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45 items tagged "Navigation and Satellite"

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Which Geogadgets are overpriced?

Posted: November 17th, 2008, 2:39pm CET

Tags: Satellite Navigation

PC World has a listing of all the tech gadgets it thinks are outrageously expensive, including a some geo-ones.

GPS Devices with 5-inch (or Larger) Screens
Price: $600 and up
GPS Analyst Craig Ellison says: In general, I found that GPS devices with a screen size of 5 inches or larger seemed disproportionately higher priced with less features compared to the traditional 4.3-inch ones. Such products are the Magellan Maestro 5310 ($800) and the Garmin nüvi 5000 ($600). Sure, Garmin can get away with high prices since its models have a unique featurevoice recognitionthat none of the other products have, but they're still priced way too high.
Quote of the Week

Posted: November 11th, 2008, 1:00pm CET

Tags: Satellite Navigation

"While I rely on my GPS to compensate for my terrible sense of direction, that price seems a bit high to pay for a 3D map of Chicago and its mostly flat surrounding areas. It's an impressive novelty, but it is still just a novelty."

Scott Nichols wrote that in PC World about the not yet released $599 Navigon 8100T GPS model which uses "NASA terrain elevation data in conjunction with a built-in 3D accelerator" to offer "true 3D."

- PC World in Washington Post
GPS Market Value Drops 21%

Posted: November 6th, 2008, 2:51am CET

Tags: Satellite Navigation

The value of the worldwide market for car navigation devices fell 21 percent in the third quarter per research firm Canalys. Much of the drop can be attributed to lower prices, but encroachment of handsets helped, too. The firm also puts Garmin back atop the marketshare heap at 35%; TomTom in #2 with 29%.

- Reuters
Dash (Internet Connected GPS) Lays Off 50, Will End Hardware Sales

Posted: November 4th, 2008, 2:06pm CET

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Those 50 are 2/3 of the company's staffers. Those with devices in hand will continue to receive support and updates, though it's not clear for how long. The company has investor money to stay alive through 2009.

Other changes:

- a move to a B2B rather than B2C model
- end of hardware business
- will license the platform to nav, smartphone and netbook devices
- CEO will step down

The challenges, said new CEO Rob Currie in an interview with Om Malik had to do with the cost of going to end users, the challenge of PND and phones in the nav space and the economy. Malik suggests we may see Dash apps for smartphones, like the iPhone, soon.

My take: Dash was the first ones in the pool and the company took too big a leap. The high original cost ($600) with few distribution channels (and thus few models to be seen and tried - think Amazon's Kindle) were a challenge. The big sell of combining user information to reveal traffic challenges was a great story, but one that never seemed to reach critical mass for use. I do agree with Malik that we will have more interconnected devices, the Dash may just end up a footnote in that story.

- GigaOm via ZDnet
New GPS Owners Confuse Tele Atlas

Posted: October 30th, 2008, 1:22pm CET

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Many in the press saw and heard a presentation from Tele Atlas this week about how the company updates its data - now including TomTom satnav users' input via MapShare. Those updates now enters Tele Atlas Map Insight program and eventually can end up in the latest datasets. I only saw the slides as there were technical difficulties. But I don't think we were privy to this story Brady Forest tells at O'Reilly Radar that was shared by Patrick McDevitt's talk at the Web 2.0 Expo Europe.

Map Insight is a work in progress and hasn't always anticipated customer behavior. People like to play with their GPSs update features. Last December, right after Christmas, the Map Insight servers started receiving a large amount of block/unblock updates. It turns out people were blocking their street to confirm the feature worked and then correcting the data afterwards -- not realizing the confusion it was causing at the Tele Atlas headquarters.

Clearly, there's still lots to learn about crowdsourcing and human behavior. I suspect this holiday season the folks at Tele Atlas will be prepared for such antics. Alternatively, they might try to dissuade users from these activities, though I can't think of a simple way to do that.
Garmin Beats Estimates, drops outlook but Nuvifone on track for 2009

Posted: October 29th, 2008, 1:47pm CET

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Garmin's third quarter earnings of 87 cents a share on revenue of $870 million topped Wall Street expectations of 83 cents a share on revenue of $858 million. That's the good news, along with the location-enabled phone now on target for its delayed launch.

