GPS reviews, news, tips, tricks and deals
Here at GPS Tracklog, we write about a lot of GPS relevant news and stories from all over the web. We also cover (and occasionally review) new products, discuss drone debates and watch legal issues relevant to GPS. It’s all pretty important and relevant stuff for the GNSS/GPS market. But today, I wanted to share something that’s not really that newsworthy; it’s just kind of fun. I read an article about this initially on CBS’s San Francisco web page. You can take a peek at it here. read more
According to the Legal Examiner, a complaint has been filed against GPS makers Garmin and TomTom in relation to a bus crash that left 35 hospitalized, ten injured and one teenage boy paralyzed. The bus driver was also named in the complaint as well as the company he worked for and the commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation.
From what I can gather, the crash happened in February 2013 in Boston. The driver, Samel J. Jackson was driving students from Philadelphia to Boston when the bus crashed into the Western Avenue Bridge on Soldier’s Field Road. Allegedly, the driver was looking at his GPS at the time of crash and failed to see the road signs that indicated the bus exceeded the height restrictions of the bridge. read more
This week in GPS is a weekly link roundup of (mostly) GPS related odds and ends, from GPS Tracklog and other places around the Web. This week’s featured image is from the new Detour app, which provides GPS-powered audio tours of San Francisco.
Here are some other things that happened this week in the world of GPS: read more
While not directly related to the kinds of GPS articles we normally write, location accuracy in emergencies is a pretty hot and important topic in the world of GPS and is definitely something worth talking about. This topic has actually been in the news several times in the last year, as it was discovered that 911 emergency calls made from cell phones don’t provide the same location information to dispatchers as landlines.
As it turns out, cell phones really only provide a three to four block radius for possible location to dispatchers, requiring them to either try and figure out where a caller is vocally or to simply search for the person. However, an app has been recently released that utilizes GPS to provide better location to dispatch during emergencies. read more
Andrew Mason, one of the founders of the popular group coupon app, Groupon, recently launched a new app that utilizes GPS and interesting historical facts and annotations to create audio tours to take locals and visitors to little known locations with local history. The app is very new and is currently only available on iPhones, with Android support expected soon.
“Most of the audio tours that exist today are about what’s popular inside museums,” Mason told US News. “What we are trying to do is turn the world into a museum.” read more
Nature is a precious thing and it saddens me to see how poorly some people care for it. We’ve only got one Earth, so doesn’t it make sense to protect it? I think that Geocachers in particular are more appreciative of the natural beauty and fragility of the environment, and geocaching.com has sponsored an international “Cache In, Trash Out” (CITO) event to help do their part. read more
TomTom is one of the leading mapmaking companies in the world, and its database covers more than 44 million kilometers of road and around 4.2 billion people–more than half of the world’s population. TomTom has fully navigable maps for around 126 countries, with more added every year.
Late last week, TomTom announced that it will be updating several maps around the world including pedestrian maps for several cities and more address points in Europe. The updates should be available soon. Here are the updates TomTom has released: read more
The quadcopter that crashed on the White House lawn last week. Photo: U.S. Secret Service
Drones are a pretty contested topic in the government right now, as the public calls for laws and exemptions for use and the FAA cries that they don’t know what to do and it might be a long time until they get it together.
So, in an exemplary form of judgment, a government employee decided to fly his friend’s drone in Washington D.C. and accidentally crashed it on the lawn of the White House. The employee, reports say, was off duty and was not in a department related to drones at all. He was, however, drunk and obviously not thinking very clearly. By itself, that isn’t really news. However, in light of this incident, Phantom drone maker DJI has decided to add Washington DC to the list of no-fly zones for their drones. read more
