Here's a contest that can earn you some bragging rites or at least a few grand from MapMyRide.com, the program that allows you to map and upload bike routes to share them with the greater biking community. The site has really grown up since I first saw it with lots of integration of services, capabilities and features. The basic idea is that it is a great community of other riders where you can share rides, routes and tips. They have also wrapped training programs and training goals around the offering to make it a pretty compelling site. There is a free and premium version.
Check out Map My Ride and look into how you can Map Your Ride, and ride the virtual tour this year; maybe even win some prizes. Who knows, maybe Phil Liggett will be announcing you winning the virtual tour at the end of the contest.
NAVTEQ is talking about a future with more pedestrian based navigation, driven by their Discover Cities mapping work. The effort is delivering more data to hardware and service providers that enable the on foot navigation where there is not supposed to be traffic, or where subway or bus travel is involved. The idea that navigation help makes the jump to foot traffic is not a giant leap, but I am not sure how it will make that jump. The question if people actually be more likely to use this capability if it is through an over the air service to their mobile phone or through an add-on to their GPS navigation device like a Nuvi remains to be answered.
"The growing number of commercially available devices and applications reinforces the trend that pedestrian navigation is becoming mainstream," said Jeff Mize, executive vice president, global sales, NAVTEQ. "We are pleased that the high-quality data from NAVTEQ Discover Cities will enable our customers to provide consumers with accurate orientation and guidance to further enhance the pedestrian experience."
Cobra is launching a new Red Light Camera locator into the market to pump up their "Aura" database of red light cameras, offering a non-navigation GPS-based solution to being alerted to the threats of red light cameras, speed cameras and enforcement areas. The unit comes equipped with a database of "threat" areas pre-loaded and it simply plugs into your computer to update the database when ever you want. The database is 100% verified for accuracy, and available anytime. No word on the going cost after the 1-year trial subscription runs out.
The toy-like device will light up when you are approaching a danger zone to warn you of your imminent "photo-op". Cost is $99 and comes with a 1-year trial subscription.
Thought I would pass this along - American Airlines is testing a new method of flying planes across the Atlantic on a Paris to Miami route. The planes usually fly in set pathways across the Atlantic that were established long before the current capabilities for better navigation with GPS, and they are not very direct or thus fuel efficient. The more direct route governed by GPS direction finding would hopefully save significant fuel. When coupled with other fuel saving tactics, even a small dent in the millions of gallons a year that they burn through would make a significant difference.
The system, dubbed NextGen, is a game changer if it works, but I am sure with the installed base of technology and expertise out there that is invested for current methodology, we're not going to see a big change overnight.
Interesting article in the Economist about the future of the connected car. The article talks about the stuff we know - GPS navigation, Inrix traffic probe data helping get us around traffic, but then ventures into how Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) communication might work as well as Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I) communication might work too. Toll transponders are the most obvious use for V2I communication, but you might start getting a network effect of communication between vehicles to share not only traffic, but traffic signal colors, emergency vehicle alerts and sudden braking situations.
A recent article in the Boston Globe detailed a few ways to save money while owning a car, and that includes owning a GPS. The article is a little thin, but certainly offers the idea that driving around lost wastes time and gas, get a GPS and get yourself found. We know from a recent study (Sponsored by NAVTEQ through so some readers have voiced concern over teh validity of the study - I think it's reasonable) showed a reduction in miles and gas consumption for GPS owners.
Now, you can do the math about wasted time and gas vs. the cost of a GPS, but I think the payoff is in the area of freedom and confidence. I can't tell you how many "away" games I have used the GPS to get to and had no problem while others are barely avoiding accidents as they read cryptic directions off of a print out from the coach on how to find a field.
Add to that finding a business, a Real Estate Listing, ANYTHING when you are new to town, and so on.....
How does a GPS save you time and money? Leave a comment to tell us how.
While it may not be THE reason to come to Boston, it might make sense to grab this free driving tour of Boston and see a few locations around town that are meaningful to JFK. You can download the file to a Garmin or TomTom, or just follow some printed directions to get from historical place to historical place. The tour was assembled by the Boston Globe, and put up by Geovative, where you can find a lot of other GPS tours for download.
In the never ending battle to sell its product, MLB has been awarded a patent to use Geolocation in an effort to understand a person's location and then based on contracted black-outs with other local stations, limit or shut down a game's feed. So think about a local station with exclusive rights who for some reason or another decides to black out a game, you won't be able to watch it on your mobile technology. Another example might be when a station has exclusive rights to broadcast a game in a market, but the user wants to instead watch on their mobile phone; MLB now has the patent to cover their ability to black you out based on your location.
Amazing technology put to a slightly style-crimping use. Oh, well.
If you have been waiting to get a GPS, wait no longer, because NAVTEQ recently released results from a study it commissioned to understand the effects of using GPS navigation on miles driven and the overall effect on fuel efficiency. The study was conducted in Germany, among people who had not previously owned a GPS, and attached a data logger to their cars to capture trip distances, times, speed, etc. The study had three groups of users, 1) Drivers without a GPS navigation system (the control group), 2) Drivers with a GPS, and 3) Drivers with a GPS that is traffic enabled. The findings are pretty cool:
Drivers with a GPS drove about 1,500 miles less per year that drivers without a GPS when you annualize the data.
