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GPS World reported on 12/31/10:
The Russian Federal Space Agency announced that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev fired two senior Russian space officials Wednesday over the loss of three navigation satellites that crashed into the sea this month.
- via SlashGeo
How? The receiver taps into another non-GPS satellite to boost accuracy. (Consumer GPS units are typically at about 10m accuracy, or as I like to say, “about a tennis court.”) That extra satellite, Michibiki, only covers Japan eight hours per day, so it needs two companions for full time coverage. Once they are in orbit the new system may be put into use for navigation, construction and child monitoring. The trick for consumer use, of course, is price. The project is from Mitsubishi and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
A judge in Massachusetts highest state court ruled that a man on probation who could not charge his required GPS device due to homelessness was not subject to punishment. The individual could not find reliable power in shelters.
Officially, that situation does violate the probation order and a probation revocation hearing ruled against the man. The state judge argued such punishment would basically punish the individual for being homeless. Unfortunately, the judge had no solution for the problem.
By the end of 2011, all new vehicles in Brazil will be required to have a GPS-based tracking system installed. Ituran Location & Control Ltd. and others may make a few more dollars along the way. Ituran’s second largest chunk of income comes from Brazil. The largest part comes from Israel.
GPS was one of the hardest hit categories in consumer electronics over Black Friday as unit sales dived 37 percent compared to the period in 2009. The findings were announced in an NPD blog (to which the blogger did not link).
