The consumer electronic products are becoming popular as they offer some sophisticated features that are useful to us in our day to day lives. Some of the products not only entertain us but also make our work easier.

Electronic products have bought a lot of comfort and convenience in our lives. The electronic products popular these days include television, digital camera and accessories, DVD recorders, computers and other household electronics. With the changing technology, the world is also developing. Every now and then, there are new inventions and new products are being created. The field of consumer electronics is always going through some developments. More and more products are always coming up in the market. The demand for the latest gadgets is increasing day by day.

Consumer electronics has become such a major part of our lives that we cannot imagine life without these products. The technology is developing with a fast pace and this has resulted into rise of multitude of electronic products. At the same time, the consumers need be updated with the information on the latest devices and technologies so that they can get maximum benefits from them. The world of consumer electronics is rapidly growing and more and more gadgets are hitting the market.

Bringing a revolution in our lives, these electronic devices have made us dependent on them. Some of the popular electronic items include gaming consoles, mobile phones and music players. These high quality products are preferred by consumers worldwide as they are tools of entertainment as well as useful devices.

The popular brands like Sony, LG, Samsung and Philips are coming up with some of the best products. After every six months, one can see an upgraded model of these electronic devices. So, the user starts feeling that his product is outdated. Apart from using these products for everyday functions, these can be used for our interest and entertainment.

A popular means of entertainment as well as useful device is mobile phone. More than just communicating, these devices allow the user to use email, access the internet, take pictures and listen to music. Whether you wish to download songs from the internet or share files with friends, you can do it easily from your phone.

With the latest electronic products, one can carry out various tasks easily and comfortably. Browse through the online websites and find multitude of consumer electronics with lots of brands. The trend of comparison shopping is becoming popular. Comparing products based on their features is becoming easier. Buying electronic gadgets online gives you an opportunity to find a great variety of products online under one roof. One can easily find their specifications or search for a product recently launched in the market. Research as much as possible and take your time to compare products and prices. You do not have to spend your time going all the way to a store.

Electronic gadgets like digital camera and accessories are lightweight and compact and let us capture our special memories. The fast developing world is rapidly changing technology and lifestyles. The demand for latest electronic devices has increased tremendously. The latest brands are offering various entertainment and communication gadgets for the consumers.

Review a wide selection of products and find special offers and discounts with the best deals. Take advantage of the benefits offered online.

Jacob Marshal, an author who writes on different verticals such as electronics, finance, insurance, music, books, computers etc for Rupiz Compare and appeal to visit the site to get information about consumer electronics, LCD TV and GPS Accessories.

Just like they say don't mix drinking and driving, now it's about the cell phone. No wonder, it isn't safe to be answering calls or texting a message while driving, but with a handsfree, you can however be on the safer side.

On July 1st, 2008, California will join many other states that restrict cell phone use while driving. California's new law says that if you're over 18, you can only talk and drive "handsfree." If you're under 18, you can't talk on a cell phone at all while driving. If you're caught, the first offense will cost you $20 but won't add points to your license. The law is intended to save lives and make the roads safer however, you have to wonder how many additional accidents will result from adults and teenagers resorting to texting since texting is still legal while driving.

Here are some recommendations for going handsfree in your car:

1. Buy a Car With a Bluetooth Connection.

Many cars both foreign and domestic offer Bluetooth connectivity. Usually the sound comes through the car speakers (interrupting the stereo when a call takes place) while microphones placed in the headliner or dashboard pick up your voice. Currently over 30 brands of cars offer Bluetooth including Toyota, Lexus, Audi, Dodge and Land Rover. Many manufacturers make Bluetooth available as an option like Chrysler's UConnect or Audi's HandsFreeLink.

A lot of systems allow you to download your contact list and then use voice commands to dial the number by saying a name. Many high end models like those from Lexus, Infiniti, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Jaguar incorporate Bluetooth into their navigation systems that also work with voice commands. Microsoft SYNC available in many American made cars like Ford and Buick uses text to speech technology to read text messages to you and voice recognition that allows you to make calls and control your music players.

2.Buy a Bluetooth Car Kit

If you're not in the market for a new car and are happy with your non-Bluetooth enabled car then maybe you should consider an aftermarket car kit. Some require professional installation, while others you can install yourself with a plug that goes to your cigarette lighter. You can get a basic Bluetooth car kit like the Motorola B 89170N T305 hands-free speaker phone for around $50. A more advanced one like the Nokia CK-7W Advanced Car Kit comes with a small remote that you can Velcro someplace close to the steering wheel. It sells for around $125. The Motorola HF850 Deluxe Bluetooth Car Kit costs a little over $200 and gets high marks for sound quality, ease of use and design.

3. Buy a New Car Stereo with Bluetooth

After market car stereo manufacturers are starting to offer Bluetooth capabilities. Pioneer has several stereos that feature Bluetooth. At the top end Pioneer is about to ship three Bluetooth compatible models in their AVIC line; The AVIC-F700BT, AVIC-900BT, and the AVIC-F90BT with an MSRP of $850, $1,100, and $1,200 respectively. All three offer a big 5.8 inch touchscreen along with voice recognition that can even control a connected iPod. If you can't afford to spend that much money, Pioneer offers the FH-P8000BT, FH-800BT, and DEH-P7000BT, all in the $300 range. They include hands-free calling along with HD radio and iPod capability.

4. Buy a Bluetooth enabled GPS

Bluetooth is becoming more common in GPS devices or, should we say, Personal Navigation Devices. Using a GPS with your Bluetooth phone uses the GPS device's built in microphone and speaker for hands-free calling. You can also use it to call one of the Points of Interest (POI) like a restaurant or hotel. The popular nuvi 360 has Bluetooth as well as the newer nuvi 760 and nuvi 880. For a complete list of Garmin Bluetooth GPS check out the section on Garmin's web site covering their devices and Bluetooth. The popular TomTom Go 920 and TomTom Go 930 both have Bluetooth capabilities as well as the Magellan Maestro 4040.

5. Buy a Bluetooth Headset

Bluetooth headsets are everywhere these days. They're cheap and easy to use however they can often be uncomfortable to wear for long periods and audio performance can vary widely. One of the most highly rated headsets comes from Aliph who produces the Jawbone and uses military grade noise canceling technology to produce very good quality calls. Aliph has a new version of the Jawbone called appropriately "The New Jawbone," which is available now for about $130. Plantronics has been in the telephone headset business for a long time and produces some very highly rated Bluetooth headsets like the stylish Discovery 925. Stereo capability came to Bluetooth via the A2DP Standard so you can now use stereo Bluetooth headsets with stereo Bluetooth enabled media players. Plantronics has a new stereo headset called Voyager 855 which is getting good reviews and costs around $150.

6. Buy a Wired Headset

For about ten bucks you can walk out of any Radio Shack with a wired headset that includes an earpiece and a microphone. For a few dollars more you'll get a volume and mute switch on the cord, and for a few dollars more than that you can get a headset with a head band and a boom mic.

7. Listen to the Radio and Don't Answer the Phone

This could turn out to be the best bet for your physical safety as well as your mental well being. Ask youself, "is this call really that important?" If the answer is "maybe not," then why not turn on and tune in, the radio, that is.

Talk & Drive Safely – 7 Tips

Garmin, a pioneer in the world of GPS technology supplies its GPS systems such as handheld GPS, Garmin GPS and forerunner to consumer markets, aviation and ship industries. Garmin GPS provides precise information about every area you are venturing into, be it sea, air, mountains or roads.

Garmin handheld GPS are in fact a rugged navigator, which includes features such as in built base map, PC cable, user manual, cable cord, big screen and a wrist strap. It is waterproof and displays instructions in several different languages. This type of handheld GPS is an ideal companion for frequent or regular travelers, so that they can enjoy their outings without going off track.

Garmin handheld GPS for mariners consist of background maps, buoys, fixed maritime navaids, obstructions, barometer, electronic compass and displays locations of lighthouses too. Apart from this, the Garmin handheld system has a broad screen, powerful battery, memory card, and big buttons.

Some more advanced Garmin handheld GPS also show you shorter, safer routes so that you can reach the desired destination in less time. It also consists of an exchangeable media card in which you can store the navigational direction and then transfer the same into your computer for future reference.

Garmin Forerunner:

Garmin forerunner is one ideal real time device for runners that count long distance. The forerunner equipments of other companies loose the signal, if you are jogging in an area, where there are tall trees and buildings.

However, Garmin forerunner deploys technology that holds III chip having higher sensitivity. It has protruding antenna that captures the signals even in dense locality, giving you precise distance coverage.

You just need to fasten this forerunner around your wrist and set out for jog. The features of the Garmin forerunner are highly customizable that records the lap details based on the specific distance, position and time.

It also consists of a unique course memory, which allows you to download route details. This forerunner also displays the positions of other runners present in your surroundings.

Thus, with Garmin GPS and its other units, you can now camp, hike, go geo caching and explore the dense forests freely, without worrying about getting lost.

