GPS Information

Aviton GPS is one of the most affordable in car GPS navigation system available for cars today. It is quite hard to find information about the device on the net because it is manufactured by a Russian company that specializes in communications system and electronics equipment. While Aviton may not have that much visibility as other GPS manufacturers like Garmin and TomTom, they have been in the business for over 10 years already so you can trust the high quality of the Aviton GPS navigation device.

Their GPS system is called the Aviton AZ281MA GPS which features a 3.5 inch wide screen display, 64 MB RAM, and 1927 MB of non-volatile MLC memory. It uses a dual core Atlas III as processor which ensures quite quick responses when inputting commands. It has a mini USB port that can be used to update the maps in the device. It also has an SD card slot for an expandable memory. Its rubberized body also contains a stylus that can be used to operate the device and a headphone jack. The package also contains the suction mount that is attached to the windshield or dashboard, the unit cradle, the dashboard mounting disk, the car charger adaptor, the USB cable, the mini DVD which contains manuals and backups of maps, a quick start guide, and the warranty statement.

Aviton GPS uses the iGo navigation software that provides both 2D and 3D mapping to provide an accurate perspective of the streets. You can actually see your car moving on the display as you are driving. It has all the maps of all the 50 states of US and also of Puerto Rico and Columbia. It also has an auto-route feature that will provide a new route whenever you digress from the original suggested route. However, you cannot immediately cancel a route in progress. While it has an audible voice prompt that you can follow when driving, it doesn’t have a text-to-speech converter so it cannot really announce particular street names, just generic directions.

So if you are looking for an affordable GPS navigation system for your vehicle that isn’t that expensive but is reliable enough for travelling utility, the Aviton GPS is the best bang for the buck unit for you.

What is quite important to note about the TomTom 720 is that it is more than just a simple specifications bump to an existing model– This device brings a lot of brand new features to the TomTom line that we can expect to see in future TomTom devices. So while this device is thinner, faster, and has a nicer screen than many pervious models, it has a host of new features that make the 720 an important device. I’ve been able to log about 1,000 miles with the 720, and here is what we have found.

In many ways, the TomTom GO720 looks like the ONE XL, but it is slightly thinner than the ONE XL. It appears to use the same screen as the ONE XL so it is extremely bright and very easy to read. When viewed from very wide and very high angles the screen doesn’t wash out as much as other screens and the colors stay fairly true throughout a range of viewing angles. The display is 4.3 inches and runs at 480×272 pixels. In bright sunlight, the 720 performs very well, equal to other devices commonly though to have some of the brightest and most readable screens such as the 600 Nuvi series.

On the top is the power button, and on the back is the speaker and a newly designed way for the mount to connect. Gone is the big “plate” on the suction cup mount, instead there is a tiny square about the size of a quarter which slides into the device. This reduces the size of the mount and makes it a bit easier to pack away. Otherwise the mount is similar to the mount on the ONE/XL and features the same suction cup and ball and socket joint. The mount has just about the right amount of tension so that it doesn’t move around or vibrate on dirt roads yet doesn’t take much force to adjust the angle.

On the bottom is the SD card slot, USB/power port, a reset button you hopefully won’t need, a port to connect a traffic receiver, as well as a headphone jack. I’ve mentioned it many times before, but I’ll say it again that i don’t prefer any cords attached to the bottom of GPS devices since it can limit how low on the dash it can be mounted. However TomTom improved this in one area. The end of the USB port now has a 90° angle at the very tip, so you now can mount the 720 just as low on the dash as you would like. It still doesn’t give you easy access to the USB cable while the device is on the mount, but the new cable design is a very welcome improvement.

Under the hood you will find a SiRFstarIII chipset, which makes for very fast signal acquisition, and that signal should stay in environments like urban canyones that are tough for older chipsets. In fact while inside a large building without windows I was able to occasionally obtain a fix. During road testing in a variety of environments the GPS never lost its signal and proved extremely accurate. Battery life is reported to be about five hours, and we were able to achieve that level in our tests. This is also a reason you might upgrade to a 720 over the ONE XL which has a meager 2 hour battery life.

