Garmin GLO - add GPS to wifi only tablets or enhance your smartphone

 

http://garmin.blogs.com/my_weblog/2012/07/garmin-glo-portabl...

Quote:

Today we introduced GLO, a portable GPS and GLONASS receiver that brings Garmin’s industry-leading GPS technology to mobile devices.

“As the first wireless GPS receiver with the ability to receive signals from both the United States’ GPS satellite network and Russia’s GLONASS satellite network, GLO provides the most comprehensive satellite coverage available,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin’s vice president of worldwide sales. “Whether you’re driving through an urban canyon or flying an airplane at any altitude, GLO ensures that your mobile device maintains a strong, reliable GPS signal.”

GLO wirelessly connects to compatible Apple® and Android™ devices via Bluetooth. It offers a 12 hour battery life and a position update rate of up to 10 times per second (update rate may be limited by the host device). This is 10 times faster than the internal GPS receivers of most mobile devices.

GLO will be available in August for $99. GLO for Aviation is available today for $129

Another option for wifi tablet users... or smartphone users who want even better GPS data for their phone...

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*Keith* MacBook Pro *wifi iPad(2012) w/BadElf GPS & iPhone6 + Navigon*

Garmin GLO

Thank you for posting that. That is interesting that the receiver will also receive GLONASS. I wonder if that will eventually be included on Garmin Nuvi and other GPS devices as well? Between this, the GPS Alternative Developed By Defense Firm BAE Systems, and the recently announced Garmin Nuvi 2598FL, this will be an interesting year for GPS products!

Interesting

Before anybody gets excited on this, where are the sats broadcasting? If only over E. Europe, Russia, and Asia, it's useless in NA.

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nüvi 3790T | Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, will make violent revolution inevitable ~ JFK

Full coverage

Juggernaut wrote:

Before anybody gets excited on this, where are the sats broadcasting? If only over E. Europe, Russia, and Asia, it's useless in NA.

They have a full complement of 24 satellites in orbit (21 main and 3 spares) which enables full global coverage.

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Garmin Nuvi 2450

Full coverage

Juggernaut wrote:

Before anybody gets excited on this, where are the sats broadcasting? If only over E. Europe, Russia, and Asia, it's useless in NA.

It's available globally, with slightly better accuracy at the higher latitudes due to the orbital position of the satellites. The most exciting thing to me is the potential for very fast satellite fixes due to the availability of over 50 satellites (when combined with the GPS system). Likewise it could be easier to get a signal in tough situations like canyons because there are so many satellites. The Russian government is actively promoting civilian use of GLONASS so the I think the future trend will be dual GPS/GLONASS units.

Garmin GLO

Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia

".....By 2010, GLONASS had achieved 100% coverage of Russia's territory and in October 2011, the full orbital constellation of 24 satellites was restored, enabling full global coverage....."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GLONASS

I, like probably many others here, find it interesting, but not necessarily exciting. Realistically, for many people anyway, the benefit might be a quicker start up time. Yes, I know it makes reference to ".....driving through an urban canyon or flying an airplane at any altitude....." As much as I have been a "want to be" private pilot for years, I am not a pilot. As far as the urban canyon, the biggest city that I drive in typically is Minneapolis MN and my Garmin Nuvi works just fine there! I think the last Garmin automobile navigatotr with Dead Reckoning was the StreetPilot 7200/7500 and I anticipate that this would be better than Dead Reckoning.

As an aside, I actually like the idea of supplementing GPS signals with cell tower positioning data. There are certainly many cell towers near urban canyons. I suspect that positioning data from cell towers would also improve start up time. It would likely help with indoor navigation, too.

Just think maybe by this time next year the Garmin roll out will be GPS/GLONASS/CDMA/GSM navigation. If you offer that at $99 at WalMart people will buy it!

Although the above is slightly "tongue in cheek" it is not totally beyond the realm of possibility. Again, I am pretty happy with what we have now, but I encourage the industry to strive for improvement. GPS has gotten so common place that end users are now looking for indoor navigation, etc.

iPhone 4S

The iPhone 4S supports GLONASS. See http://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html and search the page for "GLONASS".

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I support the right to keep and arm bears.