Trimble has just announced a handheld GPS, the GeoXH, that can give positioning information accurate to within 30cm. The unit is ruggedised and based on a Pocket PC platform using a 416MHz CPU. Pricing hasn't been announced, but the product will appear at the end of October.

Aimed at professionals who need quick, highly accurate data collection, the Pocket PC-based GeoXH achieves its accuracy using Trimble's H-Star system, a combination of a highly accurate GPS receiver and post-processing software. The sub-30cm accuracy is achieved in the office after processing the location data collected on the handheld. In the field you can see an immediate estimate of the accuracy that the post-processing will achieve.

It's definitely not a consumer device, but it caught our eye as this level of accuracy has in the past only been available using complicated and time-consuming techniques with full-blown surveying equipment. And it's an indication of where consumer GPS devices might be in a few years' time.