The maps of the USA and Canada come pre-installed on 2 GB of internal flash memory. So the SD slot remains free for you to add maps of other countries, or to install MP3 files for the music player. A few people including myself had trouble with certain brand/size SD cards. It seems that newer cards which are 1 GB in size to 4 GB in size seem to work consistently well. However older smaller cards are sometimes not being read by the 720.

The TomTom GO720 GPS is the first TomTom device to feature their new version 7 application. We expect a free update for the other devices to be available as TomTom has done in the past. There are a lot of great new features in the version 7 application. For example when navigating to an address, you are now prompted for the state, first and independently of the city. For many people this will help streamline the process of navigating to an address, especially for those located in places like “Greenville” which exists in many states.

The world is also starting to look a bit more 3D on the TomTom 720. Rivers and lakes are drawn “sunken” while in select cities building footprints are “raised” up off the ground view. This is yet another large step forward of making the picture in the screen look more like the picture out the window. Elements like sports stadiums and playing fields are drawn in a different color for better representation.

Finally, a current street name field has been added to the primary interface, something lots of people have asked for, but frankly I’ve never found a use for. You can also move most of the fields from the bottom of the display to the right side of the display to take better advantage of the widescreen.

Brand logos for certain POIs are now displayed on the map which they call “brand icons”. So instead of driving by a bank and seeing a generic bank icon, you might see the logo for Bank of America.

Due to a faster processor and more RAM, the TomTom GO 720 4.3 produced much faster routes and a faster interface than offered in the ONE and ONE XL devices. Reroutes were also extremely fast if you happen to miss a turn.

Multiple Segment Routing, multi destination routing, whatever you want to call it , is available through the TomTom itinerary planning feature. We really like the ability to wrap up a bunch of destinations into one big route, and then see how far and how long the entire trip is going to take. I do wish they would really enhance the feature so that if you have an itinerary filled with waypoints (as opposed to destinations) that the itinerary will notify you upon reaching one of the waypoints. Of course you could convert the waypoints to destinations, however then you don’t get the total itinerary summary. Still, the Itinerary feature goes well beyond what most of the competition currently offers.

Iit is hard to imagine this device not being a huge hit. It has generated more buzz in the industry than any other recently announced device. We’ll reiterate that this device isn’t just a bump in specs, it really represents the first in a new generation of TomTom devices. We’re glad to see easier ways to obtain live traffic information, text-to-speech, a thinner size, and longer battery life than other models. Typically those specs would be cause enough for a new model. But the TomTom 720 will also set a higher benchmark in terms of personalizing the device by allowing map updates, downloading map updates suggested by other users, and building your own voice prompts.

Personal navigation, vehicle tracking and public transportation have changed a lot with the evolution of the new GPS technology. With a simple GPS receiver you can access the orbiting satellites and get information on the current location, the destination and the shortest route to reach it. Moreover, new GPS devices provide information on hotels, traffic conditions, ATMS, restaurants and gas stations for the map on which you navigate. Discreet, convenient and highly reliable, the new GPS units have marked a shift in technological development and a new age of communications. Although functioning on a set of common principles, GPS units differ according to brand, design and features.

Some new GPS devices come with pre-installed maps for certain geographical areas. For models that do not have this availability, or for very peculiar applications, a special software is used to download the maps. Other improvements in technology are the touch screens and the increase in unit memory and  processor speed. The access to the information on position is nearly instantaneous when the GPS operates according to advanced parameters.

Minimum wiring and mounting requirements: these are two other great features of a new GPS unit. These devices are also suitable for hikers, joggers or any other categories of sports activities. It takes less than twenty seconds for the GPS receiver to decode the information, providing the user with the necessary data. Moreover, the compatibility between cell phones and new GPS devices has improved considerably, not to mention that the design of smartphones combines both types of application. We can now carry the new GPS features incorporated in a cell phone, and just use them when in need. Personal navigation has certainly improved considerably, and we certainly make everything in our power to save time and be efficient.

