Waypoints – July 16, 2006

Wow, it’s actually been kind of a dead news week. Maybe it just seems like a short edition of Waypoints since I doubled up last week.

Hardware and firmware

• Lowrance is offering a $50 rebate on the iWay 350c and a $100 rebate on the iWay 500c.
• Would you like a nuvi with that Saab?
• Cobra has announced the NavOne 2500 GPS.
• CNet doesn’t think very highly of the FineDrive 400 GPS.
• TomTom has been hit by a component shortage, impacting sales of the GO 510 and GO 910.
• Double the number of MP3′s on your nuvi.
• In marine news, Garmin has announced two new radar systems.

GPS in the news

• Here is an article on a collaborative GPS mapping project by Dutch cyclists.
• Stories on using your GPS underground, in Paris and in Costa Rica.
• A couple of notes on GPS and golf.

GPS constellations

• India gets into the GPS game.
• Boeing has secured a contract to add three additional GPS satellites to the U.S. constellation.

GPS Tracking

• Building and engineering inspectors are suspended after refusing GPS tracking cellphones. Nope, they’d rather keep their jobs.
• Here’s a social networking / safety / non-Big Brother use of GPS tracking technology.

Traffic news

• Near real-time traffic cameras in Google Earth in Quebec and Montreal.
• Traffic.com has signed a deal to provide AOL with traffic feeds.

Cell phones and GPS

• You can now receive real-time gas price info with Garmin Mobile.
• It seems like the U.S. is always behind the technology curve, especilaly comapred to Asia, but hey — we’re ahead of Europe in GPS-enabled cellphone use.

Maps

• Last year I posted on mapping your family name in the U.S. Now comes word of several applications to map your surname in various European countries.
• Paving over the world.
• Two million datapoints from USGS on Google Maps. Via Google Maps Mania.

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