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 from Adrian Faulkner’s excellent post about creating your own Geocaching Resolutions this year. You can read it here to get more tips on how to start off your 2015 right! Here are some other things that happened in the world of GPS this week… read more
“Until there’s a reason not to trust the G.P.S., I’m trusting the G.P.S.”
From New Yorker issue Jan 5, 2015
Well, the new year is officially here, and 2014 seems like it passed by in a blink. There were a lot of things that happened in the world of GPS this year other than the obvious introduction of several new sport tracking units and automotive units, which I am not going to list out.
In fact, I think this year was a pretty exciting one, filled with lots of debates involving GPS and privacy, drone use and its legality (with an undercurrent of the FAA panicking), self-driving cars and indoor location technologies—all things that really helped push GPS and its many uses to the front of public awareness, especially where privacy is concerned. read more
The TomTom Runner was released last year and is a pretty solid device for casual runners and marathon trainers. So, if you have been waiting for the ideal chance to get your hands on one of these devices, you might just be in luck. hexus.net is currently giving away two TomTom Runner GPS Watches to two lucky winners next week.
You can enter this giveaway twice: once on Facebook and once on this page, simply by answering a quick spambot question, entering your name, email, age and country and hitting ‘enter.’ While it sounds like some sort of marketing ploy, you can de-select the boxes opting you in for spam mail and advertisements and you don’t have to be a member to win or even make any kind of account. It’s a pretty sweet deal, and entries will be accepted until January 2, 2015. read more
Christmas is over, which means… you guessed it… more sales! Several different companies are hosting their Boxing Day sales or doing After Christmas rollbacks on prices to try and empty out that excess inventory and bank on all of that Christmas cash you were gifted during the holiday season.
There are a ton of deals going on, but here are a few that caught my eye: read more
During the last couple of years, satellite GPS has become pretty commonplace and is used for everything from navigation to entertainment to shopping. As accuracy has increased and price has decreased, it’s not surprising that research has been pushed to continually improve this much-demanded technology. Recently, robotics researchers at Queensland University of Technology announced they are developing what is being called the first camera-based GPS device.
This device, as the name suggests, uses images in order to calculate location and help provide navigational assistance. It does not use any kind of satellite or signals, making it appealing to those trying to get accurate directions in urban canyons, underground tunnels or other places where GPS often fails. I first read about this new tech on Techly, and I can’t decide whether it’s genius or not. read more
In October, Google pushed an update to their new Android Wear platform that allowed smartwatches to become even smarter–now, they are able to use GPS technology, and the tech world rejoiced. But, as it turned out, app developers weren’t ready for it, and the list of apps that use Android Wear’s GPS technology is pretty small. The list of apps that utilized Android Wear’s GPS without the addition of a smartphone was even smaller and included Google’s MyTracks app. Now, two months later, the popular app RunKeeper is joining that lineup.
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 Ethyl the grizzly bear, who made an epic 2800-mile trek (over the course of two years) in search of home, presumably. It’s a pretty neat story. Here are some other things that happened in the world of GPS this week: read more
From all of us at GPS Tracklog, I wanted to wish you and yours a very safe and merry Christmas! We’ll be back tomorrow with This Week in GPS roundup!
Christmas Eve is finally here, which means that Santa’s big day of delivering presents to boy and girls across the world is finally here! While we all know that Santa won’t come to any house until all the little boys and girls are fast asleep, you can still keep an eye on him as he makes his fantastic journey across the globe!
Thanks to advanced satellite technology, specially-designed SantaCams, radar (to pick up Rudolph’s nose) and communication with the elves that make up Santa’s flight team, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) has been able to track Santa’s amazing journey for the last 60 years and—we feel safe to predict—for the next 60 years as well! read more
For the holidays, most people want electronics or gift cards. But Robert Suhay, of Norfork, VA, wanted a Guiness World Record—and he got it. Earlier this year, Suhay hopped in a 15-foot Laser boat armed only with a Magellan eXplorist 510 GPS, some provisions and his determination and attempted to sail solo across the Chesapeake Bay in early July in order to break the world record for the farthest distance sailed single-handed in a dinghy.
Not only did he sail for 86 hours straight covering a total distance of 326.24 miles, but he also sailed along the edge of a hurricane, lost his communications and had his journey cut short by the US Coast Guard Mid-Atlantic Division. It was certainly an eventful trip, and one that wouldn’t have been possible without using a GPS unit.
