A few of our more active forum members have started using some of the new Motorola GPS devices such as the Motorola Motonav TN765t which was reviewed by one of our moderators, gatorguy. While I still have doubts about the longevity of Motorola in the GPS market, the device is quite interesting and offers a [...]

Last week Chip at DeLorme was kind enough to give me a sneak peak at the new PN-60w SE with SPOT messenger. For those catching up, what is most unique about this setup is that you can send custom text messages from the GPS through a special SPOT messenger. So if you are running late [...]

TomTom’s new iPhone app is now out at version 1.4. Most notably the new version includes support for the new Apple iOS 4 and adds a host of new features. Most notably on iPhones that support multitasking the new app allows seamlessly taking and placing calls without leaving voice prompts behind. A few other new [...]

Now that the multitasking version of Apple’s iOS is almost here, Navigon has released details surrounding an upcoming version of their Mobile Navigator iPhone app which will of course support multitasking. While you could previously accept a call and then with a couple of taps jump back into navigation, the process is much more seamless [...]

While it was nearly a year and a half ago when Dash announced they were no longer going to build their infamous Dash Express, they have continued to provide service and limited support for the product. Today we have learned that too will end on June 30. In a letter sent to current Dash subscribers, [...]

I’m a sucker for science, testing, and of course the MythBusters. On last night’s episode they tested the “right turn myth”– basically the way they framed the myth was to determine if it is more efficient to make three right turns rather than to make one left turn. Having discussed this issue several times in [...]

Following TomTom and Garmin, Magellan is now offering new GPS models that include map updates. A few different flavors are available, for example the RoadMate 3045-LM offers lifetime map updates included while the RoadMate 3045-MU offers a single free map update. The “rules” for the single map update go like this: Map update program entitles [...]

A paragraph from this press release caught my eye. Unlike other GPS units, [this GPS] has the ability to update maps on-line by connecting the unit to a PC using the mini USB cable provided. Through this configuration, the user is able to download maps and map updates While a few GPS companies have come [...]

With the proliferation of smartphones, iPhones, and iPad devices with GPS capabilities, many people are asking about Assisted GPS, also known as A-GPS. Does it use the “regular” GPS satellites? Is it as good as GPS? Since it is “assisted” is it better than GPS? Before we begin, you might want to check out a [...]

Recently in our forums a member came across statistics from the FBI NCIC (National Crime Information Center) showing reported GPS thefts by state. The data covers just about the past two years and there are a couple of important points about the data. First, they only looked at GPS devices where the reported value was [...]

Qualcomm's Vision of the Wireless Future "When he finished, there were 20 brand-new, CDMA-based mobile handsets and devices arrayed on the table, the high-tech souvenirs of Belk's most recent trip to Hong Kong and Japan.... 'These are not PowerPoint slides,' Belk said. 'These are real devices that are already shipping in volume in Asia.' " [at Business 2.0]

And there's the rub. When I do my presentations, that's all I have - pictures of prototypes or of devices not available in the U.S.  Europe and Asia really are 18 months ahead of us in this area.

"Beale also discussed Qualcomm's gpsOne location technology....  It also opens the door for many new location-based services, such as traffic information and local weather forecasts. On Japan KDDI's network, there are already more than 20 location-based services available -- all of which are relatively inexpensive, costing less than $5 per month."

I'm looking forward to being able to travel and have information come to me automatically based on my location. For example, if I'm at a conference and I'm looking for a restaurant, I'd like my phone/PDA/whatever to know where I am and offer a list of nearby choices. Maybe it should tell me what movies or plays are on tonight and if there are still tickets available.  You get the idea....

"Predictably, both Belk and Beale anticipate strong growth for the wireless industry as ever-more-compelling products and services become available and the industry settles on a single communication standard. How long will that take? Belk, whose career began in the personal computing business in 1983, likened the wireless industry today to the PC business of the 1980s. 'I wouldn't worry about the wireless industry yet, it's still relatively young,' he said. 'Just look how long it took the PC industry just to get to the point of standardized parallel cables.' "

Not to beat a dead horse, but the ebook industry is even younger than PCs, and PDAs have really only come into their own during the last few years. So don't count any of these technologies out just yet.

Global Positioning Systems offer everything from hole overviews to Internet access "Shortgrass Technologies' Internet-based sports information system and financial ticker enables golfers to check college football scores on a Saturday afternoon or the price of stocks any weekday. Global positioning systems can track golf cars no matter where they are on the course, thus discovering bottlenecks and slower play. Golfers can order beverages and food en route to the turn, so golf clubs can offer more than a quick hot dog - a higher priced chicken sandwich, for instance...."