Marcia Henin, Content writer for Inter-dev - Internet marketing company.

Garmin is an accredited international company established on the principles of convenience, innovation, value, performance and service. It is booming well due to the convenient services such as interior designing, manufacturing, marketing and selling customer oriented products.

Garmin's innovative products include different areas of interest such as aviation, automotive, fitness, marine, open-air recreation and wireless applications.

From the very first time, the founders have been focusing the main area of interest on selling their innovative product with the help of a GPS (Global Positioning System), thus they are now surrounded with ingenious minds and prospective customers.

Garmin not only designs and sells product, but it also adjusts with the lifestyle of an individual. From marine to aviation, fitness to automotive, outdoor recreation to wireless solution, their employees are on the water, in the air, in the timbers and at the back of wheel.

Other Specialties:

If you are looking for a GPS (Global Positioning System), then it is a wise idea to think about Garmin's Garmin NUVI GPS. This is not only an ordinary GPS, but includes several features that you cannot get in a standard GPS.

Naturally, navigational help is the basic feature that you might be expecting for in a GPS. Garmin NUVI GPS has an automatic routing system, 2D and 3D map viewpoint, voice directions to show street names, and touch screen edge that makes navigation easy.

In addition, Garmin NUVI GPS supports configurable automobile icons. You obtain personalized car-shaped icons in several colors that depict your place over the map. Garmin has also produced several types of GPS products, especially for automobiles and skiers. Within each type, there is a variety of models to meet the needs of every customer.

For instance, Garmin NUVI GPS of StreetPilot c340 has a text format with speaking functions. Hence, you have the benefit of hands-free-operation to concentrate on the road at the time of driving and you do no have to look at the GPS to see what is written over there. It is an ideal feature for people who want to focus ahead on the path during fast driving.

Marcia Henin, Content writer for Inter-dev - Internet marketing company.

Which one do I buy? I, as a consumer want the best handheld GPS online that will not break the bank. Finding the best handheld GPS online could take days. There are so many models to choose from with different features, such as screen sizes and price tag.

I don't know about you, but I really do like electronic gadgets, definitely the kind that keep me from getting lost and putting my family in danger. The very best handheld GPS online seem to be the smartest things to use around town these days to help take the shortest route to where you want to go. Handheld GPS can not only be used in the car but biking, hiking, camping and if you're a real sportsman or woman hunting and fishing.

Best Handheld GPS online units come in two types, mapping and non-mapping. Do you need a simple "non-mapping" GPS handheld unit just for finding your way back to the truck after a day of hiking? Or, do you need a "mapping" GPS you can use to map your trails, maybe plan your hiking paths days before your trip and download them from your PC to your GPS? A mapping GPS will have basemaps, and allow loading additional maps into the unit. A non-mapping unit will not. The choice is yours.

Right now, your first choices for best handheld GPS online would include the outstanding Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx. These units have about as many features as anyone could hope for. Accurate and easy-to-read color screens, several modes and plenty of built-in memory, a basemap of the U.S., good battery life, waterproof, etc.

Diana is an expert in handheld GPS devices online, visit her website at handheld GPS devices online

The addition of portable GPS navigation in your vehicle is relatively inexpensive especially when compared to the overpriced dealership charge that comes when you order a factory navigation system. After market units use the most current technology and maps to help you get where you want to go with the greatest accuracy.

The majority of the portable GPS navigation devices which are currently accessible for retail purchase do a whole lot more than just helping you get from place to place. They allow for hooking up with DVDs, Mp3s, iPods, and Bluetooth. After-market systems give you excellent value for their cost. They are designed to be attached to the windshield and to receive their power from your automobile's direct current outlet. Their major advantage is how many different things they can do, and you can move them from one car to another quite simply.

There are Garmin portable GPS systems available with built-in batteries to eliminate the need for an external power source. The popular and versatile Garmin Nuvi 350 GPS Navigator's rechargeable lithium-ion battery can last up to 8 hours. It is compact without sacrificing screen size unlike some of the other navigation systems that are available. Moreover, it is not just a navigation system. In addition to providing directions, it also serves as an Mp3 player and audio book player.

Also, you can use a GPS system called the in-dash. This system has an interactive monitor, where you can type in the address to get directions. This unit fits where your car radio goes and replaces it.

With options like Bluetooth, iPod integration, satellite radio, and TV tuners, as well as systems that are designed to fit both standard, and large radios, you can build a system for any vehicle with all the options at a fraction of the cost of dealership installation.

If you put as much information into the GPS system as possible, it will be easier to find your location. Some maps are on the hard drive of the system, and you can just download the updated ones and put them onto the hard drive as updates. There are also actual maps, which are on a DVD the system can read. So you will have to purchase the new DVD maps so that you can stay up-to-date on new roads.

While they were once expensive, portable navigation systems have become affordable for everyone. Money spent on these systems is more than worth it when you consider all of the utility and fun that you get for the price. Most importantly, however, you will never have to stop for directions again with one of these systems.

The addition of portable GPS navigation in your vehicle is relatively inexpensive especially when compared to the overpriced dealership charge that comes when you order a factory navigation system. Some Garmin portable GPS units have built-in batteries that allow you to navigate without needing an external power source.

Garmin Hand Held GPS is one of the most requested and most purchased Global Positioning Systems in the world. The Garmin brand is the most recognized brand available and its popularity shows no sign of fading anytime soon. The GPSMAP 60 CSx is one of the most popular items that is requested and for good reason. This hand held model is an upgrade to the60CS. This model comes with expandable memory, Waypoint manager, MapSource Trip, a barometric altimeter for heavily forested or canyon areas and an electronic compass just to name a few of the items that are present on this hand held model.

With a starting price of 399.99, it is an inexpensive alternative to other types of receivers of this caliber. It also has a wider viewing screen while extending the battery life of 30 hours. Other features include a preloaded Americas auto route which gives you l highways, routing ability and tide data for the US. This handheld device also has a 64 MB microSD card to store other MapSource data such as City Navigator. There are also other preloaded cards that have European data preloaded into them. This eliminated the need to use your computer when there are preloaded maps.

This handheld model is a fantastic innovation to the Garmin line. With its expanded capabilities, this is a wonderful choice for having a Global Positioning System. With this handheld, you have the capacity of having greater turn by turn capacity. This device also includes audible alarms, integrated outdoor calendar, geocaching capacities and indoor/outdoor GPS games. There are so many different capacities on this handheld that will allow you to not only have a good trip, but have fun while doing it. With so many different capacities will allow you to be able to plan and execute a trip without any type of trouble.

This handheld also includes a speed limitation of 999 miles an hour, supporting latitude and longitude, Loran TD's, UTM/UPS, MGRS and other grids such as Maidenhead. With a battery life of 30 hours, there will be plenty of time to plot your course and stay on your course. With 1000 waypoints, and 50 rev routes to choose from, you won't get lost. It is waterproof with front mounted buttons and a high resolution color screen with backlight ensures that you will always be able to see the route clearly, even at night.

For those that are on the go, this Garmin handheld GPS will provide you with a reliable way of tracking your journey at a cost that is not going to break the bank. Similar GPS receivers cost in excess of 500.00 or more. With this device you are assured of quality and a device that won't break.

This handheld version is a complement to the Garmin line. With its outdoor, marine and automotive capacities, this is one handheld that will be well worth the investment. This is one that comes recommended highly by other Garmin users worldwide.

For the best deals and prices on select Garmin portable GPS and other handheld GPS units, visit: The Garmin Handheld GPS Shop

Geocaching is known by many names. It has been called everything from high-tech hide-and-seek, global stash hunting to a more modern version of the Easter egg hunt. Geocaching is a very fun adventure game for GPS users. To enjoy your geocaching adventure, we have listed a few geocaching gear and supplies for you to consider.

• GPS Unit. A GPS receiver is the most essential gear you need for geocaching. You need to input the geocache coordinates into your GPS in order to find it. Garmin is number one when considering GPS for geocaching with their host of products to make sure you find that big cache. With a Garmin GPS in your hand and an appetite for adventure, you will definitely find all the geocache around the world.

• Geocache Containers. A geocache is a small container hidden by geocachers. Some are hidden in forests or deserts while some are buried in urban areas. If you decide to hide your very own cache, you must use the right type of container. Ammo cans are the best container for geocaching. They are very cheap, designed for the outdoors and waterproof. The tupperware box is the most common and cheapest geocache container around. It is quite waterproof, strong and comes in a variety of sizes. It can easily be wedged in any nooks and crannies and it looks innocent unlike ammo cans. Film canisters, bison tubes and small magnetic tubes are used for micro and nano caches.

• GeoCoins. GeoCoins are numbered geocaching coins that were made to give geocachers a collectable, tradable and trackable cache prize. You can leave them in your geocache for other geocachers to find or trade them.

