GPS reviews, news, tips, tricks and deals
As part of the International CES Conference taking place this week, Magellan has introduced several new GPS devices in their RoadMate line, including three for personal use and two for commercial trucking. None of the units are available yet, but the personal ones actually look pretty nice. Here’s the information Magellan gave me: read more
Garmin has finally released details about their newest multisport GPS watch, the Fēnix 3. This awesome watch does, well, everything, and is clearly Garmin’s reponse to the concern that GPS watches are in danger of being replaced by smartwatches. And I have to say, while the watch is a little pricey, it definitely sounds like its worth it.
The watch itself isn’t expected to be available until sometime in the first quarter of this year, and will retail in the $499 – $599 range, depending on which version you buy. The Fēnix 3 will be available in gray and silver with a premium sapphire edition with a sapphire glass screen.
As far as specs, well, this little beauty basically does a little bit of everything, and I can only hope that I’ll be able to get my hands on one to try it out. Keep your fingers crossed! Anyway, here are the details Garmin gave me about the device: 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
Europe has been working on its own version of GPS, the Galileo system, for the last several years. They’ve met with nothing but problems with their satellites and after the technical error in a launch in August left two satellites stranded in unusable orbits, everyone began to wonder if Galileo was even going to work out.
As it turns out, the European Space Agency (ESA) hasn’t given up hopes yet and only a week or so after announcing the corrected orbit of one of the two stray satellites, the ESA said that they have finally received the seventh and eighth satellites in their testing center in the Netherlands. The two newest satellites have been going through various tests during the last two weeks in a controlled environment, with more tests to come to ensure that the satellites will be able to withstand the harsh environment of space. read more
This 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 from Adrian Faulkner’s excellent post about creating your own Geocaching Resolutions this year. You can read it here to get more tips on how to start off your 2015 right! Here are some other things that happened in the world of GPS this week… 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
It’s that time of year when we can’t help but look back and review what we’ve accomplished in the past year. Accompanying it is the inevitable list of resolutions for the year ahead and it’s a safe bet to assume that at least some of them will include aims along the lines of “eat less” and “exercise more”.
This is where Geocaching can help. Not only is walking along trails, clambering up embankments and battling undergrowth considered good exercise, the fresh air brings its own health benefits as well. As a result, to “Geocache more” is a good resolution to have.
But what if you’re trying to find some motivation to encourage you to get out geocaching more regularly? Well, here are some ideas for geocaching challenges that can make perfect resolutions for the year ahead. read more
The TomTom Runner was released last year and is a pretty solid device for casual runners and marathon trainers. So, if you have been waiting for the ideal chance to get your hands on one of these devices, you might just be in luck. hexus.net is currently giving away two TomTom Runner GPS Watches to two lucky winners next week.
You can enter this giveaway twice: once on Facebook and once on this page, simply by answering a quick spambot question, entering your name, email, age and country and hitting ‘enter.’ While it sounds like some sort of marketing ploy, you can de-select the boxes opting you in for spam mail and advertisements and you don’t have to be a member to win or even make any kind of account. It’s a pretty sweet deal, and entries will be accepted until January 2, 2015. read more
Christmas is over, which means… you guessed it… more sales! Several different companies are hosting their Boxing Day sales or doing After Christmas rollbacks on prices to try and empty out that excess inventory and bank on all of that Christmas cash you were gifted during the holiday season.
There are a ton of deals going on, but here are a few that caught my eye: 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
