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How the Global Positioning System Works

Michael Brown — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 13:11:31 -0600

In the immortal words of Buckaroo Bonzai, “Wherever you go, there you are.” But if you want to know precisely where “there” is, you need a GPS device. Let’s examine how this technology operates.

The fundamental idea of a satellite-based navigation system was conceived prior to Word War II, but no one pursued the idea aggressively until the Russians launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite. Research continued through the 1960s, and the U.S. Department of Defense settled on the first design in 1973.

The first developmental GPS satellite—Navstar 1—was launched in 1978, the first fully operational GPS satellite was put into orbit in 1989, and the system was declared fully operational in 1995. Although GPS remains an indispensable military tool (and is maintained by the U.S. Department of Defense), the technology was made available to consumers in the 1980s and can now be found in relatively inexpensive devices ranging from cellphones and PDAs to dedicated handheld GPS receivers.

Knight Rider GPS Now For Sale at Radioshack

Paul Lilly — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 11:49:03 -0500

No matter what we may have thought as children, along with growing up comes the sad realization that we'll probably never own a full on replica of the customized Pontiac Trans-Am David Hasselhoff cruised the television airwaves with all through the mid-80s as Michael Knight. But don't despair, because you don't need a near three-decade old sports car to get your geek on as a modern day Knight Rider.

Radioshack on Friday announced it has secured exclusive rights to the Mio Knight Rider GPS. The $270 device comes with a 4.3-inch antiglare touchscreen LCD complete with voice synthesized lights adorning the left and right-hand sides that move in sync with actor William Daniels' (KITT) guidance. And best of all, you can choose from over 150 male and female names, including Michael if you want to get in full character.

Anyone else spellbound by this? How about by this?

Maximum Test: We Run the iPhone’s GPS on a Boeing 737 During Takeoff

Norman Chan — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:09:44 -0500

As you probably know, one of the new features in the iPhone 3G is the built-in GPS radio, which lets you pinpoint your location for hipster-loving social networking apps like twitter and loopt. In Steve Jobs’ WWDC keynote, he showed off the GPS functionality with a video of the Maps application tracking a car as it drove down Lombard Street in San Francisco. The blinking blue dot followed the car as to passed each block, updating at a short enough intervals to move fluidly. While that’s cool and practical, we wanted to push the iPhone’s GPS to its limits. And the best way we could think of to stress test vehicle tracking was to try it on a moving airplane.

Read on to see how the iPhone performed at 200 miles per hour – in the air.

Knight Rider Rides Again With Mio GPS

Chris Moody — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 07:30:48 -0500

Feeling nostalgic for the 80’s Knight Rider version of The Hoff or his sidekick, KITT? Mio is releasing a Knight Rider GPS complete with all new voice prompts from William Daniels as KITT. It also includes hundreds of recorded names so it can address you by name when you’re tired of pretending to be “Michael” (if your name is on the list. It seems Devon, Bonnie, and Wilton are missing). Fortunately the graphics on Mio’s Knight Rider GPS, are way better than what the 80’s version of KITT had. It even has a KITT icon that represents where you are at on the map. All you need now is your 80’s Trans-Am and black leather jacket. The Knight Rider GPS is due out in August and expected to cost around $270.

Here's What (Else) Is New and Cool from Microsoft

Mark Soper — Fri, 02 May 2008 09:17:54 -0500

While we've been waiting for Windows XP Service Pack 3, some other goodies slipped out of Redmond. Here's some of what's new - and cool - for both Windows XP and Vista users.