The new GPS systems have very large databases, 3-D moving maps, turn-by-turn directions are features that only complete an already evolved device. Venue ratings for restaurants, info on gas stations and local attraction points, gas price details and many other services only complete the list of good GPS applications. And all these on top of a very quick capacity to access the satellites and calculate the geographical coordinates. Distance alert as well as geo-catching are also possible with a GPS unit, but they are very specific tasks that are used only occasionally. You should thus be able to create individual maps to correspond to one personal purpose or another.

Firstly and most importantly, a built-in wireless data connection gives the user access to live traffic data and Local Search by Google. Next, TomTom Map Share is a user-generated map correction system that allows for map data to be updated more frequently. Finally, IQ Routes looks at historical speed data to calculate the fastest route from point to point.

The TomTom GO 740 review sticks to the standard PND form factor that has served TomTom well. The device measures 3.4 inches tall by 5 inches wide. The unit is 0.9 -inch thick at its thickest point (center) and tapers to thinner edges. On the front of the device you’ll find a 4.3-inch full-color touch screen with a 480×272 pixel resolution. On the back is the one speaker. The bottom edge is where the proprietary cradle connection can be found, as well as a microSD card slot, if you want to supplement the unit’s 2GB of internal storage.

The GO 740 Live doesn’t include the Fold’n’Go EasyPort mount that the One and XL models feature. Rather, the GO ships with a car cradle with a suction-cup mount similar to that of the EasyPort and a desk cradle for connecting the GO to a computer via USB for updating or charging.

TomTom rates the GO 740 Live’s battery life at around 3 hours. In our testing, we found the charge to last closer to 2 hours.

The GO 740 Live is TomTom’s first GPS device to feature a built-in wireless data connection, so it offers a few new features that we haven’t seen before on TomTom navigation units.

The first is Local Search powered by Google, which puts rich points-of-interest data at your fingertips. Users can search for businesses and restaurants and receive detailed information about the results, including rating, payment types accepted, required attire, and more.

The GO 740 Live is also very capable of delivering traffic information with real-time flow data (not just incidents), searching for the latest fuel prices in the area, and receiving local and five day weather forecasts.

TomTom Buddies allows you to share your location with friends who also have a TomTom GO, and to send instant messages to one another. QuickGPSfix uses cellular triangulation to update the unit’s location faster for a quicker satellite lock.

Three months of Live Services is included in the $500 MSRP, after which you’ll have to pay a $10-a-month subscription fee.

In addition to these excellent live services, the TomTom GO 740 Live also features IQ Routes, a routing algorithm that considers anonymous historical speed data from you and other TomTom users to offer faster and more accurate routes. For example, if the unit sees that a highway is typically congested on weeknights during rush hour, then it will attempt to route around it at such times.

TomTom Map Share allows users to correct inaccurate map data (such as improperly named streets, turn restrictions, traffic direction, speed limits, etc.), add and edit points of interest, and submit those corrections to be shared with other TomTom users. Users can opt to receive Map Share updates, choose to only receive TomTom-approved updates, or receive no updates at all.

From a cold start, the unit boots in about 4 seconds and achieves a satellite lock in about 49 seconds in a moderately dense urban area.

Like the other TomTom units we’ve recently tested, routing can be a bit sluggish, particularly if the vehicle is moving past streets while the calculation is taking place. However, when you consider that traffic, map-share data, and IQ Routes processing are all happening at once, we’re willing to deal with the extra second or two it takes to choose a route because it potentially saves us an extra minute or so.

Once the route is locked in, the TomTom 740 Go Live handles subsequent recalculations surprisingly quickly. We like that the TomTom actually recalculates the route rather than simply attempting to get you back to the preselected one.

