GPS Tracking ROI

ASUS Introduces R2H Ultra-Mobile PC for the New Mobile Computing Era

7-inch LCD touch screen with handwritten input support and solid security protection - The R2H offers full PC functions and more!
Taipei, Taiwan; August 25 th, 2006 ASUSTeK Computer Inc. (ASUS), a leading provider of high-performance notebook computers, today unveils the latest R2H Ultra-Mobile PC. With built-in high-resolution webcam, incorporated global positioning system (GPS) and biometric fingerprint authentication, the 7-inch ultra compact R2H is designed to fulfill the increasing need for an all-in-one mobile device that enables professionals to stay connected, productive and secured on the go…. read all the features here:

A different kind of weekend eye candy here:   A unit worthy of the fuss of carrying it around.  With the built in GPS, built in biometric deification and built in Blue Tooth integration this is a desk top in a PDA form factor. 

As just one example, put your whole inventory, credit check and POS accounting programs on board and a field sales person will be equipped to do anything an in-store clerk can do.

Equip your security force with it and you can monitor their location, see what their seeing and up and download programming info for alarm systems.

I see an almost endless list of uses for this box and for applications to run on it, but most of all I feel the need to _have_ one.  I’m not usually too smitten by gadgets, but this one sure caught my eye.

Are there any readers regularly using a Windows Mobile device?  Can someone perhaps comment on the good, the bad and the ugly of their experiences with them?

Here’s another installment in the mini-series on why American trucking executives should pull their head from the sand and start maximizing the bottom line with GPS.

If you’re John Q. Public reading the mail here you may not even know what HOS represents. If you’re a trucking manager you probably think of it as a nuisance.

Basically the US Federal Hours Of Service rules govern when a driver can and can’t drive. In simplistic form they dictate that a driver can work 14 hours a day and be off for 10 … but oh my goodness it’s ever so much more complicated than that.

Here’s a great presentation I came upon courtesy of the Nebraska State Patrol. look it over and then reflect on how well you think you can manage a trucking business just by sitting at a desk and relying on paper reports on an irregular basis, Nebraska State Patrol Training Brief

Got that all committed to memory now? Are you willing to risk fines of up to $11,000 per day per driver in violation? And in some cases even criminal prosecution? See here and here and here for just a few examples. Notice that in addition to guilty please in a federal felony case one of the owners was ordered to pay more than a million dollars in fines and restitution. Got that much headroom on your business errors and omissions policy? Of course, many insurance policies don’t cover intentional criminal acts anyway

Want to think over something a lot cheaper and more reliable than insurance? You can put a very accurate passive GPS tracker on your vehicles for less than $600 each and absolutely no monthly cost. It would unalterably show when the vehicle is moving, sitting at idle or shut off. Get hit with a charge of violating or letting your drivers violate the HOS rules and this could be a life saver. Not to mention the fact that it would be continually monitoring the use of the vehicle, unauthorized idling time, speeding, taking free roads and charging you for tolls and any of 10,001 other ways you could be losing money.

If you want to spend a dollar a day you could get all that information real time. Save 45 minutes of excess idling each day and the unit is paid for. Get one extra delivery per month by managing driver’s hours more effectively and you’re making money hand over fist … and most GPS tracking users find they make an extra delivery per week, or more.

So would it cost, or would it pay?

Here’s another entry in the “track your pet” derby. I like this one because it seems better suited to how people typically interact with their pets. And, it doesn’t require any service from cell phone companies of any description. Not only does this mean there won’t be any monthly fees, but the darn thing might actually work.

Sometimes the most complex technology can be applied to the simplest application. GPS technology is integrated into many parts of our lives today, from cell phones to navigation. We don’t even give it a second thought anymore, yet our lives are the better for it every day. Now it is possible to use this same technology we find so ordinary in a new way, to help us protect one of the most important things in our lives: our pets.

RoamEO is an exciting new product that enables dog owners to quickly and easily locate their pets. Using a GPS-enabled collar, RoamEO can pinpoint your dog’s location and show you where he’s heading. It’s that simple. Now each time you put on your dog’s collar, it comes with the extraordinary advantage of knowing that you can locate your pet at anytime. Most of the time, it’s just that extra comfort of knowing where he is when he’s running around out back. And then there may be those times when your pet is counting on you to help him, and that’s when RoamEO will make you his hero.

