gps

Find Doctors--in Your Plan!--With UnitedHealthcare's DocGPS iPhone App

Dan Macsai — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 12:18:38 -0500

Anyone can use an iPhone to find the nearest doctor's office or hospital, but without contacting each medical facility, you'll never know if it accepts your particular health-care plan. And if you're sick--or just lazy--that extra step is both irritating and inefficient.

Raising the Woof: 13 Eye-Popping Pet Projects

Zachary Wilson — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:00:00 -0500

Infographic: New Tricks

FCC Starts Up Its Radio White Space System, New Wireless Tech En-Route

Kit Eaton — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 08:42:31 -0500

AIDA - Your Robotic Car Co-Pilot of the Future - Now With Video

Kit Eaton — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:38:15 -0500

Last week we introduced you to AIDA (the Affective Intelligent Driving Agent)--get used to her if you can. MIT and Audi are hoping that this robot, or one that looks even more like Pixar's EVE, may be gracing your car's dashboard to help you drive in the near future.

Facebook Plans to Geotag Your Life

Kit Eaton — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:26:59 -0400

Even as we busily plug our personal information into Facebook, the powerhouse social network is about to get a whole lot more personal. It's getting ready to link geo-location information to your actions on the social site.

MIT, Volkswagen's In-Car Personal Robot Thinks You're Driving Like a Maniac

Anya Kamenetz — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 09:50:01 -0400

An MIT Media Lab robot (not AIDA) via glemak on Flickr

My parents already treat the GPS on their car like it's a person: "Shh! She's talking!" Now researchers at the MIT Media Lab, in partnership with Audi, want to take that relationship one step further with AIDA, the "Affective Intelligent Driving Agent."

Nav App Makers Beware: Google Maps Navigation Is Real

Kit Eaton — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:41:13 -0400

We wondered if makers of GPS navigation apps and systems should worry about Google's rumored efforts toward free turn-by-turn nav just the other day. And guess what--it's all true, and Tom Tom, Navigon, and the rest should be afraid.

Apple's Next Move: Location-Aware Apps for Your Car

Chris Dannen — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 13:58:47 -0400

Yesterday the Web caught wind that Apple had bought mapping software startup Placebase in July. Several recent patents filed by Cupertino suggest that the iPhone maker is interested in personal navigation. What do they have planned?

Duke Researchers Use Photo-Acoustic "Fingerprints" to Locate Mobile Phones Indoors

Erica Westly — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 17:56:34 -0400

Loopt Sneaks Background Multitasking Into Its iPhone App

Kit Eaton — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 08:18:59 -0400

Loopt, the location-based friend-finder, has just snuck an amazing little bonus feature into its iPhone app: It works in the background. As Apple detractors are fond of pointing out: The iPhone can't do this. What's happening?

Nokia's Sad Augmented Reality

Chris Dannen — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 11:37:56 -0400

Yesterday, Nokia released a well-produced video demonstrating what they apparently believe to be the future of augmented reality apps. If you haven't been keeping up with AR, it's just used to denote an information layer placed over what you see. And while AR will certainly be a part of all our realities in the next few years, Nokia has it all wrong. (See what's so hard about making AR apps here.) The video:

Awareness Is Everything

Jamais Cascio — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 16:42:11 -0400

As our various electronic devices gain more and more sensory awareness, we open up the potential for entirely new forms of interaction. Not just new interfaces--tapping and shaking and whatnot--but a shift in presence. With few exceptions, we use these new technologies in rather familiar ways.

Toshiba's Traffic Alerts Take Yet More 'Driving' Out Of Driving

Kit Eaton — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 08:33:03 -0400

Driving is becoming more and more automated: We rely on GPS, cars can even park for you...and now Toshiba's automated a nearby traffic alert system that solves the tricky problem of

Now Twitter Knows Where You Are, so What Happens Next?

Kit Eaton — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 07:53:17 -0400

Twitter's about to unveil a new feature that taps into another developing social networking trick: Geolocation. The ability to pinpoint your location will happen automatically within the Tweet's code, and it has some big implications.

Five Trailblazing Augmented Reality Navigation Apps

Kit Eaton — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 08:24:59 -0400

Augmented Reality is coming soon to a life near you, thanks to the latest crop of sensor-equipped smartphones. Navigation is, perhaps, the most natural fit between AR and useful technology. Simply put, when you're going somewhere, you need to know both where you are and where you're going. You often need both pieces of information when you're someplace unfamiliar and don't know quite what your destination looks like.

