Waypoints is a weekly link roundup of (mostly) GPS related odds and ends. To get many of these stories as they break, follow me on Twitter.
Garmin
- Hear my thoughts on the Garmin GPSMAP 62 series on Caching in the Northwest
- A review of TerraIncognita, a tool for creating Garmin custom maps
Updates
- Garmin Colorado v 3.60
- Garmin Forerunner 310XT v 3.20
- Garmin Forerunner 410 v 2.10
- Garmin nuvi 465T v 3.40
- Garmin POI Loader for Windows v 2.6.0
- Navigon 2200 and 2300 series owners get a BIG update, but you have to pay for it and get European maps
The business of GPS
- Days later, Trapster finally does a blog post about their password hack; a valid question is asked (and unanswered) in the comments
- Garmin founder buys $40 million NYC condo; via @locuslingua
- Will Garmin’s expansion in Asia and South American translate into lower PND prices elsewhere?
- Garmin is hiring a User Experience Developer, and they now have an internship search page too
GPS tracking
- What kind of GPS tracking is “too secret to be discussed in court?”
- Justice Department must decide by February 17 if warrantless GPS tracking case goes to Supreme Court
- 12 year old boy tracks down mom’s stolen phone using GPS
- GPS street cleaning could let residents know when to move cars
- No GPS tracking of politicians (but isn’t this already illegal?)
Satellite news
- FAA warns of ongoing GPS issues in southeastern US due to Defense Department ‘tests’; discussion at Groundspeak
- GPS Community Urged to Contact Congress Regarding FCC Proposal
- WikiLeaks hits the GPS world — German CEO calls Galileo a ”stupid idea’
- First Galileo satellite getting pre-launch check
- Galileo gets a midterm review
- 2011: The Year for Galileo (with an interesting aside about 2014)
- A look at business sectors utilizing satellite imagery
- 50th Space Wing completes Phase 1 of Expanded 24 initiative
- Raytheon to open GPS Collaboration Center
Geocaching
- Reverse geocaches and wedding proposals; via @Gogeocaching
- OXCacher.com is a new blog that focuses on OpenCaching.com and Android; via @cachemania
iOS
- NAVV app comes to North America
- MacWorld compares 11 iPhone GPS nav apps
Just geo
- All about the new Google Maps widget
- New episodes of Geospatial Revolution slated for release on March 1 and April 19
- Map: Where high-speed rail will be most effective
Miscellany
- Add turn-by-turn highway routing to your Magellan eXplorist 510 / 610
- Remember our conversation with Bob Rennard, Telenav’s GPS guru? Here’s another one
- Interesting slide show from the US Army on social media and geotagging safety; via @AFSpace
- DeLorme is in good company in this “battle of GIS’s”
- Remember How Slow Dial-up Was? That’s Where GPS Is Today; via @GPSGIS_Eric
- Remote control your dog with this vibrating GPS backpack
Updated GPS Reviews
I’ve updated these review and resource pages with the following links:
- TomTom GO 2505TM — Craig Ellison reviews this high-end auto unit for PC World
- TomTom XL 330 — Shangrila Towers reviews this older unit
About Rich Owings
Recently OkMap freeware software (www.okmap.org) include a feature to generate automatically compatible Garmin custom maps (kmz format).
The map calibration is sophisticated because OkMap uses different type of projection and several datums.
This new feature includes map tiling from and to different image file formats (including from ECW map files).
It’s possible select KML extensions 2.2 (if GPS supports them), the JPEG quality, KML transparency, draw order, ecc..
You can select the tiles to generate in output.
This feature support also not north oriented maps.
OkMap include a Google maps server to download maps from Google, OpenStreetMap, MyTopo, DOCQ, ecc..
These two features combined together may be very useful.