What's The Buzz, Tell Me What's Happening!

They're not exactly the tricorders of Star Trek fame, but the latest generation of smartphones offer computing possibilities that would've been discarded as high fantasy only a decade or two ago. One of them is the ability to learn more about your present geographical location, whether it's an old church building in Victoria or a trashy bar in Halifax. Urban romantics are often drawn to the feeling of getting slightly lost, but the rest of us just want to know where the good shopping spots are, how to get to the subway, or even – when the urge strikes – the location of the nearest toilet.

Websites collecting the ... (more)

Over the past few weeks, reports of GPS units stolen from vehicles have been on the rise. Across North America, police departments are warning users of the high volume of vehicle break-ins occurring, as the thieves look for electronics.

Here are some tips to avoid becoming a victim of one of these crimes.

1. Always remove electronics from your vehicle. This includes; GPS, MP3 players, cell phones, satellite radios and many more.

2. Try to mount you accessories on the dash board, instead of with a suction cup on the window. Thieves will notice the suction cup on the window, and break ... (more)

Say you’re intrigued by one of the new GPS apps now available for the iPhone. But before you drop $70 to $100 for one, you want to know what your options are in case you don’t like it. So here’s Apple’s App Store refund policy:

There are no refunds. Period.

More accurately, you can get a refund only under one circumstance, and it has nothing to do with whether you like the app or not. According to paragraph 12B of Apple’s App Store Terms and Conditions, you’re entitled to your money back when, “On occasion, technical problems may delay ... (more)

In a world where fast-paced is quickly becoming the norm, you can keep up with your friend's locations and activities with Google's new application 'Google Latitude'. If you are concerned about your privacy, alter your settings to allow or block your location from others. Choose certain people to find you at all times, and set up restrictions for those peers you'd rather have limited contact with. Set up of your shared location is simple, just choose the person from your phone or email's contact list, and as soon as both parties agree you'll be able to spot them on a ... (more)

In this new millennium iPhones, Blackberries and other "Smartphones" have been adding features hand over fist, most recently GPS, offering all-in-one solutions.

The newest advancement in this technology comes from one of the navigation market leaders. On July 22 2009, Navigon announced the availability of their North American, on-board navigation software, MobileNavigator, in the iPhone App Store. This application will transform any iPhone 3G, running the Apple OS 3.0 operating system, or iPhone 3G S into a personal navigation device.

With a successful European launch in June of 2009, Navigon can safely state that they are the first ... (more)

Hard on the heels of my review of Geotags, some of our readers suggested we take a look at Waypoints, [App Store link] which has some similar functions and a smoother interface. Waypoints, which is US $2.99, can save any GPS location you choose, and allow you to access them with your desktop web browser, or it can download GPX or Google Earth (KML) files for the waypoints you've visited. It runs on the iPhone and requires iPhone software version 2.1 and above.

You can view any waypoint in Google Maps on your iPhone, and you can email locations including latitude, longitude, elevation, ... (more)