• Travel Bugs. Travel Bugs are items that, once registered, can be tracked online. The travel bug is carried from cache to cache (or person to person) in the real world and you can follow its progress online.

• GeoSwags. GeoSwags can be left as prizes for other geocachers or traded for other items in the geocache. Some common geoswags are casino chips, hot wheels and patches.

• Geocaching Clothing and Accessories. With geocaching, you would usually head into urban areas or the woods. Proper clothing is therefore very important to keep you safe and warm.

• Logbook. A logbook is where visitors of your hidden geocache will write down details about their visit. You can write down jokes or tips about the place.

There are many other supplies that may help you enjoy geocaching more such as Walkie Talkies, camouflage tapes, walking sticks and geocaching books. Head to the Geocaching Gear and Supplies Store to learn more about geocaching gear and supplies.

Bobby Bidan is a geocaching enthusiast. He does geocaching during his days off which goes well with his love to travel. He has an online store that promotes and sells geocaching gear and supplies for fellow geocachers. Visit to learn more about geocaching and check out some geocaching gear and supplies for your own geocaching adventure.

Of course you can!

The Garmin Nuvi 350 is perfect for geocaching in soooooo many ways:

It is very accurate. And that's the name of the geocaching game. You want to be able to find your target, be it wedged in a tree, tucked behind a hedge, or swinging from a shop sign.

It is extremely sensitive. The Garmin 350 will retain its satellite lock and continue showing you the way even if you go under trees, even if you have to stow it in your bag.

It is small – fits nicely in the hand. It is lightweight. So it's very comfortable to carry with you as you zero in on your geocache.

The screen is a good size, the display is very clear. It is very easy to read.

The Garmin 350 displays easy-to-understand information with detailed 2D and 3D maps and up to 500 way points.

If you already have one, there's no learning curve – you already know how to use it. If you don't have one, the learning curve is extremely shallow. This GPS is very easy to figure out.

The Garmin 350 is primarily designed as a driving gps – to help you drive to where you're going. And it is stellar at doing that. So, if you need to drive for part of your route, the Garmin 350 has that covered. Once on foot, you switch to 'Pedestrian' mode and again, this 350 GPS does a fabulous job.

So for geocaching, the Garmin Nuvi 350 GPS is very capable. It does the finding very well indeed.

However, 3 things make it less than ideal for geocaching:

1 - It's not waterproof. You're very likely to get wet while out on your hunts. Unless of course you live and hunt in the dessert. Plastic bags and boxes can give some protection, but really you want the gps to be waterproof to be sure you don't kill it.

2 - Battery life. While driving with Garmin 350, there is no power problem because you plug it into the car lighter and use car juice. When you stop, however, you then have about 5 hours or so before you need to recharge. And of course you don't want your gps dying on you.

This wouldn't be a problem – maybe just a minor inconvenience – if you could simply take some spare batteries with you. But you can't. Not with the 350.

As you can see, this severely limits how far you can go from the car. The battery life could also take away some of the most attractive things about geocaching – such as being able to explore new places further. Such as, having discovered somewhere amazing, being able to decide right there on the spot to stop and enjoy it. With the 350 you're on the clock.

3 - Robustness. I don't know how robust the Garmin350 is. The thing is, the more geocaching you do, the more the GPS will get knocked about. I don't know how it will fare. I just don't get the impression it will do well.

Conclusion

Your Garmin Nuvi 350 can find geocaches. No question about that.

I would not recommend you use it for geocaching in the long term. If you are starting out and want to do a couple of mostly urban, in-town geocache hunts to see if you like it, then do go ahead. Think about protecting the GPS, though.

For regular, more intrepid off-road geocaching, it's a much better economy to simply buy another GPS that is waterproof, robust, and either has long battery life or batteries that can be changed.

Here are some top quality, high value GPS that fulfil all these geocaching requirements =>

And here are a few basic items you can use to protect your Garmin 350 when using it for geocaching =>

Bob Jernigan, owner of the B&B Professional plumbing based in Clearwater, Florida has purchased and installed GPS Fleet Tracking System in ten (10) of his trucks. His initial purpose was simply to help his drivers and service technicians to route more efficiently. However, he got more than what he expected. He was able to track problematic drivers, contractors, and trucks. The GPS Fleet Tracking System has also provided him more customers and much savings in terms fuel consumption due to effective routing.

The company is receiving $3 million in annual revenues but Jernigan paid around $4,000 for the hardware and a monthly maintenance fee of $15 per vehicle. The GPS Fleet Tracking System purchased allowed the company to track the vehicle location, speed, and fuel consumption among others.

B&B Professional plumbing's GPS Fleet Tracking System has a sophisticated interface with onboard vehicle computers that are factory-installed. The interface itself provides diagnostic data ranging from hydrocarbon counts to cylinder misfires.

The GPS Fleet Tracking System took only a few hours to set up and so far, the company has been reaping its benefits. The company has been able to lessen response time by ten percent (10%) and it has also increased the number of customers that the van can service in a day, from four customers to six.

There was once instance that the GPS Fleet Tracking System sent Jernigan an email informing him that one of his trucks had a clogged fuel injector. With this knowledge, Jernigan immediately sent the truck for repair. He also measures the mileage information against the fuel consumption making sure that his service drivers are on the road and not just sitting in their vehicles. And since the GPS Fleet Tracking System has successfully routed drivers more efficiently, the company has saved around $1,300 a month in terms of fuel costs. Hence, with these savings, Jernigan has already recovered his GPS Fleet Tracking System investment in just less than four months.

The GPS Fleet Tracking System also has its other benefits. Jernigan once received a call from an angry individual who had seen one of his trucks peeling out from a bar's parking lot and speeding at around 80 miles per hour on a Sunday. Jernigan did not have any difficulty in identifying the driver since he was able to pull up the information from his GPS Fleet Tracking System taking note of the time and day of the occurrence. The employee was immediately fired for driving the company's vehicle while not in duty.

However, GPS Fleet Tracking System has also raised some concerns among drivers in a fleet. Some of them feel that it is an invasion of privacy. Hence, there are companies like United Parcel Service (UPS) that sets expectations to their employees that the GPS equipment is only used for tracking packages and not for employee evaluations.

Although it might seem that the benefits gained are only for the company, Jernigan also emphasizes that their system has helped in protecting their employees as well. There was one event that a client accused the company for not showing up for a plumbing installation at a construction site. However, the GPS fleet tracking system data proved that the crew really went there on time and even waited for an hour but the general contractor never showed up. The company then billed the client around $400 in wages and fuel consumption. With this, the company's employees have avoided getting caught in between Jernigan and their client.

John Mahoney is a freelance author who writes about various technology related subjects including Fleet Tracking. For more information about John visit his website: .

When Amelia Earhart made her attempt to fly 29,000 miles around the world, available technology only allowed her to complete about 22,000 of the miles. Had GPS (Global Positioning System) been available to her, it is likely she would have been able to find and land on Howland Island in the mid-Pacific Ocean in July of 1937.

GPS technology is available for widespread use by hikers, drivers, boaters, or flyers, and smart pilots know to take advantage of it. GPS is even being included in the latest versions of wireless phones.

GPS was developed by the US Department of Defense in the 1970's; at that time it was known as NAVSTAR GPS. The primary purpose was for military use. In 1983, a Soviet plane shot down a Korean Air Lines flight that had entered Soviet airspace. As a result, 269 passengers on board the flight were killed. President Ronald Reagan reacted by issuing a directive making the Global Positioning System available, upon completion, for worldwide civilian use at no charge to the user.

Three components make up the Global Positioning System: a series of 24 or more satellites that orbit the earth sending precise microwave signals, control and monitoring stations on the surface, and receivers. Longitude, latitude, and altitude are the three-dimensional location factors given to the receiver, plus time, when the signal is received. This signal makes available a reliable positioning navigation path and timing services for use by civilian operators.

GPS is utilized by both the military and civilian sectors. Because GPS guidance components can be used for military purposes, civilian exports of GPS receivers are controlled by the U.S. government.

GPS relies on three basic components to work: absolute location, relative movement, and time transfer. Navigation is done through the absolute location component. Traditional GPS has three dimensions, but a fourth dimension, time, is becoming an increasingly critical element to many industries. Each and every satellite carries more than one atomic clock which adds accurate time data to GPS signals. It is possible to accurately measure time within 100 billionths of a second. This precise calibration of time is used for communications systems, power grids, and financial networks. To enable complex multi-camera sequencing and to manage audio and video data, Hollywood movie studios make use of the time component of GPS.

GPS has greatly improved the operation of aircrafts. GPS can provide continuous and accurate positioning information in real time throughout a flight. It allows all aircraft to plot routes that are safe, flexible, and make best use of fuel. GPS allows for a reduction in the separation minimum between aircraft and has thereby reduced aircraft delays and increased the efficiency of air traffic management.

