Cell phones to act as GPS

Remember that scene in the James Bond classic “Goldfinger” in which our super-spy hero flipped a button on the dash of his Aston Martin and began tracking another car that appeared as a blinking blip on a bright green radar screen? It may have been pure fantasy in 1964, but thanks to today’s constantly evolving Global Positioning System technology, people who use cell phones to make 911 calls in Lorain County will be able to have their exact locations determined with a very high degree of certainty within in a matter of minutes. “As of this week we are 100 percent phased in across the county with this new Phase II wireless technology,” said Robin Jones, director of Lorain County’s E-911 operation, which received more than 200,000 emergency calls in 2007. More than half of those were placed from GPS-equipped cell phones. “Even travelers driving through the county who might not even know what road they are on can now have their location accurately identified,” Jones said.

Nokia Adds More GPS Functions to U.S. Phones

Global mobile phone leader Nokia released, the first new phone for the U.S. is the N78, an attractive, slim candybar with a range of mid-to-high-end features. It has GPS mapping, a true Web browser, a 3.2-megapixel camera with a Carl Zeiss lens, an FM radio and support for playing a wide range of music and video formats on its 2.4", 320 X 240 screen. Like all of Nokia's N-series phones, it runs the Symbian Series 60 smartphone operating system.

The N78's new features include the ability to "geotag" photos with the location they were taken and an FM transmitter that lets it play music through FM radios.

The N78 also plumbs into Nokia's new GPS and Web services. "Share on Ovi" puts Nokia into the very busy marketplace of media sharing and social networking services, by giving phone owners a free place to upload their media, with unlimited storage and unlimited bandwidth. Nokia Maps 2.0 dramatically improves pedestrian directions and adds satellite images to their phone mapping software. The N78 will be available by June, for around 350 euros, or $509, before operator subsidies.

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Thunderstorms can disrupt GPS device, researcher cautions

A Taiwanese researcher says global positioning systems (GPS) are susceptible to interference from thunderstorms and so should not be relied upon in extreme weather conditions. Lin Chien-hung, an assistant professor at the Plasma and Space Sciences Center of National Cheng Kung University, said the strong atmospheric convections in a thunderstorm can create atmospheric oscillations -- tides -- that rise between 90km and 120km above ground, just under the ionosphere. ATMOSPHERIC TIDES Ions from the tides accumulate at that level and could interfere with electromagnetic waves, he said. When transmission of electromagnetic waves is impeded, Lin said, signals from GPS satellites to GPS devices on the ground will be distorted, causing a phenomenon dubbed "GPS confusion,"in which the device gives inaccurate directions. "Some of my friends told me stories of using a GPS device in thunderstorms," Lin said. GETTING LOST "They hoped the device could lead them out of the mountains despite the heavy rains. But even though they followed the directions given by GPS devices, they found themselves in the middle of nowhere," Lin said. He said such stories have inspired him to do more research on the interaction of atmospheric convections and GPS devices. Using the data collected by FORMOSAT-3, a climate satellite launched and operated by the government-funded National Space Organization and its US partners, Lin analyzed atmospheric variations during thunderstorms and observed how atmospheric tides created disruptions in electromagnetic waves. ANOMALIES Based on the data gathered by an IMAGE satellite in 2002, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration has listed four areas as "equatorial regions with anomalies in ionospheric activities." These regions are: the Amazon valley, the Congo River valley, Indonesia's rain forests and the middle of the Pacific Ocean, where most tropical storms form, he said. "Taiwan is in the mid-Pacific region, where a thunderstorm near the ground will disturb the upper atmosphere and could impact the functions of a GPS device," Lin said. Source: Taipei Times

Police Seek to Crack Down on GPS Thefts

by Libby Lewis For drivers who can't tell east from west, portable GPS devices have been an essential navigation tool.

But they're just as appealing to thieves: GPS units are high on the wish lists of bad guys. And the odds are with the thieves — that is, until either manufacturers make the devices theft-proof, or gadget-loving owners learn to protect their portable electronics.

For now, some police are trying new tactics to fight the GPS crime wave. [continue reading]