Comparing to other devices the latest Holux GPS system doesn’t have anything new in terms of features, the design is probably the most unique point, being that all the other specifications are normal to high-end GPS systems.

Anyhow, the GPSmile 55 comes with the familiar 4.3” touch screen, which is a must-have for any GPS system. Other details on the connectivity options include bluetooth so you can get the “hands-free” calling system, and on the memory choices you can use a SD card to expand the storage capacity.

Windows CE 5.0 is the operative system being used on the Holux GPSmile 55, which goes along with the Samsung CPU running at 400Mhz (code-name S3C2440A). The battery life seems too good to be true, 10 hours using a 2600mHa battery. Last but not least, TMC traffic information is also available. Rumors mention a release date on early 2008.

ASUS R3
In other related GPS news, Asus has recently presented the R3 which is a UMPC (Ultra Mobile PC) with GPS capabilities. Sadly there isn’t many information besides the 4.8” screen that gives a 1024*600 resolution, a built-in webcam, and a fingerprint reader for the most cautious ones.

Navi Clip
All the way from Japan, more exactly from a company named IO DATA, comes a USB that also features GPS. It only weighs 18 grams and is pretty small, measuring 53×24×11mm. The IO DATA Navi Clip has a price tag of approximately $200 and will become available next week.

Source: Coolest Gadgets

We see a variant on this story about once a month: A GPS system told me to drive my car into a lake. A GPS system told me to run my car into a building. A GPS system told me to make endless U-turns and eventually I ran out of gas. This time, a British woman trusted her GPS when it told her to drive her car onto a set of train tracks. When the train smashed into her car it was carried half a mile down the line. The driver escaped without injury (as she wasn’t in the car when it was hit).

The good news is that the driver wasn’t completely daft: She didn’t actually drive along the train tracks as if it was a road. Rather, she came to a metal gate market with a red circle, got out of her car, opened the gate, drove forward onto the tracks, then got out to open another gate blocking the way, only then noticing the locomotive bearing down on her.

Every GPS system includes countless warnings about using the device responsibly, something to the effect of checking for real road conditions and using common sense when following the instructions of a GPS device. Remember that GPSes are not infallible: They make the best guess about how to get from point A to point B the same way you would if you were looking at a map of a foreign area. And GPS maps can often be two to five years out of date, especially when displaying points of interest like restaurants and gas stations.

Source: Yahoo! Tech

BMW has just thought of a good idea: why not give those snooty BMW owners who insist on calling their cars “beemers” the ability to send Google Maps street addresses to the car, which are then immediately input into its GPS system?

BMW Assist can receive messages that look a lot like email in the car, which might have dubious value otherwise, but when you’re thinking about how you must write down addresses on little slips of paper and then re-enter them into a car GPS system, this starts to make sense. Check out the video and some fresh commentary, after the jump.

Thinking about this a little more, there’s that problem of people checking these messages as they barrel down the Autobahn at 160mph. Maybe there’s a way to disable this function once the car’s speed surpasses 150 mph. But then, that’s not that much different from just simply playing with a GPS system while driving, or talking on a cellphone. We’re just hoping that soon our robot overlords will learn how to drive.

Source: Gizmodo

The Kansas City, Kan., Public Schools District will have an easier time monitoring the activities of each individual school bus and students who travel those buses.

Kansas City, Kan., Public Schools District buses are easy to keep track of when parked at the bus barn, but for the rest of the time the district has installed GPS locators in each bus
Global Positioning Systems were installed on the district’s school buses earlier this year, and a report was given to the board of education at its meeting Tuesday evening.

The GPS will allow monitoring the speed and location of each bus, while the tracker will refresh itself every 30 seconds.

“I can identify if the bus was doing 37, 40 or 45 miles per hour,” said George Taylor, the district’s director of transportation. “I can know about the time and be pro-active, and say (to a driver), ‘You shouldn’t be in that location.’ I can use that as a disciplinary tool.”