As for earnings, for 2008, Garmin is projecting of $3.78 a share on revenue of $3.6 billion dropping from Wall Street's expectations of $4.13 a share on revenue of $3.9 billion.

The longer the Nuvifone takes to get to market the longer Apple's iphone and the various Android and RIM solutions have to get out the kinks and corral developers.

- ZDnet
- press release on earnings
Dash Express Price Drop - Today Only

Posted: October 28th, 2008, 6:33pm CET

Tags: Satellite Navigation

We explored the (connected) PND vs smarthphone vs connected car battle in today's podcast. Is it coincidence that today the price fell from the now-standard $300 to $200 for the day at Amazon? It probably is a coincidence, but as I noted in the podcast, the device's buzz went to just about zero lately. That means few people are collecting and sharing traffic data, one of the supposed big selling points. This device highlights one of the challenges of "barrier to entry" crowdsourcing.

- Engadget
Beginning of End of PND Market?

Posted: October 21st, 2008, 4:02pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Investor's Daily suggests two scenarios: a few more year of growth driven by lower prices, then death, or it's already dead.

Phones with navigation and other electronic goodies (e-book readers, music players, etc.) will grab consumer dollars. And what of the nav companies that try to fight back, like Garmin with the nuvifone? Jeff Evanson, an analyst at Dougherty & Co. calls it a bomb, noting it is ugly and late.

On the other hand, IBD notes in a second article that NIM and TeleNav are making good money from carriers by providing for free navigation on phones. Noteworthy in the coverage: IBD notes that NIM and TeleNav get data from NAVTEQ and Tele Atlas (owners Nokia and TomTom are not mentioned) but does not mention that the underlying navigation and mapping tools are from deCarta.
Putin's dog get long-promised satellite tracking collar, wags tail

Posted: October 17th, 2008, 2:55pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

I know that sounds like a headline from The Onion, but it's a real headline from Novosti, the Russian news agency. Like GLONASS, the Russian sat nav constellation, the collar for the dog was a bit late. It was promised for delivery over the summer. The whole story is great PR for GLONASS, but I suspect many Russian's have already read Don Cooke's 2005 book Fun with GPS which among other things, documents tracking his cat. Today, of course, there are many solutions for animal tracking using GPS and other locating techniques. The potential application for this prototype collar:

The system, Ivanov said, may also be eventually used with dogs from the Russian emergencies ministry when they look for survivors after disasters.
Have GPS, Will Ignore Detour

Posted: October 16th, 2008, 3:02pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

That seems to be the problem in Upper Township in New Jersey. Dept of Transportation Signs send vehicles away from Route 49 bridge construction, but those with sat nav devices are ignoring them, according to local officials.

There a bit of a "locals" vs. "outsiders" aspect to the ignored signs:

Local residents might intuitively know the easiest way to navigate the residential neighborhood without taking the longer prescribed truck route through Woodbine. But even out-of-towners are ignoring the giant "Local Traffic Only" signs on Route 49 to cut down Cedar Avenue to Mill Road, [Township Engineer Paul] Dietrich said.

- Press of Atlantic City
The Simpsons Tackles Cell Phone Tracking

Posted: October 6th, 2008, 2:08pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Last night's new episode of the cartoon series has Bart longing for and eventually receiving a cell phone. Unknown to him initially, Mom Marge turns on the tracking feature. Then Bart cleverly has the family track, well, something else. It's a clever episode and I found it fun to try to identify the technical slips in the presentation (that might be fun for a technology class, too). Also fun: the cartoon implementation of a Google Earth-like "zoom to the location of interest" tool used throughout the story.
Beat Credit Crunch: Don't Use Satnav

Posted: October 6th, 2008, 1:32pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

While many GPS vendors are touting how GPS can save gas and money, the UK's Mirror suggests just the opposite.

And dont rely on sat navs look at a map too. They can take you the longest way round or get you lost, making your journey more complicated and expensive.