The cost of the GPS receiver is far outweighed by the advantages of having it onboard, so no pilot should ever fly without access to GPS. While you can get a good GPS deal from ebay, it isn't worth the risk of receiving a defective product, especially if the problems are not discovered until you are in flight. If you are shopping for a receiver, please ensure that you purchase this from a reputable company that has extensive knowledge of aircraft and the aviation industry.

James Bunter is almost constantly in the air, using his aviation GPS everyday as a way of life. He gets his aircraft avionics at TGH Aviation Supply, knowing that he will receive excellent products and good advice from their avionics experts. From altimeters to garmin aviation gps, James always shops at TGH Aviation.

While the two smartphones in question do not look that different from anything currently on the market, the name is certainly a new one. Velocity are a UK based company who have teamed up with Inventec, a company based in Taiwan who manufacturer for HP and Toshiba among others.

Velocity are about to release the Velocity 103 and the 111, both are high end smartphones packed with features to suit even the most discerning customer.

The Velocity 103 appears to be going up against the recently announced HTC Touch Diamond, and obviously the Apple iPhone – as all smartphones seem to get compared to this! The Velocity 103 is a touchscreen mobile phone with a good sized 2.8 inch screen, it will support 3G, HSDPA, Wi-Fi and has A-GPS – so getting about should not be a problem and browsing the internet or downloading will be nice and speedy. It also has a 2 megapixel camera, secondary VGA camera for video calling and the memory can be expanded by microSD card.

The Velocity 111 has similar features to the 103 but is aimed towards those who prefer a BlackBerry styled device – with a full qwerty keypad rather than a fully touch enabled screen. The Velocity 111 runs on the Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional operating system, again we have 3G, HSDPA, Wi-Fi and A-GPS, plus the 2 megapixel main camera, VGA secondary camera, Bluetooth and a microSD card slot.

The Velocity 103 is already available to pre-order, while the Velocity 111 is expected in the coming few months. Neither mobile phone will be a 'cheap' option – but for those who are needing a smartphone that covers all options the Velocity duo should be a great option.

This and many other articles on mobile phones and the latest mobile phone deals was written by John Gray.

John Gray's writing can often be found at

On occasion we all need to know the time and we have a multitude of different devices to tell us it; from our mobile phones and wrist watches to the office wall clock or the chimes on the radio news.

But how accurate are all these clocks and does it matter if they are all telling different times? For our day-to-day business it probably doesn't matter too much if the office wall clock is faster than your wrist-watch your boss probably won't fire you for being a minute late. But in some environments accuracy and synchronisation are vital where a minute can make all the difference in something being sold or not or even something being stolen!

Time synchronisation in modern computer networks is essential. It not only provides the only frame of reference between all devices, it is critical in everything from securing, planning and debugging a network to providing a time stamp for applications such as data acquisition or email.

Most PC's and network devices internal clocks, called Real Time Clock chips (RTC) providing time and date information. The chips are battery backed so that even during power outages, they can maintain time. However, personal computers are not designed to be perfect clocks, their design has been optimized for mass production and low-cost rather than maintaining accurate time.

Therefore these internal clocks are prone to drift and although for many application this is can be quite adequate, often machines that work together on a network will become out of sync with each other and problems can arise particularly with time sensitive transactions. Can you imagine buying an airline seat only to be told at the airport that the ticket was sold twice because it was purchased afterwards on a computer that had a slower clock?

NTP time servers (Network Time Protocol) use a single time reference to synchronise all machines on the network to that time. This time reference can be either relative (a computer's internal clock or the time on a wrist-watch perhaps) or absolute such as an atomic clock that relays UTC time (Universal Coordinated Time) and is as accurate as is humanely possible.

Atomic clocks are the most absolute time-keeping devices accurate to a second every 1.4 million years. However, atomic clocks are extremely expensive and are generally only to be found in large-scale physics laboratories. However, NTP can synchronise networks to UTC time via an atomic clock by using either the Global Positioning system (GPS) network or specialist radio transmissions (MTF in the UK).

While some organisations have to synchronise their networks to UTC such as airlines and the stock exchange, a network can be synchronised to any time and still function, but there really is no substitute for UTC time. Not only is it more efficient to have network synchronised with the rest of the world, a UTC time source is vital in providing security against fraud, data loss and legal exposure and without it, organizations can be vulnerable and lose credibility.

NTP (version 4) can maintain time over the public Internet to within 10 milliseconds (1/100th of a second) and can perform even better over LANs with accuracies of 200 microseconds (1/5000th of a second) under ideal conditions.

Note: it is strongly recommended by Microsoft and others, that external based timing should be used rather than Internet based, as these can't be authenticated. Specialist NTP servers are available that can synchronise time on networks using either the MSF (or equivalent) or GPS time server signal.

NTP (Network Time Protocol) synchronises networks to a single time source using timestamps to represent the current time of the day, this is essential for time sensitive transactions and many system applications such as email.

NTP is therefore vulnerable to security threats, whether from a malicious hacker who wants to alter the timestamp to commit fraud or a DDoS attack (Distributed Denial of Service - normally caused by malicious malware that floods a server with traffic) that blocks server access.

However, being one of the Internet's oldest protocols and having been developed for over 25 years, NTP is equipped with its own security measures in the form of authentication.

Authentication verifies that each timestamp has come from the intended time reference by analysing a set of agreed encryption keys that are sent along with the time information. NTP, using Message Digest encryption (MD5) to un-encrypt the key, analyses it and confirms whether it has come from the trusted time source by verifying it against a set of trusted keys.

Trusted authentication keys are listed in the NTP server configuration file (ntp.conf) and are normally stored in the ntp.keys file. The key file is normally very large but trusted keys tell the NTP server which set of subset of keys is currently active and which are not. Different subsets can be activated without editing the ntp.keys file using the trusted-keys config command.

Authentication is therefore highly important in protecting a NTP server from malicious attack; however there are many time references were authentication can't be trusted.

Microsoft, who has installed a version of NTP in their operating systems since Windows 2000, strongly recommends that a hardware source is used as a timing reference as Internet sources can't be authenticated.

NTP is vital in keeping networks synchronised but equally important is keeping systems secure. Whilst network administrators spend thousands in anti-viral/malware software many fail to spot the vulnerability in their time servers.

Many network administrators still entrust Internet sources for their time reference. Whilst many do provide a good source for UTC time (Coordinated Universal Time - the international standard of time), such as nist.gov, the lack of authentication means the network is open to abuse.

Other sources of UTC time are more secure and can be utilized with relatively low cost equipment. The easiest method is to use a specialist NTP GPS time server that can connect to a GPS antenna and receive an authenticated timestamp by satellite.

GPS time servers can provide accuracy to UTC time to within a few nanoseconds as long as the antenna has a good view of the sky. They are relatively cheap and the signal is authenticated providing a secure time reference.

Alternatively there are several national broadcasts that transmit a time reference. In the UK this is broadcast by the National Physics Laboratory (NPL) in Cumbria. Similar systems operate in Germany, France and the US. Whilst this signal is authenticated, these radio transmissions are vulnerable to interference and have a finite range.

Authentication for NTP has been developed to prevent malicious tampering with system synchronisation just as firewalls have been developed to protect networks from attack but as with any system of security it only works if it is utilised.

We are all aware of the passing of time; it governs us throughout our lives constantly ebbing away, dictating when we should eat, sleep, wake or work.

Yet, the concept of time has baffled philosophers and scientists for millennia and we are still unsure of exactly what time is; although the work of Einstein and others has led us some way in its understanding.

However, exactly what time is does not really matter in the running of our day-to-day lives, but measuring its passing has preoccupied people for thousands of years. Calendars have been around for millennia, agricultural, religious and social reasons have made them essential in forecasting when to harvest crops or when to celebrate a religious event.

The majority of all calendar systems have been based on the movement of the Earth or Moon. A complete rotation is a day; the Moon's orbit of the Earth is a month; and an orbit of the Sun is a year.

Calendars based on the movement of Moon are known as lunar calendars whilst those based around Earth's orbit of the Sun are called solar calendars. Because the number of days in a year is not a whole number (the Earth takes 365 days and six hours to orbit the Sun) solar calendars have to fudge the figures, usually by adding an extra day every few years (a leap day) making a leap year a day longer than the rest of the years.

Problems arise with lunar calendars too. While the Moon takes 28 days to circle the Earth, which can be divided into seven (four weeks) a year can't be divided into equal lunar cycles, so months have to have a different number of days (the moon actually goes around the Sun 13 times in 364 days).

The baseline for calendars (the date they start counting) depends on cultural or religious reasons. The Gregorian calendar, adopted in Europe throughout the middle ages, used the birth of Christ; whilst a year in Japan is based on the current emperor's reign (2008 is year 18 of the Emperor Akihito).

The main use of calendars has always been to identify events and in modern times they are often combined and used along with time to create a complete timescale. A calendar based on the movement of the Earth or Moon are less relevant today since the advent of accurate timepieces and modern technologies such atomic clocks, NTP servers (Network Time protocol) and GPS (Global Positioning System). These have allowed the development of a global standardised time scale (known as UTC - Coordinated Universal Time).

