CES – Conversations with Mio

Mio was showing off their new Moov S-series with the Spirit interface at CES. There really isn’t a lot more to add about that, though I am looking forward to reviewing them. I’m thrilled to see Mio include 12 million POIs, even on entry level models.

With the move to the Spirit interface, they seem to have dropped plans to use Microsoft NavReady. And I did ask, but Mio wasn't quite ready to discuss parent company Mitac's acquisition of Magellan.

The most interesting thing at the Mio booth was the prototype Mobile Internet Device (MID) shown above and below. Running Windows Mobile 6.1, they’re saying the device is pretty close to production and that we could hear an announcement soon. It has integrated GPS and WiFi, and a reported 8 hour battery life. I'm expecting it would be priced lower than  netbooks.

Of course you never know about these prototypes. Last year they were showing off a 3.5G phone, and there have been additional reports about it, but it was nowhere to be seen at CES.