On Sept 25 a new GPS satellite was launched which was the first of eight new GPS satellites. More information is available via Telematics Journal
Via Engadget – Air Force launches new GPS IIR satellite – Engadget – www.engadget.com
A VerySpatial Podcast – Episode 413
Book Corner: Programming ArcGIS 10.1 with Python Cookbook
A VerySpatial Evening 2013 – Details
A VerySpatial Podcast – Episode 412
Space Between My Ears – The Geography of Cars
Category Archives: Navigation
GPS for tracking panda mating behavior
That’s right, a joint project between Chinese and US zoological institutes will be using GPS to track pandas in the wild to learn more about their sex habits. I guess it’s true that privacy is a thing of the past…..
via CNN.com
Pay-As-You-Go GPS
A British company is rolling out (no pun intended) a Pay-as-you-go GPS/Navigation system for cell phones. The vision is for it to be used by motorists in an ad hoc fashion to avoid traffic. What I think is interesting is all the computation is done back at the server end with the result pushed to the phone. They call it “off-board” navigation. I wonder if it could compete well with on all the time products like Onstar?
Via Piston Heads
Real-time Ship Tracking
IBM and Maersk (Danish shipping company) announced they are teaming up on a project to provide real-time wireless tracking for cargo ships, via a device attached to individual cargo containers. They’re actually going to start testing this fall.
Read the article here
(via abcnews.com)
Paying your highway tolls via satellite?
I just saw this article on Geocommunity. Apparently , a private company called Mapflow is teaming up with the Dublin Transportation Office (Ireland) to do a feasibility study on the use of satellite technology to track cars in real-time, and then charge drivers for the distance they travelled on the toll road. The study is also being funded by the European Space Agency. Yeah……. I think I will leave it at that, and let you read the article
http://spatialnews.geocomm.com/dailynews/2005/sep/19/news2.html
Is there a list to get on to play with the cool new stuff?
This GPS unit looks fun. A combination of GPS, MP3 player, with PDA functions tossed in. Though the price tag might be a little high.
Garmin’s nüvi, $970 hand-held multi-function GPS – Engadget – www.engadget.com
Sprint Precision Locator keeps track of employees via GPS
Engadget has an entry on the joys of having your boss always know where you are thanks to Sprint, unless of course you “accidentally” forget your phone.
Sprint Precision Locator keeps track of employees via GPS – Engadget – www.engadget.com
Boost Mobile introduces GPS-based games
On Monday, Boost Mobile launched their new GPS-based games, Swordfish and Torpedo Bay by Blister Entertainment. According to the article, “Starting today, Boost customers are the first and only mobile phone users in the nation to be able to download and play location-based GPS (Global Positioning System) games on their wireless phones.”
GPS added to school buses
While the use of GPS to track and route vehicles for corporations such as UPS and FedEx is nothing, it is always nice to see these technologies filter down to an everyday use.
gps.engadget.com
There are several other Geography related blogs out there. While some of these are listed in the BlogRoll on the right, below this is not a complete list. As I continue to get the site set up I will include a page of links to many of these blogs and sites. For now, here is a link to Engadget’s GPS blog. I go to Engadget a couple of times a day just to see what is new in the world of technology.