GPS reviews, news, tips, tricks and deals
GPS Watches, be they for children or adults, are pretty much a dime a dozen. They’re all basically the same and provide pretty much the exact same functions usually at around the same price. And while AmbyGear does all the things you would expect from a kids GPS tracker/GPSwatch, it also has some other neat uses including games and some geocaching support. read more
GPS is a part of most people’s everyday life, whether they know it or not. But, because these signals are ever present, I doubt most people really ever stop to think about where GPS comes from, or how it got started.
Today, I stumbled across this kind of neat infographic created by GPS tracking company TruVu, and wanted to share it with you. The infographic gives a timeline for the evolution of use of GPS technology. 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 picture of the aurora from space. Scientists have begun to study how the Ionosphere interferes with GPS. You can read more about it below.
Here are some other things that happened in the world of GPS this week:
In the last few months, it seems like the only real news coming out of TomTom is in regard to business transactions, new partnerships and expanding of their mapping and navigation services instead of any actual GPS hardware or equipment. I’m not sure what spurred this change in the company outlook, but I suppose that you can’t debut new devices every week, right?
Anyway, in the last week TomTom has been in a partnership frenzy and has made four announcements about new business deals in Europe and Latin America. Rather than trying to expand on each one and bore you to death with empty quotes from TomTom officials, I’ve decided to just include a brief overview of them all in one post. read more
One of the first commercially available Galileo location services was (kind of) announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain this week. The result of a partnership of several European companies, this service is expected to be launched in December of 2015, with support of Galileo, GLONASS and GPS, with additional systems to be added as necessary. read more
A NASA research team in Pasadena, California has published results of a study of the ionosphere and how its irregularities can effect GPS and other communications in the far North. Working with the University of New Brunswick in Canada, NASA researchers are attempting to predict when and where ionosphere irregularities might occur in the future.
These ionospheric irregularities can greatly distort GPS signals, causing unreliable data. This is mostly a problem in the far North, but it is definitely an issue for pilots flying in the upper latitudes. This research also has plenty of implications for other sciences such as astronomy. read more
Smartphones aren’t just for Instagram and bird-related games. A smartphone app creator in Philadelphia wants to encourage you to use your device for micro-philanthropy to help the needy. And, all it requires is the push of a button.
This week, the app Donafy–a play on the words ‘donate’ and ‘notify’–debuts on iTunes for the Philly area. Created by a tax attorney in the city who wanted to give people an easier way to help the needy and those on the street, Donafy is meant to make doing your part to help as simple as pressing a button. read more
Garmin is one of the most popular makers of GPS devices, and when you browse Amazon’s best seller list, the amount of Garmin devices listed is staggering, no matter what category you’re considering. And while Garmin does make some pretty solid devices, sometimes it’s nice to take a look at the other guys and see what they have to offer.
Here are some of the most popular devices made by Magellan and TomTom, according to Amazon:
GPS is far more pervasive than most people realize, and it impacts most people’s lives daily. But how much do you actually know about GPS? Last week, I put together a brief article about the common GPS myths.
Today, just for fun, I we have a short GPS quiz with some common (and not-so-common) questions. Let me know how many you got right in the comments! 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 GPS satellite to go with our article on the top 10 most common GPS myths, which we debunked on Saturday.
Here are some other things going on in the GPS world: read more
