Dell Mini 10 Netbook gets GPS

Dell 700 GPS bolt-on coming to popular netbook soon

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30 June 2009 18:29 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Dell has announced that it will be adding the option to add a GPS chip to its Dell Mini 10 netbook from next week for customers looking to track their whereabouts on the netbook.

According to the computer company, the move comes as more and more customers look to track their movements when out and about.

Currently only available in the US for starters, with the promise of more regions being added in the future, the new Dell 700 GPS module will be a bolt on extra for the netbook.

"Starting next week in the United States, we're offering the Dell 700 GPS solution for our Mini 10 netbook that is a combination of hardware and software", said Dell in a blog post on their Direct2Dell website.

The hardware part, says Dell, is an internal GPS card with built-in Wi-Fi location technology that calculates your position using Wi-Fi access points or using GPS satellites.

On the software side, the Dell Wireless 700 system comes with CoPilot navigation software to provide turn by turn directions, and open-source software Loki for the browser location element.

Initially only supported in Windows XP, (the OS that the Mini 10 comes with) Dell says there are plans to add Vista and Windows 7 support in the coming months.

The company has also said that it plans to bring the Dell 700 GPS module option to other lines within its range in the future.

We will keep you posted.