NEW YORK – The new iPhone application mTrip is a travel guide and then some: It uses the latest in smart phone technology to make it easier to stay on track in a foreign locale.

But isn’t getting lost part of the fun of traveling? For me, yes. For others, maybe not.

So-called "augmented reality" became more widely available about a year ago and takes advantage of a smart phone’s GPS and compass features, along with access to high-speed wireless networks, to mash up super-local Web content with the world that surrounds you.

It works like this: You turn on the application, hit the augmented reality button and then look through your phone’s camera at the Brooklyn Bridge or the Empire State Building. Icons pop up that show you other points of interest, or restaurants within a half mile of your location, whether the restaurant is open, and what reviewers are saying about it.

The feature feels a bit like being in a "Matrix" film, but in a good way. I used the application for New York. Being a local, I was impressed with the restaurant selections and shopping options that popped up when I pointed my camera down Broadway in SoHo, or more off-the-beaten-path locations like my neighborhood, Carroll Gardens in Brooklyn.

The mTrip developers partnered with Sparks, a massive travel guide company, to provide content but also rely on user-generated reviews and suggestions. There’s a spot in the app that allows you to send a new place back to mTrip for reviews and additions to its list.

The app also has something called mTrip genius, which works similarly to the genius feature in iTunes. You note whether you want more or fewer parks, religion or monuments, and it designs an itinerary for you.

Overall, I felt the app was a bit busy, offering perhaps so much it could distract the user from the travel at hand, but developer Frederic de Pardieu noted it’s not necessary to use every feature offered.

"We give you options," he said. "You do with them what you like."

The first phones with Google’s Android operating system, which enables augmented reality, came out in the past year. The iPhone became augmented-reality friendly with the compass that debuted in June 2009 on the iPhone 3GS. Apple also recently joined Google in making it possible for software developers to overlay images on the phone’s camera view.

mTrip doesn’t specify that you need a newer phone to use this feature. I don’t have one and had to spend a while wrangling a newer phone to borrow in order to test the app, so beware before buying that you have the right device to take full advantage.

That said, augmented reality still feels like it hasn’t fully arrived. The technology can generally pinpoint location to within 30 feet if the user is outdoors, but inside you’re lost. Businesses I saw on the screen weren’t actually in front of me, though they were nearby. But I’m not sure I’d have known that if I was using the app in a foreign city. Often tags sometimes just kind of dart around on the screen and it honestly didn’t make it easier to FIND the locale, simply noting the locale existed.

Another problem: Using GPS for extended periods sucked up the battery life on both my phone and my borrowed iPhone 4 quicker than usual.

Developers are dreaming big about the concept, but it’s not necessarily for everyone. It was cool, but when the initial ooh-aah value wore off, I found myself wanting to walk around and look at the world. John Boris, executive vice president for Lonely Planet in the U.S., said the feature can only do so much.

"Travelers want to be able to fold up their phone and see physically in a virtual world what is around them," he said. "We can help you get to the heart of the place, but we can’t carry you around."

Lonely Planet has Compass Guides that use the augmented reality feature with the Google Android, all in international cities.

"It’s the continuing evolution of the traveler’s toolkit," Boris said. "It’s an important component of today and for tomorrow. But, there will be another piece of technology right around the corner."

NEW YORK |
Fri Aug 27, 2010 8:03am EDT

NEW YORK – 3Par Inc. said Friday it has accepted computer maker Dell Inc.’s new offer of $1.8 billion which matches a bid for the data storage provider from Hewlett-Packard Co.

The latest move raises the stakes in the bidding war for the little-known company.

The $27-per-share offer is worth three times the price of 3Par before the bidding war broke out earlier this month.

3Par, of Fremont, Calif., said its board continues to recommend the Dell offer.

In premarket trading, 3Par shares surged nearly 10 percent to $28.55 from Thursday’s close of $26.03.

HP and Dell, two of the world’s largest personal computer makers, are looking at 3Par as a way to build up their "cloud computing" businesses, which involve delivering software, data storage and other services to customers over the Internet.

Cloud computing holds the promise of richer profits for technology providers because many companies aren’t buying their own computer servers for certain tasks anymore. Instead, they’re paying to have software they would have stored on those machines delivered to them over the Internet.

Dell, HP and others are riding this trend by offering those kinds of cloud-computing services directly on a subscription basis, along with the equipment and software for customers to build their own cloud systems.

Dell is based in Round Rock, Texas. HP is headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif.

NEW YORK – The seemingly recession-proof smart phone is suffering from a side effect of the rough economy: Manufacturers simply can’t build enough of the gadgets because chip-makers that rolled back production last year are now scrambling to play catch-up.

