Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with GPS

Suggestions for an intuitive mobile phone with GPS, camera for directionally-challenged adult daughter.

mumstheword — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 10:57:12 -0800

I need a suggestion for a mobile phone that is very intuitive, has GPS and is a camera phone. Bonus points if it's kinda like OnStar, speaking directions aloud, and is affordable--under $250--although I don't know if that is possible...you tell me. I have an adult daughter who, due to a learning disorder (comprehends better with audio than visual cues) spends a lot of time...and gasoline, looking for places rather than getting to places. She needs a handsfree phone, with GPS, loves to take pix to send to her out-of-town sis, and isn't terrifically tech-savvy--like her mom!--so needs something intuitive. Info on monthly cost as well as initial purchase cost is appreciated. Audio reminder capability and any other organizer features would be wonderful but not required. If it matters, we live in Oregon, east of the mountains (recently moved here from Seattle) and currently use T-Mobile service, although Verizon seems to be a good provider in this area.

Alternative to MotionBased and Garmin Connect?

letitrain — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 18:09:21 -0800

Alternatives to MotionBased and Garmin Connect for tracking running workouts with a Garmin Forerunner 305? Are there any alternative websites that provide running-specific GPS tracking, including maps and heart rate, pace and speed analysis? I had transitioned completely to Garmin Connect, but with yesterday's site update they locked out the Forerunner 305 (not officially supported, but previously working just fine). Grrrr...

I could go back to MotionBased and pay to upgrade my account (necessary to see more than ten workouts), but it's supposedly going to be replaced with the (free) Garmin Connect any day now. I can't tell if I'd be paying for a month or if they'll have their typical 4-12 month upgrade delays. Which means I don't know whether to sign up for a month or a year.

Anyway, my emails with Garmin support are an exercise in frustration and I'm ready to try something new until they get their heads out of their collective asses. Any suggestions? Thanks!

Interesting GPS applications?

vizsla — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:16:37 -0800

What are useful/fun/collaborative things that can be done with a PDA, computer and a small GPS device these days?

Best GPS software for Mac or PC?

A Kingdom for a Donkey — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 05:35:25 -0800

I have a Macbook Pro with OS X and Vista on it. I also have the opportunity to borrow a USB GPS device. The plan is to drive around Estonia and Latvia, so decent maps of Eastern Europe are a must. What GPS software should I use?

Can gunshots be triangulated with sound analysis?

odinsdream — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 12:16:03 -0800

Pinpointing gunshot locations by triangulating sound waves: Would this be technically feasible? Would it be legal? Would it be technically possible, with an array of sound monitoring devices placed on utility poles, to determine the source of loud sounds, such as gunshot reports, by relying on very exact time signatures and possibly volume levels? Would this be super-expensive?

Would it be legal for a city or business to deploy such devices?

How to auto-geotag mobile photos / track where I've been using GPS?

jeffrygardner — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 09:32:23 -0800

How to best use the GPS in my Palm 800w? I would like to 1) Automatically geotag my cameraphone photos and 2) Be able to track where and how far I've traveled for workouts. The phone has GPS and is capable of turn-by-turn directions, so I would think that it is capable of everything I mentioned.

Running Windows Mobile 6.1. Free/Cheap is preferred. Shozu doesn't work as far as the geotagging goes. Help?

GPS track management

primer_dimer — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 01:25:48 -0800

looking for software/webapp for GPS track management So I'm getting started with GPS tracking, my aim being similar to this askme question - to record my own tracks as a kind of prosthesis for my appalling memory. I'm starting to think about the next step - actually extracting useful information from those records. As a hypothetical example, let's say I have recorded my position every 10 minutes for a year. Where is the software that will allow me to ask questions like:

- how many visits did I make to the supermarket
- how many hours a day did I spend at work, on average
- what was my average commute time (to the nearest 10 minutes, obviously)
- how many days in total did I spend in the Lake District, spread out over multiple trips

Now it seems to me that this shouldn't be too hard from a programming point of view. I should be able to click on a map and tell a piece of software that this location is "work", this is "home", etc.

And I should be able to say that a journey between "home" and "work" is a regular one and give it a name "commute". Or it should be possible to convert GPS co-ordinates to useful place names by extracting the data from a map - to work out which data points correspond to "Manchester", etc. I wouldn't be surprised if Google maps can do something like that.

