Smartphones and tablets have a lot to answer for, at least when it comes to making technology affordable for the public.  Since the launch of the first iPhone it’s become not only accepted that sensors and other devices such as GPS, multi-touch capacitive screens, NFC, accelerometers, digital compasses and more should be included but we’ve come [...]

Categories: ask the readers

One of the most widely used technologies in travel worldwide, the Global Positioning System or simply GPS, has become indispensable in our traveling lives. Almost unthinkable a couple of decades ago, the GPS allows a person to be located, no matter which corner of the earth they are in, provided that the person has a [...]

Categories: travelling geek

There used to exist a time where travel meant devoting the entire time to your companions, be it family or friends. There was no TV to watch, no phone (I mean the times when cell phones were not so common) and the internet was not nearly so portable as it is today. That was the [...]

Categories: travelling geek

Is it possible, is there such a thing as an attack that can tell a hacker where you live?  The BBC has revealed that a specially booby-trapped website can tell a hacker where you are to only a few metres. The attack was dreamt up by security expert Sam Kamkar who demonstrated at the Black [...]

Categories: Google, Hacking

My wife and I are avid cyclists and hikers. I am also a runner. On our bikes we use cyclometers, but sometimes that isn’t enough to track your workouts. I have recently come across a nice tool that will do this for me (and more). That tool is called pyTrainer. pyTrainer is a fine example [...]

Categories: Linux, Open Source, Tutorials Basic

A few months ago, Mozilla generated lots of buzz through its Geode extension, which locates users through the WiFi access point they were using. Other popular tools have similar features, such as ‘Locate me’ on iPod Touches. So, a very interesting question is how does such technology work? They consult a service called Skyhook Wireless. [...]

Categories: Software, The Web, Tools

Hundreds of websites offer mapping services, which highlight roads, railways, streets and scores of other things. Most of these sites charge for commercial use of their data and almost certainly won’t allow users to change the maps in a wiki-like fashion. OpenStreetMap is a project to provide maps, like Google Maps does. Unlike sites like [...]

Categories: Misc, Online Services, Open Source

The last years have seen a huge increase in websites that have added GPS information to provide their visitors with an additional service. The gps data offered on those websites usually comes in kml or gpx format. KML means Keyhole Markup Language, an international standard supported by many Google applications like Google Earth and Google [...]

Categories: Software, Windows

Artist Erik Nordenankar had an interesting idea for a self portrait. He would send a GPS device around the world to specified coordinates to draw the largest image the world has ever seen. Well, the largest virtual image the world has ever seen. The GPS tracking device was put into a briefcase and sent away [...]

Categories: Cool, Entertainment