The chip shortage means Apple Inc.’s rivals are having trouble making enough phones to compete with the iPhone, a problem expected to persist through the holidays. It’s also affecting wireless carriers, some of which are seeing delays in improving their networks, and it could even raise computer prices.

There isn’t an across-the-board shortage of chips, but rather problems with certain components here and there. If just one of the 20 to 30 critical chips that go into a smart phone is unavailable, the whole production line screeches to a halt.

Sprint Nextel Corp., for instance, couldn’t satisfy demand for HTC Corp.’s EVO 4G, the first phone to use a faster "4G" network, in parts of the country. Motorola Inc. said shortages of a wide range of chips, from memory to camera sensors to touch-screen controllers, are contributing to problems supplying enough of the new Droid X phones to Verizon Wireless. The carrier’s online store reports a two-week wait for shipping orders.

The chips that go into smart phones compete for production capacity with other chips at the gigantic factories run by contract manufacturers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and United Microelectronics Corp. Makers of a vast array of electronics, from TVs to data center switches, also depend on the factories.

The chip-making industry had a tough start to 2009. February sales were only $14.2 billion, down 30 percent from the year before, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association.

Although sales sprang back later in the year, manufacturers were spooked and reined in investment in chip factories. Capital spending plunged 41 percent to $25.9 billion in 2009, after dropping 31 percent the year before, according to research firm Gartner Inc. Total chip production capacity shrank.

Now the factories are having trouble scaling up production fast enough. The chip factories, or "foundries," are running at 96 percent capacity, up from 56 percent at the depth of the recession, according to the SIA.

"The semiconductor guys are really continuing to operate on all cylinders," said Linley Gwennap, president of research firm The Linley Group.

Gartner predicts worldwide investment in the chip industry zooming 84 percent this year to $47.5 billion. That forecast is up from March, when it looked for a 56 percent increase.

While investment is recovering, it takes months to set up new production lines and upgrade existing ones. That’s why executives see shortages lasting until next year. Gwennap also sees caution in the industry because the global economic recovery is starting to look quite tentative.

"Even where companies are facing shortages, they’re saying ‘Nah, I’m not sure I want to invest right now, because demand could turn down any minute.’ That makes for a very difficult environment," he said. "In normal times, companies would be hiring, investing in more equipment and factories and trying to increase supply, but these aren’t normal times."

Though consumers may have to wait for new phones, they’re unlikely to notice price increases. Phone prices are heavily subsidized by carriers, and competition in the industry means it’s likely someone in the supply chain will absorb higher prices for the chips.

However, research firm iSuppli warns that prices for PCs could rise this year because of short supplies of memory chips. The prices for these commodity chips are highly volatile. Smaller memory-chip manufacturers need to replace factory equipment, and tool suppliers are struggling to keep up, iSuppli said.

Makers of computer and phone networking equipment were the first to report problems this spring. They continue to face constraints, which means trouble for U.S. wireless carriers that are struggling to increase network capacity to cope with data traffic from the iPhone and other smart phones.

Alcatel-Lucent and LM Ericsson AB, the two largest makers of equipment for U.S. phone companies, have both reported problems making deliveries. They’re both suppliers to AT&T Inc., which has complained that it can’t beef up its wireless data network as fast as it would like, as it’s trying to deal with traffic from the iPhone.

Computer networking giant Cisco Systems Inc. is also feeling the pinch and expects problems to continue through the year.

"We continue to see challenges in procurement of components this quarter," Cisco CEO John Chambers said recently. "Supplier lead times now appear to have stabilized, but are still longer than we would like."

Apple is an exception. Although the company can’t keep the iPad and iPhone 4 in stock, it blames that on demand outstripping assembly line capacity, not on problems procuring the right chips.

That may be partly "dumb luck" on Apple’s part, Gwennap said, but it could also be a case of it being "good to be the king."

"As a chip supplier, you’re going to service your best customers first," he said. "If my choice is to try to make Apple happy or some smaller customer of mine, I might take all of my supply and give it to Apple."

___

AP Business Writer Annie Huang in Taipei, Taiwan, contributed to this report.

NEW YORK – Facebook users carrying their smart phones will soon be able to check in to real-life locations such as restaurants, bars or live concerts.

It’s the first foray by the world’s largest online social network into the frenzy of location-based services. Rising with the popularity of smart phones, such services let users find coupons, earn quirky merit badges or simply share with friends where they are.

The new feature is called Facebook Places. Sharing your whereabouts with friends is its main focus.

Check-ins will be available on Facebook’s iPhone application Wednesday with a free update users can download, as well as on the site’s touch site used by many other mobile phones.