by Terrence O'Brien on September 30, 2010 at 08:10 AM

Luke Geissbühler and his children are hardly the first people to send a weather balloon up into space with an HD camera attached. But that doesn't stop us from watching in awe every time we see a DIY craft go up and send back shaky footage of Earth's blue atmosphere bleeding into the black void of space. The video was captured by a high-defintion camera stashed with an iPhone (for GPS ...
by Amar Toor on September 29, 2010 at 02:50 PM

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Most people probably wouldn't drive their cars off a cliff just because their GPS system told them to do it. Driving off-road and up a mountain, on the other hand, is an entirely different story.
That's exactly what 37-year-old Robert Ziegler recently did, when his van's GPS system directed him up some ruggedly mountainous terrain in Bergün, Switzerland. Although Ziegler had his ...
by Terrence O'Brien on September 28, 2010 at 05:55 PM

When using a GPS, you generally have two choices for getting your directions: looking at the screen, and listening to audio cues. The problem is that taking your eyes off the road, even momentarily, can be dangerous, and the polite British woman (or Darth Vader, depending on your level of geekiness) is not always audible over your blaring stereo and the din of traffic. A new system being ...
by Matthew Zuras on September 24, 2010 at 03:15 PM

The Web is teeming with the unrealized ideas of both students and established designers who set out to produce astonishing renderings and prototypes for unusual products. Unfortunately, due to the lack of time, money, or technology, many of those products never move from the planning stages to the mass market. But that doesn't mean we can't salivate over their creations, nevertheless.
This ...
by Amar Toor on September 24, 2010 at 11:45 AM

At first glance, BMW's new scooter prototype, the Mini Scooter E, seems like just another electric scooter. Unlike others, though, the Mini will never ask its drivers to waste time looking for specific charging points -- or, for that matter, their keys.
As Fast Company reports, the Mini is set to be unveiled at next month's Paris Motor Show, where it's unique electrical design will surely get ...
by Amar Toor on September 7, 2010 at 11:30 AM

The 'Nike+' iPhone app has been a popular choice for runners looking for some extra company during long workouts. Now, the sportswear powerhouse has just released an updated, GPS-enhanced version of the app, geared toward athletes who actually like to see where they're headed. In addition to tracking a user's pace, distance and burned calories, the new 'Nike+ GPS' (iTunes link) app takes advantage ...
by Caleb Johnson on August 28, 2010 at 09:00 AM

A federal judge in California recently ruled that police can place a GPS on a person's car without his or her knowledge without seeking a warrant. CNN reports that Juan Pineda-Moreno's appeal was rejected for the third time in early August by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers nine West Coast states. Pineda-Moreno claimed that Oregon DEA agents had violated his privacy by ...
by Amar Toor on August 13, 2010 at 10:40 AM

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Nick Newcomen had something to get off his chest, so he decided to write it across the continental U.S. Literally. With the help of a Qstarz BT-Q1000X GPS logging device and seemingly endless amounts of spare time, Newcomen spent a full month driving across 30 states, along a route he'd carefully planned before leaving his house. When he finally ended his trek, his trans-continental ...
by Amar Toor on August 9, 2010 at 08:00 AM

The next time the police think about slapping a GPS tracking device on your car, they may be required to have a search warrant in their hands beforehand. In an opinion issued Friday, a D.C. Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals determined that unwarranted and prolonged GPS surveillance violates constitutionally mandated protections against unreasonable searches.
Federal prosecutors used evidence ...
by Terrence O'Brien on August 8, 2010 at 05:00 PM

As both a nerd and someone who is physically active, there are few things your writer loves more than combining a love for gadgets, stats and sweat. The $99.99 LiveRider iPhone kit turns your iPhone into a serious bike computer. Sure there are countless apps that can track your speed or map your route using GPS, but serious cyclists want more (and more accurate) info at their fingertips. ...
by Caleb Johnson on August 3, 2010 at 06:30 AM

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How far will travelers blindly follow a GPS device? According to The Sydney Morning Herald, an Australian family of four (and their poor pup) followed directions given by their GPS onto a road closed by heavy rainfall and became stranded for three nights in a pickup truck. The family, believe it or not, ignored posted warning signs and turned onto the Darling River Road while traveling ...
by Matthew Zuras on August 2, 2010 at 03:00 PM

Brazil -- land of caipirinhas, Carnival and one of the world's highest crime rates per capita -- will be a bit more like the world of 'The Running Man' starting next week. In one of the scariest advertising schemes known to us, Unilever's detergent line Omo will be placing GPS devices in select boxes of suds throughout the country.
According to Advertising Age, "consumers who buy one of the ...
by Amar Toor on July 22, 2010 at 02:50 PM

A useful tip to all would-be iPhone thieves: when stealing said iPhone, it's a good idea to make sure it's not running a real-time GPS tracking program. Unfortunately for Horatio Toure, he had to learn this life lesson the hard way.
As the San Francisco Chronicle reports, the 31-year-old Toure recently stole an iPhone from a seemingly ordinary woman, Jordan Sturm, whom he stealthily targeted ...
by Matthew Zuras on July 12, 2010 at 07:30 PM

There's a load of great tech news happening out there every day, and, unfortunately, we just can't cover it all. Here are a few of the other noteworthy things we saw today on our never-ending journey through the wild, wild Web.
Geek drivers probably know about GPS provider TomTom, and that the company has recently released new voices for your dash-mounted navigator -- straight out of 'Star ...
by Terrence O'Brien on July 12, 2010 at 07:00 PM

BlackBerry isn't in danger of becoming irrelevant anytime soon thanks to its deeply entrenched enterprise install base. But it would be foolish to pretend there were no threats to the throne. Apple's iOS and Google's Android have been adding enterprise-friendly features, and Microsoft will soon be introducing the exciting looking Windows Phone 7 later this year. Recent teasers of BlackBerry OS 6 ...