and businesses are around you than by using AroundMe. This

free app for Android

uses your phone's

built-in GPS unit

to home in on your location and

find nearby shops

ranging from

hotels and restaurants

to

bars and theatres

.

In this episode, Google Navigation going offline? Compatibility checks FINALLY make their way into the Android market and $35 for a full featured Android tablet, but you probably can't have one.
Also, Kate Abraham brings us an app that lets you keep on top of the world's news.

Everyone needs a little help getting their bearings once in a while, but asking for directions can be embarrassing. Avoid all of that by downloading

Navfree GPS Live USA

. This

free application

for both

iPhone and iPad

gives you all of the features of a

turn-by-turn GPS device

without costing you a dime.

TomTom's VIA 1435 M features phone pairing via Bluetooth and voice recognition for commands in an otherwise pretty standard GPS unit. Other improvements include a much more compact integrated windshield mount, which is a huge improvement, and an accelerometer to rotate the display 180 degrees. These features are a big step up for TomTom GPS units though and, with the exception of the accelerometer (we'd actually rather have a control in Settings for this), they're a sizeable improvement to TomTom's already solid line of GPS units.

Every year, Google invites developers to attend Google I/O to learn where the big G sees things going. Android has never been better represented than it was this year. We take a look at some of the most interesting Android announcements coming out of Google I/O. We'll cover some some of these developments in-depth in coming episodes, most specifically, Ice Cream Sandwich, the tablet and smartphone Android OS, coming later this year.
We check back in on the location data debacle that has privacy pundits crying foul. Senator Al Franken stepped into the fray, holding a hearing that saw Google and Apple both testifying on location data stored in smartphones and how it's used.
We also look at the Android version of the Netflix app finally bringing streaming Netflix movies and TV shows to Android... at least, a select few Android handsets.
Finally, Kate Abraham brings us her review of the Air Control Lite game.

We've been waiting for video calling to make its way to Android smartphones... though we're not sure why, given that we have no real intention of using the feature. Looks like it may be here soon. We're looking to Google I/O 2011 as the place for the official announcement.
You've likely heard about the location data debacle where Apple stands accused of tracking your every move in iOS. It's yellow journalism at its finest; check out this NBC Action News fear mongering.
Finally, what Android users already knew has been confirmed; Android offers more free apps than iOS.

Finally, a viable in-car dock for non-iPhone users. iPhone typically gets all the love when it comes to accessories. Universal docks are typically junky, cheap and often unreliable. The Parrot Minikit Smart is a big step in the right direction for Android users. Paired with the Car Home mode present on Android smartphones, it's a solid bet, is solidly built and offers solid call quality. Solid.

The

HTC HD7

has a

built-in GPS

unit that can help you with

getting directions

,

sharing your location

or

geotagging your photos

. In this episode, we'll show you

how to use the Maps application

so you can get from point A to point B in the shortest time possible.

In this tutorial, we'll show you

how to use the Maps application

on your

Android device

. Maps is the default application that you'll be using if you want to

get directions from one place to another

,

locate a restaurant or gas station

, or just

figure out where you are

at the moment.

There have been a few changes in the world of GPS since we last tried explaining it with melons and tomatoes. This time out Sean and Andy look at the different types of GPS technology out there, show off some examples, and explain how people are using different types of GPS devices for different applications.

GPS navigation

has become a virtual necessity for people both in their personal lives and in business.

Commercial fleets

use Global Positioning Systems

to

keep track of vehicles

, regular motorists

use GPS technology

to

chart routes and find locations

, and tech-savvy social butterflies use GPS to

check in to locations

through smartphones. We'll tell you more about GPS technology and

what GPS is used for

in this series.

In our last episode on

GPS technology

, we'll tell you some other things you can do with your

GPS device

besides

plotting routes

through the urban jungle. If you've got a

hand-held GPS device

, you can use it to go geocaching, which is like a

GPS-powered treasure hunt

. You can also access

location-based services

like

Facebook Places or Foursquare

if you have

GPS on your smartphone

.

GPS devices

do get you from point A to point B but many have additional features that can help you out in your travels. You can

use GPS devices as speakerphones

via Bluetooth and even

use voice recognition

with some. You can

check points of interest

nearby to

find shops and restaurants

. Some devices even allow for

media playback

.

Hardware GPS devices

are most commonly found in vehicles and are generally used for navigation purposes. You can

mount a GPS device in a car

and then use it to

get directions around town

or even

avoid traffic

if your GPS device offers that service. We'll tell you

what to look for in a GPS device

in this episode.