So my question is; does such a program/webapp exist? It seems like this kind of data should be ideal for the a kind of stats-heavy app like Mint/Google Analytics etc. that could automatically generate interesting graphs - e.g. time spent in different cities, time spent on different journeys, etc. The closest thing I've found is sites like motionbased.com, that are geared towards running, cycling etc. Or is this problem computationally impossible for some reason I don't understand?

gps module circuit diagram needed

raphael19 — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 13:56:15 -0800

can you help me locate a circuit diagram of a gps module on internet? title says it all.

i googled and searched but could not find any sources. is it top secret or am i not looking close enough? the ones i have found are gps kits with already commercially available modules. but i want the module itself.

Looking for a Good GPS Geotagger

remi — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 05:36:52 -0800

Any one has great suggestions for inexpensive GPS photo finders / photo trackers / geotaggers? I'm not sure what is the generic term for this kind of device.

To track my photos via GPS, I bought an ATP Photo Finder. I gave it a try and I was extremely disappointed. It was losing its signal all the time. It couldn't write to any of my SDHC cards, even though the manual clearly states it can. When I generated a KML of a walk I took downtown, Google Earth implies that I've walked through buildings and jumped over bridges. When I've set the device for 10 minutes on a bench right outside of my home, the KML file it generated made it looked like if I attached the device on a boomrang and managed to make it swing and fly across four blocks from my place.

I looked at the Merax PhotoFinder GPS too, but since I have a Mac, I cannot use their software to tag my pictures with GPS coordinates.

Any suggestions for a better GPS geotagger that is within the same price range as the two devices I mentioned above?

Which GPS?

PossumCupCake — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 13:20:37 -0800

As a late birthday gift my father wants to get me a GPS for my truck. He asked if I wanted a TomTom or a Garmin, but I'm not familiar with either one. I looked online a bit but found all the models and crap confusing, so I seek advice here. If it makes a difference, I do a lot of driving in rural areas, and want one that will speak directions as well as show them. Actually, if it could yell them at me, that would help a bit too, as I have kids. Loud kids. Thanks!

How to easily update an online map when abroad?

XiBe — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 02:53:45 -0800

[TravelFilter] What would be an easy and cheap way to get a map update of my brother whereabouts for his year-long asian trip? (this is a follow-up to this thread)

My brother is going to be one the road for more than a year, backpacking with no personal computer, and getting Internet access as he can find it (cafés, hotels, etc.). We're planning on building a blog for him to write about his trip to us, but knowing where exactly he is could be a cool addition to the site.

I don't quite know how to tackle this. Here are my ideas so far:
- He sends the name of his current city by e-mail, and we update the (static) map by hand. But that's laborious.
- We code a gmaps/y!maps/whatever hack where he could just send in his current city to a form, and the map updates itself based on that new information. But that requires coding, obviously. (would be cool is this existed as an online service).
- We make him carry around some sort of GPS-updater that automatically send data to a server, which produces the map - as I've seen some hobby runners do here and there. But that's expensive as heck.

Do you have any idea or suggestions about handling that kind of data easily, cheaply, and from afar?

Thanks a lot.

I'm tired of backtracking the hinterlands

abkadefgee — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 10:48:18 -0800

How can I automatically arrange my walk-lists for political canvassing? I'm going to be cutting up a lot of turf for canvassers over the next couple of months and the solutions I have available are pretty insufficient. For instance, when I print out a walk-list, all the streets are arranged in alphabetical order rather than geographic location.

Is there anyway to dump map points into a program/web service so that they can be automatically arranged in a logical walking order?

Diesel woes, help us sort it out!

TomMelee — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 12:46:32 -0800

We've got a huge truck that does pickups and deliveries all over a rural community. Diesel eats us up. Do you have suggestions for helping us schedule pickups in a manner that maximizes efficiency? We're an NPO... Hi. Me again.

Like it says, we do pickups all over a large geographical area. We really need to maximize our truck-time. Between labor and diesel and insurance, it currently costs us something like $40/hour to run our truck. Ouch, pretty painful for a non-profit.

Does anyone know any software system which would enable us to type in addresses and then automagically plot them along a route that was the most efficient?

We currently tell people X day, not X time, although we could even bump that back to "we schedule all pickups for the next week on friday, we'll call you that afternoon to let you know what day and time."

