Sunday, March 18, 2012

Foursquare Tracks Your GPS Location Constantly

foursquareGPS apps use location data in a wide variety of ways—from helping you connect with friends to remembering where you parked your car. As these sorts of apps have become more and more common, the general public has started to be a little more wary of who is able to keep track of their exact GPS coordinates. Foursquare, the popular app that allows users to find new places in their cities by leaving and reading reviews. This, of course, means that foursquare has to keep track of where you are so it can leave a note on the map for other users. Now, with a new update, Foursquare not only keeps track of where you are while in the app—it tracks your location even when the app is closed.

For example, if you frequent a sushi place in your hometown, Foursquare will store that information and when you travel, it will send push notifications letting you know about good sushi places in new towns when you travel. That doesn’t sound too bad, right? I mean, who doesn’t love finding new places? Until you start thinking about it. I mean, we take our phones with us everywhere. That’s a whole lot of potential information that Foursquare has decided to cash in on.  read more

Use GPS To Unlock Secret Messages

TracesIn the digital age, it seems like people have become more and more detached from each other as social media and messaging becomes more and more common. A new app, called Traces, is trying to change that with an immersive messaging system that uses GPS location and augmented reality to force users to get out of the computer chair and go and find messages from friends. Half treasure hunt, half phone messenger, Traces is a really unique and awesome use of GPS technology that I just had to share.

“Facebook and WhatsApp broadcast frequent, out-of-context information that’s of very little value to you, leaving you a completely passive receiver,” said Beau Lotto, CEO of Ripple Inc, based in San Francisco, which created Traces. “Instead of reading tweets in a random location you can choose the location to add context to your delivery,” Lotto said. read more

DeLorme InReach SE Saves Climate Scientist

DeLorme inReach SE

It might seem like I’m harping on it a little bit, but personal safety is one of the most important considerations when going on hikes or expeditions to remote locations.

Recently, a climate scientist by the name of Dr. John All had to be airlifted out of the Himalayan ice after falling down a 70 ft. crevice and breaking an arm and a couple ribs in addition to some internal bleeding. All had to climb back to his tent and sent out a text message via his DeLorme InReach SE requesting pickup. The satellite communicator/GPS Navigation device probably saved his life, and All made sure his team has several of them for other trips. read more

Giants, NFL Use GPS To Track Player Health

This device from Catapult Sports is one of the most commonly used player tracking devices

This device from Catapult Sports is one of the most commonly used player tracking devices

Edit: According to an article I saw here, apparently the GPS tracking isn’t reducing the injuries to players, as they still have a staggering amount of injuries. Maybe the GPS thing isn’t working out for them after all?

GPS devices are becoming more and more prevalent in America’s favorite game, and even the technophobic Giants head coach has invested money in a system to track his players health and location, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Last year, the NFL approved the use of GPS trackers to not only track physical location of players whilst on the field, but also to monitor heart rate, pace, speed and other factors. This data is collectively referred to as “player load.” Several teams including the Bills, Falcons, Cowboys, Jaguars, Eagles and Rams already use this technology, NFL reported last year, and the list is only going to grow.

The data has been used to significantly change the structure of football practices, allowing players hydration breaks and monitoring performance more accurately. It may even cause fewer soft tissue injuries and allow your favorite athletes to spend more time on the field than on the sidelines. read more

Memory-Map Releases Android GPS for UK

Introducing Memory-Map GPS TX3, the newest smartphone/GPS hybrid for the UK

Introducing Memory-Map GPS TX3, the newest smartphone/GPS hybrid for the UK

Half smartphone, half GPS, the Memory-Map Android GPS TX3 does a little bit of everything with a rugged rating that will make the most adventurous spirits jealous. Unfortunately, it’s only available for the UK region, but the idea is kind of awesome, so I thought I’d include it in case we have any readers ‘across the pond’ so to speak. Seems about time someone thought to add an actual GPS chip inside a smartphone… read more

This Week in GPS — August 1, 2014

Magellan_RV9490T-LMB_LRThis 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 Magellan’s new RoadMade RV9490T-LMB, a GPS designed specifically for RVs, that was released this week. read more

Geocaching’s Seven Souvenirs of August

geocaching-200Today is August first, which means that today is your first day to start working towards the coveted Achiever Souvenir at Geocaching.com by participating in the 7 Souvenirs of August! This month’s theme is exploring the geocaching universe by finding six different types of geocaches. So break out of your comfort zone and go and find those caches! It is going to take some planning on your part though, so don’t procrastinate until the last week! Besides, you don’t want to be the last one to log it, do you? Didn’t think so.

So, on to the challenges! Here are the six souvenirs needed to unlock the seventh: read more

New TomTom START Designed For Leisure Drivers

Fusion TIFF FileTomTom introduced the new TomTom START range of GPS devices today. TomTom has a habit of reusing names of devices, so if you recognize the name from a series launched a few years ago, you aren’t crazy. The new START devices are a little cheaper than most, ringing in at €139.95 ($187.35) and are aimed at the ‘leisure traveler.’

The START has many TomTom features that are quickly becoming standard on their devices including the same Quick Search we reviewed on the TomTom GO 500 and the ability to tap on the map to plan a route. The route bar has been redesigned to make it easier for drivers to see essential travel information at a glance. The device also comes with lifetime maps (which all for four free updates a year for the life of the device), advance lane guidance with realistic 3D pictures showing which lane to be in, a million pre-loaded POIs and the new “My Places” which allows drivers to save their favorite locations on the map for easy navigation. The START is available with a 4, 5 or 6 inch screen size. read more

Indoor GPS Raises Privacy Concerns

In the world of indoor GPS, Nokia has a Wifi-based High Accuracy Indoor Positioning System. But Windows is determined to best that.

In the world of indoor GPS, Nokia has a Wifi-based High Accuracy Indoor Positioning System already available, with other companies working to best it.

With all budding new technology comes certain concerns about how it will change things, and indoor GPS systems are no exception. As more and more companies are researching and racing to be the first to create an accurate system for location positioning indoors, many companies are starting to look at what can be done with the gold mine of personal location information that will result from widespread adoption of indoor GPS. read more

Garmin Second Quarter Report Overview

garmin-logo-1024x301

Garmin released their second quarter financial report Wednesday morning before stocks opened. Overall, the report was still in the positive although the company’s shares fell as much as 7 percent in morning trading after the report was released. Garmin reported a total revenue of $778 million dollars this quarter and acknowledged the completed acquisition of Fusion Electronics to aid with their marine products. If you want to read the full report for yourself, you can download it here, but these are the parts I found most interesting: read more