GPS stands for

Global Positioning System

and was developed by the

US military

for the purpose of

satellite navigation

and the tracking of military units. In this episode, we'll tell you how it evolved into a way of

determining locations

and

plotting maps

that's now universally used by everyone from cabbies to socialites.

Andrew Moore-Crispin

talks with Lea Armstrong of TomTom about a couple of the products TomTom had on display

at CES 2011

. The first, the

Go 2505 M Live

, updates

traffic and weather information live

through cellular networks. The other, the

Nike+ SportsWatch GPS

, is a GPS-enabled wristwatch that can

track routes, speeds

and more.

Stay tuned to butterscotch.com for more

up to the minute video coverage from the CES 2011 show floor.

Andrew Moore-Crispin

speaks with Jake Jacobson of Garmin about the

Garmin GPS products

that were on display

at CES 2011

. While they were displaying the

Nuvi 2460

and the

Dezl, a GPS navigation system for truckers

, Garmin was also showing off the

GTU 10

, a device that can be tracked remotely and easily placed in a vehicle for added security.

Stay tuned to butterscotch.com for more

up to the minute video coverage from the CES 2011 show floor.

After looking at some of the

Magellan navigational tools

and geocaching devices on display

at CES 2011

,

Andrew Moore-Crispin

talks with Senior Product Marketing Manager Bill Strand about some of their

in-car GPS solutions

.

From the

RoadMate 3030-LM

- the LM stands for lifetime maps - to the

RoadMate 9055

, which comes with virtually every feature Magellan has to offer, these devices can literally help you stay on track.

Stay tuned to butterscotch.com for more

up to the minute video coverage from the CES 2011 show floor.

In his continuing quest to find the Ozarks,

Andrew Moore-Crispin

traverses the

floors of CES 2011

to find himself at the

Magellan booth

. Here he talks to Justin Doucette about the 2011 line of Magellan products ranging from the

eXplorist GC, made ideally for geocaching

, to the

eXplorist 710

, which has almost every

navigational tool

you could ask for.

Stay tuned to butterscotch.com for more

up to the minute video coverage from the CES 2011 show floor.

One of the more interesting devices displayed

at CES 2011

is the

Spot Connect by Spot Inc

. This device allows users to

connect via satellite

to their

social networking profiles

rather than over cellular transmission, allowing for unlimited tweets and/or peace of mind.

Andrew Moore-Crispin

talks to

Jonathan Beech

, VP of Software Development at Spot, about the wide range of applications for the device, such as finding out where the Ozarks are while you happen to be hiking there.

Stay tuned to butterscotch.com for more

up to the minute video coverage from the CES 2011 show floor.

The Magellan eXplorist 710 is at the high-end of consumer handheld GPS. If you're a The North Face wearing, Columbia sporting wannabe woodsman, the Magellan eXplorist 710 is the perfect match. If you're a dedicated outdoors person, a hunter, fisher, geocacher, camper or hiker, there's plenty to love too. The key thing that sets the eXplorist 710 apart from other handheld GPS units is the 3.2 MP fixed focus camera in the back which is about on par with a current generation smartphone cam.

TomTom has built its reputation largely on creating super simple and easy to use in-car GPS receivers. The XL 350-TM is the "lifetime traffic and maps" version of TomTom's 350 line and comes with an extra $30 on the price tag. With this version, you'll be able to keep your GPS up to date with the latest map and traffic data for as long as you own it; a worthwhile investment assuming you connect your GPS to your computer every once in a while to take advantage of these benefits.

Magellan's RoadMate 5045-LM GPS receiver offers a widescreen view and live traffic; it's a $50 step up from the RoadMate 3045 we've looked at previously but you may find it's $50 well spent. For that extra $50 (MSRP of $250 on the 5045-LM as compared with $200 for the 3045) you get a larger screen and lifetime map updates with traffic.

If you're looking for new apps for your iPhone or iPad, check out this episode: Andy and Sean show off some of their favourites, including a pulse-taking app, a great iPad game involving bubbles, a drink tracker, an old-school synth...and much more!

Geocaching

, the ancient art of crashing through the woods searching for a hidden Tupperware container or other hidden "cache" has grown exponentially in popularity. For dedicated geocachers, a dedicated geocaching GPS unit may be just what the doctor ordered. While it's probably not going to be snapped up by dedicated outdoors types: the hiking, fishing, camping set, it's perfect (and in fact, custom made) for geocachers.

