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

You might be looking at that headline and thinking that it seems a little odd for Garmin to be involved in making dog training equipment. And, I can’t say that I really disagree with you but since Garmin has had a dog training line since around 2007, obviously it’s been doing something right. And, most recently, the corporation announced that it has a new dog training system aimed at sporting dog owners.

The Sport PRO is a handheld dog training device that works with a variety of Garmin dog collars including the Delta devices. This handheld is light, rugged, and waterproof and was designed to help dog owners spend less time looking at a screen or interface and more time connecting with their canine friends. The Sport PRO is versatile and can train up to three dogs at once. read more