GPS

Sometimes, you don't want a ton of bells and whistles on your GPS device. Sometimes, you just want to reliably and cheaply get from point Alpha to Bravo.

Enter Garmin's Essentials series of Nuvi GPS navigators. Specifically, we're taking a look at the largest model in the entry-level Essentials series: the 5-inch Garmin Nuvi 50.

There aren't many surprises here where design is concerned. If you've handled a Garmin Nuvi in the last half decade, you'll know exactly what to expect from the 50. The icons are all where you'd expect them to … Read more

If you're clinging to flotsam in the middle of the Pacific and need to send an emergency message, DeLorme has a rugged new satellite communicator that can do the job on the cheap.

Its InReach device is a two-way satellite hookup with GPS that lets you send messages from anywhere in the world for as little as $249.95 and a subscription with Iridium's global network from $9.95 monthly.

Used alone, the InReach can send an SOS or up to three preset messages, as well as remote-tracking data; it confirms delivery too. Users can designate recipients such as other InReach devices, e-mail addresses, or Facebook or Twitter accounts before they set out for northern Siberia. … Read more

Could a computer replace this era's crop of clownish sportscasters like Dick Vitale or Lee Corso? We can dream--while a Swiss company works on software that could create artificial intelligence systems to call sporting events.

Computer researchers at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland are working on a system that can track multiple athletes on a football field, a basketball court, or a soccer pitch via multiple cameras and advanced scanning algorithms. These days, computers can track human athletes, racing cars, and other sporting elements via GPS. But that's illegal in many sports as the introduction of such technology threatens to overpower the human element of athletics. The EPFL technology uses visual cues instead. … Read more

TeleNav's new navigation platform promises to link cars and smartphones.

Drivers frequently find themselves consulting a phone for an address, then typing it into a car's navigation system. At the Telematics Munich conference, TeleNav announced a solution to this problem, seamless interactivity between smartphones and TeleNav-equipped cars.

A use case described to CNET by Mark Scalf, director of automotive products for TeleNav, involved a user getting an appointment notification on his cell phone, and easily sending the address for the appointment to the car's navigation system. After parking, the TeleNav system transfers navigation back to the phone, … Read more

Testing GPS devices can be a grind--a dull, boring grind. So when a device comes along promising to revolutionize portable navigation devices, I tend to perk up and take notice. The TomTom Go Live 1535M is one of those attention-getters.

When this portable navigation device (PND) was announced a few weeks ago, I was intrigued by its integration of travel apps that enable the user to tap into Yelp, Trip Advisor, Expedia, and Google Local Search services for up-to-date point-of-interest data and reviews via the same Live data service that beams in its HD Traffic data. I was even more … Read more

Could parking garage maps be coming to BMW's ConnectedDrive navigation system? BMW released a video demonstrating its micro-navigation technology, which shows drivers the most exact route to their destination, down to the parking space.

BMW announced that it was developing this technology last year, and while the new video doesn't show much more detail than what was previously released, it could suggest that this feature, which was developed in conjunction with the 3-series sedan, could be making its way to production. … Read more

On a sunny Tuesday morning I sat in the back of a Navteq Ford Escape meandering around the new UCSF Mission Bay campus, which had recently arisen on the bay side of San Francisco. Navteq employee Mark drove while Alejandro studied a big monitor on a post above the console. The monitor showed the existing digital street map of the area, which, because of the new construction, bore little resemblance to the roads we traveled.

Alejandro noted that when he tells people about his job it seems pointless, because the country has already been mapped, hasn't it? I was getting a first-hand look what a Navteq field team does every day, digging deep into the changes that can come about from a big development project, like the UCSF campus, or smaller road projects, such as when a municipality decides to block off a street. … Read more

The satellite that once confirmed the existence of a hole in the ozone layer is now tearing a new path across the sky in a final fiery descent back to Earth, and there's a chance it could hit you upside the head.

OK, so the chance that you'll get smacked with space junk this week is only about 1 in 20 trillion, but why risk it? You can track the Thelma and Louise-style ending of the Upper Atmospheric Research Satellite--or UARS for short--on your Android phone or tablet with an app called Satellite AR.

AGI--makers of the augmented reality app that also has the nifty ability to tell you what satellites are currently passing overhead by simply pointing your phone's camera at the sky--have added a temporary button to the app's menu to easily keep track of UARS' demise.

While the odds that you, specifically, will wind up in an involuntary boxing match with UARS are in the trillions, the chance that someone on Earth will be hit by a piece of the satellite is about 1 in 3,200--that's lower than the acceptable threshold of 1 in 10,000 that NASA adopted after UARS was launched.

OnStar is updating its privacy policy--effective this December--with some daring new freedoms that allow it to share your data with more people. In addition, a new clause alludes to a possible sale of business operations, which has been a long-standing rumor surrounding the telematics company.

Regarding a possible sale of OnStar: "There may be instances where we sell some or all of our business operations," says the policy (PDF). "To the extent that the business operation that is sold relates to the equipment, service or data connection, we may transfer your information as part of the transferred … Read more