GPS

Go Your Own Way

Whether an epic road trip or just a quick jaunt to the mall, load your drive into your GPS the easy way—by using an online map

GPS devices are cheap, reliable and easy-to-use, but they’ve long been missing a dead-obvious feature: the ability to import a route or list of stops created on a computer. It’s far easier to plan a drive on Google Maps or MapQuest, where you can visualize the whole route and browse for cool pitstops, than it is to do so on a device’s small screen.

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Map Your Shots

A GPS-equipped camera knows where you’ve been

Remember that beautiful sunset photo from Jamaica? Or was it the Bahamas? No worries—the first high-end camera with a built-in GPS receiver keeps track for you.

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Apple Keynote: The Aftermath

The new iPhone is everything we've been expecting...and not much more.

Well, the official announcement is in—and it's exactly what we were all expecting. The new iPhone, equipped with 3G, GPS, and a much slimmer price, will be available for purchase in 22 countries (including the US) starting July 11.

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BMW Teams With Google Maps For Navigation

The new X6 features tight integration with the big G's online mapping service

Here's my dream road-trip ritual: Pull up an address in Google Maps, beam it to the car by some wireless technology and load it to the nav system as a destination. If there's a relevant phone number, sync it with my Bluetooth phone. Then locate all the In-N-Out Burger locations in the area and cross-reference them with local gastroenterologists, just to be safe.

The world hasn't quite turned my way just yet, but BMW just introduced a fairly close approximation for US customers on its new 2008 X6 Sports Activity Coupe

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The Mobile Phone as Tour Guide

New technology uses object-recognition software to identify and provide info on points of interest in a just-snapped photo

The days of lugging around and pulling out hefty guide books could be nearing an end: The eyePhone, a program currently being developed in Europe, uses a combination of satellite information, object-recognition software and Internet data to provide information on landmarks in a scene captured through a mobile phone's lens.

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Build Your Own Almost-Real-Time, Worldwide Tracking System

Automatically track anything's GPS location via e-mail with the UberTracker

Imagine being able to track anyone, anywhere in the world almost instantly. Scary, eh? Well, not if youre looking for a low-cost turnkey system for managing your small fleet of trucks, planes, trains, boats, kids—you get the picture. The $450 UberTracker from SparkFun Electronics is a complete cellular/GPS/e-mail hardware package that can continuously email its GPS coordinates from anywhere in the world via a cellular data connection, and it's a snap to set up.

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Mail That Never Gets Lost

A paper-thin GPS unit that could help the postal service put an end to mail delays

Even snail mail is getting a tech upgrade. This month TrackingtheWorld, a California-based GPS developer, expects to begin mass-producing Letter Loggers—small GPS-equipped envelope inserts that could help the U.S. Postal Service spot bottlenecks in the system. The insert is durable enough to shoot through sorting machines without crushing the circuits. A high-gain antenna pulls info from a satellite every few minutes and records the letters location to a memory card (to prevent interference with other devices, it wont transmit data in real time).

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Find Yourself

iPhone's latest trick lets you locate yourself on a Google map. Does it work?

iPhone GPS:  Grace Aquino
Last week, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that iPhone users will now be able to locate themselves on a Google map thanks to a new technology that triangulates the handset's position from Wi-Fi base stations or cell towers.

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Picture-Perfect Navigation

A rundown of what's hot in the world of GPS navigation, including one device with a photographic memory. Launch Photo Gallery.

Remember that roadside barbecue joint in Texas where you had the ribs that changed your life? Can you remember the address? Did it even have one?

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Track Anyone With a Cell

Give someone this cheap prepaid cellphone to see where they are in real time

Track Anyone With a Cell

Cost: $100
Time: 4 Hours
Easy | | | | | Hard


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The Smartest Ski Setup

Don't hit the powder without these tech-laden accessories

Great ski gear is beneficial in two ways: It gives you a technological edge and makes spending a day freezing your tail off a heck of a lot more enjoyable. The latest ski accessories employ sensors, satellites and cutting-edge materials to keep you safe, warm, entertained and more informed about your performance. If you're looking for new skis, consider the Atomic Izor. Otherwise, surround your current pair with these four accessories.

The Accessories

Silva Tech4O ski speedometer

Pro skiers exceed 80 mph in World Cup downhills. Wonder how you stack up?

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Loading Up Lassie

Geek out your dog with these high-tech accessories, including a talking dish and a GPS-trackable collar

Dept.: Maxed Out
Tech: Pet Gadgets
Cost: $1,840 plus dog
Steal | | | | | Splurge






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Television Signals Plug the Holes in GPS

GPS is indespensable, but reception is spotty indoors and in urban areas. A new system that uses digital television signals should clear the way for anytime, anywhere positioning

Today’s Global Positioning System is great for tracking tanks in the desert, but turn on your Garmin in New York City or inside virtually any building, and you’ll be staring at satellite static—GPS doesn’t perform well indoors or in urban canyons. Now a new technology is poised to pick up where GPS satellite signals cut out.

Developed by Rosum Corporation in Redwood City, California, TV-GPS, as the system is known, triangulates positions using television signals that are 2,000 times as strong as GPS satellite transmissions.

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Taking the Low Road

It's easy to hide a GPS unit in a car. Here's where to look.

“Ever wish you had a tool that could prove your suspicions were valid?” Bluewater Security Professionals asks on its Web site (bluewatersecurityprofessionals.com). "Next time you sense suspicious activity with your vehicle, make sure (the $435 PTS Tracking System) goes along for the ride. The site includes “hints” on where to put the GPS antenna—mostly in places where it wouldn't be seen. But forewarned is forearmed: Here are some of the spots where a GPS unit is likely to be stashed.

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Every Step You Take . . . Every Move You Make . . . My GPS Unit Will Be Watching You

Technology may be ushering in a golden age of stalking, in which predators use GPS, cellphones and other devices to track and terrorize.

They fell for each other in grade school, in the sweetest of ways. In fifth-grade music class, she played saxophone; he played the snare drum. In high school biology, she held the frog while he wielded the scalpel. It was the sort of love story immortalized endlessly in romance novels and Top 40 long-distance dedications. “I thought when I married him it really would be ’till death do us part,’ ” she says now, still surprised that the marriage ended after 19 years. Ultimately, the romance had sputtered to a close, as so many love stories do.

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