Peter-Frans Pauwels, TomTom’s co-founder and CTO, showed off TomTom’s GPS software along with its specially designed car kit on the iPhone at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference today in San Francisco. I was able to speak to Tom Murray, VP of Market Development, at TomTom.

First, Murray wouldn’t answer the Big Question Number 1, what’s the exact release date, and Big Question Number 2, what’s the price? He was firm to point out TomTom is stating the release is to be, “Later this summer,” and was clear to point out to me that doesn’t mean the end of the summer. Hope, folks, hope.

What Murray did tell me is that the Car Kit is a big piece of the puzzle, but the puzzle still can be put together without it. Meaning, you do not have to have the Car Kit in order to enjoy turn-by-turn navigation on your iPhone sometime this summer, it’ll just “enhance” your experience. What’s that mean? Well Murray told SvenOnTech that it was a “combine solution” of software and hardware that was really the “ideal marriage” of the two. With the built-in speaker, mic, and other unspecified electronics - say a compass? - the Car Kit will enable drivers not to lose signal in those urban cannons of downtown San Francisco for instance. It’ll also help your iPhone recalculate a new route if you miss a turn so you don’t crash into a cable car waiting for your next turn.

Now don’t worry if you don’t spring for the Car Kit or you find yourself in need of some turn-by-turn assistance on your vacation to San Diego because Murray told me that it was, “Quite effective without the Car Kit” and ever user would still have a “positive experience”. The Car Kit is really just a “sweetener”. Phewf.

The application will be available on the App Store along with the maps packaged all in one. This means if you purchased the North America maps and wish to take your iPhone and TomTom on a trip to France, you’ll have to purchase that app along with that regions map. There will be no way to simply add maps to your TomTom app, though Murray did say it was a, “Safe assumption,” that you’ll be able to purchase updated maps for your current purchase when made available.

While we won’t know until a, “Later point and time,” if the software will contain TomTom’s Advanced Lane Guidance, voice navigation, Internet POIs, traffic updates, or even the ability to send addresses to it from your desktop computer like the defunct Dash Express, SvenOnTech was told that IQ Route and TeleAtlas maps are definitely in this baby. Again, phewf.

Today, LaCie announced a merger with Caleido AG, the creators of the innovative online storage service, Wuala.

Luzius Meisser, Co-Founder of Caleido said, “Wuala is an exciting technology that builds its reliable and secure cloud storage by harnessing idle resources.”

Wuala assembles centralized and distributed storage; the result is a reliable and scalable service. Once files are placed in Wuala, they are securely encrypted before being cut into several redundant fragments disseminated and stored on a cloud of computers.

“Users will gain online storage while trading disk space; that way, they will securely protect their valuable data. They can access it from anywhere and easily share files with selected peers. As privacy tends to be a major issue when talking about digital life and data management, everything is encrypted and a robust rights management system protects files from unauthorized access,” said Dominik Grolimund, Co-creator of Wuala, “We will also bring this technology to enterprises and professional customers, who will soon take advantage of our services with both cloud and data center-based storage.”

LaCie has plans to implement this first real “cloud storage” technology into its ranges of storage devices, offering a powerful and combined solution for storage–local storage on devices for fast access, and secured remote storage on the cloud, for easy sharing and complete data versatility.

“For 20 years, LaCie massively promoted hard drive technologies; today, as a leader on storage market, we will be a first mover in the next leading technologies: flash-based storage, and cloud storage. With this merger, LaCie will morph from a pure hardware manufacturer to a solution provider. These new technologies will be amazing for our customers and will enhance their experience,” Philippe Spruch concluded.

With much anticipation, Apple took off the covers of its latest version of the iPhone OS today from its Cupertino headquarters. As believed, Cut and Paste, MMS, and tethering support was announced. Actually, tethering was brought up during the Q&A and was confirmed by Scott Forstall, Senior Vice President of iPhone Software at Apple, telling the audience, “We’re supporting tethering in the client side, we’re building that support in. We’re working with our carriers around the world.” Dozens of other features, mostly for developers, where announce as well such as support for Google Maps so applications will no longer have to send a user to the Google Maps application but rather integrate it directly into its application. This also means turn-by-turn directions will be supported though it will be “bring your own maps” for licensing reasons. TomTom has a chance!

Forstall early on admitted blowing it on a feature that should have been out last year saying, “Next, Push. You know, we’re late on this one.” Working with developers and listening to their suggestions lead to a re-tooling of Push and now Apple believes the version that is in 3.0 is much better than what it once had. Examples of push, such as IM, were shown to work very nicely much like SMS or reminders in the current version of the iPhone.

Subscriptions will also now be available for software making way to purchase multiple levels of a game or more months for a sports service, for example. Peer to Peer connectivity is also added allowing for easier connection between two or more iPhones for multi-player games or for address card exchange, though the latter was not mentioned.

Hardware vendors will also have use of the iPhone via the dock connector, finally. Examples shown were the iPhone docked in a speaker system in which you could control the tone with an onscreen EQ. SvenOnTech is aware of Altec Lansing showing off alpha hardware to Apple in January and suspects that this very hardware was shown in the slide show, today. Other items shown were a blood pressure cuff and a blood tester for diabetes. With this access, it’s quite conceivable third-party vendors can finally tap into the phone and possibly tie it into car stereos or home dock systems. The ultimate speaker phone.

Copy and Paste looks fantastic. When asked what the hold up was all about the answer given was “security” without any further explanation. I find this a very interesting response since nearly every device on the market has this feature and these manufactures, such as Microsoft and RIM, seem to have not been worried about “security”. It’s hard to say if it was a cover-up excuse or something deeper RIM and MS haven’t considered.