We were amazed at how the basic addition of a wireless data connection creates a quantum leap in the GO’s level of functionality and utility. Traffic data is visualized as color overlaid on the map, while live fuel prices are called up at the touch of a button.

Google search is something that you’ll want to do from a stopped vehicle, as entering search strings can require more attention than should be surrendered while driving.

The TomTom GO740 Live’s primary competition is going to be our previous Editors’ Choice winner, the Garmin Nuvi 880. Both units feature live, connected, data services for traffic and points-of-interest search. While the Garmin’s interface is a bit slightly more polished and easy to navigate, the GO 740 Live’s superior connected services give the TomTom user a bit more information about what’s happening on the road.

However, TomTom’s menu structure continues to leave something to be desired. While the icons are quite bright and easily read, they’re oddly organized. For example, canceling a route requires five button presses from the map screen, assuming that you already know where to find it. On a Garmin, that same action requires two presses. Additionally, the TomTom kicks you back to the map screen when you attempt to back up through the menu structure, which makes learning the menu’s organization difficult because you’re always starting over.

Both units have equally useful and responsive voice controls, but the Garmin comes packaged with a steering-wheel remote, which is either a huge convenience or yet another part to lose, depending on how you look at it.

Overall, we were way more than satisfied with the TomTom’s performance and found it to be slightly superior to the Garmin 880.

The Zumo represents a new design for Garmin which appears smaller (in depth) than the StreetPilot “c” series but larger than the Nuvi series. The Garmin Zumo 550 features a waterproof case and large buttons which make it easier for riders wearing gloves to access the buttons.

The Garmin Zumo 550 also includes Bluetooth connectivity so that you can answer mobile calls from a Bluetooth enabled helmet. Other innovative motorcycles includes fuel alerts… The Zumo can calculate fuel range and alert the rider when the motorcycle is getting low on gas. Of course at that point it will recalculate your route to the nearest gas station.

A tracklog feature is also included in the Garmin Zumo to allow you to download your tracks to your computer and later view them on a map through the Motion Based service or Google Earth.

MP3 music files can also be loaded onto a memory card and played through the helmet.

Upon opening the box, I was surprised to see how much was included with the Garmin Zumo 550. There’s the Zumo, a motorcycle mount, a car mount with an adhesive plastic disc for attaching to your dashboard, black plastic faceplates (if you don’t like the gray ones), an AC charger, a motorcycle power cable that connects to the bike’s battery, a car charger, tools needed to mount the Zumo to motorcycle handlebars, a tiny screwdriver for the “safety screw” on the unit, a USB cable to sync and download software and updates, a City Navigator DVD, a CD-ROM of the owners manual, a quick setup guide for mounting, and some stickers. Tons of stuff.

There’s one word to describe the design of the Garmin Zumo 550: sexy. It has a silver shell with two removable caps on top and bottom of the unit that you can exchange (ahem, I mean purchase) for the unit with a plethora of designs including racing stripes and flames. The unit is quite compact, measuring 4.8 inches wide, 3.9 inches high, and 1.6 inches deep and weighing in at 10.6 ounces, a bit lighter than the Rider’s 10.9 ounces. In addition, the Zumo 550 meets IPX7 standards, which means it can withstand accidental immersion in three feet of water for up to 30 minutes.

The features are endless on the Garmin Zumo 550 Motorcycle GPS. For starters, the Zumo is powered by a 20-channel, SiRFstarlll high-sensitivity GPS receiver and all maps of North America are on the device. Operation is even simpler than with the TomTom Rider, but as always, we recommend that you really familiarize yourself with the Zumo and its features before hitting the road.

From the main menu, you are presented with two large and clearly marked options to begin navigation–Where to? and View map–as well as several items along the bottom of the screen, including a phone icon (if you are already paired to your Bluetooth phone), a musical note icon for the MP3 player, and a tool icon for the Settings menu. Tapping any one of these icons takes you to a bunch of submenus for that function. For eg, if you touch the phone icon, another menu comes up that includes phone numbers for points of interest (POI), call history, and phone book.