That from Quentin Willson, the motoring editor.
TomTom Shares at All-time Low

Posted: October 2nd, 2008, 2:38pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Yes, the economy is challenged and yes geo and tech companies are feeling it, too. But TomTom is a bit worse off: analysts fear it may have to "refinance its debt before end-2009 and as consumer spending slows." TomTom's debt is 1.3 billion euros which includes debts from the 2.9 billion it spent on Tele Atlas.

Share dropped to 10.88 euros, the lowest ever. For comparison, share were at 17.5 euros in May 2005 hit a high of 66.70 euros last October 29.

One challenge analysts note is that sat navs have never been tested in an down market - all the recent sales have been in "good times." It's hard for me to think getting a first or upgrading an existing device would be a priority in tough times - UNLESS vendors offer them as money saving gadgets to find cheap gas and create more efficient shorter routes. They'll need to start telling that story right away.

- Reuters
Another "GPS-caused" Accident Reveals Response Challenges

Posted: October 1st, 2008, 1:28pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

You can read the details but essentially, a driver, blindly following his satnav got stuck on the railroad tracks in Bedford Hills, New York and a train hit the car. No one was hurt.

Two items of importance fall out of the story:

(1) The driver called 911 for help instead of the MTA number posted at the crossing. The MTA number currently includes letters and numbers, perhaps making it more difficult to call when under stress. The MTA is considering changing it to all letters. That's probably a good move, but how are they going to get drivers (or anyone) who is panicked to call it over 911? The 911 operator who does receive such a call must then forward it to MTA officials sometimes losing precious time. In this case, the 911 call occurred one minute and the call from 911 to MTA happened in the next minute. That's not too bad in my book.

(2) This is scary: "The state Department of Transportation and the Department of Motor Vehicles, the National Transportation Safety Board and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration do not keep statistics on GPS-related traffic accidents." Why not? I think it's time someone did! An MTA spokesperson noted 4 accidents at that crossing since 2000; the last two involved GPS devices.

- LoHud.com
TomTom Offers Quarterly Update

Posted: September 30th, 2008, 2:23pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

GPS Business News reports (exclusively, I find no confirmation from TomTom at this time on the Web) that TomTom will offer quarterly updates via its TomTom free desktop software for its sat nav devices. Prices begin at 39.80 for one year for one country for low end products (TomTom One, TomTom One XL) with higher prices for the higher end GO line, since those require more data (speed profiles). This is one way to start to monetize Tele Atlas. I wonder how users will determine if these upgrades are worth it over the free MapShare updates from fellow users.
How to get users to use GPS more...

Posted: September 18th, 2008, 2:55pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Sensis (owned by Telstra), a provider of online mapping systems (Whereis) and data for GPSs in Australia did some research:

"Consumer research conducted by Whereis claimed that most GPS users only use their devices for unfamiliar routes or non-routine driving."

So, how to get users to "get more" out of it?

"However speed limit information adds a second motivation for consumers to purchase a GPS unit and increases the value the consumer gains from their purchase, according to the company."

- SmartHouse
Free for Life Garmin Traffic Data has a Price

Posted: September 8th, 2008, 2:00pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

I confess when I heard about the deal on new devices that include "free for life" traffic information, I didn't get too excited. Apparently, it was for good reason: the traffic comes with ads. A PC Mag review explains:

One gripe: The nüvi 755T comes with advertisements. My evaluation unit arrived with three preloaded vendors (BP, Walgreens, and Wells Fargo). When you access the traffic menu, one of these advertiser's names always appears at the bottom of the screen. Also, from time to time, one of these ads will pop up on the map view screen (they won't appear when you are in motion). A single tap of the advertisers' name will perform a POI search for nearby retail locations. Unfortunately, you can't disable these ads, but it's likely that they help Garmin offset the cost of the live traffic information that it offers free.

It'll be interesting to see if a backlash causes any changes in the plan.
Glonass Update

Posted: September 5th, 2008, 2:00pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

The head of the Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos) announced that the number of satellites in the Glonass constellation will jump from the current 16 to 30 by 2011. That includes six to be launched by the end of this year. Glonass will have strong coverage at the poles, something key for mining natural resources in those areas.

