January 2012

31 posts
Garmin’s New App Uses Cell Phones to Stream to GPS Device

A new Garmin GPS app called Smartphone Link lets Android users stream real-time information to their GPS navigation device using their cel phone’s data plan.

Data is received by the phone and transmitted to the GPS device, for display on the navigator’s screen. The app can display real-time traffic information, traffic cam images, weather info and fuel prices quickly and easily on your Android cell phone. [More…]

The app is available free in the Android Market, and works with any Bluetooth-enabled 2012 Garmin Nuvi model. Free information includes access to product updates from Garmin, along with basic weather reporting. More useful data requires a subscription.

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Duke University Launching Real-Time GPS Tracking System For Bus Fleet

This month Duke University is launching a real-time tracking system for its fleet of buses. Now students, faculty, staff and visitors can locate a Duke bus in real-time at any of the 113 bus stops on and around campus.

“This is going to provide a great opportunity for people to see where buses are at any point in time in our system, literally down to the second as they move,” said Sam Veraldi, director of Parking and Transportation Services. “The system offers us a tremendous amount of efficiency by letting us and our passengers know where vehicles are and where they’ll soon be.”

The tracking system gives riders access to real-time bus location information from a computer or mobile device, and apps are available for the iPhone, Android and BlackBerry. Users can also use text messages to locate buses. The tracking system map will also have the capability to post messages, so if an accident slows or alters a bus route, riders will be alerted as the change happens.

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Real-Time Bus Tracking System Lauching in NYC

New York City’s public transit provider, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), has decided to invest in a state-of-the-art bus tracking system that will give New Yorkers a real-time view into the exact location of every bus in the city. The tracking system will help bus riders stay on schedule, plan their travel, and never miss a bus again.

Bus riders in New York City should be very excited about the upcoming, real-time bus tracking system. [More…]

Bus riders will be able to access real-time information from a computer or mobile device and users can also use text messages to locate buses. This will especially come in handy during a snow storm or on a cold, rainy day.

Because traffic conditions, breakdowns, and day-to-day problems faced by transit providers can delay bus service, the tracking system was designed to keep bus riders on schedule even if their bus isn’t.

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GPS Tracking System for Pets

Find your lost pet quickly and easily from your computer or mobile device with a GPS tracking system for pets.

For most pet owners, there is nothing more heartbreaking than losing your pet. Now with a GPS tracking system for pets called Tagg, you can keep your beloved pet safe by knowing where they are 24/7. The tracking system can alert you if your dog or cat travels outside their designated safe areas.

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Best iPhone App for Skiers and Snowboarders, MotionX – GPS Tracking

MotionX-GPS tracking let you know exactly where your friends and family are on the mountain via live position updates. This makes it easier for meeting up on the slopes and tracking each other. MotionX-GPS is also handy for tracking your vertical position and maximum speed.

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Shopping Center Tracking System Monitors Your Every Move

This is the first time U.S. malls have used cell phones to track people’s movements. The tracking system data knows who you are and where you’ve been.

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Fleet Tracking System Busts Employees Submitting False Time Sheets

pon installing FieldLogix’s fleet tracking system, Carlos’ suspicions were immediately confirmed. By using the system’s activity reports, he found that his “honor system” was being abused by his employees.

Carlos was shocked to see how bad his fraudulent overtime was.

By having an accurate way to measure daily work hours, his overtime costs dropped immediately. In fact, his overtime costs dropped by more than 2 hours per man per day with no change in the workload.

Based on Carlos’ calculations, he paid for the entire first year of the system within the first 18 days.

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Garmin GPS Fleet Tracking System

Whether you manage a fleet of 5 vans or hundreds of vehicles, a Garmin GPS fleet tracking system can help you to manage and improve mobile worker performance, reduce expenses and increase customer satisfaction.

A Garmin fleet tracking system can make your mobile employees and contractors more accountable, productive and efficient. Improving employee performance will not only make your customers more happy but it will make your drivers safe and at less risk of an accident.

Garmin LogoWith a Garmin fleet tracking system, dispatchers can locate and assign the best vehicle and driver nearest to the customer. This improved efficiency often leads to 1-2 additional service calls per day, per technician.

