Waypoints — February 5th, 2011

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.

Telenav event

For the next few days, I’ll be at a TeleNav Waypoint event (no relation to my weekly link roundup!) with 16 other bloggers/journalists, learning all sorts of good things about the future of mobile/GPS. I expect that much of it will inform future reporting, but there may be things to share immediately, so stay tuned. Comment response, etc., may be slow during my travels.

GPX file sharing goes mainstream

This one shouldn’t have caught me by surprise. A mainstream travel company, TripAdvisor (owned by Expedia) has acquired the GPX file sharing site EveryTrail. TechCrunch has some of the details, and here’s EveryTrail’s perspective.

GPS in the news

• Specific data on how bad LightSquared GPS jamming would be 
• LightSquared feeling heat (PDF) from other quarters too; via @GPSGIS_Eric
• This week’s edition of “My GPS made me do it”
• This one has a more tragic ending
• Mandated GPS air traffic control said to offer dramatic reductions in flight delays
• JetBlue gets next-gen GPS

Updates

• DeLorme PN-60 v 3.2
• Garmin ANT Agent v 2.2.13
• Garmin ANT Agent for Mac v 2.1.7
• TopoFusion v 4.1

Garmin

• Reasons your custom maps might not be displaying
• Transparent wilderness boundary maps for 43 states (for Garmin mapping receivers) have been posted at GPS File Depot
• RoadsideAmerica offers Garmin GPS guide to offbeat destinations

Mobile

• OziExplorer for Android options!
• Mashable reviews the Garmin StreetPilot for iPhone
• New study on use of location based services

Geocaching

• OpenCaching.com gets an update 
• As does Geocaching.com

The business of GPS

• Interesting: Receiver with GPS only, GLONASS only and GLONASS + GPS modes
• MIT Technology Review article offers insight into Waze’s use of confidence scores; via GPSLodge.com
• PND and in-dash nav still preferred  by EU users

GPS tracking

• Google Latitude (their tracking app) now lets you check in 
• Yet another airline employee takes lost iPhone home
• GPS bait bikes

Just geo

• Derive vector data from Bing aerial imagery!
• The Snowpocalypse from space
• What your state is best and worst at
• Will Google Earth for tablets get desktop features?
• National Geographic giant traveling maps
• Google Earth could go commercial
• New Zealand topo overlays for Google Maps; via Google Maps Mania

All the news that doesn’t fit

• Predicting the next Garmin Forerunner
• Make your own surveyor-grade GPS
• Study says red light cameras reduce crashes; opponents refute study
• Russia loses (and finds) another satellite 
• You could get one of the new Sony GPS-enabled cameras
• Or you could geotag photos with your non-GPS camera and a smartphone
• Zeal Optics Transcend GPS review