However, thanks to these technologies, we now know that the movement of the Earth is not as accurate as our modern clocks (an atomic clock is 1,000,000 times more stable than the Earth's rotation). The Earth actually slows down (and sometimes accelerates) in its orbit. If nothing was done to compensate for this, eventually noon would become midnight and vice versa (albeit in many millennia) so leap seconds are added to the standard time scale just as days are added in a leap year.

In modern times calendars are still used. The Gregorian calendar is widespread throughout the West and other calendars have been developed such as fiscal calendar, developed by business as a way of comparing productivity or profit from month to month and year to year. For this reason fiscal calendars have a fixed number of weeks in a month, January may have five weeks while March may have four. Other calendars exist too such as those used by schools or sports.

Time servers are like other computer servers in the sense they are usually located on a network. A time server gathers timing information, usually from an external hardware source and then synchronises the network to that time.

Often time servers are synchronised to a UTC (Coordinated Universal time) source which is the global standard time scale and allows computers all over the world to synchronised to exactly the same time. This has obvious importance in industries where exact timing is crucial such as the stock exchange or airline industry.

There are various sources that a time server can use as a timing reference. The Internet is an obvious source, however, internet timing references from the Internet such as nist.gov and windows.time can not be authenticated, leaving the time server and therefore the network vulnerable to security threats.

There are authenticated alternatives to the Internet, the most common being to use the GPS network. As the Global Positioning System is reliant on knowing exactly what time it is to ensure reliable location information, this information can be utilised by a time server.

A simple GPS antenna connected to the time server will allow the GPS timing reference to be regularly checked by the time server. A GPS time server will be accurate to within a few hundred nanoseconds (a nanosecond = a billionth of a second).

There are also a number of national radio broadcasts such as the WWVB signal from Colorado in the US, the MSF signal from Cumbria in the UK and the DCF-77 signal from Frankfurt in Germany.

These radio signals are limited in their range though and even in major cities such as London it can be difficult to receive a decent enough signal.

Most timing servers use NTP (Network Time protocol) there are other protocols available but NTP is predominately used and is thought of as the standard for timing protocols. NTp has been around for over 25 years and is currently on version 4 but is always being updated which is probably why it is by fat the most common timing protocol.

NTP time servers work within the TCP/IP suite and rely on UDP (User Datagram Protocol). A less complex form of NTP - Simple Network Time Protocol (SNTP) is used in some devices and applications where high accuracy timing is not as important and is also included as standard in Windows software (although more recent versions of Microsoft Windows have the full NTP installed and the source code is free and readily available on the Internet from ntp.org).

A new mobile phone by the very popular manufacturer Sony Ericsson has found its way onto the internet before Sony Ericsson themselves have had a chance to officially announce it. The Sony Ericsson G702, which has also been codenamed the Beibei has been given the go ahead by the FCC (Federal Communications Commission).

The Sony Ericsson G702 is a standard candy bar style mobile phone with a nice large screen, that will have touchscreen capabilities, but still retains the usual mobile phone keypad. From the few photos that are around it looks like quite a female oriented mobile as it is pictured in a white and red colour scheme and has a small scroll pattern design running through the casing.

The G702 also has a roller bar where the usual directional pad would be, used for navigating around different menus. It will also come with a 3.2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, 3G and Wi-Fi connections making it a decent all round mobile phone for Sony Ericsson fans.

The Sony Ericsson G702 will also have a USB slot and a memory card slot for M2 cards. And for the drivers or travellers among you there will be the added bonus of GPS navigation – so long distance or new journeys should not be a problem if the Sony Ericsson G702 is your new mobile phone.

As this has not yet been officially announced by the mobile phone manufacturer there is no other know details about it, so no pricing details or release date. The price and release date should be announced by Sony Ericsson over the coming weeks.

This and many other articles on mobile phones and the latest mobile phone deals was written by John Gray.

John Gray's writing can often be found at

The HPiPAQ is a combination pocket personal computer and personal digital assistant and was first offered by Compaq in April of 2000. The name came from Compaq's earlier iPAQ desktop personal computers. Hewlett-Packard acquired Compaq and since that time, the product has been marketed by that company. Its main competition is the Palm; however, it offers more multimedia capabilities. It uses a Microsoft Windows interface, but some Linux programs will operate on the iPAQ. Modular units in the form of sleeves added such things as a card reader, wireless networking, GPS, and batteries. Currently, those features are in the base unit. HP's first SmartPhone iPaq looked like a cell phone and had VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) capability.

Digital Equipment Corporation had developed the iPAQ and called it Itsy, which name was used by Compaq for their handhelds. When HP acquired Compaq, it discontinued its own line of Microsoft-Windows-powered handhelds and shifted to marketing the iPAQs. The h3xxx line of iPAQs was discontinued by HP and replaced by the h1xxx line, which was designed to appeal to buyers who didn't want to spend as much. It also added the h2xxx line for consumers and the h5xxx line for business customers. Windows Mobile was pre-installed in the Pocket PC 2003.

The h63xx series, which runs the phone edition of Windows Mobile 2003 and the hx47xx series and the rz17xx series, both of which run the second edition of Windows Mobile 2003, came out in 2004. The iPAQ Mobile Messenger hw6500 series was announced to media at the 3GSM conference in Cannes, France, in February of 2005.

The iPAQ rx4000 Mobile Media Companion, a PDA/media tool, and rx5000 Travel Companion intended to function as PDA/GPS units came out in February of 2007, both working on Windows Mobile 5 OS. A month later, HP came out with their first Windows Mobile 6 device, the iPAQ 500 Series Voice Messenger (Windows Mobile 6 Standard OS). It also had a numeric pad. The only iPAQs being sold today that run the Windows Mobile 5 OS are the hx2000 series, the rx5900 series and the hw6900 series.

Since the introduction of the new devices in February of 2007, the entire iPAQ line has been revamped. A dizzying five new series have emerged to go with the iPAQ 500 Series Voice Messenger. New models:

* 100 Series Classic Handheld

* 200 Series Enterprise Handheld

* 300 Series Travel Companion

* 600 Series Business Navigator

* 900 Series Business Messenger

The 100 and 200 Series are touchscreen PDAs and do not have phone capability. They run on the Windows Mobile 6 Classic OS. The 300 Series Travel Companion is not a PDA. Called a Personal Navigation Device, it is a GPS unit and operates on the Windows CE 5.0 core OS and has an HP custom user-interface. The 600 and 900 are phones with GPS and 3G capabilities. They run the Windows Mobile 6 Professional OS. The 600 series has a numeric pad; the 900 has a QWERTY keyboard.

About the Author:

David Wood writes articles on HPiPAQ. For more information about iPAQ 114, HP 114 and PDA Cradle visit his site at totalpda

We have all heard of a leap year - that extra day added to the calendar every four years. It may give us a longer February but it is also essential in keeping our calendars and seasons accurate. If the extra day is not added to a leap year then eventually (admittedly after over a century) the Winter will begin in July and the summer will start around Christmas (and vice - versa in the southern hemisphere) because the Earth takes an extra six hours longer than the 365 days of a year to circle the sun.

A leap year may be a bit of a fudge but the alternative would be to have a quarter day at the end of the year which would of course throw our days and nights out of sync with each other (and could you imagine just having a six hour day - some of us struggle to get things done in 24!).

We have of course always measured time in relation to the movement of the Earth - a day being an entire revolution, a year an orbit of the sun. However, as our way of measuring time became more and more accurate it soon became apparent that there were more irregularities in the Earth's rotation than just the extra six hours in a year.

GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) was developed because there was a need for a time scale where the mean position of the sun at noon, averaged throughout the year, is above the Greenwich Meridian (zero longitude) and daylight saving hours are added or taken away depending on the time of year.

However, in 1955 the first atomic clock went into operation following the discovery of the stability of the caesium-133 atom which vibrated at an exact rate (9,192,631,770 a second). Impressed with this accuracy, The International System of Units of Measurement (SI) decided that a second should be defined as this number of oscillations of the caesium-133 atom.

Following the SI second a time scale called International Atomic Time (TAI - from the French Temp Atomique International) which was a simple count, in seconds, for the 24 hours of our day. Conversely as TAI is not related to the movement of the Earth, it was soon discovered that TAI and atomic clocks were far more stable and reliable than the Earth itself (in fact an atomic clock is 1,000,000 times more accurate than the Earths rotation).

Generally the Earth is continually slowing in its rotation (although, inexplicably, every now-and-then it seems to speed up) so TAI is of little use for those that wish their clocks to be in step with the Earth (astronomers being by far the most vocal of these).

