Wednesday, February 3. 2010

DMTV#4: Will Your Personal GPS Protect You from Litigation?

It seems that eventually everyone will be carrying a GPS device. If so, will you ever need your location-aware mobile device to prove your whereabouts if you are the focus of litigation? From capturing the location of a car accident to something more sinister like being accused of a crime, information to prove your location may become more important and technology may be called upon to prove innocence or guilt. Editor in chief Joe Francica ponders the possibility and provides advice from a legal expert familiar with geospatial technology.

Thursday, January 21. 2010

Update: Prep for LORAN Shut Off Feb 8

Not surprisingly, the decision is prompting further concerns from the industry. The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association made statement:

“The termination of loran will leave the country without a single national backup system in the event of a GPS outage,” AOPA said.

“Recent reports have shown that the constellation of satellites is vulnerable to outages and service disruptions,” said Craig Spence, AOPA vice president of operations and international affairs. “AOPA has long cautioned against decommissioning loran before a separate navigation system is established as a backup.”

- Aviation Week

And, even as the AOPA begs to keep LORAN, the Air Force says it's time to wean itself off the GPS system, because of its vulnerability to hacking.

- Popular Science

Continue reading "Update: Prep for LORAN Shut Off Feb 8"

Wednesday, January 20. 2010

Update: Air Force to Rearrange GPS Satellites to Better Cover Afghanistan

Update: Eric Gakstatter at GPS World explains the changes in more detail - and notes that better cover for Afghanistan is but one interpretation of the change. Another? Increased accuracy - especially for surveyors.

Continue reading "Update: Air Force to Rearrange GPS Satellites to Better Cover Afghanistan"

Saturday, January 16. 2010

Rogers Stops Sales of HTC Dream, Asks Users to Turn off GPS to Allow 911 Calls

In an odd twist, Canadian cell carrier Rogers has stopped sales, activations and upgrades of the HTC Dream and texted all current users to turn off GPS reception. There's apparently a "bug" that prevents 911 calls from completing when the GPS is "on." An update to Android 1.5 should solve the problem.

As write this only blogs (including reputable ones line Android Guys and Boy Genius Report) are reporting the sales changes and message to users.

Tuesday, December 29. 2009

Tax Time: Time for GPS!

Like me, you probably didn't think much about the press release from Intuit about Turbo Tax 2009 from November. Who thinks about taxes then? Well, now it's the end of December and Intuit is moving the promo for introduced then on TV. From the PR:

Like GPS for taxes, TurboTax® 2009 easily and accurately guides taxpayers step-by-step through their tax return, effortlessly getting them to their ultimate destination - the biggest tax refund possible.

The rest of the PR uses terms like "detour," "error checking" and "guidance."

Wednesday, December 16. 2009

GPS/NAV Tidbits

MacWorld compares nine navigation apps for the iPhone. Bottom line (Google Maps Navigation is dealt with separately):

Overall, AT&T Navigator was the best app among those with low prices, recurring monthly fees, and small app sizes; among the large apps with pre-loaded maps, Navigon MobileNavigator scored the highest. Combining decent quality with a low price, MotionX was the best bargain among all the apps I reviewed.

- MacWorld

The WSJ blog winds up a marketing experiment by Blu Dot, a furniture maker based in Minneapolis. It placed its fancy chairs, some with GPS devices and all with notes asked takers to "call in for an interview" on street corners. Strangely, the blog post refers to "thieves" although this was purely a marketing play.

- WSJ blog

In other GPS marketing news, BrickHouse Security is again offering free GPS tracking and video cameras to help keep parts of outdoor holiday displays from disappearing.

- Star Ledger

And, one more GPS marketing story: Ohio-based Dillie the deer, ok her family, won the Zoombak contest for creative uses of the tracking device. Dillie is a family pet (I saw the deer on the news recently, with no mention of the contest) and the device allows the owners to keep track of her should she get out. They bought the device after that occurred the first time.

- Norwich Bulletin