GPS, GPS homing device gets you back where you started, nowhere else
By Tim Stevens 
posted December 17th 2008 11:08AM
posted December 17th 2008 11:08AM
If there's one problem with modern GPS devices it's that they're "highly complex" -- at least that's what you might think if you're a frequent Hammacher Schlemmer shopper. Believing that people find things like touch screens or buttons a little too much, the gadget company has created what it calls a "GPS Homing Device." For a penny under $80 (roughly the price of a real nav system) the over-sized key fob lets you mark your current location and then, after an exhausting day of bargain hunting, find your way back to where you began just by following an arrow -- all without relying on the help of the parking lot attendant. Makes a great gift for the directionally-challenged shopaholic in your life.[Via Chip Chick]
GPS device support height, although it's harder to get a precise fix with over-the-counter GPS devices, but they do give elevation, you can see even it in the data menu of many car-nav GPS devices.
Of course all the layers of concrete and metal might make pinpointing once inside a parking structure a bit harder.
Excellent!! now when someone stole your keys he can also stole your house!!
Officer! Someone stole my house!
Here's an idea: you buy one, take it home, press 'store' then mail it to some hot moviestar or asian gadgetmodeling babe, and hope the best.
It's a bit like playing the lottery.
Hella expensive Lottery ticket! You probably have the same odss as winning the Powerball. If you won that, you would have enough cash to buy your way into one of Hef's parties.
There is an application on the iPhone that does already and will show you on a map
...
are you... for real?
Not a replacement for a regular GPS, obviously, but I'm pretty psyched about the idea of the marker-based GPS...
Here are the applications I can see:
--Awesome scavenger hunts
--As a pirate, you would find this invaluable for marking treasure locations
--keeping track of your starting point on hikes, outdoor adventures, unfamiliar lakes.
--Think about it as a Christmas present: you open a box, and there's the GPS fob... aaand you have to go where it's pointing to get your other presents
--maze-like games
--obviously, finding your way back to your car (for all the spatially challenged out there)
I think the level of 'surprise' on this is really fun... the application for fun is huge.
How many pirates do you know? I hope that this is waterproof, because all of my hidden treasure is in Davy Jones's Locker.
Love this ideas you've mentioed especially the Christmas preset one!
I'm surprised there aren't many GPS games available yet, given the rise of GPS in phones and SatNavs. Would make treasure hunts really fun as you say.
this would be great for older folks that have a tough time with technology.
plus various other uses where a real GPS would be overkill or too big or whatever.
brilliantly simple.
I think I need two.
One to find my car, the second to find my home.
I just got one of these Bushnell Backtracks on Monday from Adorama.com. It was $54.50 with free standard shipping.
God, I thought Hammacher Schlemmer stuff was *so* cool when I was a kid.
... and then I turned 11.
You can get this little gem at Cabelas Outdoors for $40.
Didn't find it for that price, I got 65 which is still better than Amazon, was there a promotion code or something I'm missing?
I'm considering getting this because I often travel overseas. It would come in VERY handy especially in third world countries where roads are small and numerous and not to mention in a different language. Sometimes all you need to know is how to get back to the hotel. I'd love to hear some more user reviews about this thing.
This to me is an instrument for us urban outfitted peoples. Mark out a bar that you had gone to or had to leave your car at. It just seems to work better in a big city thats aligned as a grid. Maybe small children when youre at an amusement park. Itd be great if it plotted multiple locations...... Id love to know how some of my blackout nights turned out......
Great news for people with bad intentions! Like this, when finding some keys, just use the key holder to find the property the key belongs to ;-)...
I'd think this is good for kids to have too. Imagine you get off the wrong stop on your school bus or something.
Think of the kids!
Could be good for finding your way back to your hotel in Japan, or some other country where the Latin alphabet is not used, thus rendering every sign unreadable.
perfect.... just perfect... 80$, so what... perfect :-}
sometime it is not you who use the going back function ? go and take it, I forgot it in the car... or in a shopping center, my wife show me the good track from the intrance.. i can do the same later like a pro..., no time lost... does it manage level... like parking level ? To go back home I know the road with the GPS inside the car, but I need to find my car first...
This is a Bushnell Backtrack. It's not made by Bushnell, some Taiwanese company that then slaps whomever's logo on it. You can pick one up on Amazon for $49. Its a great impulse buy for a stocking stuffer, for those who don't know any better when buying.
Hansel and Gretel would love it...