You can view maps in 2D or 3D mode with day or night colors. The colors automatically switch to the night setting at sundown.The map screen is very simple and displays your speed, estimated arrival time, and the distance to your next turn. On the top of the screen, the next turn and the street name is displayed, and there are also plus and minus buttons to zoom in and out of the map. If you touch the speed tab, a slick, trip information information screen comes up displaying your direction, speed, max speed, and a fuel gauge. The last feature will only show when the unit is connected to the motorcycle mount, however. You can also view POIs near your current location, but this is one area where the icons were too small to easily tap with big gloves. Obviously it’s pretty dangerous when you are actually riding and trying to do this so I don’t recommend it.

I took the Garmin GPS Zumo 550 for a test run in the San Francisco Bay Area. From a cold start, the unit took around 10 to 20 seconds to lock onto a satellite, depending if I was downtown surrounded by lots of buildings or in a more open area. Subsequent starts were quicker. The Zumo accurately pinpointed my location, but the screen is a little choppier than the TomTom Rider’s continuous and smooth motion. I didn’t really mind this though, because it didn’t look like the screen was shaking. It just wasn’t as smooth as the Rider. As the Rider did, the Zumo gave some pretty insane directions to destinations on a number of occasions, some of the POIs were outdated, and it had some wrong names for side streets and alleys. But, at least by hitting the Detour icon, it recalculated more reasonable directions. It also depended on what setting (fastest time, shortest distance, or off-road) I chose.

Route recalculations were somewhat slower than the lightening-fast Rider. It wasn’t much slower, but enough to be annoying. I purposely missed turns to see how fast it would recalculate and sometimes two streets passed where I should have turned before the Zumo gave an alternate route. Hopefully Garmin will fix this in the future with a firmware update.

The Bluetooth phone integration was great, especially with the built-in mic on the vehicle mount. I tested this feature many times, calling friends’ cell phones and landlines. The audio was good on both ends. They could hear me loud and clear and vice versa. With the top down, I still had decent results but had to turn the stereo down every time I wanted to hear the voice commands. If I missed the command though, all I had to do is push the Turn in icon, and the voice command was repeated, and the map presented a close-up and text of the next direction.

The Garmin 550 Zumo battery is rated for three to four hours depending on usage. I got more than five hours of ride time before the low-battery warning came up, which was impressive.

What is quite important to note about the TomTom 720 is that it is more than just a simple specifications bump to an existing model– This device brings a lot of brand new features to the TomTom line that we can expect to see in future TomTom devices. So while this device is thinner, faster, and has a nicer screen than many pervious models, it has a host of new features that make the 720 an important device. I’ve been able to log about 1,000 miles with the 720, and here is what we have found.

In many ways, the TomTom GO720 looks like the ONE XL, but it is slightly thinner than the ONE XL. It appears to use the same screen as the ONE XL so it is extremely bright and very easy to read. When viewed from very wide and very high angles the screen doesn’t wash out as much as other screens and the colors stay fairly true throughout a range of viewing angles. The display is 4.3 inches and runs at 480×272 pixels. In bright sunlight, the 720 performs very well, equal to other devices commonly though to have some of the brightest and most readable screens such as the 600 Nuvi series.

On the top is the power button, and on the back is the speaker and a newly designed way for the mount to connect. Gone is the big “plate” on the suction cup mount, instead there is a tiny square about the size of a quarter which slides into the device. This reduces the size of the mount and makes it a bit easier to pack away. Otherwise the mount is similar to the mount on the ONE/XL and features the same suction cup and ball and socket joint. The mount has just about the right amount of tension so that it doesn’t move around or vibrate on dirt roads yet doesn’t take much force to adjust the angle.

