Next time your in Los Angeles and your thinking about going on a high speed police chase, almost as fun as Disneyland, you might want to re-consider. The L.A. Daily News has an article describing a new GPS technology developed by Virginia based StarChase that allows police to shoot GPS tracking pods at cars in a police chase. The pods are encased in some kind of sticky substance, relay location information to a monitoring center of some sort and are designed to help reduce car chase deaths. One cool feature is that these can be shot either from a …

Apparently, not everyone is pleased with the continuing progress in the free online mapping services. In fact it appears that online mapping is starting to have a serious impact on traditional print map retailers such as National Geographic. More after the jump. The Denver Business Journal has an article which details how National Geographic has been forced to restructure its map printing operations in order to survive financially. In particular, the article discusses how NG has stopped producing maps for the general public in order to focus almost exclusively on producing maps for outdoor recreation enthusiasts, emergency responders, geologists, and …

The U.S. Department of Commerce announced today that they have turned on a new GPS signal named "L2C". While we have no idea what L2C stands for, we can tell you that it is specifically designed for commercial needs in that it is "transmitted with a higher effective power, so GPS receivers work better in urban areas and indoors" Moreover, the signal requires less energy to receive the signal, making it more suitable for mobile phones, GPS enabled watches and other small GPS integrated things (cameras, etc..). In addition, the Commerce Department also announced plans to unveil two more …

Having had a few weeks to play with Google Earth for the Mac I have finally gotten down to writing a brief review of the features. While some of the features are undoubtedly cool, the thing I was most surprised by was the poor quality of the data layers. Read the full review after the jump. Much has been made in the popular media about the groundbreaking Google Earth, its cool fly-overs and aerial photos, and its ability to support all types of mash-ups. While the Windows community has had Google Earth since late Summer, the Mac community has just …

National Geographic has finally weighed into the hotly debated discussion concerning the recent discovery of a Chinese map from 1763 that is claimed to be a copy of a map drawn in 1418. The map, which displays all of the continents including Australia, North America and Antarctica, supposedly provides evidence that the great Chinese explorer Zheng He circumnavigated the world before western explorers. However, now it appears that, while old, the map is not authentic and that it is most likely a copy of a French map from the 1600's. Apparently, the lynch pin in the argument is the fact …

Engadget is reporting that Sprint is working on a new service for its LG Migo limited use cellphone for kids called chaperon. Using the GPS chip already within the phone, parents will be able to track the whereabouts of the phone for a small fee ( $10-15 a month). Parents will be able to view a map of the kiddie phone location using either their phone or a website and will also be able to set up a georeferencing feature so that they can receive text messages if their kids enter a "forbidden" territory. While this is marketed at parents tracking …

For those of you who are constantly forgetting to buy groceries, or beer, as you went past the grocery you now have a solution. Ludimate has created the Geominder, a program that will deliver reminders, voice or text, using mobile network's cell id information instead of GPS at the appropriate location. The system requires the user to "train" the software about the locations you want to have reminders for, but once you have it trained you can leave either voice, text, alarms, etc..While the sensitivity is not as accurate as a GPS, it will probably be good enough for …

The recent news that New Zealand's Rakon has developed the world's smallest GPS chip coupled with other new developments (Google Local on mobile phones) has me thinking we are moving towards a Brave New World. In particular we are moving towards a world where everyone will be trackable and services will increasingly be based on our current locations. More after the jump. When the FCC enacted the E-911 location requirement for cell phones in 1998 few people probably realized that it would have such a profound impact on how ads and other services would be delivered. While the goal of …

As someone with too many jobs. two small boys, and not enough sleep, I rarely get to just create maps or do analysis that is just for the fun of it. Thank goodness other people have plenty of time on their hands and creative minds that need stimulation. Cory of Cory's weblog has created a map showing the center of gravity for all Starbucks in Manhattan. For the uninitiated, the center of gravity, or center of minimum distance as it is know in some circles, is the location that is closest to a series of points or locations. This method …

The New Zealand company Rakon announced this week that they had created the smallest GPS chip ever. Measuring in at about the size of a baby's fingernail, the unit is small enough to be easily embedded in PDA's, Cellphones, and watches. The impact of this new chip is that it brings the potential of pervasive tracking and location services. Coupons sent to you as you stroll past shops, google local searches and ads on your cellphone, stalking your family and friends. With GPS chips this small how long will it be before people are being chipped?