I always thought that GPS would go mainstream in automobiles first, and in a way I suppose it has, but maybe golfers will lead the real charge. I could have used a portable, library-centered GPS system myself to navigate the Chicago Public Library's Harold Washington Library when I was there last fall!

Write Here, Write Now: And you thought you were overloaded with information now, just wait. Hewlett Packard is working on a technology to let folks print messages in mid-air based on their location incorporating GPS technology.  I find this stuff fascinating, even if no one seems to have thought of a good use for it yet.  The first sentence of the article is right, though: "The kids are going to love this." [in New Scientist via RCPL's Liblog]

When the ALA summer conference was in San Francisco in 1997, the SF Museum of Modern Art had a fascinating exhibit called Icons: Magnets of Meaning.  I spent hours browsing through it, but one of the pieces that has always stuck in my mind was called @: Marking the Electrosphere .  It talked about the meaning of that one little symbol.  How it can define, place, and root you in the world, but at the same time let you be found anywhere.  Integrated, widespread use of GPS is going to take this to a whole new level.

Lots of interesting articles from today's PC World. First up, Microsoft Takes on MapQuest: "MSN launches MapPoint online mapping service, offering maps, directions, and more."

Apparently this is going to be yet another component of MS' push for .Net services with hooks into other MSN services.  MapPoint is XML-based, which makes it interesting in other ways, and there it launches with a phone-based direction service. The articles notes that this is another step towards location-based services. "For example, you might someday be able to click on a Windows Messenger buddy's name and retrieve a map showing the location of his or her home."

Good or bad?  You make the call.  I like parts of this, but I'm incredibly wary of .Net.

The Magellan SporTrak GPS is particularly designed for the outdoor junkies. The Magellan SporTrak GPS is a scraggy handsome, bunched, lightweight and waterproof Magellan handheld product. Aside from the Magellan SporTrak GPS's stuffy overall feature, the Magellan SporTrak GPS is accurate within three meters and has nine large visual navigation display that are easy to read and with a front facing keypad that makes the Magellan SporTrak GPS easy to use in any atmosphere. With such significant features, the Magellan SporTrak GPS will surely lead one safely and securely to get to the harbor and back with a heightened level of excitement and enjoyment to the adventure.

In this paper, the author mentions and discusses only few of the well-known GPS mapping equipments that most of the people nowadays used. One of the notable GPS mapping equipment is the Trimble EZ-Map software that is commonly used in agricultural undertakings. Just like some of the GPS mapping equipments that is widely applied in some other GPS fields, this certain GPS mapping equipment helps to locate areas where work is to be done as well as giving hints for locations for future purposes.

The Garmin eTrex GPS is just a small size unit that will guide one to the right destination and will navigate to back home. Amazingly, the Garmin eTrex GPS which is indeed a small wonder gets the wonderful highlights of a 12 proportioned channel GPS receiver that can be placed into a small pouch that is about four inches high and two inches wide. As such, the Garmin eTrex GPS will surely give one a comfortable feeling for the Garmin eTrex GPS's handy features. This paper will provide information about the Garmin eTrex GPS.

The Garmin GPS system is widely known across the Unites States for its great innovations in the field of navigation and electronics. In fact, many supporting claims about the wonder given by the Garmin GPS system were out and continue to win the interest of most people for the Garmin GPS system. However, there are so many people who still are not familiar with the Garmin GPS system and how the Garmin GPS system works. For the Garmin GPS system's strong commitment to navigation and electronics, the company further introduced some new innovations made by the Garmin GPS system.

This paper provides information about some of the recommended best GPS systems that are available today. The GPS systems discussed in this paper are just among the best of the best GPS systems that most of the GPS companies offered. Some of them are Garmin Quest GPS receiver, Garmin StreetPilot 2610, Magellan eXplorist 200 GPS receiver and Lowrance iWAY 500C.

Wi-Fi based hotspots offer mobile users broadband wireless Internet connectivity in public work spaces and corporate/ university campuses. Despite aggressive deployment of these hotspots in recent years, high-speed wireless Internet access remains restricted to a small number of geographical areas because of limited physical coverage of wireless LANs. On the other hand, despite their lower throughput, cellular networks have a significantly wider coverage and are thus much more available. Recognizing that 2.5G or 3G cellular networks can effectively complement wireless LANs, the authors set out to develop a vertical handoff system that allows mobile users to seamlessly fall back to such cellular networks as GPRS or 3G whenever wireless LAN connectivity is not available.