My driver already has a GPS, and it'll route plan, but only in the order you give it waypoints.

I've heard that MS Streets and Trips will do something like this, but I'm unfamiliar with the product.

Thanks!

Best Phone for GPS, Gmail, and craigslist

CaptMcalister — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 05:26:15 -0800

Best Phone for Real-estate? I need a phone to help me rent apartments. The two features I'm most interested in are a good GPS system so I can find my way to and from different properties, and the ability to check and answer my gmail. A problem I've been having going through different reviews is that most just mention that the phone has GPS without talking about capabilities. I want to know if the GPS is worth while or if I should should get a Garmin and a phone with email separately. Being able to access craigslist and post a listing with photos would also be nice.

So what is the best phone for the job, that I could purchase relatively easily? Thanks!

Is a Nokia phone with GPS good enough to track my runs?

cyanide — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:39:21 -0800

I've been thinking of buying a phone with GPS to track my runs. Help me be sure and confident about my choice, or suggest a better alternative... I've been running for over a couple of months now. About 3-4 times a week, I run anywhere between 8-12 kms and looking to improve that steadily. I've recently been interested in tracking my runs with a GPS device to help me analyse them. Most of the information I've found on runnersworld forums deals with watches which have GPS functionality like Garmin and Polar. Unfortunately, such fancy watches aren't available here AFAIK.

I was thinking of using phone with GPS for the tracking features. I currently have a Nokia e61i and will be switching to a Nokia n95/82 or e66, all of which have a built-in GPS module. Nokia has its own Tracking (Sports Tracker) website/software which I'll be using unless there's a better third-party alternative. Plus, my phone will double up as an mp3 player, so one less thing to carry on runs. And my birthday's coming up soon, so I have a reason to spend some money on myself.

I wanted to hear opinions from the mefites as to whether my choice is correct or not. Giving suggestions for phones with similar features would be great too!

Thanks for reading! :)

Look farther to get closer

jayCampbell — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 22:30:01 -0800

Photostellar Geolocation - Assuming a 10X optical zoom camera, comprehensive star charts and a carpenter's level to determine "straight up", what global positioning accuracy could I achieve? Am I re-coining another technique? I know the scale of the answer has to be finer than "continental", because you can reckon that much with the bare eye.

Ideally this would wind up right in my Canon's firmware, where it could be coupled with the trick that builds high res images from multiple stills, to avoid long exposure star streaking. Then maybe geo-tag my photos till next time I point skyward.

Any related astronomy hacks welcome. Webcam and a compass?

MioMore Frustration

magnoliasouth — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 10:16:44 -0800

How can I force MioMore Desktop to work on a Vista computer? I know there just has to be a way. I understand that it's not supported, but give me a break. Vista has been out for how long and it's still not supported? Surely someone has figured it out by now.

I've tried Googling it, but to no avail.

Cycle GPS logger

primer_dimer — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 02:18:35 -0800

Best GPS data logger for (1) monitoring cycle commute and (2) local mapping So I've started commuting by bike to work again, but this time it's a bit further than I've done before - ~12 miles each way - so I want to start logging my speed etc. Rather than getting a speedometer, I'm thinking of getting a GPS logger which can record my position and then I can look at my stats. I'd also love to be able to play around with local mapping using GPS - the sort of thing they do on openstreetmap.org. I'm wondering what sort of hardware would be best for this. One limitation; whatever I get has to be linux-friendly, I guess ideally it would act as a USB mass-storage device, or write the data to an SD card in an easy-to-read format.

There seem to be plenty of cheap GPS loggers around (e.g. here ), but there are also units designed specifically for cycling (e.g. here). The cycle-specific units would obviously be nicer to use on the bike, since they'd show my speed in real time, but would they also be suitable for GPS mapping? Any suggestions for specific makes/models?

Best GPS units for the job in the field?

xholisa13 — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 10:20:49 -0800

What is the best GPS unit to buy for my fieldwork, that would ideally display a list of homes to be mapped in a spreadsheet format and allow touchscreen entry of information into the spreadsheet (coordinates, consent obtained [yes/no], why home was unable to be mapped [drop-down menu])? Does this type of interface exist for GPS units? I am headed to Thailand for some fieldwork for my research, and will need to hire village health workers in a rural area to GPS map the homes of approximately 3000 individuals (geocoding in Thailand is not possible, I don't think).

