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Smart2go Mobile Navigator USA and Nationwide Maps and Directions, Mobil Travel Guide Edition Start Shipping in North America

Posted on: Wednesday, 4 January 2006, 18:00 CST

LAS VEGAS, Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Jan. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- gate5 today announces two consumer products to the North American market -- Nationwide Maps and Directions, Mobil Travel Guide Edition and smart2go Mobile Navigator USA. These two travel solutions provide customers with easy-to-use, low cost tools -- on their mobile phone or PDA -- to plan trips, navigate inside and outside of the car (from their office, home, on a bike, or on foot), and browse extensive city guide content from the popular Mobil Travel Guide brand.

"With the introduction of smart2go to the North American market, gate5 is bringing intuitive, powerful and personal GPS navigation and route planning tools to the market," said David Rolf, President of gate5 NA. "Given the success of these products in Europe, and the ever-increasing mobility of Americans, we are looking forward to widespread acceptance here at home"

NATIONWIDE MAPS AND DIRECTIONS, MOBIL TRAVEL GUIDE EDITION

Published by Mobile Digital Media (MDM), Nationwide Maps and Directions, Mobil Travel Guide Edition is a fully integrated trip planning tool that offers customized route and itinerary planning, including turn-by-turn text and visual instructions of what to do. Along the way, users will encounter a full complement of traveler's information such as gas stations, hotels, restaurants and emergency facilities. A must-buy for road travelers, Nationwide Maps and Directions offers detailed maps of the 48 contiguous states and the possibility to link to a Bluetooth GPS to locate oneself and track progress along a route. Nationwide Maps and Directions, Mobil Travel Guide Edition is available for $49.00 at mass-market retailers such as CompUSA, Staples, Office Depot, and Fry's and includes a $50.00 rebate towards the purchase of smart2go Mobile Navigator.

"With Nationwide Maps and Directions, Mobil Travel Guide Edition, travelers no longer need to print out pages from the internet or stop at a gas station to ask for directions," said Morgan Slain, VP and GM of MDM. "Now PDA and Smartphone users can choose their destination and starting point from the palm of their hand and smart2go's Route Planner will show them the way."

The Nationwide Maps and direction includes an SD/MMC USB card reader and a DVD with map-maker software for choosing and exporting maps to the portable device.

SMART2GO MOBILE NAVIGATOR

Including the star-rated Mobil Travel Guide content, and a highly- sensitive GPS receiver, smart2go Mobile Navigator is an affordable, high performance personal navigation application for smartphones and PDA's. smart2go brings high-accuracy, voice-guided GPS navigation to PDAs and smartphones, giving the user both voice and graphical directions on detailed maps. smart2go provides coverage of the 48 contiguous United States with an intuitive PC trip planning and map making program. It can be used, with or without GPS, to get directions from a hotel to a meeting, to select a restaurant, or to locate places of interest.

"With the smart2go Mobile Navigator, gate5 is able to provide customers with the most content rich, GPS-driven navigation system that rivals in-car systems," said Marc Wheeler General Manager, Mobil Travel. "gate5's solution is not tied to a vehicle, which enables users to research their destinations from their homes or offices and then use the system inside or outside the car."

The smart2go product bundle includes everything that users need to get started out of the box:

* software featuring an intuitive graphical interface that runs on all Six (6) leading smartphone and PDA operating systems -- all in one box; * a DVD containing powerful map-making software that covers the contiguous United States along with city guides, hotel, and restaurant reviews from Mobil Travel Guide; * a state of the art, portable Bluetooth GPS receiver with both AC and car chargers; * a car mount that attaches to the car windshield to hold a smartphone or PDA; and * a memory card reader to facilitate transfer of data to a smartphone or PDA. It will be available from -- http://www.smart2go.com/ -- and from a number of other online retailers, with a suggested retail price of $349; * support for multiple platforms including, Windows PocketPC/Mobile 5.0, Microsoft Smartphone, Palm (selected devices, including Treo 650, T5, Tx, E2), Symbian Series 60, Symbian Series 80, and UIQ.

Through a convenient upgrade rebate offer, gate5 makes it easy for customers to upgrade from the Nationwide Maps and Directions product to the full smart2go Mobile Navigator GPS navigation experience. Whereas most luxury in-car navigation systems cost $1500-$2000, smart2go enables customers to enter the world of detailed maps, Points of Interest and text driving instructions for only $50. That full amount can be applied to the upgrade purchase of smart2go Mobile Navigator, which unlocks the power of GPS, voice- guided real-time navigation on your smartphone or PDA for only $299 -- all enhanced through the searchable, consumer trusted recommendations of Mobil Travel Guide researchers.

Nationwide Maps and Directions, Mobil Travel Guide Edition and smart2go Mobile Navigator are available for the holiday season and are a perfect gift for road warriors, business travelers and frequent vacationers.

About Mobil Travel Guide (MTG)

Mobil Travel Guide is the originator of the authoritative Star Rating Program for hotels and restaurants. Mobil Travel Guide has been committed to identifying and celebrating travel and hospitality excellence in North America since 1958.

About MDM

Mobile Digital Media (MDM) is a world leader in providing high quality consumer software for all mobile device platforms including Palm OS, Windows Mobile / Pocket PC / Smartphone, and Nokia Series 60/SymbianOS. MDM's high quality, branded entertainment, productivity and utility products are available at major retail outlets including Circuit City, CompUSA, Franklin Covey, Fry's Electronics, MusicLand, Office Max, Radio Shack, and Staples, and leading online retailers including, Amazon, Dell, Handango, and palmOne. MDM is a member of Microsoft Mobility Partner Advisory Council (MPAC). Privately held, MDM (http://www.gomdm.com/) is based in Mountain View, California. Other brands may be trademarks of their respective owners.

About gate5 NA

gate5 NA is a subsidiary of Berlin-based gate5 AG, Inc. and is charged with bringing smartphone/PDA GPS navigation to the US business and consumer market at affordable prices.

The company is a pioneer in the emerging market for GPS-driven mobile navigation tools for use on popular smartphones and PDAs. gate5's smart2go mobile navigation software, content and services put high-performance GPS navigation on the dashboard and in the pockets of consumers. With smart2go, navigation is no longer a luxury; it's an affordable convenience.

gate5 AG, is based in Berlin, Germany and was founded in 1999 as a research and development contractor specializing in advanced navigation. In this capacity gate5 won R&D contracts from Mercedes, Audi and Volkswagen.

gate5 AG is now a venture capital backed software company specializing in the development of technology and applications for intelligent mobile guides and messaging solutions for PDAs, smartphones, and dedicated devices. The company offers proprietary software for mobile device operating systems including SymbianOS, PalmOS and Microsoft Windows Mobile. More information and thousands of downloadable city guides can be found at: http://www.gate5.de/ and http://www.smart2go.com/ .

gate5 NA

CONTACT: Virginia Jamieson, +1-650-279-8619, orvirginia@parachutemarketing.com, for gate5

Web site: http://www.gate5.de/http://www.smart2go.com/http://www.gomdm.com/

Source: PRNewswire

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