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IN THE NEWS: STANDALONE GPS PRODUCTS FADING AS PHONES INCORPORATE TECHNOLOGY
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Standalone GPS units may soon go the way of things like pocket Sudoku games, address books and calculators — supplanted by cell phones that have those functions built in. With a growing number of cell phones including GPS functionality, makers of personal navigational devices will be hard pressed to come up with a way to stay relevant. A technology analyst for the NPD Group says companies that make GPS units will have to tweak the products to make them more than a one-trick pony. Ross Rubin says the goal is to turn a GPS unit into something like the iPod Touch — a device that started as a music player but blossomed into something that could access the Web. Such a transformation would have to take place pretty quickly — some of the newer apps for cell phones are pretty close to what basic GPS units are able to do.
IN THE NEWS: AUSTRALIAN WOMAN FALLS FOR ONLINE ROMANCE SCAM
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Here's a cautionary tale for anyone who goes looking for love online. Authorities in Nigeria say an Australian woman ended up being ripped off to the tune of nearly $50,000 by a man who claimed that he was her "Mr. Right." The man (Lawal Adewale Nurudeen) has been sentenced to 19 years in prison — and has to pay back the money he duped out of his alleged victim. Nigerian authorities say the 28-year-old man made himself out to be a Briton working in Nigeria for a multinational company. He won the 56-year-old woman's heart by claiming he was a widower whose wife and only child had died in a car wreck. A few weeks later, he allegedly called the woman pretending to be a doctor and saying her "finance" needed money for medical care after an accident. So far, authorities say they have been able to recover about a fifth of the money the woman was duped out of.
ON THE WEB: QVC WANTS YOU ... TO WATCH
CYBERSPACE (AP) — QVC is hoping that you'll want to do more than watch TV for football and parades on Thanksgiving. The TV retailer is trying to make itself a place for people to shop after they drop. Starting on Thanksgiving night, it will run special deals and a bunch of new items for sale, the first wave of 28 hours of telethon-like shopping. It's a way for QVC to compete with other on-the-air shopping sites like HSN and ShopNBC.
On the Net:
QVC site: http://www.qvc.com
IN STORES: DRAGON BALL: RAGING BLAST
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — One of the most popular anime series ever is strutting its stuff in a new title for the Sony PlayStation and the Microsoft XBox 360. "Dragon Ball: Raging Blast" allows players to take on the electronic personas of any of more than 70 playable characters. And once they do, they are in character — and in position — to recreate the key battles from the Dragon Ball series. Besides the HD quality of the next-gen systems, the title provides the option of playing either with in-person opponents or with online challengers. The NamcoBandai Games title is rated T for Teens by the ESRB.
On the 'Net:
NamcoBandai site: http://www.namcobandaigames.com
ESRB site: http://www.esrb.org
by Oscar Wells Gabriel II
Oscar Gabriel can be reached at ogabriel@ap.org.
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