So another time scale was developed called Coordinated Universal Time (UTC - again from the French - Temp Universel Coordonne). This was based on atomic time (TAI) but small adjustment are made to keep it in step with GMT (which incidentally is now commonly referred to as UT1 or depending on time zone UT+1 UT+2 UT+3 etc)

UTC is adjusted by the insertion of extra seconds, called leap seconds, as necessary to keep it within a second of GMT (or UT1). It is possible a second may have to be removed in the future but that hasn't happened as yet. UTC is essential in modern industry and technology where computers are synchronised to UTC time, usually through a NTP server (Network Time Protocol) - to allow international time sensitive transactions.

A leap second is normally inserted at the end of December in the last hour (although occasionally it has been done in June, March and September). The decision as to whether a leap second is required is taken by the Earth Orientation Centre of the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS), who monitor the Earth's rotation and suggest the adjustment about six months in advance. When a leap second is added there becomes 61 seconds in that final minute of the year. The familiar 'six pips' radio signal gains an extra pip and even London's famous Big Ben is held back a second before it bongs (but not an extra bong as they are meant to represent the hours)

There have been 33 leap seconds added to UTC since 1972 (although the first ten were added retrospectively) but as the Earth's rotation is continuing to slow it is estimated that over the next millennia or two leap seconds will have to be added each month.

Have you ever gone to bed one night and wondered just where the day went? Well could you imagine waking up to discover that eleven days had vanished completely? That is just what happened in 1752 when the entire inhabitants of Britain and America went to bed on Wednesday 2 September, only to awake on Thursday 14 September.

However, it wasn't an epidemic of sleepy sickness or even a mass dose of laziness that kept the entire populace in bed but merely the authorities attempting to synchronise with the rest of the world by adopting the Gregorian calendar.

The Julian calendar (named after Julius Caesar) had been in use since biblical times but was finally phased out throughout Europe in the 1582 but it took the resolute Brits and Americans another two hundred years to follow suit.

And if the painter Hogarth is to be believed the populace didn't take too kindly to it either, with people taking to the street demanding the return of their missing 11 days and even reports of rioting.

Then why change? That was what the British authorities had been saying for two hundred years ever since Pope Gregory XIII had replaced the Julian calendar in Europe two hundred years before.

However, the reason for the original change was that the Julian calendar didn't allow for enough leap years (they were omitted in years divisible by 100 but not divisible by 400 - what were the Romans thinking?) and the seasons were slowly becoming out of sync with the calendar. The situation was now becoming even more intolerable in Britain, playing havoc for farmers - who had no idea when to plant their crops, finally the authorities were to switch over and fast forward the whole country 11 days.

However this synchronisation problem has always been with us. We have traditionally tried to base our calendars around the movement of the Earth to allow us to predict seasons and know when the summer and winter will fall. However, we may have sorted out the leap years (caused by the fact the Earth takes 365 and a quarter days to travel around the Sun) but trying to base a calendar around the movement of the Earth will always lead to problems.

The Gregorian calendar worked fine until the 1950's when the atomic clock was developed. The atomic clock worked so well - providing timing information accurate to a second in several millions of years - that we soon realised that our clocks were now far more accurate than the Earth itself.

The Earth is actually slowing down in rotation and if nothing was done then eventually noon would fall at night and vice-versa (albeit not for several millennia) but don't worry you are not about to wake up in the middle of next week. The solution is the adding of leap seconds and 33 have been slotted into the end of our years since the 1970's.

The decision to insert a second is usually taken six months before after careful monitoring of the Earth's rotation. A calendar based on the movement of the Earth may seem less relevant today but with a Global Positioning System (GPS), a global time-scale (Coordinated Universal Time), and computers all synced together around the world using NTP servers (Network Time Protocol) it is imperative we can all tell the right time.

Mobile phone manufacturer Philips have generally stayed away from the high end of the mobile market, they have however recently announced two mobiles that fit into this particular section!

The Philips X800 and the Philips Xenium X-Connect have been officially announced by Philips this month. Firstly the Philips X800, this is a fully touchscreen mobile which also has handwriting recognition. It has a nice big 2.9 inch screen with a resolution of 240 x 400 pixels.

The X800 also has a 2 megapixel camera, it would obviously have been nice to see something better here – but it appears that Philips are taking a leaf out of Apple's book. There is also a microSD card slot, Bluetooth and an office documents reader. There is also a quite impressive battery life of 850 hours standby time and up to 8 hours talk time.

Next the Philips Xenium X-Connect which is a similar looking large screen device, at 3 inches the screen is slightly bigger than the X800. The main difference between the X800 and the X-Connect is the fact that the X-Connect will run off Windows Mobile 6. The X-Connect will also have GPRS/UMTS/HSDPA, and integrated GPS-receiver.

As usual you will get Bluetooth, USB and a microSD card slot. Sadly for such a great looking phone with a nice big screen it is missing a Wi-Fi connection which would have made for better browsing.

Sadly there is no word as yet on the price of the Philips X800 or the Philips Xenium X-Connect, nor any speculation on a release date for either.

This and many other articles on mobile phones and the latest mobile phone deals was written by John Gray.

John Gray's writing can often be found at

With the cost of gasoline is going through the roof, there's an ever increasing problem in fuel nowadays. Probably, you are one of those people who are searching for alternative ways to save gas. We have some ways for you to save lots of gas this summer.

Don't drive (at least a real car)

The best way to save gas is to not use your car. For the price of a couple of tanks of gas you could buy one of the latest high definition super-realistic driving simulation games. For a few tanks more you could buy a PlayStation 3 and for what you'd pay for a trip to Disneyworld you could buy a new HDTV set and feel like you're driving a real car in the safety and comfort of your home. Some of the newer games running on game consoles like the PlayStation 3 are starting to offer Full HD or 1080P resolution. That's more resolution than the 720P or 1080i you get over the air or cable.

The latest version of Gran Tourismo, Gran Tourismo 5 Prologue supports 1080P (in certain modes). GT5 uses state-of-the-art computer graphics and lets you race against 16 online races in over 70 cars on several different tracks. The 7.1 channel sound lends an added touch of realism.

Throw in the newest "Official" Driving Force GT steering wheel from Logitech, which goes on sale June 12th for around $150, and you'll feel like you're Danica Patrick Or Mario Andretti.

While you're at it why not add a Sparco cockpit seat for another $500 and get the total race car experience.

Drive Golf Balls Instead

You can save even more money on expensive golf club fees with this fun golf simulator from Electric Spin. For a little over $200 you can buy the Golf Launchpad II that includes a ball on a swing arm that you hit like a regular golf ball. When you hit the ball a simulated shot shows up on a variety of golf courses. It works with a PC, Mac or PlayStation.

Buy a 1080P HDTV Set and Stay Home

Of course, for the best effect, you'll want to hook up your simulator to a big screen, high definition, flat panel TV. Some TVs that come up high on Retrevo's Value Map include DLP Rear Projection TVs, a Plasma TV and an LCD TV. For a complete picture of the best values check out the HDTV Product Advisor. With less expensive (maybe) Blu-ray players on the horizon and game consoles driving 1080P on HDMI outputs, Retrevo recommends you future-proof your HDTV set purchase with a set that supports 1080P.

Get a GPS with Traffic Info and Gas Prices

Many new GPS devices are coming with real-time traffic info and gas prices. MSN Direct is a service from Microsoft that runs on many GPS devices that in addition to traffic info and gas prices, provides all kinds of interesting information like movie schedules at local theaters, sports scores, weather reports, and more. Microsoft obtains up-to-date gas prices from another company that tracks credit card transactions among other things to bring the user the latest gas prices in many areas around the country. MSN Direct is available on many GPS devices from Garmin like the nuvi 880, nuvi 780 and nuvi 680. Dash is a new GPS that recently launched a service that uses data from individuals' GPS devices to determine traffic conditions.

Have a Video Conference Instead of Traveling

Get two web cams, give one to your in-laws and put the other one on your computer. Retrevo still thinks getting a high quality web cam like Logitech's Quickcam Pro 9000 or Apple's iSight camera makes the experience much more enjoyable with higher resolution images, faster frame rates and better audio with echo suppression. Features you just don't get with less expensive web cams.

Take a Virtual Vacation with a Blu-ray Player and Some Blu-ray Travel DVDs

If you own a "Full HD," (1080P) HDTV set and don't have a Blu-ray (or HD DVD ) player, there's a good chance you haven't seen your TV at its highest resolution since no programming coming in over the air, via satellite or cable is 1080P. Unfortunately, the question still remains; is it a good time to buy a Blu-ray player or wait a few months for Profile 2.0 to appear in more products? Check out this reports for arguments to buy a Blu-ray player now or this report for arguments to wait. On the other hand, you could always buy a PS3 for a little over $300 and get a great quality game console and Blu-ray player.

Get a Good MP3 Player and Take a Walk or Ride Your Bike

It's hard not to recommend an Apple iPod like the 160 GB iPod Classic for around $350 or even one of the multicolored, tiny shuffles for $50 but there are good alternatives out there. The second generation Zune from Microsoft costs around $240, holds 80 GB and has a built in FM receiver, WiFi and with the new 2.5 update you can purchase and watch TV shows on it. Sandisk's Sansa e280 gets good reviews has 8 GB of storage and costs around $140.