On the bottom is the SD card slot, USB/power port, a reset button you hopefully won’t need, a port to connect a traffic receiver, as well as a headphone jack. I’ve mentioned it many times before, but I’ll say it again that i don’t prefer any cords attached to the bottom of GPS devices since it can limit how low on the dash it can be mounted. However TomTom improved this in one area. The end of the USB port now has a 90° angle at the very tip, so you now can mount the 720 just as low on the dash as you would like. It still doesn’t give you easy access to the USB cable while the device is on the mount, but the new cable design is a very welcome improvement.

Under the hood you will find a SiRFstarIII chipset, which makes for very fast signal acquisition, and that signal should stay in environments like urban canyones that are tough for older chipsets. In fact while inside a large building without windows I was able to occasionally obtain a fix. During road testing in a variety of environments the GPS never lost its signal and proved extremely accurate. Battery life is reported to be about five hours, and we were able to achieve that level in our tests. This is also a reason you might upgrade to a 720 over the ONE XL which has a meager 2 hour battery life.

The maps of the USA and Canada come pre-installed on 2 GB of internal flash memory. So the SD slot remains free for you to add maps of other countries, or to install MP3 files for the music player. A few people including myself had trouble with certain brand/size SD cards. It seems that newer cards which are 1 GB in size to 4 GB in size seem to work consistently well. However older smaller cards are sometimes not being read by the 720.

The TomTom GO720 GPS is the first TomTom device to feature their new version 7 application. We expect a free update for the other devices to be available as TomTom has done in the past. There are a lot of great new features in the version 7 application. For example when navigating to an address, you are now prompted for the state, first and independently of the city. For many people this will help streamline the process of navigating to an address, especially for those located in places like “Greenville” which exists in many states.

The world is also starting to look a bit more 3D on the TomTom 720. Rivers and lakes are drawn “sunken” while in select cities building footprints are “raised” up off the ground view. This is yet another large step forward of making the picture in the screen look more like the picture out the window. Elements like sports stadiums and playing fields are drawn in a different color for better representation.

Finally, a current street name field has been added to the primary interface, something lots of people have asked for, but frankly I’ve never found a use for. You can also move most of the fields from the bottom of the display to the right side of the display to take better advantage of the widescreen.

Brand logos for certain POIs are now displayed on the map which they call “brand icons”. So instead of driving by a bank and seeing a generic bank icon, you might see the logo for Bank of America.

Due to a faster processor and more RAM, the TomTom GO 720 4.3 produced much faster routes and a faster interface than offered in the ONE and ONE XL devices. Reroutes were also extremely fast if you happen to miss a turn.

Multiple Segment Routing, multi destination routing, whatever you want to call it , is available through the TomTom itinerary planning feature. We really like the ability to wrap up a bunch of destinations into one big route, and then see how far and how long the entire trip is going to take. I do wish they would really enhance the feature so that if you have an itinerary filled with waypoints (as opposed to destinations) that the itinerary will notify you upon reaching one of the waypoints. Of course you could convert the waypoints to destinations, however then you don’t get the total itinerary summary. Still, the Itinerary feature goes well beyond what most of the competition currently offers.

Iit is hard to imagine this device not being a huge hit. It has generated more buzz in the industry than any other recently announced device. We’ll reiterate that this device isn’t just a bump in specs, it really represents the first in a new generation of TomTom devices. We’re glad to see easier ways to obtain live traffic information, text-to-speech, a thinner size, and longer battery life than other models. Typically those specs would be cause enough for a new model. But the TomTom 720 will also set a higher benchmark in terms of personalizing the device by allowing map updates, downloading map updates suggested by other users, and building your own voice prompts.

Buy Nuvi 3790T

If you have been looking for a portable GPS that incorporates form, function and fashion you were out of luck. Most standalone navigators have kept the same form factor for the last few years. They all looked similar, so it did not matter which one you purchased. They were all big, and clunky. That was then. Everyone; including Google seems to be getting into GPS since right now there is increased competition in the smartphone space. How are you going to compete with the likes of Apple, RIM or even Google? You out do them in form, function and fashion.

