Waypoints – June 25, 2006

I’m leading this week’s Waypoints post with this story about GPS thieves, simply because I love the closing quote by one victim: "Not having the navigator has really affected my independence." And I thought I relied on my GPS too much!

GPS business

• Here’s an interesting article on GPS devices and convergence. Not many hints about the future other than the fact that we’ll get GPS / Sirius satellite radio combos. Of course there was an interesting projection that the market for real-time traffic services would grow from less than 100,000 users now to 6 to 8 million by 2010!
• There was a lot of discussion online this past week about Philips getting back into the GPS marketplace. The linked article is one of the more intelligent pieces that covered it.
• It’s never good for a company to see a headline like this: TomTom denies Quanta-made GO series GPS navigation devices have problems.

GPS reviews

• Here is a Garmin iQue M3 Pocket PC review from mobiletechreview.com.
• GPSInformation.net reviews the Lowrance iFinder Expedition c.

GPS software, firmware, etc.

• My book, GPS Mapping: Make Your Own Maps, discusses (among other things) how to make custom maps for various brands of GPS, using freeware and shareware. Mapwel offers an alternative method for Garmin owners.
• The Garmin blog posts about Garmin’s Fodor’s Travel Guide for North America
• tjdalton posts a collection of links on paperless geocaching at del.icio.us.
• The MotionBased Wiki has a primer on the "courses" training feature that can be used with the Edge and new Forerunner models
• PocketGPSWorld has a TomTom POI
  page with an extensive POI database. I’ve added this to my Custom POI
  page, where you can find tools to convert TomTomPOI’s to other formats.
• Lowrance has posted a v 1.7.0 firmware update for the iWay 500C.
• Free Garmin GPS maps of Malaysia and Singapore from Malsingmaps.com.
• Rumors that Natural Resources Canada is about ready to give away all their topo data in shapefile format.
• A new free GIS application from Idaho State University.

Real-time traffic info

• GpsPasSion has a Traffic Information (TMC) forum that may interest some readers.
• Here’s an interesting article on Inrix, a traffic information provider.

Hardware

• Charge your iPod and Garmin Edge with the same charger.
• GPS solutions for Mac users from HikeTech.

GPS in the news

• GPS-enabled fishing in Southern California.
• Here’s a picture of the GPS-equipped unmanned surveillance drones to be used by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
• As I’ve said before, GPS can actually decrease your geographical awareness.
• People are Digging this video of a GPS satellite-carrying rocket exploding after takeoff.

Goooogled

• Bird’s eye views may be in Google Earth’s future.
• More on Google’s plans to use GPS to geo-target radio ads.
• There is a new terrain detail option in Google Earth v4.

Technorati tags: GPS