Maybe your dog doesn’t know what GPS is, but he does know how important your companionship is. So keep him safe.

See more here

Like other systems we’ve looked at the RoamEO uses a collar on the dog that receives GPS signals and calculates the dogs position. The big difference is the handheld receiver that’s part of the system and the private radio link between the two. This system will track your dog anywhere on earth … even if you live in George Bush flyover country like I do. Even when you’re hunting wapiti up in the Rockies. this is a tremendous advantage over those systems that rely on expensive and not always ubiquitous cell phone based systems.

The disadvantage, though, is also the private radio system. If Fido runs off beyond the range of the unit (stated as “up to one mile”, I think you can safely bet that figure is a bit optimistic), you won’t be able to track him again until you correctly guess his location within a mile and the signals once again connect to your base station unit. However, for trainers, hikers, hunters and other outdoor folk this should still be a very useful unit.

Another great feature is the intelligent use of geofencing. If your dog is normally in your yard and you just want to know when and where he wandered off to, you can set a “fence” around your yard and you’ll get an alert when he leaves. Useful stuff.

At $459 list price this unit is far less than some … could be well worth it if you have a wandering mutt or a prize breeder that you value a lot.

Usually my comment bin is just spam message after spam message … but I welcome real comments and I’m glad I took the time to read the messages after my last business trip. Here’s the message:

Hi Dave and Carmita,
I am a software developer who has recently released a location-aware reminder application that you might be interested in. It’s available for the Blackberry 7520, and it’s currently freely available at http://www.naggie.com.

The idea is simple: you get reminders depending on where you are. Suppose you pull into the driveway and you’re low on gas. You tell your Naggie “Remind me to get gas the next time I leave the house”. Or you’re running out of milk and you tell Naggie “Remind me to get milk the next time I’m near the grocery store.”

If you’ve got a Blackberry 7520, feel free to give it a whirl.

Thanks for your time,
Andrew
Naggie, LLC

If you follow GPS, GIS, wireless services or Web 2.0 issues at all you’ve probably heard about LBS …Location Based Services. Several years ago Jack Dangermond, the “daddy rabbit” of ESRI, the king of GIS software made a lot of noise about the “Power Of Place” or how location-based services were going to become really big. So far, they haven’t. That’s because most of the LBS business ideas I’ve seen are nothing but spam in a new format … send a message to a driver’s cell phone to tell him he’s approaching a McDonald’s with special deals on hamburgers, and various other … you should excuse the expression, but there is none other that fits … _Bullshit_ annoyances like that. Hello, Madison Avenue with lat long enabled, I knew how to buy a McDonald’s fried grease burger 40 years ago, when they cost 15 cents. The grease is the same, the golden arches are the same and I don’t need GPS or wirelesses technology to help me get even fatter.

But what I do need now that 15 cent burgers and my hair are both a distant, fading memory is something to help what’s left of my memory survive. I don’t know if I like the Naggie name, but I love the idea behind it. Just now, for example, I can think of half a dozen things I need from various stores around town … things I am not going to drive across the city for, but things in stores that I’ll undoubtedly be passing later this week, on the weekend, whatever. With Naggie I can just note the need and I can be reminded via BlackBerry when I’m close to one of the stores. Cute. And efficient … helps cure dependence on OPEC and other nasty American habits.

The principle is very sound. As humans we always need “memory joggers” to remind of of an item we need to remember and (sometimes) a time to remember it … like be in the boss’ staff meeting tomorrow morning at 9. We have a thousand and one devices, everything from Outlook to a rubber band on our finger to do that. But what of the things to remember that aren’t time dependent, but place dependent instead. Very neat concept.

At present, Naggie is only for the Blackberry 7520, and since I don’t have one of these devices I can’t give you a user report, but if you do, go to Naggie.com and check it out (and please let me know your thoughts on the application).

There seems to be no end to the folks visiting here who are interested in GPS for pets, especially roaming dogs. I love dogs, but I don’t let them roam and I’d for sure be GPSing my vehicles first, but hey, other people’s interests are my interests too. There’s quite a few devices coming on the market and I’ll post a few, along with some real-world comments on what I think is effective. I don’t sell any of these systems and I’m not afraid to call a spade a spade.