Stay Home and Read a Book

Our last recommendation is simple. Kindles are back in stock at If you can put up with a few minor user interface annoyances then buy a Kindle, download a few mysteries and escape into the world where $5 a gallon gas is pure fiction.

Some Ways to Save Gas This Summer

HDTV Product Advisor

Smartphone manufacturer BlackBerry have this week announced a new addition to their collection of smartphone mobiles, this time it is the turn of the long awaited Blackberry Bold which is also known as the Blackberry 9000.

The BlackBerry Bold has a large TFT display with the same half VGA resolution as the Apple iPhone's - 480 x 320 pixels, as well as a full qwerty keyboard for those who use email a lot and the latest Blackberry Operating System 4.6.

The BlackBerry Bold has a 624 MHz processor and 1GB of internal storage. It also has a microSD memory card slot which can currently take 8 GB microSDHC cards, but once 16 GB cards become available it will also be able to handle these – so running out of memory really shouldn't be a problem with the BlackBerry Bold!

As well as the usual email client, document viewer and document editor the BlackBerry Bold has a media player (which plays MP3, WMA and DivX amongst others) – so that you can use up some of that massive memory capacity with your favourite music and videos (being a business person does not mean you are averse to popular music or amusing videos!) The BlackBerry Bold also has a 2 megapixel camera with a built in flash and has in-built GPS and comes with BlackBerry Maps pre-loaded.

So you really are getting an all round smartphone device here, it has a little bit of everything to suit even the fussiest of smartphone user. The BlackBerry Bold is due out in mid-summer, although there is no word on pricing as yet expect it to come at a cost!

This and many other articles on mobile phones and the latest mobile phone deals was written by John Gray.

John Gray's writing can often be found at

GPS systems have continued to advance in recent years and it is now possible to get a GPS device for your motorcycle. Your journeys will can now become adventures with a motorcycle GPS. No longer will you have to ask for directions or get lost, and you will be able to explore the outside world easily, wether it is on the road or off.

While there are plenty of GPS devices for cars, there are only two that are purpose built for motorcycles – the Garmin Zumo 550 and the TomTom Rider.

Both these devices feature voice guided turn-by-turn directions, loaded maps and hands free phone calls with a Bluetooth enable cell phone. A glove friendly touchscreen and sunlight readable screen are standard. The loaded maps display points of interest (POIs), which are destinations such as ATMs, petrol stations, restaurants and motels.

With these devices you can simply ask the GPS for your destination and you will be directed there by turn-by-turn voice directions through a headset in your helmet. They are also vibration resistant and robust, meaning that they designed to be protected from the vibrations from your bike.

You may also wish to explore a portable GPS device for your motorcycle. Unlike the Zumo 550 and TomTom Rider, these devices are not specifically designed for motorcycle use and you can take them with your on other outdoor activities, such as boating, camping or hiking. These devices will fit to your bike with special mounts that are available for purchase.

Regardless of which motorcycle GPS option you choose, a GPS will open up your travelling choices when you are in the saddle. They will give you a stunningly effective method of navigating and exploring the open road.

If you are looking to purchase a motorcycle GPS device, then you should explore the many online GPS store. With just a little bit of time you should be able to find yourself a GPS for you bike at a cheap price.

Motorcycle GPS devices are for sale in Derrick Bogaster's webstore. Buy motorcycle GPS devices like the TomTom Rider and Garmin Zumo 550 at cheap online prices.

Wireless Technology:

About Wireless Connection:

Wireless network refers to any type of computer network that is wireless, and is commonly associated with a telecommunications network whose interconnections between nodes is implemented without the use of wires, such as a computer network.

Wireless Connectivity Types:

Wireless LAN: Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) is similar to other wireless devices and uses radio instead of wires to transmit data back and forth between computers on the same network.

" Wi-Fi: Wi-Fi is a commonly used wireless network in computer systems which enable connection to the internet or other machines that have Wi-Fi functionalities. Wi-Fi networks broadcast radio waves that can be picked up by Wi-Fi receivers that are attached to different computers or mobile phones.

" Fixed Wireless Data: Fixed wireless data is a type of wireless data network that can be used to connect two or more buildings together in order to extend or share the network bandwidth without physically wiring the buildings together.

¢ Wi-Fi Technology:

The purpose of Wi-Fi is to hide complexity by enabling wireless access to applications and data, media and streams. The main aims of Wi-Fi are:

" Enable access to information easily

" Ensure compatibility and coexistence

" Get rid of cabling and wiring

" Get rid of switches, adapters, plugs and connectors.

¢ Uses of Wi-Fi:

A Wi-Fi enabled device such as a PC, game console, cell phone, MP3 player or PDA can connect to the Internet when within range of a wireless network connected to the Internet. The coverage of one or more interconnected access points called a hotspot can comprise an area as small as a single room with wireless-opaque walls or as large as many square miles covered by overlapping access points. Wi-Fi technology has served to set up mesh networks.

Wi-Fi also allows connectivity in peer-to-peer (wireless ad-hoc network) mode, which enables devices to connect directly with each other. This connectivity mode can prove useful in consumer electronics and gaming applications.

Many consumer devices use Wi-Fi. Amongst others, personal computers can network to each other and connect to the Internet, mobile computers can connect to the Internet from any Wi-Fi hotspot, and digital cameras can transfer images wirelessly.

WiFi Phones:

A WiFi phone is a wireless telephone that looks similar to a mobile phone but places calls via a combination of voice over IP and WiFi rather than via a cellular network. Some WiFi phones use Skype or Vonage for their voice over IP service such as current Belkin and Netgear WiFi phones. Several cellular carriers have created "Dual-mode phones" to compete with WiFi Phones, which can be easily switched between using a WiFi connection when one is available and a traditional cellular network connection when WiFi is not available.

¢ Advantage Sides:

It's fast.

Wi-Fi's latest version is many times faster than DSL or cable connections, and literally hundreds of times faster than those old dial-up connections. That's particularly handy when you're working on the run, on the road, or from home: If you've ever watched seconds tick by while watching Web pages load, you'll appreciate the potential productivity gain.

It's convenient.

As soon as a Wi-Fi-equipped device is within range of a base station, it's online. With no wires, you can move your laptop computer from place to place -- for instance, from your office to a conference room down the hall, without losing your network connection. When traveling, you can set up shop anyplace equipped with a Wi-Fi network: another company's office, a hotel room, or a convention center.

It's everywhere.

Public Wi-Fi access sites -- or "hot spots" -- are multiplying faster than rabbits on Viagra. They're in bookstores, airport lounges, fast-food restaurants (including some McDonald's and Schlotzky's Deli outlets), and coffee shops. In addition, local merchants from Cincinnati to Athens, Ga., to Portland, Ore., are footing the bill for bigger hot spots, accessible throughout a business district or neighborhood.

¢ Drawbacks:

Range:

Wi-Fi networks have limited range. A typical Wi-Fi home router using 802.11b or 802.11g with a stock antenna might have a range of 32 m (120 ft) indoors and 95 m (300 ft) outdoors. Range also varies with frequency band.

Although you lose the wires, you're still limited to the base station's range, typically 75 to 150 feet indoors and a few hundred feet outdoors, depending on equipment, radio frequency, and obstructions.

Power drain:

Networks using early versions of Wi-Fi technology tend to quickly gobble power - a disadvantage for battery-dependent laptop users.

Security:

Here's the downside of providing fast, easy access. Outsiders can sometimes get into your wireless networks as fast and easily as you can. Check with hardware vendors about the latest security precautions and products. The Wi-Fi Alliance currently recommends using Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) technology, which both authenticates users and encrypts data.

To know more about New Mobile & Wirless Products & technology Visit on Smart Devices Direct:

Regards,

Kethy Wright

The Air Force would be complete idiots to get rid of the A-10. Its triple redundancy flight control system has allowed many pilots to return to base, that would have otherwise ejected. This airframe should be updated, not disposed of. Give it a FLIR, and the appropriate GPS hardware.

The A-10A is getting some upgrades to what is referred to as the A-10C. It is highly survivable and performs well.

The USAF will be lucky to 'ever' buy another bomber that has been as versatile as the B-52. While some of its systems are dated (engines!), the airframe has life left in it. The avionics have undergone several upgrades over its life to date. It has proven itself to be a reliable bomb hauler and is now fitted with PGMs. Its long range and load make it worth keeping.

As for the B-52 there is talk of replacing the 8 engines with 4. The B-52 combat record shows how good it was and is. I don't think any aircraft has ever flown longer missions then those flown by buffs during desert storm 1. They flew from bars dale to bomb Bagdad. The only other aircraft to come close to this were British Vulcan's in the Falklands conflict.

