We’re all about convergence, and the Twig’s melding of GSM and GPS doesn’t just sound cool, it’s functional. Twig, a maker of specialty handsets, has introduced its Discovery device. It’s half GSM phone, meaning add your SIM and you’re good to go, including GPRS web browsing. Its phone features are rather limited, sadly, but that’s to make way for its other half, a GPS receiver.
Using maps loaded via SD (currently it only offers European countries), it triangulates your position with a true GPS satellite tranceiver. Then, with the phone side, you can you can utilize the location data, for example send your location information via SMS or email, so your parole officer knows exactly where you are. If you’re the social type, you can even locate and meet up with other Twig-sporting adventurers.
The whole thing costs about $630, and is only available in Europe. That’s unlocked and full retail, carrier subsidies would make it more tolerable, ideal for enterprise deployment, which would be good for groups that are on the road a lot. But don’t look for it here anytime soon, lest you’re the type to import your own, which is just silly.
Twig Discovery [Product Page, via Tech Digest]