Collar style: 250 g* About 8 ounces for the Metrically challenged)

Waterproofed

Unmounted, supply your own harness; 200 g

*=weight without belt

The unique GPS PRO Dog collar tracking system is an universal and completely new technology for finding, pursuing or tracking your dog: A GPS receiver and a GSM modem with special software is incorporated into the dog collar. Allows you easily and remotely monitoring the location of your dog via your cell phone/mobile phone anywhere in the world with suitable GSM coverage. Two versions are available:

• GPS collar (250 g weight, without collar belt, the belt is included in the price)
• GPS backpack (200 g weight) to fit on a harness

The principle: You simply call the telephone number of the GPS PRO Dog collar with your handy /mobile phone /cell phone. The GPS receiver of the collar, estimates the position of the dog and sends the coordinates immediately as SMS (Short Message service) over the Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) directly on your mobile phone display. The accuracy of the positioning amounts to the average less than 15 meters.

The GPS PRO Dog system works if the satellite antenna on top of the collar/backpack is able to find signals from at least 4 satellites and if the area where the dog is moving is coverd by GSM network (no other phone network service works!!).

Now I know some of the questions you’re going to be asking What the heck is a GSM network and what’s a SIM card. Well GSM is the latest digital network technology. The US is getting more and more GSM service every day …. but don’t count on 100% coverage, ever. If you live in a metro area there’s a good chance you have coverage today, but remote areas may not have coverage for along time, if ever.

A SIM card (Subscriber Identification Module) is a postage stamp size card that mounts inside a cell phone (or a dog collar) and gives the device an identity (phone number) and a billing address so that the service provider will allow the device to connect to their network and measure how much to bill you. The slick part of these devices is that they us SMS (Short Message Service) or text messaging, so the messages go back and forth easily and you will have relatively small charges … it’s not like minutes of voice phone use.

You must, though, be insid3e network coverage and (a point some folks forget) the dog must be in coverage also. These particular devices aren’t cheap … ranging up to $1,000 USD, but there is no monthly charge except what charges the carrier may impose for text messages. Many plans give free messages or a large number of messages for a small fee, so I see connectivity as cheap.

All told, though, unless you are r4eally in love with technology this is not a very worthwhile device. I see just too many chances of the pet getting out of range ,,, in which case you paid a thousand bucks for lost dog that you could have had for free … and too much trouble in having some kind of subscriber devices to receive the information. A cell phone with mapping or an Internet computer to find out the dog’s whereabouts.

Diesel Costs Squeezing Businesses

Reading Eagle, Pa.
2006/09/06 00:00:00

Sep. 6–Whether it’s apples, roof shingles or septic-tank emptying, experts agree that consumers are paying more for goods and services as the result of the high price of diesel fuel.

Almost all products are hauled in trucks at some point on their way to market, and those vehicles run on diesel fuel. Therefore the 23 percent average rise in diesel fuel prices since early December has affected consumers more than most realize, said Jim Runk, president of the Pennsylvania Motor Truck Association. “Everything you eat, wear or use in any way comes to you by truck, and when the cost of delivery goes up, so does the cost of those goods,” he said…. Rest of Article Here:

Here’s yet another hand-wringing story about how trucking companies, farmers, small businesses and eventually the consumer are all suffering because of cost increases for diesel fuel.

I hate higher fuel costs at least as much as anyone does.  I further hate the thought of making unfriendly OPEC nations rich … especially Bush’s “special friends”, the Saudis, whose citizens are the actual terrorists who attacked our country on September 11th.

GPS tracking and intelligent routing can easily save more than the 20% increase in costs the article futilely moans about.  What if you could save money and take the weapon of fuel costs out of the hands of the countries who hate us?

I’ve often wondered why Blackberry, the largest manufacturer of smart PDA’s … many now with phones as well, has been slow to move into the GPS space. Well, now they have.

Thanks and a shout out to : http://blogs.totalpda.com/?p=151 It’s always nice to find a blog that’s new to me in this space. So many writers feel that dashboard mapping units are all there is to GPS.

Using a phone or a PDA with GPS is a great business tool. Think especially about businesses with mobile service folks … no need to keep calling the technician to find out his or her location … and no ‘confusion;’ about who is actually on the job. It makes good business cents.