Friday’s planned launch of the seventh of 12 new GPS satellites is looking good, according to Florida Today. The United Launch Alliance (ULA) has planned the departure for 11:23 p.m. from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The 189-foot Atlas V will be carrying a GPS IIF-7 satellite, the third of four scheduled for launch this year. This new block of satellites are interim are designed to improve accuracy, greater performance and increased signals for users until the newer GPS IIIA satellites are ready for launch. read more
GPS Satellite Launch Scheduled for Friday
July 30, 2014 By Leave a Comment
Underground Railroad Geotour Looking For Funding
July 30, 2014 By Leave a Comment
Geocaching is a rapidly expanding activity with more than 6 million active geocachers around the world searching for hidden objects. But what if those caches were strung together to tell a story or the history of something like the Underground Railroad? Well, that’s what geotourism is all about, and there is a kickstarter project currently looking for backers to fund the creation of a geotour for just that purpose.
Gary Jenkins, creator of the documentary film Freedom Seekers: Stories From the Western Underground Railroad, and a geocaching expert Melissa Gard are looking create a historical geotour of the railroad consisting of 8-10 caches along the path that John Brown and the 13 Freedom Seekers took. The trip will go from Bates County, Missouri north to Nebraska City, Nebraska. The project is looking to raise $5,000 by August 27. As of this publishing date, the kickstarter currently only has $135 pledged with 27 days to go. To take a look at the kickstarter page for the underground railroad geotour, click here. read more
Sygic Maps Celebrates 55 Million Users With Sale
July 30, 2014 By Leave a Comment
Provided you are willing to fork out the money, Sygic is one of the better navigation and mapping applications for your smartphone available. Normally, I would say that the price is a little prohibitive for most but if you have been eyeing this application, then this might be your lucky day.
Sygic is celebrating reaching the 55 million user benchmark by having a 55% off sale on their World maps (marking them from $125.99 down to $55.99). While it’s still a chunk of change, if you find yourself travelling a lot, then it might just be worth the money, especially with such a hefty discount. Many of their regional maps are also reduced by 50% in honor of this landmark achievement. According to their site, this discount will be available until October. read more
Magellan Introduces New GPS Designed For RVs
July 29, 2014 By Leave a Comment
Magellan has announced the availability of the new RoadMade RV9490T-LMB. This seven inch Android-powered RV GPS device has smartphone and cloud integration to provide real-time information while on the road. The device features trip-planning abilities and several RV-friendly functions, such as:
- Vehicle Profile – Customizable RV routes based on your vehicle type, dimensions and driving preferences
- POIs designed specifically for RVs – pre-loaded POIs include Good Sam RV Travel Guide & Campground Directory, Fuel stations and Sani-Dump Stations in addition to normal POIs like restaurants and grocery stores.
- Geotag Navigation – The ability to input Geotag information (latitude/longitude) information and navigate to your desired location
The device also features several of Magellan’s latest safety features including customizable driving alerts to notify drivers of speed limits, yellow warning signs, toll plaza alerts, speed camera and traffic camera alerts; Junction View and Lane Assist guidance; Landmark Guidance, where directions are given using easy-to-spot landmarks; Next Two-Turn Visibility to help you know which lane to be in; and more.
GPS Tracker Gets Overwhelming Crowd Support
July 29, 2014 By 2 Comments
There are no shortage of tracking startup projects on sites like Indiegogo. and all of them claim to allow users to track valuables (or people) anywhere, with little or no cost, etc, etc. Most of them don’t get off the ground or have fine print that states that the only way that it would work as advertised is if everyone had that same device and could help you track your stolen or lost item. But what are the chances of that happening? Well, with the new tracking device, cleverly named TrackR, this idea might finally get off the ground.
I know what you’re thinking. What makes TrakR worth writing (or reading) about? Well, the device has many of the same sorts of functions like on every other Indiegogo project we’ve ever written about: location tracking, ringing your phone (or the tracker) if you lose one, distance indicator, etc. But it’s the crowd support and potential for a functional network that drew my attention. read more
Cornell Engineers Test GPS Spoofing Detector
July 29, 2014 By Leave a Comment
A screenshot from a youtube video by the University of Texas at Austin showing how vulnerable marine craft are to GPS Spoofing, and how spoofing works
GPS Spoofing—or the sending out of fake signals to control a course or heading—has been a concern of many navigators for several years now. Mark Psiaki, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, has been working towards a solution. Cornell University reports that Psiaki tested out his new spoofing detector and the results are quite encouraging. read more
Galileo Satellites Preparing for August Launch
July 28, 2014 By Leave a Comment
Galileo’s current four-satellite constellation will be increased by two in August. Photo courtesy of ESA’s P. Carril
The Galileo constellation will be two satellites closer to functionality after the launch scheduled for the middle of August. There are currently four operational Galileo satellites in orbit. Galileo will not be considered fully functional until all 30 satellites are in position and functional. The two newest satellites will be launched in from French Guiana on August 21, 2014.
Unlike the U.S. GPS satellites, the Galileo system is expected to be extremely accurate with the ability to determine positions within a few centimeters when fully functional. The goal with the satellite constellation is to have anywhere from six to eight satellites visible from anywhere on the planet, as opposed to the original four necessary when GPS was first implemented. read more
New Study Reveals Health Benefits of Geocaching
July 28, 2014 By Leave a Comment
Texas A&M and the CDC have released a study showing that geocaching is healthier than not geocaching. Of course, I doubt that anyone thought geocaching was really bad for your health, but it’s always nice to know something you do is good for you! In this study, they tracked 1,000 geocachers throughout the U.S. aged 18-77 who geocached at least once a week. The study lasted for a year.
Indoor Positioning Tech Gets $70M Funding
July 27, 2014 By Leave a Comment
A new startup company NexNav LLC has received $70 million in funding for their indoor positioning technology designed to help give location data to emergency response teams. You may recall this article where we talked about how cell phones don’t give accurate GPS data during 911 calls. Well, now NexNav (owned by XM Satellite Radio founder Gary Parsons) has come up with their own solution.
“The existing GPS satellites are far away and send weak signals,” Parsons said to Wall Street Journal reporters, “and people are cutting the cord to their landlines, which means emergency responders don’t have the capability to identify and find them, reliably.” read more
Track Your Luggage Without A Bulky Tag
July 26, 2014 By Leave a Comment
As we have written about in the past, losing your luggage when traveling is a serious problem that thousands of people suffer from every year. Companies and private inventors have been working towards a solution to this problem—most of which require a tag attached to the outside of the bag in question, and many don’t actually use the more reliable GPS technology.
The newest iteration of bag-tracking solutions doesn’t involve any kind of tag; the tracking is done by the bag itself. Introducing the KONAS luggage and hiking backpacks, which contain a tracking chip that works with WiFi, GSM and GPS to allow travelers to track the location with a smartphone. This service is currently free of charge to all users. read more