Drivers with a GPS get better fuel efficiency; about 12% better.
Drivers reduced their trip times increased over time as drivers learned how to better use the GPS. The trip distance savings increased for non-standard trips, which I would imagine are those trips where you are not as sure of the route.
Drivers who had the traffic feature had shorter trips during what would be considered Rush hours.
So, while the savings figures below are for a Euro driver where gas is higher per gallon than the US, I calculated a few figures for the US that might illustrate what a US driver might experience if the 12% increase in fuel efficiency held true as well as the 1,500 mile reduction in annual miles driven.
Savings for a Typical US Driver
Assuming a 22 MPG average in the US for the passenger car fleet, a 12% increase would represent 24.6 MPG. If you drove 15,000 miles originally, it would take 681 gallons of gas, or about $1,396 at the US average price of $2.05/gallon. With the GPS, you would drive 12,500 miles at 24.6 MPG, and you would use 508 gallons of gas totaling $1,041 per year at $2.05/gallon. A savings of $354.
If you up the quality of the systems used, I would imagine you would get better results. If you want to get better at driving more economically, try out the ecoRoute capabilities on your Garmin GPS. It's free with all new Nuvi's and is a free download for all Nuvi 205 and 705 series units.
I have seen a lot of Fidelity ads lately and it struck me that we have entered another era of acceptance of the GPS. When I started this Blog, not a lot of people knew what a GPS was, let alone want to shell out several hundred dollars for one (recall the first Nuvi, the first flat GPS had a list price of $900+).
The first turn for me was when GPS units were actually on the first page of the circulars for Black Friday - something a lot of people wanted and that would bring the crowds in. That happened in 2007. With this new campaign from Fidelity that uses a navigation icon that is most similar to a Navigon interface, I think that they realize that everyone in their target audience gets the idea of setting the right direction and letting Fidelity navigate you there. Four years ago, the metaphor would have been missed, today it is second nature. Wonder where we'll be in four years.
Recycle your Old GPS - BestBuy, RadioShack and NextWorth
Let's face it, these things don't last forever, and if you are like me, the pie of old electronics is stacking up in the closet. Recently I have seen a lot of movement in the recycling area for electronics, including GPS units so I thought I would pass some ideas along. So, hey, It's Earth Day why not dig those old electronics out of the closet and make a difference.
BestBuy - No charge for most electronics, buy laptops, TVs and monitors under 32" require a $10 fee, but you also get a $10 Gift Card in return. Short list of things they don't take at their Recycling Page
RadioShack - More of a trade-in program that offers you money in the form of a Radio Shack gift card in return for your gently used electronics. You input your unit's model number, answer a few questions on its condition and get an appraisal. I ran a Nuvi 350 through in good condition and it was worth about $28. Not a lot, but better than nothing. Free shipping too. See their Trade in program page for more details.
NextWorth - This website will appraise your electronics, and once cleared and checked out, will send you a gift card to either Amazon.com or Target or a check or cash via PayPal. I checked out the same Nuvi 350 and they offered $36, which at the end of the check-in screens, they offer a rpe-paid shipping label to slap on your stuff and send it off. They just started doing GPS units, so to me, this looks like a great deal compared to the other ones. 1) They pay you, 2) You are not limited to credit at one store and 3) seems pretty easy to do with pre-paid mailing labels. Check Out NextWorth at their website
Rightway GPS has announced a Dale Earnhardt Jr GPS called the Spotter, complete with Dale Jr's voice or many of the messages you'll be hearing driving down your little piece of racetrack. The unit does have text to speech so it will say street names, presumably in a computer's voice.
Pre-sale at their website now for $229. Can't vouch for the quality here though.....
Aptera - 100+ Mile per Charge - And a cool GPS to boot!
The Aptera is making its rounds as a three wheeled "car" that offers an outrageously aerodynamic shape, and gets about 100 miles per charge. The new aerodynamic shape makes it slip through the air without a lot of energy consumption.
What I thought was cool was it's navigation system shown here in the middle of the shot; tap on past destinations to add them to the route and let it optimize the route for you. The nav system is connected via GSM and allows you to "dump your Google calendar" down to the vehicle. Now you're talking... what else?
Came across this interesting feature the other day in the Boston Globe and thought I would pass it on. Sure there are businesses doing this kind of stuff, but I thought that it was unusual for a local newspaper to offer an audio guided road tour via GPS.
The tour covers some of the north shore of Massachusetts, and can be downloaded to a Garmin or a TomTom as long as they have the ability to playback the audio (Most TomTom's and Garmin's with MP3 capability). The tour takes you on a navigation trip through several seaside towns along the north shore offering a little history lesson as you go.
The tour is actually hosted by Geovative solutions, which offers numerous tours around the globe for GPS units. They offer the ability for you to create your own tour, upload it and share it with the world; all for free. They also offer premium content for a fee, sometimes only a $1.99.
Tour de France Contest - Map My Ride
Continue reading: 
Let's face it, these things don't last forever, and if you are like me, the pie of old electronics is stacking up in the closet. Recently I have seen a lot of movement in the recycling area for electronics, including GPS units so I thought I would pass some ideas along. So, hey, It's Earth Day why not dig those old electronics out of the closet and make a difference.
Mailing List
Subscribe - RSS
