Turn Your Laptop Into A GPS Device — Not This Way Though

BOSTON — A local company is giving away free software that will turn your laptop into a GPS device. Based on your computer’s location, it will instantly locate where you are on a map and show what is in the area.

Just go to Loki.com to download the service. It’s free, but you’ll need Internet access and a laptop that is Wi-Fi equipped. The software uses wireless signals from millions of locations to tell you were you are. It will show you what restaurants, gas stations and other services that are in the area.

So, if you are out of town, but have a craving for sushi, Loki will pinpoint your location and find the closest restaurant. It will even plot the address on a map and give you driving directions.

The company plans to launch the service for cell phones and PDAs. Link Here:

Here we go again with America’s penchant for media outlets that serve up disinformation and nonsense. WCVB and Senior News Editor Jamy Pombo ought to know better that make stories out of nonsense. Especially in a Boston-based major news outlet … located inside the Route 128 Corridor in one of America’s prime technological centers. Perhaps WCVB doesn’t know how much past and current work of building and improv9ng the GPS comes out of the Air Force Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom Field, practically in visual range of WCVB’s transmitters. Boston has played a key role n developing and fielding the GPS … Loki ahs had no connection with it at all. The acronym GPS does not even appear on Loki’s web site.

We’ve discuss the Loki offering here before …even exchanged information with one of the company principals. I have nothing against Loki; it’s an interesting effort at building a Location Based Service (LBS) out of thin air. The promise of LBS is very much lagging in the US and Loki is an “upstart” company trying to build themselves a niche if the market takes off.

But to call this GPS is as inaccurate as calling it a water wheel or a nuclear reactor. It’s just dead wrong and the American public deserves better. Loki’s software combined with a Wi-Fi enabled device, in range of Wi-Fi access points that have been surveyed and categorized by Loki, will know its approximate location on earth and serve up information about its surroundings, again, as this information has been captured and cataloged by Loki. It can not find it’s location on earth if it is not receiving a Loki-know Wi-Fi access point and can not deliver navigation and tracking information as it could were it receiving GPS signals.

Loki is a commercial service which, as I have said, offers some useful features and may or may not become a commercial success. However, Loki totally ignores the GPS and is totally useless beyond range of Loki-cataloged access points.

You can turn your laptop (or other PDA or handheld device) into a GPS with a simple USB GPS receiver (or one may already be built in. It will then find your position anywhere on the face of the earth, and help you navigate to any other position. It receives accurate, non-commercial position signals from government operated satellites and does not depend upon the whim of a commercial organization. If you do want to find the nearest McDonalds or Starbucks, Microsoft and any number of commercial providers provide the software that will guide you based on your GPS position … in downtown Boston or in the middle of Kansas. Loki is Loki and GPS is GPS. Are you willing to learn the difference, Jamy?