I need to buy 2 GPS units but don't know much about the technology and what units and features will help me get the job done most efficiently and simply. I'm hoping that if I describe what I would like to be able to do, you guys may have some suggestions for good units to buy.

The village health workers will have a list of addresses and names. They will then physically locate the homes, talk to the residents of the house, and get consent to GPS map the house. Ideally, the list of addresses and names could show up on the GPS unit as a spreadsheet and they would be able to tap a screen to document that consent was obtained and again to record the X- and Y- coordinates. If the house was not able to be mapped, they would be able to select from a drop-down menu to explain why they couldn't map it (no consent, couldn't find house, etc.). After they were done mapping, the list could be downloaded and linked to existing excel files with clinical information.

Can this be done? I know that Palm Pilots, for example, have some flexibility for use in field work (administering questionaires, etc.) but don't know about these types of interfaces with GPS units. Any guidance you may provide would be very helpful, I appreciate you helping a newbie out!

I would like to use my GPS receiver to analyze my commute.

timmins — Wed, 21 May 2008 12:11:10 -0800

I'm a data dork. Is there a way to rip my tracks and my trip odometer data from my Garmin 60CSx to analyze my commutes to work? I have no intention of monkeying with the device while driving. I want to turn on the GPS receiver, get a fix and head into work. The 60CSx will track driving data like avg speed, highest speed, stop time, etc. It will also record the track. I would like to take both the trip data and the track data and go over it. I live in a county that has inefficient throughways. I want to drive a couple different routes to see which is the most efficient. And yes, I'm fully aware this is nerdy. ; )

Help me get back on track..

wierdo — Tue, 13 May 2008 22:38:38 -0800

So I just realized I've lost the GPS I bought thanks to a previous AskMe. Presuming I don't miraculously find it, what should I replace it with? I've taken to leaving the GPS clipped to a bag on my bike while I ride. It apparently fell off on the way back home today. Once I realized it (at 11PM) I went back out and did a targeted search using a flashlight and my phone scanning for BT devices. The search wasn't fruitful, sadly.

I'm going to check again in the morning, but given that it's rained since then, even if I do find it, it won't likely be operational. So presuming that I don't find the old GPS, should I just buy another GPS 10x or is another unit better at walking/riding speed? The 10x tracks seem to wander to some degree when you're walking slowly and a couple of times it's decided I suddenly moved a few hundred yards at 60mph, although that may be unavoidable with any GPS, since I do end up going under trees and bridges and whatnot at times.

Also, navigation software recommendations would be handy, as the version of the Garmin Mobile software that came with my GPS will only work with a Garmin GPS. Garmin Mobile was fine, but I'm not at all wedded to it. It was slower than I would have liked. Whatever it is, it has to work with my E62 (The OS is S60 v3)

Which GPS is best for API access?

callingshotgun — Mon, 12 May 2008 11:26:10 -0800

I want to write some Location-based software (eventually on the mobile platform) and be able to test it on my laptop without faking GPS coordinates. What's a good, cheap GPS unit with a public API and/or some documentation/third party libraries for interacting with the device and retrieve information programmatically?

Looking for a better way to track business miles

bjork24 — Sat, 03 May 2008 15:22:01 -0800

We got crapped on this tax season, so I'm looking for a better way to track my business miles. I always forget to write down trips in the mileage log, so I think an automated GPS system might work better for me. Any suggestions? We make at least seven or eight trips per week for the business, which usually total 100 miles or so, but our vehicle is also shared for non-business trips. Does anyone have experience with a certain GPS unit or application that is particularly adept at tracking trips and letting the user determine whether each trip was business or not?

How do I geotag webcam pictures?

frijole — Thu, 01 May 2008 12:50:33 -0800

I'm driving cross country and parking a webcam on the dash. I also have a bluetooth GPS receiver. I want these two devices together to end up with a folder full of geotagged images, but my google-fu is failing to provide an easy answer. Does anyone out there know? I'm currently running OS X, 10.4.11 and 10.5.2 on the laptops that are going on the trip, 2 PowerBooks and a MacBook Air.

Wrong GPS location for my house

retiree — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 13:29:42 -0800

My house is incorrectly located by MapQuest, Google Maps, Google Earth and GPS systems. I assume this means that there is an error in some common database they all rely on. Is there a way to request that the error be fixed so that future versions of the database are correct?