laptop gps Bargains

GPS Devices - Fulfill your Navigation dreams

By by James W Coates

Years ago, driving across the country meant one eye on the road and the other fixed on a heap of tangled, shredded paper covering the dashboard - otherwise
known as a map. But in today's interconnected world, even when you're lost, you're not really lost.

GPS devices are no longer reserved for outdoor enthusiasts such as hikers, skiers or geocachers. Trip navigators, like the Garmin Street Pilot help road trippers navigate through just about any city, state and province. Take a wrong turn, no problem. The device automatically plots a new course based on your current location. Whether you want to spend a few hundred bucks or reign in your budget, a GPS device can be your best friend.

Pinpointing precise locations is as easy as turning on your device, but making your GPS work smarter takes some time, skill and a PC. It's all about customization.

Connecting Your GPS Device to Your Computer.

Anyone can buy a GPS, enter their starting point, begin wandering and find their way back again. No special skills required. You don't need a PC to use your GPS device, but connecting the two allows you to customize your routes.

Before you begin, connect your GPS device to your PC. Decide the area you want to explore and load the appropriate maps (additional software you'll need to purchase beforehand). When you begin your adventure, your GPS device will show your exact location on the maps you've uploaded. Set your initial location as your home point. Begin wandering or follow the route you've mapped out. Enter waypoints along your route. When you return home, connect the GPS device to your PC again, upload waypoints to your PC to track your routes for future use. There's a GPS device for every trip you'll take this year. Just make sure the one you buy is the one you really need. If you're a wilderness adventurer, you'll likely want a high-end and more expensive GPS device than if you're an urban trekker who wants to track a route from Boise to Fort Lauderdale.

For the road tripper, consider a large enough screen that you can quickly glance at but won't cause you to take your eyes off the road for long. If you're a hiker, get one that fits into your hand (or on your wrist) comfortably. Protect it in a plastic cover in case you drop it in the swamp.

Navigating has never been easier, or for tech lovers, more fun.

About The Author

James W. Coates, an avid traveler and Outdoor Explorer, loves to roam national parks. Even more, he loves to swap stories with other people who share his love of the outdoors. Drop by his blog at Nomadik.com and exchange GPS tips with him.

Global Positioning Systems offer everything from hole overviews to Internet access "Shortgrass Technologies' Internet-based sports information system and financial ticker enables golfers to check college football scores on a Saturday afternoon or the price of stocks any weekday. Global positioning systems can track golf cars no matter where they are on the course, thus discovering bottlenecks and slower play. Golfers can order beverages and food en route to the turn, so golf clubs can offer more than a quick hot dog - a higher priced chicken sandwich, for instance...."

I always thought that GPS would go mainstream in automobiles first, and in a way I suppose it has, but maybe golfers will lead the real charge. I could have used a portable, library-centered GPS system myself to navigate the Chicago Public Library's Harold Washington Library when I was there last fall!

Lots of interesting articles from today's PC World. First up, Microsoft Takes on MapQuest: "MSN launches MapPoint online mapping service, offering maps, directions, and more."

Apparently this is going to be yet another component of MS' push for .Net services with hooks into other MSN services. MapPoint is XML-based, which makes it interesting in other ways, and there it launches with a phone-based direction service. The articles notes that this is another step towards location-based services. "For example, you might someday be able to click on a Windows Messenger buddy's name and retrieve a map showing the location of his or her home."

Good or bad? You make the call. I like parts of this, but I'm incredibly wary of .Net.

Qualcomm's Vision of the Wireless Future "When he finished, there were 20 brand-new, CDMA-based mobile handsets and devices arrayed on the table, the high-tech souvenirs of Belk's most recent trip to Hong Kong and Japan.... 'These are not PowerPoint slides,' Belk said. 'These are real devices that are already shipping in volume in Asia.' " at Business 2.0]

And there's the rub. When I do my presentations, that's all I have - pictures of prototypes or of devices not available in the U.S. Europe and Asia really are 18 months ahead of us in this area.

"Beale also discussed Qualcomm's gpsOne location technology.... It also opens the door for many new location-based services, such as traffic information and local weather forecasts. On Japan KDDI's network, there are already more than 20 location-based services available -- all of which are relatively inexpensive, costing less than $5 per month."

I'm looking forward to being able to travel and have information come to me automatically based on my location. For example, if I'm at a conference and I'm looking for a restaurant, I'd like my phone/PDA/whatever to know where I am and offer a list of nearby choices. Maybe it should tell me what movies or plays are on tonight and if there are still tickets available. You get the idea....

"Predictably, both Belk and Beale anticipate strong growth for the wireless industry as ever-more-compelling products and services become available and the industry settles on a single communication standard. How long will that take? Belk, whose career began in the personal computing business in 1983, likened the wireless industry today to the PC business of the 1980s. 'I wouldn't worry about the wireless industry yet, it's still relatively young,' he said. 'Just look how long it took the PC industry just to get to the point of standardized parallel cables.' "

Not to beat a dead horse, but the ebook industry is even younger than PCs, and PDAs have really only come into their own during the last few years. So don't count any of these technologies out just yet.

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