China's global navigation satellite system, Compass, will provide regional service in 2011 with a constellation of 12 satellites, a navigation industry insider said Thursday. China aims to make Compass a navigation satellite system of 35 satellites by 2020, which can offer global service. Compass, or Beidou (Big Dipper) in Chinese, is expected to rival the US-developed GPS, the EU's GPS and Russia's Global Navigation Satellite System, earlier reports said.

via chinadaily.com.cn

It’s important to stay up with technology — just ask the gunmen who police say stole two Shawnee vehicles. About 11 p.m. Sunday, two men pulled guns on a couple standing at a driveway on the 7200 block of South Millen Road, police said. The men demanded keys to a pickup and an SUV in the garage and drove both away. The pickup, however, had a GPS device, and police found the vehicles in Kansas City within 90 minutes.

via kansascity.com

Morrison's is to enter into a three year contract with home entertainment supplier MBL as the chain seeks to expand and improve its non-food range. MBL will supply the store with CD's, DVD's and computer games. The supplier of entertainmment media is taking full advantage of the changes in the music and film market, and the decline in sales taken from high street outlets like HMV and Zavvy. Both firms hope to profit from the alliance which will go into effect later this year.

via internationalsupermarketnews.com

Platitudes scroll down the 2in by 3in screen of my phone. "I'm sunbathing with music and a nice cold drink," says baby_pants of Betchworth, a small village in Surrey. "Out for a coffee before my boat gig tonight," chips in mindlobster of Surbiton, equally keen to add to the canon of human knowledge. Both, my iPhone tells me, are just six miles away from where I am sitting, in a village pub. Moving down my screen with a stroke of my index finger, I view comments made earlier in the day. "I have just finished practising my nunchucks," adds baby_pants, worryingly.

via independent.co.uk

Navigon has piped TomTom to be the first Satnav application in the Apple iTunes App Store with the release of MobileNavigator Europe, a fully fledge GPS app for the iPhone. Costing £54.99, the new app will includes 2D and 3D maps of Europe and doesn't need an internet connection to work instead storing all the map data on the device. According to Navigon, the software can be used in portrait and landscape format, offers "Precise voice announcements" and allows users to access contact details in the iPhone address book.

via pocket-lint.com

Health authorities in Japan think they might have the answer to tracking and blocking the spread of swine flu - keep an eye on the population through mobile phones.
The idea is to track every individual on their phone's global positioning system (GPS). Then people can be warned if they have crossed paths with anyone diagnosed with a highly contagious illness. Radio Australia's Connect Asia program reports the scheme is part of an initiative to promote new uses of internet and mobile technology.

via abc.net.au

Technical problems are degrading the accuracy of signals from the last GPS satellite launched by the Pentagon, sparking concerns among U.S. military and aerospace industry officials that the next generation of the widely used satellites could face similar troubles. the next generation of the widely used satellites could face similar troubles. The Air Force's Southern California space acquisition center on Tuesday announced that a Global Positioning System satellite, manufactured by Lockheed Martin Corp.

via online.wsj.com

I’m not trying to add to anyone’s fear of flying but currently when a transcontinental flight is above the middle of the ocean, no one on the ground can see exactly where it is — in the air, or worse, in the water. Radar systems that are being used by air traffic controllers only allows for a range of about 200 miles off the coast. Once an aircraft is beyond that point they are the only ones who know precisely where they are. The system has worked relatively well and no one really makes an issue of it until something goes wrong.

via am770chqr.com

I realize that this headline might trigger surveillance society fears in some of our readers, but this article isn’t about putting GPS trackers in everyone’s footwear. No, putting a GPS in someone’s shoes is only a way to keep tabs on those who need it. GTX Corporation and the shoe company Aetrex originally developed this technology to track elderly patients who have Alzheimer’s.

via coolest-gadgets.com

If a planned Japanese experiment using mobile phones to track disease carriers proves successful it could help limit pandemics like the current swine flu outbreak.
The Japanese government and mobile operator Softbank are planning a trial using 1,000 elementary school pupils, who will be given GPS-equipped phones and told to go about their normal business. Monitoring exposureOf the children, a set number will be randomly considered to be infected with an unspecified communicable disease.

via techradar.com

SiRF Technology Holdings Inc (SIRF.O) said the U.S. Customs and Border Protection determined that its redesigned global positioning system chips fall outside an exclusion order issued by the U.S. International Trade Commission, sending its shares up as much as 14 percent. The customs will allow the approved redesigned SiRF products, and products that contain the SiRF chips, to be imported for consumption and sale in the United States, the company said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

via reuters.com

A teenage British backpacker carrying a GPS device so his mum can keep watch over his Australian travels thinks the Big Brother-style monitoring is a good idea.
Harry Wilder, 19, is carrying the small GPS system, originally designed to track horses, in his backpack, allowing his mother Rachel, 53, to log on to a website in England and pinpoint his exact whereabouts.

via tvnz.co.nz

Even with the advent of advanced mobile technologies, in phones and PDAs, giving Nigerian mobile phone users the edge of doing more on the move, there is still the need for tools that can enable proper and accurate navigation to make movements easier and safer.
This is realising that most of the mobile handsets even with features like high megapixels, MP3 and even GPS, rarely come bundled with accurate, high-quality GPS and mapping software for Nigeria.

via vanguardngr.com

The latest data on GP earnings, based on tax returns, has shown that partners in surgeries had a pay cut of 2.1 per cent between 2005/6 and 2006/7. However across the six years since before the new contracts were introduced GP partners have seen 7.5 per cent increases on average per year. The new contract saw GPs stripped of responsibility for out of hours services for a drop in income of £6,000 on average, however GPs could choose to provide out of hours if they wished.

via telegraph.co.uk

If a police officer puts a GPS tracking device on your car, should he or she have to get a warrant first? It's a simple question, but one, so far, without a clear legal answer. In an example of how unsettled the issue is, in just the past week, appeals courts in two different states delivered completely opposite rulings.
At the heart of the matter is whether tracking someone with a global-positioning system device constitutes a search, which is covered by the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution. A Wisconsin court of appeals ruled last week that no, it doesn't.

via abcnews.go.com