Sony HDR-XR520V camcorder /// $TBD

Geotagging in still cameras increasingly allows photographers to match up a picture with the location where it was taken. Today, Sony announced a high-definition camcorder that uses a GPS chip to bring geotagging to videos, embedding the location data in a screen-shot thumbnail. Unfortunately, the video geotag info will only be accessible with Sony's Picture Motion Browser software—upload a video to the Web or onto another program, and the location info is lost.

But it would be a shame to have a camera with built-in GPS without being able to use the GPS for navigating purposes. The HDR-XR520V takes this into account—if you get lost, the camcorder's screen turns it into an ad hoc navigator (its hard drive comes loaded with maps of the entire country, provided by NAVTEQ). We can easily imagine this coming in handy for lost tourists.

The camcorder's GPS antenna proved to be powerful during an indoor demo late last year in New York: It managed to pinpoint our location through a roof, a rarity for any satellite-dependent technology.

On the camcorder's practical side, its 240 GB hard drive is large enough to hold 92 hours of high-definition video. —Seth Porges