- Novosti
GPS Business News: Magellan Exec Exodus, Marketshare Drop

Posted: September 5th, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

GPS Business News put the pieces together including:

- CEO Nelson Chan left.
- Christian Bubenheim, who was vice president Product Marketing, left.
- Clay Babcock, who was Senior Director, Product Planning left.
- The Magellan booth at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin was cancelled.

Marketshare is down and there's no growth in Europe. The last big Magellan professional campaign I recall was for its MobileMapper mobile data collector.

I'll add another measure of health: the last corporate press release was from April of this year.
Kudos: Valerie Hastings, Village of Plainfield, IL

Posted: September 3rd, 2008, 12:56pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

I'm reading between the lines here, but it's my hunch Ms. Hastings, GIS Manager in Plainfield is behind something important: the village submitted address information to both Tele Atlas and NAVTEQ after calls from residents concerned their addresses were not found in online maps and sat nav devices. Not only that, but the article in the local paper lists all the places those who are still unhappy can go to provide corrections.

I've read too many articles that "complain" about errors and don't follow through with any sort of action or suggestions for residents to take action. So, kudos to Ms. Hastings.

- Suburban Chicago News
New Form Factor for Nav App

Posted: August 29th, 2008, 1:35pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Say good bye to your phone/PDA and hello to rather bulbous wrist worn device. It's apparently got GPS and an MP3 player. A cellophane-looking touch screen is hidden inside and slides out for use. My immediate response: I'd need three hands to use it or would need to take it off for use. Pics at link below.

- Tuvie via C|net Asia.
Want Turn by Turn Directions on iPhone?

Posted: August 21st, 2008, 2:33pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

C|net asks. Thus far: "yes." Mostly, I think they are looking for conspiracy stories about why we don't yet have that feature. The license forbids it, though no one knows quite why.
Garmin to Support uLocate's WHERE

Posted: August 19th, 2008, 2:25pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

No word yet on which of Garmin's devices (the nuvifone?) might support the platform and its apps (GasBuddy, Yelp, etc.)

- C|net
Assemblyman Proposes Making Dash-mounted GPS Legal in California

Posted: August 9th, 2008, 3:56am CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

The governor signed the bill this past weekend.

- SF Gate

---- original post 8/8/08 ------
A current law bans anything from be affixed to the windshield (with few exceptions) or dashboard. Senator Jenny Oropeza has introduced Senate Bill 1567, the GPS Windshield Safety Act, which allow drivers to mount their devices on their windshields without fear of citation and out of reach of any restless back-seat toddler. So far so good: "Editors at several newspapers, including the Torrance Daily Breeze and the Long Beach Press-Telegram, have given it their stamp of approval. And both houses of the Legislature on Aug. 4 overwhelmingly approved the bill with broad bipartisan support." Now, on to the governor.

- California Chronicle

Corrections made 8/12. Source above cites Oropreza as author of the article and the bill and an Assembly member. She is, per comment, a State Senator. Her website confirms that.
The Street to Garmin: Keep it Simple

Posted: August 6th, 2008, 6:02pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

"Most experts say the maker of GPS-based navigation systems has been confusing customers, lowering buyer satisfaction and taxing the company's operations by offering 30 models of its "Nuvi" car navigation systems that range from $200 to $1,000 in price."

- The Street
Garmin Criticized for Offering GPS Dataset for Bars

Posted: July 29th, 2008, 1:51pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

This from CokePubandBar.co.uk, which holds a CocaCola copyright:

Garmin offers a digital version of the "Good Pub Guide" for their Global Positioning System (GPS) gadgets. Some, like Margaret Decker, from the Scottish Campaign against Irresponsible Drivers, think that's irresponsible. "It is irresponsible to offer customers directions to pubs. Police campaign to stop drink-driving but the number caught doesn't seem to be falling."

Garmin gives more credit to those who use the system and the database. I wonder if Garmin (and its peers) would get the same reaction if it offered a database of locations of legal gun sellers?
Rear View Mirror GPS Comes to US August 1

Posted: July 23rd, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

DSUS Technology of China will offer a GPS-integrated rear-view mirror featuring Navigon Mobile Navigator 6.5, "Reality View and 12 map updates from FreshMaps."