There are so many tech toys to remember these days that forgetting a GPS unit is easily excusable. Fortunately for iPhone users, there is an app called

CoPilot Live North America

. This is a handy

navigation application

that will help you get from point A to point B with little worry. It can even help you to

detour traffic jams

or

find the nearest gas station

!

If you're familiar with

GPS technology

then you will find yourself instantly familiar with >

NAVIGON MobileNavigator

for the

iPhone

. It's a $79.99 app that acts as a fully-featured GPS unit complete with

voice street announcements

,

route planning

and points of interest. You can even download additional features for the app like Panorama 3D Street View which will show you street topography or TrafficLive that will tell you about upcoming congestion in traffic and find you alternate routes.

If you've ever gotten lost while relying on your in-car GPS, or for the truckers, if you've ever gotten a fine for using a car-only road or even hit a bridge while hauling a load, check out Fugawi Global Navigator. You can pre-plan a route,

navigate using GPS on your laptop

, or even print off your maps and navigate the old school way. Accordion-style map folding instructions not included.

Many applications, especially those found in the Android Market are more effective when they know your physical location - like an app that's going to

find the nearest gas station, restaurant or ATM

- so, it's helpful if you turn on the function so the Android phone can use GPS and wireless to narrow things down.

We continue our

in-depth look at the Nexus One Google Phone

by choosing our

privacy and security settings

. We'll

set a lock pattern on the Nexus One

, opt in our out of location based services and do our best to ensure that if we ever

lose the Nexus One

, we'll be able to get it back.

Eyes on the road and hands upon the wheel. We continue our

in-depth look at the Nexus One Google Phone

by delving into the Car Home and Voice Search features. With these, you can do some limited phone tasks, all without taking your hands off the wheel or your eyes off the road. This is increasingly important as more and more jurisdictions create

hands-free driving legislation

.

Andy Walker talks with Stig Pederson from Magellan about their new iPhone app, their new Premium Car Kit for the iPhone and the RoadMate 1700 with a larger screen.

Stay tuned to butterscotch.com as we bring you

video coverage of CES 2010

. Butterscotch hosts will be

on the CES 2010 floor

for the duration of the show and will continue to bring you

CES 2010 video as it happens

.

Andy Walker talks with Kevin Carter from TomTom about the

Ease

. The simple to use

TomTom GPS

allows people who have never been comfortable with GPS systems to make the transition easily.

Stay tuned to butterscotch.com as we bring you

video coverage of CES 2010

. Butterscotch hosts will be

on the CES 2010 floor

for the duration of the show and will continue to bring you

CES 2010 video as it happens

.

Subscribe to our CES 2010 video RSS feed.

TomTom has made a name for itself by creating powerful

GPS receiver systems

that are user friendly and reliable. The

TomTom 530 S XXL

is no exception to this pedigree. It's easy to use and has a large, bright LCD touchscreen along with all the required hook-ups and mounts to get GPS navigation on your dashboard.

Every time Andy and Sean get together to discuss show ideas for Lab Rats, they seem to spend the first 20 minutes showing off their favorite iPhone apps. The iPhone is one of the most popular consumer gadgets out there, and everyone has their favorite apps. Andy and Sean bring their iPhone faves out of the meeting and into the spot light.

As iPhone users will attest,

turn by turn directions on the iPhone

have been a long time coming. With the launch of iPhone 3.0 software, Apple announced that it would allow

turn GPS iPhone apps

in the App Store for the first time. Jay Goldman takes a look at CoPilot Live North America, coming in at about a third the price of TomTom's North American GPS software.

Google Earth also has the ability to interface with GPS devices. It can do this in realtime or it can import files created by these devices. You can pull in this data to Google Earth and see it within the program.

Now that we've taken a hardware tour of the

new Palm Pre

, it's time to look at the software that makes it run. In part two of this 12-part video tutorial series, Jay Goldman runs through the

initial setup procedures for the Palm Pre

. With this tutorial, you'll be up and running on your

new Palm Pre smartphone

in no time.

See all 5 parts of our look at the

iPhone 3GS

.

One of the earliest details that trickled out of the Apple camp leading up to the release of the

iPhone 3GS

was the

digital compass

. At first blush, it might not seem like a big deal. However, it has some pretty sizable implications for the

iPhone 3GS

. Sean Carruthers explains in this installment of our look at the

iPhone 3GS

.

