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26 Feb 2012 10:35

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U.S.: Ironic: The FBI’s having trouble finding and collecting its GPS devices

  • 3,000 invasive GPS devices turned off by the FBI source
  • » There’s one particularly amazing line in this story: “In some cases, he said, the FBI sought court orders to obtain permission to turn the devices on briefly — only in order to locate and retrieve them.” If you remember, the FBI had to stop using tracking devices as the result of a Supreme Court ruling that ruled that the practice was illegal without a warrant. So everyone, have a small chuckle at the fact that FBI can’t find some of its GPS devices.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Aug 2010 12:50

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U.S.: Can police put a GPS unit on your car without a warrant?

  • YES that’s what a federal appeals court ruled source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Aug 2010 17:55

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Offbeat: Posted without comment: Dude writes giant message with GPS

Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink

23 May 2010 11:48

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Tech: GPS in need of an upgrade, and it’s gonna cost a couple bucks

  • $8 billion to upgrade the widely used geo-navigation system source
  • before The system had a margin of error of about 20 feet – OK for driving, bad for walking a city street.
  • after After the upgrade, the system will be able to get within an arm’s length of the location. Whoa, cool!
  • » Not just for nav: It’s used for all sorts of purposes, including tracking financial transactions from ATMs and stock trades. In 2007, when the system was knocked offline in San Diego, cell phones and hospital paging systems stopped working. In other words, the technology, which currently uses 24 satellites to do its dirty work, is pretty useful.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

08 Mar 2010 20:12

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World: The Chile earthquake shook entire major cities out of alignment

  • 10′ the distance Concepcion was displaced
  • 11″ the distance Santiago was displaced
  • 1″ the distance Buenos Aries moved source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Oct 2009 20:31

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Tech: Google’s on a tear today thanks to Android and the Motorola Droid

  • $199 the cost of Motorola’s new Droid phone, which uses the Android 2.0 software officially launched today source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Oct 2009 10:48

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Biz, Tech: Messing with GPS: Google is no longer friends with TomTom

  • There’s no doubt that those guys are going to be disrupted.
  • Opus Research analyst Greg Sterling • On Google’s decision to offer free navigation software for mobile phones, essentially taking the GPS navigation abilities of TomTom and Garmin and making them look expensive and useless. Google does this a lot, and it has the effect of creating animosity in certain industries. For his part, Google CEO Eric Schmidt says he doesn’t see it as disruption, just helping consumers: “Obviously we like the price of free because consumers like that as well.” • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

22 Oct 2009 09:59

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World: Clever mail-tracking bastards of The Guardian, we salute you

The Royal Mail was about to go on strike in the U.K., so The Guardian dropped a satellite device in the mail to see what happened. This is innovative journalism. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

11 Jul 2009 12:30

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Culture, Tech: Greg Grunberg: “Heroes” star, Yowza iPhone app maven

  • At the beginning it was a tough chicken and egg situation. Where I was calling and saying ‘Hi it’s Greg Grunberg, star of NBC’s Heroes, can I talk to the head of marketing please,’ and I would get them on the phone.
  • Greg Grunberg • On his pretty solid side career producing the Yowza iPhone app, a GPS-aware coupon-referring program that has become a hit. He claims that he’s always been a bit of an entrepreneur and that it’s a solid backup plan just in case he gets killed off on “Heroes” someday. (Not that he should have a problem with that, because his character can read people’s thoughts.) • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

09 Jul 2009 10:50

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Tech: Who needs a GPS system when you have an iPhone, really?

  • 40%+ of all smartphone users use their phones for directional help; the number is 80%+ for iPhone users source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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