GPS reviews, news, tips, tricks and deals
We all know the struggle of trying to find parking. It’s especially frustrating to me when I am in an unfamiliar city, usually downtown, and one way streets are getting me turned around!
Fortunately, TomTom is working on a solution for its customers. The company recently announced an On-Street Parking Service. It seems TomTom is staying on track to further develop technology needed for self-driving, or autonomous vehicles. Of course, there are other benefits as well. read more
One of the first commercially available Galileo location services was (kind of) announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain this week. The result of a partnership of several European companies, this service is expected to be launched in December of 2015, with support of Galileo, GLONASS and GPS, with additional systems to be added as necessary. read more
You might recall that midway through last year the owner company of SPOT LLC, Globalstar, celebrated their 3,000th rescue since the company was founded in 2007. Globally, SPOT averages about one rescue per day, and they are probably one of the most well-known and trusted brands for satellite communication and tracking across the globe. If you are an active outdoors enthusiast or you frequently travel alone and you don’t have one, you probably should.
More recently, SPOT announced that they assisted in the rescue of around 600 people in 2014–500 of which were in North America. Currently, they are at around 3,400 rescues overall, and the company couldn’t be more proud. read more
GPS 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
Not the nav app you’re looking for
Google Maps Navigation (referred to hereafter as GMN) is a free navigation app for Android version 1.6+ phones in the U.S. I bought the Motorola Droid
One important thing to be aware of — this is a beta application. Google has been known to keep their products in beta for a long time, but this one is pretty new and the beta label definitely applies.
The first part of my review is basically a tutorial, walking you through the interface, and offering useful tips. For my overall take, head on down to the conclusion.
Hey What’s That goes mobileIt’s been quite a while since I wrote about Hey What’s That?, a website that helps you identify mountains on the horizon. Well, today comes news that they have a mobile app for Android and iPhone (here is their mobile FAQ). So I tweeted about it and @CompeGPS turned me onto…
Peak.AR (iTunes link) is a free augmented reality app that looks much better. There’s a screenshot at the top of this post (note that both English and German languages are supported). It’s limited to the iPhone now, but an Android app is expected by the end of February.
MSN Direct has announced that they will cease operations on January 1, 2012. This will effect owners of Garmin nuvi x8x units, although with plenty of lead time, I doubt that it will be a huge issue for them. Garmin however, may have trouble marketing any backlog of these units they have on hand. You can read all the gory details here.
Via gpsreview.net.
UPDATE: Read my hands on Garmin nuvi 1690 review.
We first learned of the Garmin nüvi 1690
With NAVTEQ traffic coming to the Garmin nuvi 2x5T and 7×5 series, it’s a good time to look at the coverage of the five major traffic providers in the U.S. Live traffic information is far from perfect, though it can save your bacon occasionally. But first you have to be in an area with reception. So let’s look at their coverage maps, and then I’ll turn it over to you, our readers, to hear about how accurate these maps are (or not!).
Clear Channel Radio has announced that its real time traffic network for GPS devices will now cover ten additional markets, bringing total coverage to 80 metropolitan areas.
The new regions include Baton Rouge, La.; Colorado Springs, Colo.; Des Moines, Iowa; Ft. Pierce, Fla.; Greenville, S.C.; Harrisburg, Pa.; Huntsville, Ala.; Lexington, Kent.; Madison, Wisc. and Tulsa, Okla.
