Sat-Nav blamed for speeding
November 20, 2009
Sat-Navs and mis-conduct on the roads are inseparable friends - so it seems. For, a speeding driver blamed the satellite navigation system of his car for not ‘beeping’ when he crossed the speed limit. Richard Temple, a 47-year old was found guilty of driving at 36mph along Banbury Road near Byfield which is a 30mph zone. Temple was proven guilty based on the evidence of speed camera photographs that were taken at 6.50 pm on the road that showed him speeding at 36mph.
In an appeal hearing at Northampton Crown Court, Temple told that the speed camera was wrong since his company car would not have failed to warn him if he were speeding. He said that the sat nav system of his car was pre-programmed with the speed limits of particular roads and that it gave an audible beep when the speed limits were crossed. He added that the system gave him a warning at “33mph or 34mph” in a 30mph zone. ” I didn’t do 36mph” he asserted for he did not hear a beep.
Perhaps the sat nav system was inaccurate? Temple denied this, saying that the cars were well maintained. However, the justices upheld the original verdict and said that Temple was not dishonest but inaccurate.
Magellan launches SatNav application for iPhone
November 19, 2009
Magellan has launched RoadMate, an iPhone satnav application along with a car kit accessory. The RoadMate application is available for $79.99 (almost £48) and comes with a good lot of features. The pricing and availability of the car kit has not been announced as of yet. RoadMate comes with features such as Spoken Street Name Guidance, Highway Lane Assist that has highway signs that guides the user along the right lane when at exits and interchanges; Find Your Car that assists in locating your car in parking lots after having saved the location, NAVTEQ onboard maps, and a OneTouch favorites menu that makes things simple and handy, to name a few.
Apart from these usual features that one finds in regular Magellan systems, the RoadMate also has features like 3D Landmarks that provides you “stunning visual cues” as you drive, one touch access to the address book of your iPhone address book along with music control from within when you’re on the move. Though some feel that the launch of RoadMate has not been timed well as Google’s GPS guidance to Android based mobile phones has just been announced, some experts feel that if priced right, Magellan can still make it.
81-year old Australian says sat nav is ‘no fun’
November 18, 2009
An 81-year old Australian lost his way on a regular drive to the newspaper shop and ended up almost 600km away from where he started. In what was a usual trip to the buy the day’s newspaper, Eric Steward took the wrong turn and called for help from the Victoria state police after eight hours. Police officer Clayton Smith said that Mr Steward came up to him at a service station saying that he was lost. On asking why hadn’t he stopped for help earlier, added officer Smith, Mr Steward just said “‘I just like to drive”.
Just because he “liked to drive”, the 81-year old kept driving on for eight hours, without a satellite navigation system, uncertain of where he was. Though he didn’t know where he was going, Mr Steward said that he knew he was “somewhere” and that “with a bit of luck” he would eventually find his wife again. With age to vouch for him, Mr Steward was rather unconcerned about the entire episode.
Had a satellite navigation system been installed in the car, the 81-year old would never have been lost in the first place. When asked why he hadn’t done so, Mr Steward simply asked, “Why would you want one of those? You cannot get lost. There’s no fun in that.”
Satellite Navigation technology to be used by brain surgeons
November 17, 2009
Apart from assisting in drivers locate the right road, satellite navigation systems will now aid brain surgeons to locate tumours and vital blood vessels. The technology will also be used to guide them along the right path during critical operations and will help in avoiding wrong turns that could affect the patient. The Royal Preston Hospital in Lancashire houses two speciality brain surgery theatres that include one of the most technologically advanced brain navigation systems in the world.
Donated by the Sydney Driscoll Neuro Science Foundation, the equipment is presently being used during brain tumour and spinal injury operations and could also be used for delicate surgical procedures in the future. According to Consultant neurosurgeon Aprajay Golash, the brain navigation equipment will have a brain scan which will recognise “where an instrument is in the brain”. He also added that the procedure was very delicate, as there was no “second chance if a structure gets damaged.”
Zoombak Offers Free iPhone App to Locate your Zoombak
November 16, 2009
Zoombak, the manufacturer of advanced GPS tracking solutions offers a free iPhone app, which enables users to locate, and track the Zoombak right from their iPhone. To elaborate, it is an interface to locate Zoombak devices that the user already owns.
This app can lets you know about the location of the Zoombak device on-demand. Operation of this app is also much easier. A click on the ‘Find-Now’ can display the current location of the selected device on the map. Of more interest to users, the location information comes with street address, speed, direction, longitude or latitude. There is also an option to switch between road, satellite and hybrid view.
Moreover, Zoombak’s new iPhone App can track the device continuously, and get the updates every five minutes. There are other two methods to track the Zoombak device. These include the one using website, and the other of sending SMS to the device.
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