Tips Guides Resources

If you’ve been comparing car GPS units, you may have already noticed just how complicated it can be to find one that’s right for you, no matter how tech-savvy you might be. Hopefully, after reading this article, you’ll be a bit more well informed about what you need to know to find the perfect unit for you and your budget.

If you haven’t already been shopping around, you may not know that all car GPS units essentially do the same thing: they show you where you are and tell you how to get to where you’re going. They also all come with a variety of pre-programmed destinations, called POIs (or, Points of Interest) to make getting where you need to be even easier. All you need is a finger, because all car GPS units utilize touch screen technology.

What makes finding the perfect one for you so complicated is all the extra features manufacturers are including in their products to meet market competition. Before you get too overwhelmed, let’s talk about these manufacturers and compare the products they’re making.

Although several companies produce car GPS units, I’d suggest sticking with the top three: Magellan, Garmin, and Tom Tom. Sure, there are other companies, like Lowrance, Mio, and Pharos. But all these other companies are competing for only 10% of the U.S. market. It may be a personal thing, but I’ve always liked to go with industry winners. Certainly other companies are making quality products, but I like to know that my purchase will be supported year to year.

Magellan was one of the original companies to start manufacturing GPS devices. With a great company name and a wide selection of products, Magellan is a good choice. I really like their Maestro series, which ranges in price from $150 to $350. You can get a Maestro 3100 for less than $150. That’s not their best buy, though. If you just want an entry level GPS, then Garmin’s nuvi 200 is probably a better bet. Magellan’s best buy is their Maestro 4250, which can do everything Garmin’s competing product can, but for $50 less.

Magellan also has a great deal for AAA members that makes the AAA Tour Book available right inside the device. Of course, you must be a member, but if you’re a frequent traveler, it’s an excellent deal.

With almost 50% of the total market, Garmin is the industry leader. A basic Garmin, the nuvi 200, costs only $150. However, if you’re looking to spend a lot more, you can purchase the 880 model, which includes a lot of extra features, for around $1,000. There are no real competitors at the high end of the market place, that is for automotive GPS systems.

Catching up to Garmin is Tom Tom, a company that offers a great selection of products at very competitive prices. For example, what you’d pay for Garmin’s basic nuvi 200 could also get you Tom Tom’s One 3rd Edition, which has a lot of extra cool features. Tom Tom’s GO series has more features and is a direct competitor with Garmin. Tom Tom is currently taking market share from Garmin by offering more features at a smaller price. Tom Tom is no slouch as a company, either. They totally dominate the European market!

Whether you want to spend a lot or a little, comparing car GPS units can be tricky. Continue checking out informative websites so you can find the system that’s right for you and won’t break your budget.

To read more great GPS Reviews, check out my website.

Rick Cole is a true GPS enthusiast! Take a look at his website to find out more information!

Refurbished GPS units save you money. Period. You like saving money or else you wouldn’t be here reading about how they save you money. You are probably feeling the pinch at the pump, grocery store, and on your mortgage but you still want to be able to buy an frivolous gadget. So you have turned your gaze to the end all and be all of cheap yet reliable products - the refurbished market.

Refurbished items are those that have picked up a defect some place along the production line. It could be that a part of the LCD display was scratched by a machine or a careless employee. An internal component could have been faulty from the get go and produced an error in the devices functionality. Whatever the reason, the device is now up to production standards, usually will come with a warranty, and is offered at a significant discount from the ‘new’ item.

The significant discount is what you are all about. But how significant can these discounts be? A quick perusal of some of the current prices on both a ‘new’ and refurbished GPS show that the discount for one particular model is 23.45%. This will be our baseline in determining how much purchasing refurbished can save you over the long term.

We will also assume that you are GPS crazy and like to buy a new model every three years (this is probably not true, but this is just a thought experiment).

After 1 year you buy your GPS you save $45.96. You then take this money and you put it in an interest bearing account. After three years you have a balance of $51.05 after your interest acrues and taxes are taken out of it. This means that your savings have now grown by $5.09 in this first buying phase.

That is a nice savings, but it gets even better once the savings from the second year are added to it.

Now a third GPS is purchased with inflation adjusted prices and you find that you saved $50.22 on your purchase. Add that to the ammount that you already saved and earned in interest and you will have $101.27. This will then grow to $112.48 by the end of the next three years.

As you can see the savings are beginning to add up.

If you conitnue this pattern for the next 30 years (so 10 buying cycles total) you will see amazing results and watch your savings on your refurbished GPS rise all the way to the sum of $1221.81. That is a heafty sum.

But what if you could increase your rate of return by investing the savings into stocks or buy using it to start your own business?

With just a 9% return you could see that money become $2931.51 and if you continue to grow that money at the same rate you could have enough money to buy yourself a GPS every three years for as long as you are likely to live.