Garmin nuvi 3700 series fits the bill.
The 3700 series sports sleek lines and is super-slim at only 9mm “thick” become the latest line of portable GPS from Garmin. The 3700 series of navigators – there are three: nuvi 3750, nuvi 3760T and the top of the line, 3790T. Each features a 4.3″ multi-touch glass display with enhanced software features such as nuRoute technology with traffic trends and myTrends. If you purchase the 3790T you can also take advantage of 3-D building and terrain view with voice-activated navigation. Lane assist with junction view, hands-free calling compatibility with built-in Bluetooth and subscription-free traffic alerts are some of the amazing features.

The display looks wonderful with a little glossy but we can live with that. The 4.3″ display sports WVGA (800×480) resolution. We already mentioned the super-slim form factor of the navigator, at 9mm thin it’s small enough to put into your shirt pocket, or purse. Experiencec it with the previous navigators.

Along with fashion, comes function. The interface has been somewhat overhauled and where you will see the biggest difference is the speed in which the gorgeous 2D and 3D maps load. Street names, and towns are also auto-populated at blazing speed. Another feature which impressed us is that you can use it either in vehicle mode or pedestrian mode. So if you are in a new city and palnning to get around on foot, bus, train or metro, the nuvi will be perfect to help you navigate.

On Amazon the 3790T is ranking #16 and has 44 reviews gave 4-rated-star.. With comments like “The size and physical design of this beauty is amazing.”, “This is the iPhone 4 of the GPS world.” and “Nothing comes close to the beauty of the 3790.”, Garmin has trully scored a hit with the 3790T and indeed with the entire line of 3700 series portable GPS units.
Overall the nuvi is impressive, with the enhancements to the software and the new form-factor it is a winner. If you’ve got a newer PND (personal navigation device) you might not want to purchase this right now, or if your smartphone has GPS built into it (which smartphones don’t have GPS?) then you also may not want yet another device. However if you have an older portable GPS unit and want something sleek, then the new Garmin nuvi 3700 series of portable GPS units is for you.

Buy Garmin Nuvi 3790T now and SAVE up to 5% at www.nuvi3790T.org

According to the standard definition, a GPS receiver is a device that enables navigation through the satellite system, by determining the exact geographical location. The GPS receiver is in fact one of the three elements required by the Global Positioning System, and from the certain point of view, the least significant. The satellites together with the control and monitoring stations have a higher preponderance in the structure. When the signal is caught by the GPS receiver it is decoded according to three-dimensional factors, altitude, latitude and longitude, also providing information on the time. Retailers provide both the GPS receiver units and the necessary accessories in a very wide range of models, designs and brands.

To understand the importance of a GPS receiver, it suffices to say that it is crucial for air-navigation, maritime operations, military moves, emergency services, disaster relief and individual civilian use. Moreover, the GPS device allows for accurate timing for operations of mobile phones, banks and power grids. The GPS receiver is the modern way to be safe, accurate and in control of an unlimited number of activities no matter where you are on the globe. If we are to judge by the efficiency of streets, highways and mass transit when coordinated through GPS receiver systems, we understand the importance of this new technology worldwide.

You can reach destination on the shortest route possible or simply identify a lost vehicle: the number of features included in a GPS receiver is very high. After it reaches the receiver, the information is processed through a special software that enables the transmission of the information both graphically, on a monitor and vocally, by voice announcements. The vocal feature of the GPS receiver is considered very reliable and safe by lots of drivers because it is a lot easier to follow it than to periodically check the monitor for left, right or street name directions. Furthermore, the possibility to track urban traffic though a GPS device increases the time efficiency of a travel.

The GPS receiver technology also finds application in the constant monitoring of roads and highways by the authorities. Information on road damage, service stations, supplies, maintenance and entry or exit ramps is thus both accurate and in real time, allowing for rapid interventions if necessary. Individual users can also create their own maps with a regular GPS device that has GIS application incorporated. There is in fact active support between the GPS and the GIS systems, and their applications are often shared.