It seems that a

touchscreen

is the new in thing. Some devices do it well, others not so much. The latest comer to the touchscreen ring is the

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic

, which falls into the former category. In fact, we'll go as far to say this is the

best non-smartphone touchscreen

integration we've seen to date. And we've seen a lot. As the name suggests, this is a media phone made for music and while it can't browse full HTML pages or do push email, it's a worthy contender. Check out our

video review of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic phone

.

You're traveling and you don't know where anything is.

Where can you find a good restaurant

? Where's the nearest coffee shop?

Where can you find a bank

? More important perhaps, where's the closest pub? All of these things and more are answered by

AroundMe

, a

free iPhone app

.

The new

Apple iPhone 3GS

caused a stir when it was released at

Apple's WWDC

. As the mere addition of the "S" (which stands for speed) to the product name attests, the changes aren't big... at least on the surface. The iPhone 3GS looks almost identical to the iPhone 3G. However, under the hood things have changed. A lot. Jay Goldman does a

Direct speed comparison of the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 3GS

with surprising results.

The TomTom XL 340*S widescreen GPS is the latest from in-car GPS heavyweight TomTom. It's a worthy addition to the line-up and at US$220, it's reasonably priced to boot. With millions of points of interest (POIs) and the ability to add

"NavTones,"

celebrity voices that issue GPS instructions like "turn left in 300 meters," it's also a lot of fun on road trips... at least for a while. We demonstrate the

Homer Simpson voice on the GPS device

. In addition, TomTom's Route IQ, available traffic data (with add-on service charges) and easy to understand and navigate menus, make the

TomTom XL 340*S

an excellent GPS unit.

Google uses some Google Gears magic in the background to allow you to share your location without requiring a GPS receiver. Using wifi signals and IP address tracking, Gears allows you to pinpoint your PC and then share that information via Latitude.

Google announced the release of another product called Latitude. Latitude can be installed on almost any mobile phone and is part of Google Maps. Once you activate it you can show your location to family, friends, and colleagues. You control your privacy and you can grant access to someone and then stop that access.
A fascinating new development.

This latest version of Google Earth adds even more cool features. You can view the ocean depths and topography, search the endless reaches of space and even track your hike using the GPS in your mobile device. Google Earth 5.0 gives you lots more information and lots more to see on this beautiful Earth.

If you can organize the kids' many after school activities, practices, games, sleep-overs, school projects and more, the technology that the Lab Rats recommend will be a cinch! With this, the Lab Rats Soccer Mom's Tech Toolbox, organizing schedules and getting to and from the kids', family and your own activities has never been easier.

Bug Labs has been described as the Lego of gadgetry. With the Bug Base and several available Bug Modules, the tech savant can build their very own device or prototype a gadget idea to show off using the snap-together Bug kit.

SPOT is one of those devices that you hope you never have to use to its full capabilities... but it's reassuring to know they're there. SPOT is a satellite messenger; when you're camping, hiking, rock climbing, hunting, fishing etc., it allows you to send periodic updates to people back home to let them know you're safe. They can then track your progress on a Google Map. Should the worst happen, there's also a button to alert people back home that you need help and a 911 button that will link up with local rescue authorities. All this while you're way out of cell phone coverage range.

Chances are you've received promotional material from your cell phone service provider asking you to get on board with new GPS plans. Well, the service is actually quite handy and chances are, Networks In Motion is the company that's providing the navigation software to your cell phone service provider.

Using the cellular network, the TomTom Go 740 Live gives real-time traffic updates and can search for points of interest and instantly route you there. Whether it's a new restaurant that just opened or a long-standing favorite, getting there really is half the fun!

Andy and Sean discuss handheld computers that are also mobile phones.

Andy and Sean show how the global positioning system helps you navigate using a melon and tomatoes.

Google Latitude lets you share your real-world comings and goings with your friends and family online. Latitude lets your network know where you are by grabbing GPS data from a compatible phone and uploading it so your friends can see where you are on their phone or on in a web browser... and maybe even come meet you there. It's social networking meets actual social interaction.

GPS navigation has become a virtual necessity for people both in their personal lives and in business. Commercial fleets use Global Positioning Systems to keep track of vehicles, regular motorists use GPS technology to chart routes and find locations, and tech-savvy social butterflies use GPS to check in to locations through smartphones. We'll tell you more about GPS technology and what GPS is used for in this series.