According to the post on Slashdot, map data can be retrieved via WiFi or an external GPS receiver. Deniska has released a GPS Map Viewer for the PSP (Play Station Portable) . The program uses imagery from Google Maps, which currently has pretty good coverage of North America, Western Europe, Australia, Japan. There's also a video on YouTube.

Mobile phones for children: Do we want them? Eight-year-old kids with mobile phones might sound like a crazy idea, but according to a report carried out last year, that is the average age of a child owning their first mobile phone. The age is expected to drop to five years old this year -- but why are we buying mobile phones for our young children? Read it on CNet.co.uk.

Clearer Signals for Faster Phone Downloads. New technology for mobile devices is being designed to cut through traffic-jamming interference to improve downloads. Read it on Technology Review.

IntelliOne Technologies has just launched a real-world test of Need4Speed, a real-time traffic-monitoring system that tracks drivers' cell phones. A new service that measures radio signals beamed between your cell phone and cell phone towers could soon help speed up your commute. Read it on Live Science - technology.

A Sentinel to Screen Phone Calls. New software could block voice spam. A system for automatically screening phone calls has been developed by researchers at Microsoft. It works by analyzing characteristics of a caller's voice and word usage to figure out how urgent a call is and whether the caller is a friend, family member, colleague, or stranger. Then the call can be either put through or sent to voice mail. Readit on Technology Review.

Hacking the Himalayas is a four part series on NPR from tech journalist Xeni Jardin (from Unwired Mailing list thanks to Mike Outmesguine). She explores how Tibetan exiles are reconnecting with their past and embracing the future partly from a growing wireless mesh network. Technicians have to monkey-proof the system. Literally from monkeys swinging on antennas! Meanwhile, buddhist monks are emailing each other from their temples and others are reaching out internationally with websites telling their story. Read it on the Press Journal or hear/read at NPR audio streams.

Sony To Launch a New Kind of Wireless Handheld for IM (and other Internet Based Commnications). Hoping to tap into the growth of wireless networks across college campuses, other public spaces and within homes, Sony Corp. will announce Tuesday a new pocket-sized gadget for instant messaging and other Internet-based communications. Read it on AllArounDCleveland.com .

Patients with defibrillators take wireless technology to heart. While the retired purchasing director for the New York City Housing Authority sleeps, his bedside monitor automatically picks up radio signals from the defibrillator inside his chest and detects how well the device -- and his heart -- are working. Without Harrison even lifting a finger, the monitor collects data as often as daily on a schedule set by his doctor. The information is automatically transmitted, typically overnight, over a standard phone line through a jack in the monitor. Read it on USA Today.

Scottish Company Launches Phone-Tracking System for Businesses. Trisent claims a higher degree of accuracy and a lower cost than rival GPS or Cell-ID systems. Unlike existing systems, its Trilocator uses standard, unmodified cell phones to track phone users instantly. Civil liberties campaigners warned that as such technology becomes cheaper and more widespread, there will be a growing risk of abuse. Read it on Technology Review.

Multilingual Mobile Messenger. "Giant waves coming, rush 1,000 meters away from the beach." These 10 words, if sent to mobile phones in the Bahasa, Malay, Sinhala, Tamil, and Telugu languages, might have saved thousands of people from the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004. But even if South Asia had had a tsunami detection system in place -- which it didn't -- authorities would have had little chance of distributing such a message, given the variety of languages and writing systems used in the region. Now, Geneva Software Technologies in Bangalore, India, has developed software that will translate English text messages into multiple languages and send a translation to any cellular phone or mobile device in the world. Read it on Technology Review.

Fon Hopes Its Hotspots Will Rival Cellular. Sure, you can browse the Web from your local coffee shop, thanks to its Wi-Fi connection. But what about leaving your cell phone at home and using cafes and other Wi-Fi "hotspots" to place free or cheap Internet-based phone calls using a laptop or Wi-Fi phone? Reat it at Technology Review.

WILL SMARTER PHONES DRIVE CONTENT CONSUMPTION? M:Metrics issued the findings of its May Benchmark Survey. Read the Report at M:Metrics.

WiMAX Cell Phones Edge Closer to Reality. WiMAX could greatly increase the amount of information that cell phones and other mobile devices can pull from the air. Now that the telecommunications industry has settled on final specifications for WiMAX, though, including provisions for power efficiency, manufacturers are exploring ways to build the energy-efficient chips needed to make consumer WiMAX devices viable. Reat it on Technology review.

Mobility@lse involved in largest UK mobile phone study. Dr Carsten Sorensen participated as the academic consultant on Mobile Life 2006, the largest study of mobile phone use in the UK in a joint study by LSE and Carphone Warehouse. 16500 persons were asked a range of questions concerning their life with mobile phones. The findings and the report can be found at the Mobile Life 2006 website: http://www.mobilelife2006.co.uk. The study gathered significant press-coverage, as can be seen from the LSE Press Office page.