Tracking of the buses can be viewed with computer software, in which the screen refreshes every half-minute.

“We will be able to know where all our buses are,” said Cynthia Lane, assistant superintendent for business and instructional support services.

Additionally, the GPS will function as time cards for the bus drivers.

The district is also undergoing a pilot program regarding using ID cards for students. The ID card would function as a tool to help track the time and location of each student as he or she exits the bus.

“This would let us know when each student gets off the bus,” said Taylor.

If a student forgets an ID card, the student could enter their number into a keypad before entering the bus.

The district believes the cards, and the buses’ GPS system, will be most useful during the evening hours, when activity buses are traveling to athletic events.

Click Here To Shop For GPS at Vanns.com!

Source: By NICK SLOAN, Kansan Staff Writer

The Lowrance iFinder GPS is an affordable GPS navigator that includes all the features you need to get around. Due to its portability, it is a good choice for hikers, cyclists, and road trippers. It’s so simple, just plot a route via the easy-to-use keypad, and the iFinder Go follows the path precisely, with intuitive navigating that keeps you from veering off course.

The navigator is so reliable that its 16 parallel channel GPS and WAAS receiver is accurate to within several meters, making it a great fit for scavenger hunts as well as hikes. Each trip is completely customizable, with the ability to create new routes, waypoints, trails, and more. You can also easily recalculate your trip route should you get distracted and lose your way, and thanks to the 32 MB of built-in memory, you can save and retrace up to 100 of your favorite plot trails, with up to 10,000 points in each path.

The device holds more than just previous routes, however. It also comes preloaded with a background map of the continental U.S. and Hawaii, with such features as coastal nav aids, wrecks, and obstructions. In addition, the device supports up to 1,000 waypoints, 1,000 event markers, and 100 routes. Users with a zest for detail will appreciate the 40 map zoom ranges (from 0.02 to 4,000 miles) and the 42 graphic icons used to mark special spots.

To top it off, the iFinder Go’s bright yellow housing is waterproof, so you can use it in the rain or safely store it in your pack when rafting. Additional features include a 2-inch white LED backlit screen with 200 x 140 resolution, internal backup memory for storing your GPS data and settings, and a wrist-strap accessory. The pocket-sized unit measures 2.12 by 5.15 by 1.24 inches (W by H by D) and runs for up to 48 hours on two AA batteries (not included). It also includes a one-year warranty.

iFinder GPS Go Waterproof 16 iFinder GPS Go Waterproof 16, Now you can enjoy the biggest, easy-to-use, 16-channel compact GPS handheld performance — with built-in mapping detail — for the smallest price ever

GPS Navigation for Palm OS

Have you ever taken a GPS reading of your current, stationary position to get your coordinates? Chances are, if you stayed in that spot for a while you would see the numbers change ever so slightly. Also the unit might tell you that you are moving with speed and direction changing all the time. To try it, take a hand held unit outdoors, pick up the satellite signals and watch the readout. Why the apparent movement? Isn’t GPS the wonder locater that can tell us exactly and precisely where we are? Isn’t this the technology that is built into our car navigation systems? Isn’t this the technology that can guide a Smart Bomb through a knot hole?

The answer is yes to all the above but there are some limitations. To understand why, we need to understand a little about how the GPS system works.

The GPS systems consists of a constellation of 24 satellites circling the earth at an altitude of about 12,000 miles. Each satellite will orbit the earth twice a day, orbiting approximately the same position on each second orbit. This is important because it makes it possible to create a calendar of appearances for any given spot on earth. Then you turn your GPS unit off it remembers where it was and the calendar for that spot. When it starts up again it begins looking for the specific satellites that will be visible at that location and time. In GPS speak it is called the Satellite Almanac. A minimum of 4 satellites is in view of every point on earth except the North and South polar regions. Each satellite broadcasts its position and the orbital data (almanac) for all the satellites in orbit. In addition, each satellite is equipped with an atomic clock that is very accurate. Ground control stations continuously monitor the satellites, synchronize their clocks and update their position reports every few hours.

