2012 has started on a bad note for drivers, as gas prices rose 10 cents to $3.37 a gallon for regular gasoline, which is 14 cents more expensive than one month ago, and 27 cents more expensive than one year ago, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report.
Gasoline prices rose in most of the U.S. during the last week.
Police in Sherburne County, MN, began to suspect Sin Santo Bad was behind a string of residential burglaries when a witness reported seeing a vehicle with the license plate “BAD SIN” parked outside a house while it was being burglarized. The license plate “BAD SIN” was registered to Bad’s personal vehicle.
Sheriff deputies later received permission from one of the owners of the potato processing company where Bad worked to put a GPS tracking device on a company-owned pick-up truck. The GPS tracking device allowed officers to monitor the truck’s location and movements, but it did not transmit conversations from inside the truck or show the truck’s contents. [More…]
In September 2009, a company employee called the sheriff’s office to report that Bad was going to be using the company-owned truck for work that day. Deputies used the GPS tracking device to follow the truck, and what they found him doing was outrageous.
ederal agencies involved with testing and analyzing LightSquared’s proposed wireless network have unanimously found that LightSquared “would cause harmful interference to many GPS receivers,” and “that conclusion applies both to LightSquared’s original plan, and to modifications the company pledged after earlier tests showed interference.”
The news was broken in a letter signed by Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and Deputy Transportation Secretary John Porcarito, written to the U.S. Commerce Department from the National Executive Committee for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation & Timing.
The Space-Based Positioning Navigation & Timing executive committee has representatives from nine federal departments including the Commerce Dept. and the Air Force. The group reports its conclusions to the Federal Communications Commission, which has the final say on whether Lightsquared can proceed with its network, into which New York hedge fund operator Phil Falcone has poured more than $2 billion.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
gasoline prices
Record High Gas Spending in 2011, U.S. Consumers Spent $4,155 More On Gas This Year
Even though gas prices have been falling in recent weeks, consumers have spent more money on gasoline in 2011 than any other, according to the Oil Price Information Service (OPIS).
Thousands of people use apps such as Foursquare that allows users to share where they eat, drink and shop. Now the ‘I Just Made Love’ lets you log and GPS-tag your private life in just the same way – and, bizarrely, some people seem to want to.
Federal investigators are probing allegations that Carrier IQ software found on about 150 million cellphones tracked user activity and sent the information to the cellphone companies without informing consumers, according to government officials, reported the Washington Post. Executives from Carrier IQ traveled to Washington Tuesday and met with officials at the Federal Trade Commission, which is responsible for protecting consumers and enforcing privacy laws. The executives also met with the Federal Communications Commission.
Carrier IQ, the tracking software company, has said its software is not designed to capture keystrokes or the content of messages, but in some cases that may have happened by accident. The company said it inadvertently collected some SMS messages as the result of a software bug, but the data is intended to help improve user experience with smartphones.
Block III GPS satellites have a more powerful signal and will be able to determine position to within three feet, compared to 10 feet with current technology, the AP reported. Users are expected to see major improvements in navigation and driving directions.
GPS systems don’t currently work well indoors, so the improvements will be a major breakthrough. The Block III GPS system is expected to be more reliable in areas where the current technology is shaky, such as under heavy tree canopies or on city streets surrounded by skyscrapers, or even indoors.
Yesterday the European Commission unveiled plans to establish a cross-border surveillance and tracking system which will allow border guards to share information and intelligence, helping in the fight against crime. The proposed European Border Surveillance System (EUROSUR) will allow border agents to track small boats – often used in smuggling operations – using satellite imagery, ensuring this information is passed between member states.
The EUROSUR tracking system is expected to increase communication within and between states to prevent and tackle serious crime – such as drug trafficking and the trafficking of human beings, and to reduce the number of migrant deaths at sea.
Iran may be playing military games as speculation rises that its military will soon be shutting down the Strait of Hormuz, a shipping channel where one-sixth of the world’s oil supply passes through.
Oil prices rose the most in almost four weeks on speculation supplies will be disrupted after a report that Iran may be planning to close the Strait of Hormuz. Crude advanced as much as 3.6 percent after the state-run Fars news agency reported the military drills at the strait, however Iran’s Foreign Ministry denied the report.
Oil traders remain fearful that Iran could try and block the strategically-sensitive Strait of Hormuz that links the Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and through which much of the region’s oil is transported. Most of the crude exported from Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Iraq – together with nearly all the liquefied natural gas from lead exporter Qatar – must slip through a 4-mile wide shipping channel between Oman and Iran.
Did you know there is hidden software on millions of smartphones that records every interaction a user has with the device, as well as his location, then sends that information off the phone in a totally unencrypted way without letting the user know?
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