GPS reviews, news, tips, tricks and deals
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 the SmartTracker 2, a small GPS tracker that has gained a lot of traction on Indiegogo recently. Check out our article below for more info!
Here are some other things going on in the world of GPS this week:
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GPS is a pretty immersive and prevalent technology and as more and more people begin to explore the incredible capabilities and capacities of this technology, more and more misinformation and misconceptions are being spread.
I think that of all of the technologies of our age, GPS is one of the most widespread. And, as widespread use of GPS is on the rise, so are the rumors, misconceptions and misinformation. While I’m not going to be able to dispel all of these rumors, I wanted to take today and talk about some of the ones that I tend to hear over and over again.
This is, without a doubt, the most common misconception about GPS and I can’t even count how many discussions I’ve had on this topic with various friends and family members. Generally, I hear this more in relation to people using their phones for GPS units but I wanted to touch on it anyway. read more
More than a year ago, Amazon sparked the imaginations of thousands of consumers and with the announcement that it was working on drone delivery send out packages within 30 minutes of ordering. Called Amazon Prime Air, this program was extremely controversial and the Federal Aviation Administration, which released its official rules for drones, basically said no.
Well, it looks like Amazon isn’t giving up on the idea of sending thousands of drones whizzing over American cities and catering to the worst impulse buyers with almost immediate delivery. On Tuesday, VP of Amazon Air Gur Kimchi, spoke at the NASA Ames Research Center and proposed the FAA set aside a specific airspace for drones to operate safely in cities, suburbs and around the world. read more
Last weekend, China successfully launched two new navigational satellites for its BeiDou Navigational Satellite System (BDS). The second successful launch this year, these two satellites will become the 18th and 19th satellites in the navigational constellation. The satellites were launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southern China on Saturday. read more
If you use any kind of sport or activity tracker for anything other than the most basic, casual run then you probably have a heart rate monitor (HRM) to go along with it. And, having worn a few in my time, I know how uncomfortable they can be. Well, it looks like Garmin agrees and wants to fix that.
This week, Garmin introduced two new heart rate monitors, the HRM-Tri and the HRM-Swim. Both devices are still in development but should be compatible with a number of its activity tracking devices including the Forerunner 920XT, Forerunner 620, Fenix 3, Fenix 3 and Epix. The HRMs are designed to be comfortable to wear with adjustable straps with hidden seams and smooth edges. read more
Only a few days after the recent announcement of the Sport PRO handheld for training dogs, Garmin has announced that it will be adding two additional dog collars to its popular Astro and Alpha GPS dog tracking and training systems. The new collars, dubbed T 5 Mini and TT 15 Mini are designed for smaller dogs but still have the same functionality as their larger counterparts.
“The new T 5 mini and TT 15 mini are the ideal solution for sporting dog owners who run smaller breed dogs – from dachshunds to beagles to brittanys,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin’s vice president of worldwide sales in a press release. read more
A couple of months ago, we wrote briefly about a new GPS tracker called Smart Tracker. The tracker was notable because it blasted through its (admittedly small) goal and promised a lot. Well, in a only slightly shady move, the company behind Smart Tracker has written off its last project in favor of Smart Tracker 2, an updated version of the original. All former backers from Smart Tracker were invited to upgrade to Smart Tracker 2 for an additional $50, or else request a refund as the first Smart Tracker is no longer in production.
Much like the previous Smart Tracker, Smart Tracker 2 makes a ton of promises and has a pretty slick looking campaign which is set to end this coming Tuesday. Surprisingly, the Smart Tracker 2 has also blasted through the funding goal with far less work and development already on the table. The company is incredibly reticent about specs as well, which makes me a little leery.
Regardless, because it has had so much interest I wanted to go ahead and make a brief obligatory post about it and let you guys be the judges. Here’s a video talking about all of the things that the Smart Tracker 2 can do: 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 a really cool GPS history app called Next Exit History that we covered this week. Check out the link below to read the full article!
Here are some other things that happened in the world of GPS this week: read more
There are all kinds of GPS apps and various mapping programs to help users find new locations and interesting locations. There are geocaching-like games such as waymarking, beautiful locations with apps like Stand Here and even GPS-guided audio tours of some cities. But what if you simply want to see some historical or significant places while on a trip? Well, the app Next Exit History was designed with that exact goal in mind.
“One of the frustrations that all of us who have worked on this project have had with other apps and programs is that they are developed for one organization, one community or one geographical location and it places the burden on the user to fish around to find a particular app for wherever you are,” said Dave Strohmaier, Project Manager for Next Exit History. “We wanted to create a seamless experience for visitors so that you could have one app to travel around the world and access content both on and offline.” read more
Dutch company TomTom has almost undoubtedly one of the biggest mapping footprints, and the company is constantly expanding and adding new points and details to its global maps. Most recently, TomTom announced that it has added an additional 13 countries, expanded points of interest and made other improvements.
Here are some of the improvements that TomTom has made recently: read more
