GPS
Latest
Europe's sat-nav network crippled by 'technical incident'
Europe's Galileo satellite network, freshly approved by the FCC for US smartphones, has suffered a serious outage. The system has been down since Friday due to what officials at the European GNSS Agency (GSA) have described as a "technical incident related to its ground infrastructure." That means users with newer smartphones that support Galileo will be relying on GPS, Russia's Glonass or the Chinese Beidou networks for navigation, instead.
Google Maps will navigate you away from crises
Google's SOS alerts already give you vital information when you're in a crisis zone, and now that includes driving directions. As part of a broader expansion of SOS alerts to Google Maps, the company has introduced navigation features that will not only warn you about crises along your route, but will change your route to avoid them when possible. If a flood threatens to block your way, this might just help you reach safety.
Garmin hopes Alexa will convince you to buy a dedicated GPS
There's no question that dedicated GPS units are on the decline in an era when your smartphone is often good enough for navigation, if not better. Garmin, however, thinks it can stave off obsolescence in a simple way -- by adding a voice assistant you'd use on your phone. The new DriveSmart 65 is the company's first full-display GPS (but not its first ever) to incorporate Alexa, and uses the AI helper to handle the tasks that would normally require staring at your phone or infotainment system.
Garmin's latest GPS is designed for off-road explorers
With GPS now a basic cell phone feature, and more vehicles rolling off the production lines with built-in satnav systems, the role of standalone satellite-navigation devices is diminishing. Why have an extra bit of kit in your car that needs additional maintenance? But Garmin thinks there's still a place for them, particularly in the world of off-roading and overlanding.
Recommended Reading: Google Duplex still confuses restaurants
One year later, restaurants are still confused by Google Duplex Natt Garun, The Verge Google had us in awe when it debuted the AI-powered Duplex tech at I/O 2018. The system can be used to make reservations on your behalf, and it can even make a call if one is required. A year later though, it seems restaurants are still confused by the technology. From calls that look like spam to using different voices and accents in immediate follow-ups to confirm reservations, Duplex still has its quirks. But there's also an interesting wrinkle: it can be more polite than a human.
A BMW outage made Apple CarPlay unusable
BMW owners in both the US and UK have been locked out of Apple's CarPlay interface on their vehicles due to system-wide outages of ConnectedDrive. 9to5Mac reported that complaints from drivers on both sides of the pond began racking up on social media earlier this week. The German car company's subscription-based connectivity service lets drivers to connect to Apple's CarPlay, which manages everything from navigation to phone calls. With ConnectedDrive being down, cars are unable to confirm that drivers have paid for the CarPlay options in their vehicle.
TomTom's new GPS uses IFTTT to interact with your smart home
TomTom is mostly focusing on driverless navigation after stepping away from wearables and action cams. However, it still makes consumer GPS units, and to keep up with smartphones, has unveiled the TomTom Go Premium with IFTTT home automation tech built right in. The idea is that you can link up actions on the GPS to household devices and have it automatically open your garage door when you arrive at home, for instance.
Fi's GPS pet tracker lasts three months between charges
From keys to luggage, smart technology lets us keep track of pretty much everything these days -- and that includes our pets. Whistle is perhaps the most prominent company in the pet tracking business, but now a new contender has entered the ring with a feature-packed dog collar that makes keeping tabs on our furry friends even easier. Fi's smart GPS dog collar monitors your pet's activity, tracks its location instantly and, most importantly, has a whopping three-month battery life.
Google Fit update delivers a much-needed power-saving mode
Google is taking steps to address one of the most commonly-cited smartwatch complaints: battery life. In a bid to increase the time between charges (which at this juncture is usually two days max), Google Fit's latest update will come with a battery-saving low power GPS mode.
UK will track thousands of criminals with GPS tags
It's not a novel idea to make criminals wear GPS bracelets, but they could soon be relatively commonplace in the UK. The country's government plans to use them for around-the-clock monitoring of criminals across England and Wales by the summer, with a handful of regions already putting them to use. They'll be used to both track behavior when out of prison (say, to ensure offenders attend rehab) and enforce geographic limits like restraining orders.