The DSUS SmartMirror has a four-inch screen for GPS maps, built-in Bluetooth capability and a back-up camera. Price: $799.

- US News/Jalopnick
1 in 50 in UK Survey Blame Crash on SatNav

Posted: July 22nd, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

British insurance company Direct Line carried out the survey for the newspaper The Mirror about satnavs and accidents. Highlights:

300,000 motorists have crashed because of a device
1.5 million drivers have suddenly veered in busy traffic while following a device's directions.
Five million have been sent the wrong way down a one-way street.
One in 10 drivers with a satnav says following its instructions made them take a dangerous or illegal turn.
Reader's Digest Pits Signs + Directions vs. Maps vs. Satnav

Posted: July 11th, 2008, 3:31pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

The winner in the 989-mile "race" which included finding 12 locations along the way in the UK was the "signs and directions" car. It "won" followed an hour and a half later by the "map" car and three hours later by the "satnav" car. Coverage in The Scotsman highlights the genders of the drivers if you are interested. Local knowledge is certainly best, and a mix of tools will work well for many drivers. The big challenge? People become slaves to their satnavs.
TomTom CEO: We'll sell 15 million devices in 2008

Posted: July 7th, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Reuters reports:

The chief executive of navigation device maker TomTom NV (TOM2.AS: Quote, Profile, Research) expects to sell 15 million navigation devices in 2008 despite difficult economic conditions, Dutch daily De Telegraaf reported on Saturday.

Harold Goddijn knows of the economic downturn and rising gas prices, but feels confident. I'm surprised the GPS vendors haven't already started marketing the devices as money-savers to consumers.
SatNav's a Treasure Trove for Detectives

Posted: July 3rd, 2008, 3:22pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Unsuspecting criminals with GPS devices are sharing far more than they may think in their satnav devices. Deleted data, it turns out, is not deleted in some cases, meaning detectives can track past destinations. Further, if used in conjunction with a cell phones, the devices may store old phone records of incoming and outgoing calls. TomTom was not aware of London's Metropolitan Police reporting on the use of devices in crime investigation in a scholarly journal (Digital Investigation). The company states they only turn over data with a court order.

Also of note: Met detectives learned the tricks of the trade from GPS wikis that detail how to share POIs and the like.

- New Scientist
SatNav Teddy Bear

Posted: June 5th, 2008, 3:20pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

iXs Research Corporation did things right. It licensed a patent from Fujitsu, which holds rights to "doll-based" navigation. Then it built a 1 foot articulated bear that can point in the direction to go and speak the details. There no mention of how you program the bear, nor about its antenna(e) to received signals, but the bear is apparently equipped with an alcohol sensor.

Hoax? Hard to tell as it's sourced to a Japanese article by Pink Tentacle. The company's English site is quite dated and the Japanese version does not seem to note the product in it's news section. The bear was introduced, per Pink Tentacle on June 3. (Of course, some companies are not able to update their websites when they launch new products...) The bear does have history: 2006 on Engadget, when the bear was white, not brown, like that noted above.
DASH Price Drop: Now the GPS Unit is $300

Posted: June 2nd, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

The original price via the company and on Amazon was $400. Recall that the Internet-connected nav system also requires a monthly fee. Now, Amazon is offing it for $300, but the DASH site is still $400. Engadget wonders if the price drop is due to low sales. Most reviews have been positive, though many noted a rather steep price. The original list was to be $600, but at lease it was $400.
Australian Police: Take a Map Along when using SatNav

Posted: May 30th, 2008, 2:20pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Reminiscent of this post describing Scottish officials warning ambulances not to trust satnavs, come this story from Australia. After several incidents were motorists were lead onto unsuitable roads in rural areas, The Age newspaper reports:

Police are now urging motorists to take maps instead of blindly following instructions from a GPS.