Other goodies include landscape support for SMS, Mail, and Notes. Speaking of Notes, you’ll finally be able to sync those scribbles in your iPhone with 3.0. Voice notes was also shown off which looks to be quite nice. Steaming video was demonstrated by ESPN which looked incredible. YouTube will now allow you to enter your account information keeping favorites and subscriptions synced between phone and desktop. Multiple pictures can now be sent in Mail as well as direct access to the mail application for other apps. Safari users will also be happy to know Auto-fill has made its to the upcoming summer release of 3.0 as well.

So, what about that MMS and A2DP (stereo Bluetooth support) caveat? You know, how Apple just kinda breezed over the fact that you’ll need to have a 3G iPhone to get that working? Mmm, kinda fishy, we think. While it’s solely possible that the lack of support for stereo Bluetooth may be so on the older hardware, we’re at a loss why MMS cannot be supported. Let’s see, you can take a picture in the Facebook app and send it to your profile, today. Same with Twittelator Pro to post pics and embed the link in your Twitter posts, but Apple can’t open the camera in SMS and grab a shot to send because of hardware? Doesn’t make sense to us. Other 2G devices do MMS just fine, so why not Apple’s? We believe it’s a way for Apple to force users to purchase new hardware though we could be wrong on this. Still, can’t see how hardware other applications use without issue for photos can’t be used by Apple.

All-in-all a great announcement for developers at the iPhone OS 3.0 preview announcement. If they use the tools given to them today, this free update for all iPhone users, $9.99 for iPod touch, could be a mean and exciting update for sure. Guess that puts egg on our face for last nights post, huh?

Fabrik, parent to G-Technology and SimpleTech, has been acquired by Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, the division birthed out of Hitachi’s purchase of IBM’s AdStar disk drive division in 2003. According to Hitachi’s press release, Fabrik, “will continue intact and form the core of Hitachi GST’s newly-formed external storage business. Hitachi GST will fully support the G-Technology and SimpleTech product lines, building upon their success and differentiation in the market. The combined company will also leverage operational, technical and product development resources, distribution channels and global reach to accelerate delivery of a full portfolio of traditional hard drives, solid state drives and branded personal and professional storage products.”

Steven Milligan, President of Hitachi GST, called Fabrik a key component for growth at Hitachi’s disk drive division saying, “The Fabrik acquisition becomes the cornerstone for the next phase of our business transformation. It strategically expands our market presence, strengthens our product portfolio, and increases our customer base.”

Fabrik’s CEO and co-founder Mike Cordano will join the executive team and he assures current customers that, “Hitachi GST provides Fabrik and its customers all the benefits of a vertically integrated company. We gain economies of scale, financial stability, association with a strong brand and a worldwide footprint to accelerate our business growth.”

Typhoon Touch Technologies, Inc. (OTCBB:TYPT), owner of foundational intellectual property in the area of portable touch-screen computing, announced today that it has significantly expanded its patent infringement suit commenced in December 2007 against Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL) by adding Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and the following additional defendants via amended complaint: Fujitsu Computer Systems Corporation; Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc.; Lenovo (United States) Inc.; Panasonic Corporation of North America; HTC America, Inc.; Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ:PALM); Samsung Electronics America, Inc.; Nokia Inc. (NYSE:NOK); and LG Electronics USA, Inc.

“The addition of these defendants is a further step in protecting Typhoon’s IP from being unfairly exploited. Hopefully, the world of potential infringers will take notice that it is the Company’s intent to aggressively protect its intellectual property,” stated Craig Weiner, Esq., from the law firm of Hofheimer, Gartlir & Gross LLP in New York City, Director of Legal Affairs and Licensing for Typhoon. “As alleged in the amended complaint, Typhoon believes that numerous defendants are selling and/or offering for sale — what could be millions of devices — which may infringe Typhoon’s patents.”

Typhoon Touch Technologies and its licensee and co-plaintiff, Nova Mobility Systems, Inc., previously reached an out-of-court settlement with Motion Computing, Inc. and recently completed a settlement with Electrovaya Inc., wherein Electrovaya recognized the validity of Typhoon’s patents at issue in the litigation, acknowledged infringement of one or more of the patent claims and made an undisclosed royalty payment of at least 20% on past and future sales of its Scribbler Tablet PC’s in the United States.

In the last month, Typhoon withdrew from preliminary settlement talks with defendant Sand Dune Ventures (Tabletkiosk). The Action, which seeks damages for lost profits as well as a permanent injunction from continued infringing activity by the defendants, is pending in the United States District Court, Eastern District of Texas, Tyler Division, Case No. 6:07-cv-546. The Action was filed on behalf of the Plaintiffs by Blank Rome LLP and shall proceed against both Sand Dune (Tabletkiosk) and the other remaining defendants.

Typhoon’s complaint alleges that defendants have infringed and continue to infringe its U.S. Patent No. 5,379,057 (”the ‘057 patent”) issued January 3, 1995 and entitled “Portable Computer with Touch Screen and Computer System Employing Same,” and U.S. Patent No. 5,675,362 (”the ‘362 patent”) issued October 7, 1997 and entitled “Portable Computer with Touch Screen and Computing System Employing Same,” through various actions including the manufacturing, selling, offering for sale, and/or importing of a variety of portable computer products, including but not limited to tablet PCs, slate PCs, handheld PCs, personal digital assistants (PDAs), ultra mobile PCs (UMPCs), smart phones, and/or other products covered by the patents-in-suit.