Google Maps' AR adds navigation hints to the real world
Google Maps has made navigating unfamiliar cities on foot much easier than the days of pulling out a paper map — but it's not perfect. The blue dot that signifies where you are standing can vary wildly from your actual position because GPS is blocked by large buildings and your phone's compass is being thrown off by all the metal surrounding us in urban environments. Google thinks it has a solution: AR.
Panoskin makes it easier to post GoPro footage to Street View
Uploading your own Street View Photos -- even with a 360-degree camera -- can be a pretty laborious process. Google introduced "Street View ready" standards in 2017 to make things easier, and now things are set to become even more straightforward. Chicago-based company Panoskin is launching a desktop app that lets anyone with a GoPro Fusion 360 camera convert and publish their footage directly to Street View.
Garmin's latest golf GPS can throw you into virtual tournaments
Garmin doesn't just want to help you improve your golf game -- it wants to enable golf matches with players who are nowhere near a course. It's launching an Approach G80 golf GPS that includes new game modes, including a Virtual Tournament option that pits you against players at the driving range and at home on recreations of famous courses. It's not going to have the slick presentation of a video game on its 3.5-inch touchscreen, but it could feel more like the real thing. If you're looking for simpler contests, a one- or two-player Target Practice mode can help you improve your accuracy.
Matrix adds a solar cell to its battery-free smartwatch
In announcing the third in its range of battery-free smartwatches, Matrix Industries is going where few others have gone before. Whereas the first two PowerWatches relied upon thermocouples to generate power, the new model has two different ways to get energy. As well as drawing a charge from the heat on your wrist, the PowerWatch 2 will harvest solar radiation to keep itself going.
SpaceX completes its first US national security mission
SpaceX managed to squeak in one more milestone before the end of 2018. The private spaceflight company successfully launched its first-ever US national security mission, carrying the US Air Force's equally new GPS III satellite into orbit. The effort was comparatively messy as far as recent SpaceX launches go. The company delayed the launch multiple times over the past several days, and the Air Force's performance margin requirements ruled out a landing for the Falcon 9 rocket's first stage.
The Air Force's long-awaited GPS upgrade begins tomorrow (update)
It's been in the works for over a decade, but now the current Global Positioning System (GPS) is about to start getting its multibillion-dollar upgrade thanks to SpaceX's first-ever GPS satellite launch. After delays across the last four years, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was scheduled to launch the United States Air Force's first Global Positioning System III space vehicle from from Cape Canaveral between 9:11AM ET and 9:37AM ET this morning (December 18th, 2018). However, the launch has been pushed to tomorrow morning at 9:07AM ET "due to an out of family reading on first stage sensors."
Police are using fake Amazon boxes with GPS to catch thieves
'Tis the season for tons of Amazon packages arriving at your doorstep, but nothing puts a damper on the holidays like having one stolen. Police in Jersey City have been setting up fake Amazon boxes on doorsteps in order to catch thieves, according to the Associated Press. Law enforcement has installed doorbell cameras at homes where the sting operations are set up and rigged the packages with GPS tracking devices to catch the criminals.
Google Maps update ensures Assistant stays out of the way
Google recently launched a slew of updates for Assistant, and now it's making its AI helper smarter and more discrete for Maps. Reddit user raddacle noticed that Assistant on maps now takes up very little space when it pops up, and keeps navigation open when you place calls and do other chores. The last version of Maps would instead open the dialer, reducing navigation to quarter-screen mode -- something that can be distracting while you're driving.
DJI makes its Ronin S gimbal more useful with 9 new accessories
We called DJI's DSLR and mirrorless Ronin S gimbal "essential YouTube equipment," and it just got even more so with nine new accessories. The most interesting for filmmakers is the $169 Focus Motor for manual focus lenses. It consists of a motor, rod mount set and focus gear strip that can handle a wide variety of lens diameters. Once attached and connected to the Ronin-S, you can can use the existing the $59 Focus Wheel to adjust manual focus with .02 degrees of accuracy.
'Pokémon Go' creator Niantic to develop GPS-based tourism games
It was at the helm of GPS/AR/Maps-based "exergaming" in 2013 with Ingress, saw phenomenal success with Pokémon Go, and will launch a location-based Harry Potter mobile game next year. Now, Niantic is making the natural move into tourism-focused games. In partnership with the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), as part of its Travel.Enjoy.Respect program, the games company will create new experiences that encourage players to explore and discover the hidden histories of both their own neighborhoods and further afield.
