Android-powered Garmin Monterra is a powerful, expensive outdoor GPS with Wi-Fi

Garmin announced a new Android device called Monterra. It’s not a smartphone, but a Wi-Fi enabled outdoor GPS unit featuring the company’s powerful location and mapping capabilities.

Inside, it packs GPS + GLONASS alongside other sensors like 3-axis compass with accelero meter and gyro, as well as barometric altimeter to track changes in pressure to pinpoint precise altitude, and monitor weather conditions.

In addition, there’s also a highly durable 4-inch mineral glass transflective display and even an 8-megapixel camera with LED flash for taking photos, along with 6GB of expandable storage (using microSD cards).

Perhaps more importantly, Monterra is fully ruggedized and has an IPX7 waterproof rating, and (the best part) can be powered both by a built-in Li-ion battery or traditional AA batteries. Pretty darn cool when you’re out of power.

When it comes to connectivity options, Garmin’s baby has Wi-Fi, ANT+, Bluetooth 3.0 and NFC capabilities, allowing users to share data, maps, waypoints, tracks, routes and geocaches with other wireless devices. Additionally, Monterra is compatible with BaseCamp, a free software that lets you view and organize maps, waypoints, routes and tracks.

The Garmin Monterra will be available in Q3 2013 at a recommended retail price of £599.99 (about $927) with preloaded Rec Map Europe with Navteq roads. Kinda expensive though I guess “outdoor professionals” won’t mind spending an extra few grands for this kind of device…

iPad Powered iTray Delivers Sushi in London

A UK restaurant franchise is taking a unique approach to food serving, by delivering sushi to their patrons via an iPad controlled quadricopter. The device, dubbed the iTray is being tested by YO! Sushi in central London.

The chain is known for delivering its delicious sushi via conveyor belts, called “kaiten” in Japanese, and chose the quadricopter food delivery method in an effort to make dining at their establishments more hi-tech.

The iTray is still in its infancy, and if the technology proves popular, it could make a U.S. appearance soon.

Check out the video below to see the iTray in action!

Android Powered Gamestick Console Delayed Until August

Playjam’s Gamestick console won’t be available in July, as previously planned. The USB sized console’s has been pushed back until mid August, due to a need to gather more feedback related to the GameStick UI before its wide release.

The delay was announced in an update on the Gamestick’s Kickstarter page:

As a result we have not yet had the feedback that we wanted prior to finalizing the UI and going ahead with mass production. In the spirit of Kickstarter it would be disingenuous of us to cut out this process and not give those backers the opportunity to comment on and help perfect the UI prior to completion. We have therefore taken the decision to  push back the whole project by 1 month to ensure we can fit this process in. We appreciate that this will frustrate backers keen to get their hands on their device but we did not feel it was fair to bypass this step as it was a key pledge and the feedback will be really welcome. We now expect to ship product from China during early August and expect it to be with you by the middle of the month, prior to units launching in retail.

Much like the Ouya, the Gamestick was originally crowdfunded with a Kickstarter campaign and aims to dominate your living room with affordable, quality Android gaming. Also like the Ouya, Gamestick has handpicked a slate of games, but has no Google Play support.

The console itself is hardly larger than a USB stick, but with a HDMI out on the end to install directly into any HDTV. In that little space, Gamestick’s packed a 1.5-GHz dual-core Amlogic 8726-MXS CPU, a dual-core Mali 400 GPU and 1GB of RAM as well as 8GB of flash memory (expandable with a micro SD card). Its bluetooth controller brings the Wii classic controller to mind. It’s a simple, dual stick controller that looks very clean. As an added bonus, the tiny console actually fits inside the controller for maximum portability