It has been rumored to be coming for a while, we even talked about it here, and it has finally come. Google Earth for Macs was officially released today. To run the Mac version you need OS X 10.4 (Tiger), a 400 MHZ processor and at least 16 MB of video RAM. For optimal performance they recommend 1.5 GHZ, good video, and a broadband connection. As of now the download speeds are horrible (everyone must be trying to get it), but once I have it I will provide a proper review. Quite a huge day for Mac fiends …

Apparently putting exploding die packages in with stolen loot is so 1990's. Engadget has a story of how bank employees at a Washington Trust Bank in Spokane slipped a GPS receiver in with the bank loot and then notified the police. Ironically the robber told the employees to put $40,000, but no bait bills, in a duffel bag or he would kill them. However, because he didn't say not to put a GPS receiver in the duffel they were OK. Because of this wonderful little trickery, the police were able to track down the not so swift robber, in …

Yesterday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas Google and Motorola announced a partnership to put Google services on Motorola phones. The new feature will allow users to bring up Google search features with the touch of a button on some phones. Directions Magazine speculates that this will lead to Motorola GPS enabled phones sending locations directly to Google rather than keying in a location. More interestingly, Google is supposedly working on a way to send, and of course charge someone, for location targeted ads. Thus, it appears our phones will no longer be spam free, moreover the spam will …

Just in case you were thinking about doing it, cocktail napkins with maps on them are not to be used as navigation devices. This Darwin Award preventing piece of information comes to us via the 9th annual Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch Wacky Warning Label Contest. The label was found on a cocktail napkin with a map of the waterways of Hilton Head island on it. Thank goodness there are people out there making the world safe for the rest of us idiots.

The Arizona Republic reports that Skyline Software Systems Inc has asked the court hearing its patent infringement lawsuit to suspend access to Google Earth until the suit is concluded. The lawsuit was originally brought against Keyhole, the company behind Google Earth that was purchased by Google, and thus Google has been added to the lawsuit. Whether or not this is lawsuit has merit is not known, but if anyone has been paying attention to the patent lawsuit brought against RIM, Google may have something to worry about.

The New York Times has a brief article detailing a new service provided by Mapquest called Find Me. Running on Sprint phones with GPS capabilities, the service allows you to pinpoint your current location and view it on your cellphone. Probably more interesting is the feature that allows you to be viewable to others on your approved list. Thus the service has the ability to act like a social networking tool. Not really anymore details on the service just yet, and I am sure there will be issues with it when it goes live, but its a nice attempt at …

Its that great time of year again when the holidays are technically over but the giving keeps right on going. Next week the giving will be from the Detroit Auto Show and MacWorld, but this week the giving is from the Consumer Electronics Show. While the show really gets moving tomorrow the product announcements have started in earnest already. With that in mind Garmin jumped on it and basically released about 1,000 new or redesigned units. Changes come to the Forerunner, Nuvi, iQue, and a host of other receivers. The details are too numerous to list but basic descriptions …

The Economist has a good article discussing the rationale and controversy behind the new European GPS system that launched its first satellite on December 28th. Named Galileo, the new system promises 1 meter accuracy for users of the free service and centimeter accuracy for those willing to pay for service. Importantly, it is this accuracy that has caused some of the controversy. In particular the U.S. is worried that this type of accuracy will be used against it militarily. This fear, rational or not, is compounded by the fact that China is a major backer financially of Galileo and …

AppleInsider is reporting, and showing screen shots, of a version of Google Earth for the Mac. While still in development, AI reports that a pre-release version has been making the rounds overseas for about a month. The Mac version will reportedly have a good deal of customization, allowing for user customization of colors and some of the other features. As of now there is no release date, but AI does have some screenshots of the software. As always, Mac rumors sites are known to be wrong, but one thing in AI's favor on this is the fact that Google has …

Verizon has announced a new service called VZ Navigator that provides navigation to your phone by triangulating your cell signal to get your position an then providing directions. When you want directions you use your keypad to type in a city and address and download the necessary map data (airtime charges alert) which then works with the cell signals to give you directions. According to a PC Magazine [review](http://ccablog.blogspot.com/2005/10/review-of-online-mapping- sites.html) the system works pretty well for $10 a month or #3 for 24 hours. Other nice features include POI, voice prompts, and …