All that stems from the choice to save money with a refurbished GPS and to be wise about how you would invest it. It is a no brainer.

Joe teaches people refurbished GPS tips and about saving money with GPS fleet tracking.

Two Scandinavian companies are unveiling a new series of GPS fleet tracking services at the Lastbil International trade show for the transportation and road haulage sector. This new line of is also utilizes GPRS technology to transmit the GPS data back to the central processing station.

These new products will be web based (this is the growing trend in GPS fleet tracking solutions) and will allow companies to determine vehicle location from any personal computer that has access to the Internet. The new line will also feature improved customer service, cost controls, protect employees, and that meet the tight laws of the European Union.

The line offers products that range from the entry-level (and therefore the low cost) to a complete telematics system - including such perks as in-cabin communication between driver and headquarters, navigation screen, advanced trip scheduling, and signature capturing for customers. You can even integrate these with third-party applications such as inventory and bar code software.

These features are all made available by a small GPS device that is place inside the truck. It receives data from the Global Positioning System (GPS) every 20 seconds which it logs in its internal memory. Then through GPRS technology this information is transferred back to the companies central processing servers.

Once there the server side computers log the information into a database which can then be accessed via the Internet for the subscriber to access at any point that they wish to. All that they need is a username and password to be able to view your real time tracking information as well as a nice amount of history on each vehicle in your fleet.

The accuracy of these devices is very good, but is dependent upon a few different factors. These variables can include the number of satellites in range of the receiver as well as conditions in the atmosphere such as cloud cover, precipitation, and overall humidity. All these factors can in some way hinder the devices ability to get a strong or direct signal from the twenty-four GPS satellites in orbit around the earth. But have no fear, even under these extreme conditions GPS fleet tracking is still relatively accurate.

Normally, GPS is precise to within 5 meters - and is even more precise as the number of satellites in range increase. This is because it has much more data to work with in its calculations and can provide more robust data to the user. The accuracy can be further improved by using some type of mapping software that will match the GPS derived location with one that makes sense given the road structure in the area.

With this accuracy will come the ability to track and report such things as vehicle location, total mileage driven, current speed, historical speed, and host of other metrics. GPS fleet tracking is definitely a solution that any fleet seeking to maximize efficiency should use. It will help you improve your business and get the work out of your workers that your company deserves. It can also improve your overall efficiency and the on-timeness of your workforce - a big plus for any sized business.

Joe teaches people about web-based GPS fleet tracking and about kid tracking with GPS.

Everyone is feeling the squeeze brought on by increased fuel prices. The from private citizens to public corporations, we are all impacted by rising energy costs and we are all looking for ways to make our driving more efficient. You see, efficiency means savings.

One way that business can save money is to implement a GPS fleet tracking solution.

The reason for this is that there are generally five things that come up over and over again in discussion of efficient driving practices. Probably the first that gets mentioned is to reduce speed. Studies have repeatedly shown that fuel economy suffers significantly (17.1 percent) as speeds increase from 50 miles per hour to 70 miles per hour. The application of this is obvious - have drivers operate their vehicles at slow speeds.

According to Senator John Warner of Virginia, every 5 miles per hour that a vehicle travels over 60 miles per hour will cost the driver or company $0.30 per gallon in fuel costs. At $4.00 a gallon that $0.30 represents 7.5% of the total cost. Traveling at 70 miles per hour will see you wasting 15% of yur budget on fuel.

Another technique is to idle less. According to reports a vehicle that idles for 15 minutes uses half a gallon of gasoline. Vehicles that are making deliveries or that are making frequent stops at highly trafficed intersections have a high likelihood to be idling for that long or more during any given day.

It is also show that even an idle time of as short as 30 seconds can benefit from having the vehicles engine turned off. That means that is far more fuel efficient to turn off and an turn back on the vehicle at very short stops or long traffic lights.

GPS fleet tracking is the technology that will help you as a manager know the information that you need to know to make these fuel saving tips a reality for you fleet. Often drivers are over concerned with getting done with their deliveries early so that they can get home early that they will push the speed limit. This may be good for them, but it is categorically bad for the business as it burns fuel for no real reason.

With the knowledge that GPS gives you can find out which drivers suffer from this problem and suggest to them these fuel saving techniques. You will also be empowering them to find other more efficient means of cutting down their work time by forcing them to optimize their routes and find new and inventive ways to meet customers needs in a timely fashion that doesn’t hurt the company.

This is another fuel saving tip - trip optimization. Making unnecessary turns is sure to cost your fleet fuel. By having an in-dash GPS system you will empower your drivers to know exactly where they are, where the client is, and the most efficient way to get there.

The savings begin to add up dramatically when you consider all these techniques together. Drivers that obey the speed limit, reduce idling, and optimize their routes will work better and reduce costs in our fuel based society.

