This drone, the eBee Sensefly, is used to help with precision farming

While the FAA doesn’t seem to be any closer to formalizing and announcing rules, regulations and conditions for the use of commercial Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) or drones, GPS World reported last week that they have issued yet more exemptions to the ban on the use of drones. At this rate, we won’t need regulations anymore—everyone who wants it can just get an exemption! You might recall in December how they granted five exemptions to various companies. read more

If you’re a cyclist, there are a plethora of different ways you can track your bike and your ride, from using your cell phone, a dedicated GPS unit designed for cycling, a sport GPS watch, a smartwatch and now, your bike pedals themselves.

At the 2015 International Consumer Electronics Show, a French start-up company called Connected Cycle debuted the first ever connected bike pedal for consumers. This snazzy and totally-not-obvious pedal (which they claim can only be removed using a special coded key to prevent theft) is designed to record speed, route, incline and calories burnt for every single bike ride. These statistics are stored in the cloud and can be accessed (and shared) through a smartphone app. read more

2014 saw several tragedies including the downing of several planes, one of which still has not been found. With the recent discovery of the wreckage of AirAsia Flight 8501 in the Java Sea, many people are wondering how, in the age where you can locate your phone anywhere in the world with the click of a button, can an entire flight disappear?

Well, I did a little bit of research on the topic and as it turns out, the answer is a little more complicated than people realize. Times reports that airplanes do have a GPS system, known as ADS-B, which broadcasts the plane’s location on regular flights. But, in the event of an emergency where a plane is going down, the conditions are too extreme for the GPS to function.

“People have been comparing this situation to Apple’s Find My Phone app,” John Walton, a British aviation journalist, told TIME in an article. “But the app can’t tell you very much on the way down if your phone is thrown off a 10-story building.” 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

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

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.

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Ethyl the Grizzly was tracked for about 3 years as she wandered all around Montana and Idaho.

If you think your latest hike or run is impressive, check out the travels of Ethyl the grizzly bear. This wandering adult female grizzly was tracked via a satellite GPS collar and over the course of three years, she logged nearly 3,000 miles across Idaho, Montana and the surrounding region before losing her GPS collar in October. read more