Nissan Intros iPhone App, Automated Driver, and Scented A/C While G.M. Makes Coffee

Dan Macsai — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 14:17:16 -0400

Nissan has been innovating in overdrive. Last week, we wrote about its still-developing electric vehicle, which will charge wirelessly like a Sonicare toothbrush. And this morning, the Tokyo-based automaker announced four new developments: Forest-scented A/C, an automated turn assistant, a brand-new EV, and a remote-control iPhone app. With no major auto shows on the horizon, it's a bizarre time for Nissan to tantalize the blogosphere. But we'll buzz along anyway.

Need a Cheap Location Tracker? Try a $99 iPhone

Kit Eaton — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 09:24:36 -0400

Location tracking is only recently reaching the affordability level of the average Joe, but it's still not ideal. So when Chris Molnar's girlfriend wanted to track her stuff during a recent house move, he came up with a plan: A $99 iPhone.

Turn-By Turn GPS on Netbooks: Dumbest Idea Ever

Kit Eaton — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 06:56:49 -0400

Dell recently announced it'll make a GPS add-on for its Mini 10 netbook. While your mileage may vary on the value of this idea, I'm making my mark here: This is one of the dumbest gadget ideas ever.

Navigon's Mobile Navigator iPhone App Beats TomTom to Market

Kit Eaton — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 10:17:48 -0400

One of the most eagerly-awaited functions of the recent iPhone 3.0 firmware upgrade was the addition of proper turn-by-turn navigation. The first big-name effort has hit iTunes today: Navigon's MobileNavigator. It's a chunky $104, but that's no surprise.

Japan Tests Cellphone Pandemic Prevention, Nevermind Your Privacy

Kit Eaton — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 08:45:14 -0400

Japanese officials are about to test a cellphone-based tracking system in an attempt to combat future pandemics. It's a bit like trying to solve the problem using good design, or with tricorders, just with much less civil liberty.

An Ingenious Hybrid Map: Why Didn't Garmin Think of This?

Cliff Kuang — Tue, 05 May 2009 09:27:57 -0400

Bold new concepts in mapping don't come along often, but London-based graphic designers Jack Schulze and Matt Webb may have invented one, with the "Here and There" map, which blends both a 3-D, first-person view and a bird's-eye view, thanks to a bending layout:

Inside the Next-Gen GPS-based Airplane Landing System

Fast Company Staff — Fri, 01 May 2009 14:00:00 -0400

1. Plane Plane Go
GBAS receives microwave signals from 4 to 13 GPS satellites. "The most difficult thing isn't determining the plane's GPS position, but ensuring SmartPath doesn't cause any errors," says Honeywell's T.K. Kallenbach, who has refined the system so that the chance of receiving erroneous data from even one satellite is essentially less than one in 10 million.

Honeywell's GPS-based Landing Tech Could Save Airlines Billions

Greg Lindsay — Fri, 01 May 2009 14:00:00 -0400

In January, passengers aboard Qantas Airways' Airbus A380 flagship, the Nancy-Bird Walton, were taken on a slight detour during their final approach to Sydney. The plane swooped by the funeral of the actual Nancy-Bird Walton, Australia's answer to Amelia Earhart. The plane's sheer size might have shocked her, but she could have taken the stick and landed safely -- the technology hasn't changed much since the 1930s.

AT&T Rolls Out Orwellian "FamilyMap" Feature

Chris Dannen — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 13:59:39 -0400

There are plenty of voluntary ways to use your GPS-enabled phone to locate your friends in real time: Loopt, Google Latitude, or a simple text message will usually do. But if you're more into the constant-surveillance kind of thing, go ahead and spring for AT&T's new FamilyMap service.

Apple's Latest Patent: An In-Car iPhone GPS Hybrid?

Kit Eaton — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 07:16:33 -0400

The next iPhone could be the center of a sophisticated in-car navigation system, if a recently revealed Apple patent is taken to logical extremes. We've mentioned Apple's extensive patenting of GPS technology before, but that's mainly covered how the software will work. This time GPS hardware is outlined, and the main focus of the new tech is driver safety.