These warnings will no doubt increase, but it doesn't seem to impact GPS purchases or perhaps common sense.
Scottish Ambulance: Use Maps, local knowledge, then Satnav

Posted: May 19th, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

A memo leaked to the Sunday Mail from the Scottish Ambulance Service details how drivers are to use maps over in car devices installed a year ago in 460 vehicles at the cost of L5 million. In particular the memo states:

"The system will guide you through the main route, which is not always necessarily the most direct or quickest possible.
"The systemis most effective once you are in close proximity to the address and is an aid to finding the correct location.
"A map route should always be used and should be available."

Saturday night the Ambulance Service stated:

"The satellite navigation system is not the primary navigational aide for staff.
"Drivers are advised to use ordinance survey maps and local knowledge.
"The mapping system we use, however, is constantly updated."

The devices were installed in reaction to an incident where an ambulance got lost and could not save a teen in a rural area after an accident in 2001. One paramedic clearly understands when the devices are helpful:

"It's only useful for finding remote or difficult locations like farms and country cottages or if you are lost.
"In most cases drivers know where they are going so there is no need to use it.
Consumer Reports Gives Garmin 3 of Top Five Satnavs

Posted: May 8th, 2008, 4:00pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Rounding out the top five scoring units were the Garmin Nuvi 760 ($600), Garmin Nuvi 660 ($500), TomTom Go 920T, ($650), Garmin Nuvi 350 ($350), and Magellan Maestro 4250 ($400).

- Kansas City InfoZine
Is sharing user generated content social networking?

Posted: May 5th, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

I ask that question based on a discussion of POIFriend.com, a site that let's anyone share points of interest with others for use in websites and GPS units. There are social aspects - visitors can comment, join groups, create avatars, and send updates to those who originate POI lists. Is that enough to make it a social networking site?

Also noteworthy: the site's business model: paid listings, but no ads.

- Digital Journal
Audio Stories for SatNav "Tied" to Location

Posted: May 1st, 2008, 3:56pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

The project is called 230 Miles of Love (that's the length of the UK's M6 highway). You can download, for free, "satcoms" short skits, that play (manually or automatically, depending on your satnav device). Some stories, reports the Guardian blog are more location connected than others. Donations for charity are accepted. I'm not sure how compelling this is, but clearly folks are looking for new ways to link "new media."
Shouldn't this data be freely available?

Posted: April 24th, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and the Tampa Bay Estuary Programs Manatee Awareness Coalition (MAC) want to save manatees. But for years, no mapping company's would put the manatee and homeland security zones in Tampa Bay on the navigation maps. But now Garmin is. The information is on all new chart plotters and updated SD cards.

Kipp Frohlich, leader of the FWCs Imperiled Species Management Section, said This marks a breakthrough that can save a lot of manatees. We tried unsuccessfully for years to get any mapping company to put the zones in their map covers. Garmin stepped up to the plate and did it.

This is a great story and I do appreciate that Garmin stepped up, but if we all really want to save manatees, shouldn't this data be freely available to install on any unit? Perhaps that's naive and it's not how the boating navigation GPSs/charting tools work, but I thought I'd ask.

- TCPalm
If you think there should be....

Posted: April 9th, 2008, 2:52pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

My Mom (now retired) was a librarian. She taught me early on that if I thought there should be a book about some topic, there probably was. She was right, of course. These days I tell people if they think there should be a website or mashup about some topic there probably is, though it might harder to find than books in the library. Now we are getting to the point where we can almost say "if you think there should be a spatial data set on a topic, there probably is."

This was driven home to me today when I read this press release about a free website and for-fee downloads for sat navs of points of interest for celiacs (folks intolerant to gluten). You can download for $5 or $10 per state locations of bakeries, groceries, restaurants and the like that cater to celiacs.

As I don't have a satnav I've not researched this, but is there a clearinghouse for such offerings? That is, does someone offer an index to all the POI layers downloadable for satnavs, perhaps by brand? The one noted about is "CSV formatted as points-of-interest (POI) for your Garmin or Navman."
New Tool to Combat GPS Theft?

Posted: April 7th, 2008, 5:00pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

A mostly "old news" article from CBS News talks about GPS thefts and advice to prevent them. (Don't leave them in plain site; wipe off "fingerprints" of suction cups.) But, ends the article with this:

GPS manufacturers like Garmin and TomTom are trying to make their products less tempting to steal. New models now require you to enter a 4-digit pin number to work, the hope being if thieves know they can't use it, maybe they won't steal it.