The ground receiver compares the time signal from the satellites it is monitoring with it’s own clock and the tracking information it has received. By using this data it is able to compute its position on the earth to within 30 to 50 feet. In order to do this it must know exactly where the satellite is and how long it took for the signals to arrive to within a few billionths of a second (at the speed of light, the radio signal will travel approximately one foot every billionth of a second). By comparing the distance from at least three satellites the precise location on earth can be quickly computed.

There are several flies in the ointment that keep the calculation changing just a little bit. The atmosphere is dynamic and will affect the time it takes to reach the receiver. The satellite is moving at 7,000 miles per hour, changing the path the signal travels. If there are buildings or surface features in the area, the signal may bounce and therefore travel a longer distance. The satellites being used for measurement will change as they move beyond the horizon. The clock in the receiver is not as stable as the satellite clocks, introducing a slight variation. Lastly, the orbital information of the satellites may be several hours old and not totally accurate. In fact, for the most demanding precision bombing in Iraq, the GPS satellite clocks and orbital data needed to be updated immediately before the attack took place.

It is amazing that with all the possible sources of error it is still possible to pinpoint ones location to within a few feet using signals sent from thousands of miles up in space.

Using more advanced equipment it is now possible to reduce the error to a few inches instead of feet. This capability is beginning too change the way commercial aircraft are navigating making much of the current FAA control system obsolete.

So, if your hand held GPS unit takes a short walk, just reflect on the miracle that it is the only thing that is stationary while everything it depends upon is moving many thousands of miles into space at thousands of miles per hour.

Source: Brian Utley - Technology Evangelist

It may not have the gossipy appeal of the Brad/Angelina/Jennifer soap opera, but a seven-year study on advanced highway traffic safety technologies released by the U.S. Department of Transportation late last year could radically affect the safety — and convenience — systems available to Canadian drivers in the future.

The final report of the Intelligent Vehicle Initiative found that one way to decrease fatalities as well as road congestion is to include global positioning systems (GPS) units and wireless communication devices in every vehicle sold in the United States, as well as to integrate other sensors into highways and intersections so that warnings could be transmitted to the driver of upcoming dangerous scenarios, or that the vehicle is dangerously close to leaving the road.

U.S. auto safety legislation tends have significant influence on Canadians because the technology and features that are mandated south of the border almost always find their way into Canadian vehicles, which almost invariably are produced on the same assembly lines.

For example, since the United States mandated that frontal airbags become standard equipment in all vehicles in that country — since September, 1998 — such bags have appeared in every new consumer vehicle on the Canadian market, even though there is no law on Canadian books requiring them.

Transport Canada sets crash and air bag deployment standards, if so equipped, but doesn’t specify what equipment is needed to achieve these crash standards.

Even if the Canadian or provincial governments can’t or don’t invest in the “intelligent” road and highway sensors needed to provide all the safety and traffic enhancements envisaged by the U.S. report, if auto makers do equip all Canadian vehicles with a GPS unit, it has the potential to radically increase the availability of advanced convenience features such as satellite radio, GPS navigation systems, automatic toll collection and in-vehicle internet accessibility.

GPS units in vehicles are coming down in price as they grow in popularity, but are still far from reaching overall market penetration.

The report is part of the U.S. government’s Intelligent Transportation System program, whose main goals are to decrease fatalities on American roads while simultaneously helping to alleviate congestion issues.

The study was done in co-operation with nearly all the major auto manufacturers in the United States, as well as with government, auto parts and university research partners.

No specific timelines for the implementation of these technologies were made in the report, but estimates of overall ITS implementation by the U.S. DOT have pegged public safety benefits to occur by the end of 2009.

Source: By MICHAEL BETTENCOURT - Globe and Mail Update