Joe teaches people about GPS fleet tracking and about how to save money with GPS fleet tracking.

I’m sure you’ve seen stories on the news and in the newspapers about children that have gone missing. There is nothing sadder than a parent who experiences the loss of their child like this. The good news is that you don’t have to endure something like this because there are ways to avoid lost children with todays technology. I’m talking about GPS tracking for children. Through the Global Positioning System we can rest at ease knowing that our kids location can be tracked within several yards.

Kids GPS devices today are small devices and they can be in cell phones, backpacks, watches; even placed directly on the child’s clothing. The GPS device will then send out a signal allowing you to track the location of your children at all times. You can program the GPS device to send signals at intervals as short as 15 seconds for near real time tracking of your kids.

GPS technology works great for tracking kids that are at high risk due to child custody issues or similar problems. It is possible to set the device up so that it will alert you not only to the child’s location, but also if the child leaves a predesignated area or boundary. So you can know if your child leaves their school or the neighborhood playground or pool.

Imagine the peace of mind you’ll have when you know that you can simply log into your computer and instantly know where your child is thanks to the GPS tracking device. Some GPS devices also come with panic buttons that the child can use in case of an emergency. The alerts go not only to you, but also to the tracking service so the authorities can be notified in a timely manner.

Often when children are kidnapped the kidnapper will immediately get rid of any cell phone the child may be carrying to avoid being tracked. With a small unseen GPS tracking device attached to the child’s clothing you’ll still be able to track them and locate them quickly. You and more importantly the police will know exactly where to locate the child and this increases the chances they will be found unharmed dramatically.

GPS devices for small children can be as small as a watch or pager and they run on rechargeable batteries that last up to 24 hours. If you want something with a longer battery life you can get larger GPS tracking units that can transmit for up to 2 weeks on a single charge. Older children like teens can have the GPS units placed in their car to keep track of their locations and driving habits. Some auto GPS units can be programmed to send an alert when the car exceeds a certain speed limit.

While personal GPS units are not cheap you really can’t put a price on the peace of mind you’ll get knowing you can locate your child in case of some emergency. When the safety of your child is at risk nothing is too expensive. In addition to the cost of the GPS device itself you’ll also need to pay a tracking service which will run anywhere from $25-100 a month depending on the service and features. Having a GPS device tracking your child can be a great way to grant yourself peace of mind.

To learn more about tracking kids with GPS and tracking teens with GPS visit the authors website.

Getting a refurbished GPS has been repeatedly shown to be a good idea. They help you save money on something you were already going to purchase and they have the same functionality as a regular GPS unit. But where can one find a refurbished GPS?

The first location the vast majority of people are going to search is on the internet. This is for good reason. Probably the best place to find what you are looking for is on the internet, if you know how to look. There can be tons of misinformation and even outright lies on the internet so navigating it and picking a trustworthy source is very important.

One very trustworthy source for making online purchases is Amazon. Over the years they have firmly established themselves as an online retailer, gaining the trust of millions of individuals worldwide. The breadth of the products they offer is impressive and you can pretty much find anything you are looking for on its pages. The even have a robust offering of refurbished GPS units. One key to working the Amazon game is to check a lot of different listings and not to assume that a greatly reduced price is an automatic deal. Check around and do price comparisons.

Another big name in online products is eBay. You probably won’t find many new refurbished items here, but you can definitely find products for cheap. Products sold on eBay are generally used or unwanted products that are being sold by individuals. There are some retailers on eBay, but they generally don’t offer refurbished items and prices are the same as any other online retailer.

In addition to these two massive players in online retailing, Buy.com is also another site that is generally useful for find items. However, in terms of refurbished GPS units this retailer is not very useful. A search on “refurbished GPS” returned many different results and only a very small minority were actually GPS units! This can be very frustrating as a user and really can turn you off to using them to find this type of product.

Besides online stores, you might find what you are looking for at a retailer near where you live. The brands that you might go to are Circuit City, Radio Shack, Best Buy, Staples, or Fry’s because these stores offer a slew of consumer electronics, including GPS. However, you might be hard pressed to actually find a refurbished item at one of these stores. It is not everyday that you can walk into a Best Buy and peruse their latest selection of refurbished GPS units.

However, the one place that you might find some refurbished items on a regular basis would be a place like Fry’s. They always seem to be having a refurbished this or that lying around somewhere in the corner or on an end cap. These items usually go fairly quickly if they are of the door buster variety (a door buster is an item sold at a loss to get people into the store to buy other items), but you can still find them if you check your local paper often enough.

Where ever you buy your refurbished device you are sure to get a deal on it that will save you money, which is always a good thing.

Joe teaches people about where to buy a refurbished GPS and about refurbished GPS tracking watches.