By Catherine Tower
GPS Units have many benefits. It does not matter whether you are purchasing a handheld GPS Unit for hiking, biking, or another outdoor activity or you are purchasing a portable GPS Unit for driving directions, business purposes, or emergencies. Your GPS unit is quite capable of performing high technological feats for being presented in such a small package.
That is why you should know exactly what the benefits are, before you purchase any type of GPS Unit. GPS devices are not for everyone. However, most people can find at least one benefit. Besides, they are attractive, sleek, and can offer many other services besides mapping locations.
Your GPS Unit is a must have device in any Emergency - While it is excellent that GPS technology is used in cell phones (all cell phones are required to emit GPS tracking signals), some areas are not capable of receiving any type of cell phone or GPS signal because they are out of range. If you know you are going to be in an unfamiliar area, even if you do not have GPS signal access, you should be able to access stored data on your handheld or portable GPS Unit.
You can save maps of the area, different routes you can take, and an overview of the entire region in hopes of preventing you from getting lost. Of course, it is always wise to have a handheld map available as well in these situations.
If you have access to GPS signals, not only can you communicate your location with authorities through your cell phone, you also have the ability to map the location and potentially find your way out of a dangerous situation by getting directions to the closest town.
Save Money on a Personal Trainer by Using your GPS Trainer - If you are athletic, you can use your handheld GPS Unit to your advantage. There are even some GPS Units available, which are specifically for personal training purposes such as the Garmin Forerunner 205 Personal Trainer.
The GPS Personal Trainer Units are portable. Most of them fit on your wrist and offer amazing features every workout enthusiast and athlete will love. GPS personal trainer features include:
* Heart rate monitors * Speed Monitors * Sports Transition Features * Data Recorder (Speed, Time, Distance) * Hand-tailored Workouts * Auto Lap * Auto Pause
Save Money thanks to GPS technology - You would be surprised how much money you can save and what you can save on when you have a portable GPS Unit in your car. You can have the device installed if you like, and if your insurance company knows about it, they may even lower your premiums.
Additional ways to save when you have a portable or handheld GPS Unit include saving on wear and tear of your car, saving on gas, and saving on oil changes as you go less miles. This is because you drive much more efficiently when you have a portable GPS unit in your car. You can get where you are going without having to back track or get lost and waste both time and money.
Miscellaneous Reasons you Benefit from GPS Units - There are many additional ways to benefit from handheld GPS Units and portable GPS Units. The capabilities of GPS Units are endless, so if you do not think the aforementioned benefits are good enough, why not consider the following benefits. You are sure to find at least one benefit to suit your own lifestyle.
Benefits include:
* Tracking abilities (never wonder where your loved one is again thanks to handheld GPS tracking abilities)
* Affordability
* Upgrade and Add-On capabilities allow you to keep your current model without having to replace it constantly
* One-time fees (no monthly payments - you buy it and thats it unless you plan to upgrade)
* Accident Location information to save time
* Speed Limit Warnings (Lets you know if you are going to fast)
* Business Benefits (Employee Tracking, Mapping, Data Transfer)
About The Author
Catherine Tower of Gottronics, is in charge of the research department, where she gathers information and reviews different GPS units, whether it be good or bad and stays up to date with all of the latest developments of the products.
Updates vary accordingly. They can come in CD/DVD post or as laptop downloads. GPS units vary in worth according to their usefulness. Prices may range from less than one hundred dollars to units costing more than one thousand dollars. What your desires are will be an aspect in the outlay of your unit. If you are a backpacker then portability is a main consideration. If you are a trucker, you want to be able to find a freedom spit as hastily and conveniently as possible. anything design you go for, outlay is normally related to quality. Buy the best you can afford.
Get a great new cheap GPS
How to enable voice recognition on a TomTom GO 720...
* You MUST have North America map version 7.10 AND you MUST have firmware version for the unit 2.221 to make the feature work.
* IF you have them, then you create a text file (use notepad) called support_asr.dat that contains JUST the number 1. No other spaces, carriage returns or anything.
* Place this file in your ASR folder on the unit.
* You'll be good to go ... this is of course assuming your unit is a TomTom 720.
* Now, on the unit, Navigate to-->Address-->Spoken Word (Dialogue)
Get a great new Garmin GPS 60
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.
Write Here, Write Now: And you thought you were overloaded with information now, just wait. Hewlett Packard is working on a technology to let folks print messages in mid-air based on their location incorporating GPS technology. I find this stuff fascinating, even if no one seems to have thought of a good use for it yet. The first sentence of the article is right, though: "The kids are going to love this." in New Scientist via RCPL's Liblog]
When the ALA summer conference was in San Francisco in 1997, the SF Museum of Modern Art had a fascinating exhibit called Icons: Magnets of Meaning. I spent hours browsing through it, but one of the pieces that has always stuck in my mind was called @: Marking the Electrosphere . It talked about the meaning of that one little symbol. How it can define, place, and root you in the world, but at the same time let you be found anywhere. Integrated, widespread use of GPS is going to take this to a whole new level.
gps mapping
Labels: handheld gps | motorcycle gps | gps units