This paper investigates the Probability-Of-Detection (POD) performance of a novel Wireless Local Positioning System (WLPS) realized via Direct Sequence Code Division Multiple Access (DS-CDMA) and beamforming techniques. The proposed WLPS has unique signaling schemes that discriminate it from the traditional wireless systems and allows the WLPS to have many civilian and military applications. The WLPS consists of two main parts: the detecting unit, a base station carried by a mobile unit defined as Dynamic Base Station (DBS), and the being detected unit, a TRansponder (TRX) that is mounted on the targets, each assigned a unique IDentification code (ID code).

This paper presents a general analysis for the performance of WLAN location determination systems. WLAN locations determination systems estimate the user location using software-based techniques in a WLAN environment. The paper presents an analytical method for calculating the average distance error and probability of error of WLAN location determination systems. These expressions are obtained with no assumptions regarding the distribution of signal strength or the probability of the user being at a specific location, which is usually taken to be a uniform distribution over all the possible locations in current WLAN location determination systems.

This paper considers Quality-of-Service (QoS) issues in distributed network-based automation. Recent advances in distributed automation and overall use of modern ICT technologies have raised new kinds of QoS problems. Also the term service is changing due to the overall integration between automation and other information systems. This paper gives an outline of the QoS field in automation and discusses its important features and research problems. A GPRS network measurement example is also given.

Regardless of the wireless technology used, the same rule applies: The more subscribers, minutes and megabytes that a cell site can handle, the lower the operator's cost to deliver those services. Lower overhead costs in turn determine the operator's ability to price voice and data services competitively and still turn a profit. This white paper uses simulations to discuss how the evolution of the CDMA2000 and GSM families of technologies will affect their voice and data performance, including their spectral efficiency when delivering those services. While different technologies have distinct evolution strategies and different constraints, voice and data capacity will significantly improve with technology advancements in the coming years.

Wi-Fi based hotspots offer mobile users broadband wireless Internet connectivity in public work spaces and corporate/ university campuses. Despite aggressive deployment of these hotspots in recent years, high-speed wireless Internet access remains restricted to a small number of geographical areas because of limited physical coverage of wireless LANs. On the other hand, despite their lower throughput, cellular networks have a significantly wider coverage and are thus much more available. Recognizing that 2.5G or 3G cellular networks can effectively complement wireless LANs, the authors set out to develop a vertical handoff system that allows mobile users to seamlessly fall back to such cellular networks as GPRS or 3G whenever wireless LAN connectivity is not available.

This paper investigates the Probability-Of-Detection (POD) performance of a novel Wireless Local Positioning System (WLPS) realized via Direct Sequence Code Division Multiple Access (DS-CDMA) and beamforming techniques. The proposed WLPS has unique signaling schemes that discriminate it from the traditional wireless systems and allows the WLPS to have many civilian and military applications. The WLPS consists of two main parts: the detecting unit, a base station carried by a mobile unit defined as Dynamic Base Station (DBS), and the being detected unit, a TRansponder (TRX) that is mounted on the targets, each assigned a unique IDentification code (ID code).

This paper presents a general analysis for the performance of WLAN location determination systems. WLAN locations determination systems estimate the user location using software-based techniques in a WLAN environment. The paper presents an analytical method for calculating the average distance error and probability of error of WLAN location determination systems. These expressions are obtained with no assumptions regarding the distribution of signal strength or the probability of the user being at a specific location, which is usually taken to be a uniform distribution over all the possible locations in current WLAN location determination systems.

This paper considers Quality-of-Service (QoS) issues in distributed network-based automation. Recent advances in distributed automation and overall use of modern ICT technologies have raised new kinds of QoS problems. Also the term service is changing due to the overall integration between automation and other information systems. This paper gives an outline of the QoS field in automation and discusses its important features and research problems. A GPRS network measurement example is also given.

Regardless of the wireless technology used, the same rule applies: The more subscribers, minutes and megabytes that a cell site can handle, the lower the operator's cost to deliver those services. Lower overhead costs in turn determine the operator's ability to price voice and data services competitively and still turn a profit. This white paper uses simulations to discuss how the evolution of the CDMA2000 and GSM families of technologies will affect their voice and data performance, including their spectral efficiency when delivering those services. While different technologies have distinct evolution strategies and different constraints, voice and data capacity will significantly improve with technology advancements in the coming years.

Unit and platform for mobile resource management connects with an expanded array of external devices and sensors.

Rugged receiver features an electronic compass, altimeter, barometer, thermometer, USB port, and SD memory slot.