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NY Court: Tracking an Employee Secretly With GPS Is Legal

NY Appeals Court Approves GPS Tracking of Employees

Based on the court’s ruling in November, the New York State Department of Labor was within its rights when it placed a GPS tracking device on an employee’s private car without his knowledge and monitored him for several weeks (even after work hours and while he was on vacation) to determine whether he was submitting fraudulent time cards. [More…]

The case – Michael A. Cunningham v New York State Department of Labor – is just the latest to raise the question of GPS tracking by the government. In a 3-2 decision on Wednesday, the court dismissed claims by Michael Cunningham, a former Labor Department employee who was fired for misconduct, that the use of the global positioning system device had constituted illegal search and seizure.

The NY Labor Dept. fired Cunningham in 2010, who was first hired in 1980, but had a history of misconduct, relying on data from a GPS tracking device placed in his personal car to show he had submitted false expense sheets and other travel records. Cunningham sued and demanded a new hearing, saying the data should have been suppressed at his termination hearing.

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GPS Tracking Without a Warrant is Legal, Judge Rules

Law enforcement agents do not need to obtain a warrant before placing a secret GPS tracking device on your vehicle, says a Missouri federal judge, who just ruled the FBI did not need a warrant to secretly attach a GPS tracking device to a government employee’s car to track his public movements for two months.

The FBI suspected that Fred Robinson was a “no-show employee” at the St. Louis City Treasurer’s Office — alleging that he collected $175,000 in paychecks without ever actually going to work, reports the Post-Dispatch and Forbes Magazine. While the FBI was investigating Robinson for this and for stealing money from a charter school, agents snuck a GPS tracking device onto the bottom of his Chevrolet Cavalier in January 2010 and used it to track his whereabouts for the next two months.

A court opinion notes that it would have taken “five or six agents” to do it without the GPS tracking device. The tracking device data allegedly proved that the employment time sheets Robinson submitted to the Treasury Office January through March were false.

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GPS Tracking and Privacy Rights: Supreme Court to Decide

GPS Tracking Takes Privacy Invasion to a Whole New Level

In November 2011, the Supreme Court began hearing arguments in US v Jones, a case The New York Times recently dubbed “the most important Fourth Amendment case in a decade.”

The Jones case will set the precedent for the legality and limitations of GPS tracking without a warrant. The Supreme Courts will address a question that has divided the lower courts for years: Do the police need a warrant to attach a GPS device to a suspect’s car and track its movements for weeks at a time?

The NY Times said, “the answer will bring Fourth Amendment law into the digital age, addressing how its 18th-century prohibition of “unreasonable searches and seizures” applies to a world in which people’s movements are continuously recorded by devices in their cars, pockets and purses, by toll plazas and by transit systems.

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China Launches Beidou GPS System, Set to Rival US GPS

gps satellite tracking systemLast week China launched Beidou, its own version of America’s GPS System. China’s new global positioning system, called the Beidou Navigation Satellite System started providing initial positioning, navigation and timing services ina and around China last week, said spokesman Ran Chengqi in a news conference.

To date China has launched 10 satellites for the Beidou GPS system. By the end of 2012 China plans to have six more satellites in orbit, to enhance the system’s accuracy and expand its service to cover most of the Asian-Pacific region.

China’s Beidou still can’t compete with the U.S.’s GPS system in terms of how long, and how accurately it can monitor any part of the globe from space, but this will be changing in the near future.

GPS, which was launched for civilian use in 1995, now consists of 30 satellites and can be accurate to within less than 10 meters, or 33 feet, although the U.S. military has access to more precise readings. Mr. Ran said Beidou was accurate to within 25 meters and would reduce that to 10 meters by the end of next year.

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GPS Tracking Devices Instead of Jail Time in Over-Crowded System

Sante Fe Hopes GPS Tracking Can Help Reduce Repetitive Incarceration

With overcrowded jails, soaring incarceration costs and high recidivism rates, city officials in Santa Fe launched a new system that tracks convicted burglars through GPS devices rather than putting them in jail. The city is hoping the GPS tracking devices will be able to deter burglars from striking again, something that can be quite challenging to do.

Santa Fe Police Capt. Aric Wheeler told ABC News the idea for the program originated as an alternative to repetitive incarceration, which is expensive. Wheeler said that it also did little to deter burglaries and police would see an immediate spike in burglaries as soon as criminals got out of jail.

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