A company called Wearable Experiments has announced their newest wearable GPS product concept: a jacket designed to vibrate to give you directions around select cities. Creatively named the “Navigate” this wearable tech is designed to be fashionable (although I think it looks pretty awful, actually) and help tourists experience the city without being tied to a screen. read more

GPSWorld reported last week that the debate over building GLONASS stations on U.S. soil is continuing. Or, rather it isn’t, as the United States reportedly has refused to negotiate with Russia on this matter. As promised, Russia has disabled military use of the GPS stations on their soil while leaving the stations working for civilian use. They, of course, have not said how they accomplished it. read more

If you live in certain parts of the world, you may have noticed some rather odd GPS readings during the last couple of weeks. Well, as it turns out, the GPS signal has been dealing with some interference from a giant and very active sunspot.

Cnet reported that the sunspot is the largest to be seen in 24 years. Code named AR 12192, this sunspot is large enough to be seen with the naked eye (provided you have proper eye protection) and has been sending out solar flares in the last couple of weeks which have disrupted radio and GPS signals several times. read more

An image of the GPS tracks of Manhattan

There is nothing cooler than seeing technology and art combine. Being at opposite ends of the spectrum, the two can pair beautifully and create some really interesting and fantastic pieces. Although, that might just be me—I am a huge fan of both art and technology. If you are too, then you’ll definitely want to check out Steve Coast’s GPS Art Poster project.

These beautiful pieces are created by overlaying GPS track data from a specific area on a blank canvas. Each individual line is a separate route made by a real person, with the thick lines representing more traffic. The result is a unique piece that captures the movement and pulse of a city. I’ve seen things kind of similar to this before, but nothing quite so detailed or artistic. read more

This drone is one of many Northrop Grumman vehicles that have the LN-100 unit installed.

U.S. defense contractor Northrop Grumman has been accused of faking ‘pass’ results for the acceptance test procedures (ATPs) on their popular LN-100 Inertial navigation System/GPS navigation systems. The LN-100 has been used on various manned and unmanned vehicles sold to the U.S. government over the years including drones, submarines, missiles, helicopters and more.

The whistleblower on this potentially fraudulent practice was a Northrop Grumman plant manager named Todd Donaldson, who originally filed the complaint in 2012. The case was kept under seal from the company and from the public for two years, and was only recently unsealed on the order of a Utah District Judge.   The case filed by Donaldson asserts that the LN-100 units typically failed the GPS Communication Test, and that technicians were instructed to manually key in the ‘pass’ grade without actually conducting the tests. read more

They say that the real joy of gifts is giving them, not receiving them. But what if you could make opening a gift just as much fun as the actual gift itself? Now, with the successfully funded Kickstarter project, GPS Adventure Box, you can! Despite the slightly lame name, this clever little box would be a fun gift for just about anyone—not just GPS lovers.

This neat little box has a GPS chip and can be programmed with a series of coordinates and then locked with a gift inside. Before the locked box will open, recipients must take the box to the correct locations and press the button on top of the box to get the next clue. Once all of the coordinates have been visited, the box will unlock and the recipient can have their gift. read more