Touch screen GPS system gives on-dash route guidance with map-based turn-by-turn directions and voice prompts.

iWay 500C on-dash automotive system precision, auto-routing, turn-by-turn navigation with visual and voice prompts.

Positioning technologies, software, and digital levels provide high accuracy and close tolerances.

Sensitive receivers that support accurate telematics mobile location, tracking, and monitoring navigation applications.

Worldwide basemap coverage for precise positioning, one-person operation, and no line-of-sight requirement between points.

Field configurable, battery operated, ready-to-go telemetry device provides reliable asset and fleet management.

Receives accuracy-enhancing differential signals from ground-based beacon stations and from space-based augmentation systems to achieve sub-meter positioning accuracy.

Has no line of sight requirements, is accurate to within twenty meters, and can be used indoors or outdoors to determine location in seconds.

Website Maintenance has now completed, all DNS records are now pointing to the new server and email is being received.

Apologies for any disruption. Thanks for understanding!

Please note for the next 72 hours you may find it difficult to reach this website. The forums will still be available here, but I'm making some DNS changes to make the site more stable and to move it completely over to my Linux server.

Apologies for any disruption, but hopefully it shouldn't take more than a couple of hours within the next 72 hours, it just depends on how quickly other authoritive DNS servers around the internet update their records (hopefully very quickly!).

Thanks for understanding!

The Speed Camera August Update for CoPilot courtesy of PocketGPSWorld.com is now available!

Please check the CoPilot Support Website for more information on how to download and where to download from.

This is for Pocket PC 5.0.1.48 and SmartPhone 1.0.1.69 ONLY! If you don't have these versions installed, please make sure you have upgraded before trying to apply these!!!

You can now view DaveBurrowsForums.com from your PDA! All you need to do is log into the forums from your PDA (Or PC), go into PROFILE and change the STYLE from SUBSILVER to PHPBBLITE.

This will change the view of the forums to a better PDA style view and be saved against your profile. If you want to change it back, simply change from PHPBBLITE to SUBSILVER in PROFILES and voila!

If you want to view the forums using both, you may want to create a specific PDA userid to allow your PC to still view in full format.

Go to the forums and check it out!

Comments ?

Anyone that knows me knows I love technology, and VOIP is just another one of these things that I love. I decided to bridge the gap and rather than continue using a headset mic, to get an Olympia DualPhone.

Although it works great on my Dell with great call quality over Skype, on my other Compaq Presario laptop I get a lot of background popping noise. Go figure. I would have preferred to have used it on the Compaq, as this is left as my always-on server, but hey you can't always get what you want.

That said, the Olympia is a great phone, t's a PSTN phone and a Skype phone and it's DECT and cordless! Superb!

Check out http://www.dualphone.net for more information!

There's a new WiFi app that's free for the Pocket PC which is awesome! If you have a WiFi card or WiFi enabled PDA then you have to get this!

"Hitchhiker" helps you to connect your Pocket PC to the wireless Internet. Simply click "Connect" and it will try all nearby public access points. Hitchhiker will handle all settings for you and perform complicated tests to ensure you can connect to the Internet in no time.

For more information check out http://www.kasuei.com/hitchhiker/

Kingston Technologies have now announced their brand new 2GB SD Card!

"With super-fast 120X transfer rates, Kingston SD Ultimate cards offer significant performance benefits over current Standard and Elite Pro lines of SD cards. The greater storage capacity of the 2-GB SD Ultimate card meets the rigorous demands of professional digital photographers."

July 7th 2005 will be a day that Britain and Londoners will not forget. 4 bombs exploding, 3 on London Tube Trains and 1 on a bus not far from the office where I work.

It's reported that over 50 people died and over 700 injured but the death toll still rises.

Britain will not be affected by Terrorists, they can try to remove the democracy we have in place and the freedom we have but we will prevail. Londoners are used to IRA bombs of the 70's and 80's and it's something Londoners put up with, although it doesn't happen on a daily basis, or even on a yearly basis, but it's one thing that's always in the back of peoples minds and won't remove the importance of democracy from our fingers.

As promised some easy update instructions on how to update CoPilot and with the latest July Speed Camera Update!

Please check the CoPilot Support Website for more information on how to download and where to download from.

This is for Pocket PC 5.0.1.48 and SmartPhone 1.0.1.69 ONLY! If you don't have these versions installed, please make sure you have upgraded before trying to apply these!!!

For anyone that either didn't turn up to the Wales meet-up this weekend or didn't hear me say this, I'm currently working on a much easier install process for Speed Cameras. All being well these will be release within the next week or two.

Please check the CoPilot Support Website and this website for more information when it's available.