Think that'll work?
Theives Using Stolen GPSs to Pin Point Homes to Target

Posted: March 17th, 2008, 12:00pm CET

Tags: Satellite Navigation

The Age reports on such occurrences in Britain and suggests they may happen worldwide. If the device is found in a car far from home, it may be a good time to visit the house for further thievery. The article suggests securing the private info (like your home address) on the devices (if in car) and keeping removable devices out of sight.
Quote of the Week

Posted: March 11th, 2008, 2:05pm CET

Tags: Navigation Satellite

"Computer-aided Surgery: Assessing the Accuracy of a Navigation System"

- Title of a paper from ORTHOPEDICS reprinted at OrthoSuperSite that deals with orthopedic surgery. Does this give people confidence?
Quote of the Week

Posted: February 27th, 2008, 3:08pm CET

Tags: Satellite Navigation

A researcher at Chrysler told me that navigational systems in cars have an 80%-20% rule, only it's more like 95%-5%. 95% of the time gps is used by 5% of the people, and the majority of those folks are salesmen, and on the road most of the time. 95% of the time we get into our car, we know how to get to where we are going, and don't need directions. This may be changing as features like "best route" and "congestion avoidance" are added, but still seems to ring true.

- Leslie Rule writing at Media Shift Idea Lab (a PBS blog)
TomTom Offers More Options for Sharing

Posted: February 13th, 2008, 1:00pm CET

Tags: Satellite Navigation

TomTom Home got better today. Geekzone offers details.

First off users can share goodies like voices, routes, POIs, etc.

Second, they can rate the content.

Third, there's now automatic update of content already downloaded: "if someone updates a POI set of favourite restaurants, their changes would automatically be sent out to TomTom HOME users who have previously downloaded that set."

Map Share got updates, too. It's possible to request updates based on areas of interest (by country/region) to save space. There's also "a status indicator which keeps users informed on how up to date their maps are."

TomTom is doing everything right to create a community around its nav device. I can't wait to see how this plays out once Tele Atlas is involved.

- via Jalopnik

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45 items tagged "Navigation and Satellite"

Posted: November 17th, 2008, 2:39pm CET

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Posted: November 11th, 2008, 1:00pm CET

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Posted: November 6th, 2008, 2:51am CET

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Posted: November 4th, 2008, 2:06pm CET

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Posted: October 30th, 2008, 1:22pm CET

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Posted: October 29th, 2008, 1:47pm CET

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Posted: October 28th, 2008, 6:33pm CET

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Posted: October 21st, 2008, 4:02pm CEST

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Posted: October 17th, 2008, 2:55pm CEST

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Posted: October 16th, 2008, 3:02pm CEST

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Posted: October 6th, 2008, 2:08pm CEST

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Posted: October 6th, 2008, 1:32pm CEST

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Posted: October 2nd, 2008, 2:38pm CEST

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Posted: October 1st, 2008, 1:28pm CEST

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Posted: September 30th, 2008, 2:23pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Posted: September 18th, 2008, 2:55pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Posted: September 8th, 2008, 2:00pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Posted: September 5th, 2008, 2:00pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Posted: September 5th, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Posted: September 3rd, 2008, 12:56pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Posted: August 29th, 2008, 1:35pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Posted: August 21st, 2008, 2:33pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Posted: August 19th, 2008, 2:25pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Posted: August 9th, 2008, 3:56am CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Posted: August 6th, 2008, 6:02pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Posted: July 29th, 2008, 1:51pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Posted: July 23rd, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Posted: July 22nd, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Posted: July 11th, 2008, 3:31pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Posted: July 7th, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Posted: July 3rd, 2008, 3:22pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Posted: June 5th, 2008, 3:20pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Posted: June 2nd, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Posted: May 30th, 2008, 2:20pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Posted: May 19th, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Posted: May 8th, 2008, 4:00pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Posted: May 5th, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Posted: May 1st, 2008, 3:56pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Posted: April 24th, 2008, 1:00pm CEST