At last.  One immense and important step along the highway that virtually every single GPS tracking manufacturer has been ignoring, and nearly every customer has been asking for:

Best Buy launching cellular modem-equipped GPS units

by Donald Melanson, posted Oct 3rd 2008 at 3:11PM

Best Buy sure looks to be aiming high with its first Insignia-branded GPS units, which will apparently not only pack all the expected run-of-the-mill specs but two-way, Dash-like communication as well. That desirable feature will be included on both the 4.3-inch NS-CNV20 and 3.5-inch NS-CNV10 models, each of which make use of that cellular connectivity to provide real-time traffic information and access to Google Local Search, among other things, all of which will be free for the first year (no word on pricing after that). In addition to a larger screen, the $499 NS-CNV20 will also give you some built-in Bluetooth, but if that’s more than you need, you can save a $100 and opt for the $399 NS-CNV10. Look for both to go on sale October 19th. .. Tip of the Bloh Hat to Engadget, read their full article on GPS navigation with a two-way comm link to enable tracking here.

Geotab. Fleetboss, Qualcomm, @Road, Network Car, the rest of you out there … you8 haven’t been listening, perhaps, since a picture is alleged to be wrth a thousand words, you can ‘hear’ this.

One of my very favorite blogs is one called “Strange Maps” … I’ve featured them here on the GPS Trcaking ROIb blog a time or two.  Here’s something they just ran recently which is a fascinating glimpse into the past … as well as a great illustration of how our current non-tech society thinks they are smart by adding buzz words like “SatNav”and “GPS” to things that have nothing to do with either technology.  You know abut 40% of all Chinese college students are enrolled in engineering courses, about 4% of US college students are likewise enrolled … am I the only one who thiks this is disgraceful and short-sighted?

Anyway, enjoy seeing how drivers in the 1920′as got where they were going and when you laugh at this thing, remember that it needs no batteries, never needed rebooting, never caught a virus and was incapable of displaying pop-up ads … maybe it isn’t so backwards after all

Watch the Road: World’s Earliest SatNav

Filed under: Uncategorized — strangemaps @

Satellite navigation (SatNav) is a lot older than previously thought. In fact, it’s even decades older than man-made satellites themselves. This fantastic contraption, called the ‘Routefinder’, showed 1920s drivers in the UK the roads they were travelling down, gave them the mileage covered and told them to stop when they came at journey’s end… full 1920 GPS mapping article is here, a recommended read.

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