What would the USAF replace them with? I think the idea of a dedicated ground attack aircraft is excellent. Despite the Warthog drivers who thought it was fun to buzz our camp in Iraq, they were a very comforting presence to have. There's something about having a big ugly aircraft that has a massive multi-barrel cannon that can take out a tank.

I did an article on the A-10A Warthawg. The USAF Warthawg pilots wanted a two seater N/AW A-10 version (i.e. three N/AWs for every 10 to 12 single seat A-10s). They really said they would have been useful in Iraq in 1991 and would make the perfect FAC aircraft.

The so called "C" A-10 is actually a glass cockpit model so pilots can use NVG goggles like AH-64A pilots do. The make do of using Maverick IR seeker heads is like trying to find a star using a soad straw.

Throw a couple of billion at upgrades for the BUFFs and you have a great bomber. Maybe not needed for a nuke strike, but its payload makes it a formidable strike aircraft, especially if it's carrying a load of cruise missiles (in flight programmable) in rotary launchers, as well as in wing pods. Just because it's a "bomber" doesn't mean it has to carry nukes or iron bombs.

As for the A-10, that's got to be one of the singular best designed aircraft for its purpose: to make things on the ground go away. Survivability is unbelievable. Until, and unless, Congress and the Air Force push through a procurement program similar to the one that produced the A-10, it's going to be the best bird in the world for what it does.

The Air Force tried to retire the A-10 once before when they got the F-16, but had to pull them out again. Fast jets are fine for air interdiction, but not for close air support. You need something slow that can linger overhead, identify friend from foe, and then tear them up.

Helicopters help, but there has never been a better airplane for close air support than the A-10. (Although you could get a good argument for the AC-130.) Although A-10s are budgeted out through the 2020's, I am afraid that when the Air Force gets their new air-to-ground fighter, the F-35, they will try to shunt the A-10 again.

A-10 - awesome platform, very capable and survivable. Combination of decent speed, loiter time, resistance to being shot down, and payload give it an advantage over many other CAS performing aircraft

The advantage A-10s have over AC-130s is daylight operations. AC-130s are able to operate during daylight, but because of the circular (and therefore dependably predictable) patterns they use for target acquisition/targeting and sustained engagement, they can't perform as safely during the day as they can at night. A-10s can vary their approaches and give smaller windows of opportunity to ground based aggressors because of their lower altitude (yes they gain other threats) and varied methods of destruction.

Also, the aircraft is staying here whether you like it or not. Its range, payload, and loiter time put it in the spotlight for testing for CAS work and an electronic platform.

The only B-52 variant in use today (and the only type in service since 1994) is the B-52H which is powered by 8 TF-33 low bypass turbofan engines. These are the same type of engines used on the KC-135E. Some 160 KC-135E are in service. The KC-135 'R' and 'T' use the CFMI CFM56 turbofan engines, the engine type you were referring to, is a high-bypass.

It would have to be the PW2000 series engine. At least it could share engines with the C-17.

Victor Epand is an expert consultant for CombatC carries the best selection of combat clothing, gear, and accessories on the market.

Do you want to know for certain that your GPS will guide you to different caches, under different conditions, ... and then home again? Would you like a GPS you can set and forget? A GPS you are confident will keep you and your co-hunting friends and family safe?

If so, Garmin Gmaps 60CSx is an important GPS to consider for geocaching.

Why?

Because ... look at what it does:

It is phenomenally sensitive and remains locked unto satellite signals even under tree cover, even under cloud cover.

It is super accurate. Full stop.

It has a map screen so you can easily see where you are relative to everything else.

You can read the screen clearly in bright sunlight.

It's small.

It's light.

It can take being bounced around – which it will be, of course.

It's waterproof.

You can programme in up to 20 routes.

You can save up to 1000 waypoints (reference points to keep you on track)

You can save your track unto the memory card. Keep it secure, even if you switch off.

Afterwards you can download the data and analyse your hunt – to share your glory with all and sundry, or improve your game.

It's batteries last a long time.

It's ultra easy to use.

So your Garmin Gmaps 60CSx makes it possible for you to simply load up your cache positions for the day, and head off for a day of fun and games. Easy as pie.

That's why Garmin Gmaps 60CSx could be one of the best handheld gps units for geocaching.

For a quick and extremely easy way to assess other GPS and decide for yourself which are the best handheld gps units for geocaching, just go to .

Today is treasure hunt day.

Quick check:

- Food? Check.

- Water? Check.

- Supplies? Check.

- Cache positions? Check.

So all that's left to do is grab your route, and head off.

Here's where your GPS comes in...

To make absolutely sure that every hunt is thoroughly fabulous, your GPS must be able to do the following:

1. It must find it's position quickly and easily.

When you switch on, the gps looks around, finds four or more positioning satellites and works out how far away they are. Using this information, it works out its own location.

It has a fair bit of work to do. And, as you can imagine, some GPS do this faster and better than others.

When geocaching, you want to be able to switch on your gps and see your position displayed almost immediately. You don't want to have to find a rock to perch on and a long stick with which to wave your gps about, before it finds itself.

2. It must be able to accept the coordinates of the caches you are hunting for.

So you know where to aim.

3. It must hold unto it's satellite lock, tightly.

It's no good having your gps tell you it doesn't know where you are, simply because you've walked under a tree, or a few clouds decide to make an appearance. You need to know that it will continue to guide you to the caches and back home.

4. It must give you information in a way that you find easy to understand.

You can have your position displayed on maps of varying detail, or just as a longitude/ latitude number.

5. It must guide you in ways that you find easy to follow.

Some gps just tell you the direction to take, others sketch a route, and others still can lay out your route in a 3-D, hello-holo-suite kind of way.

6. It must be accurate.

Worst case, to get you within sight (10 – 15 feet) of the cache. Best case, to place you right on top of the cache.

7. It must be rugged enough to survive knocks and falls.

You don't want your GPS breaking on your first expedition.

8. It must be waterproof.

At some point it will get wet.

(I know ... it's supposed to be '7' Elements ... but please accept number 8 as a bonus)

So which GPS find their position quickly? Accurately? Which are tough? Easy to understand? Where do you start looking? Have a quick look at where you'll find top-rated geocaching gps rated against an expanded checklist. This will make it easy for you to choose your best geocaching gps .

Mobile manufacturer Nokia have announced this week that they will be releasing an update to their Nokia Maps application. Nokia Maps is a free downloadable application to your mobile phone, and can be used on S60 and Windows mobile enabled phones, mobiles that have inbuilt GPS and those without as long as you add on an external GPS module.

Nokia Maps 2.0 offers both Walk and Drive options – meaning you can use it to navigate you from A-to-B when you are either on foot or in the car. The on foot navigation is a great additional feature which should prove to be very useful on a mobile phone, as most people tend to carry around with them every day. The Nokia Maps application also offers voice guided turn-by-turn directions, satellite images and multimedia city guides to make it a good all round navigation solution.

Nokia are now teaming up in Europe with ARC Transistence (who are in-vehicle information experts) to bring Real Time Traffic Information (RTTI) on their Nokia Maps application. This extra traffic spotting service will only be available as a premium service, so will unfortunately set you back a few pennies but should be worth it for those long distance drivers who are looking to shave time off their journeys.

Nokia has not yet made a comment on how much the extra Real Time Traffic Information service will cost or when it is due to be released, but as a pre-release version of Nokia Maps version 2.0 is already available to download, it should not be too long before the new service hits mobile phones.

This and many other articles on mobile phones and the latest mobile phone deals was written by John Gray.

John Gray's writing can often be found at

GPS navigation devices can be costly if purchased through the auto dealer. After-market systems apply the latest technological advances and mapping programs to get you where you're going without a problem. And given the progress in technology nowadays, a portable GPS can be bought for a much lower charge than dealers apply when such a device comes with the car.

The majority of the portable GPS navigation devices which are currently accessible for retail purchase do a whole lot more than just helping you get from place to place. They allow for hooking up with DVDs, Mp3s, iPods, and Bluetooth. After-market systems give you excellent value for their cost. They are designed to be attached to the windshield and to receive their power from your automobile's direct current outlet. Their major advantage is how many different things they can do, and you can move them from one car to another quite simply.

The Garmin portable GPS systems even use rechargeable batteries, so they are portable and you do not have to worry about finding an outlet to use them. They are rechargeable; some models can go for eight hours without having to be recharged. The screens are easy to see and read, but they aren't huge, so they can fit into your travel bag or tote. Others offer other features, such as an iPod player and other audio features.

There is another type of navigation system called the in-dash. In-Dash Navigation units generally include a touch-screen monitor, which lets you enter destination addresses with your finger-tip. These systems can replace your factory radio, and provide control over your entire audio system.

Now that these devices are made to replace both regular and large radios, you can locate a GPS for any car. Even adding such extras as Bluetooth, iPod hookup, satellite radio and television tuners still allows you to upgrade your automobile at much less than what a dealer's bill would come to.

If you put as much information into the GPS system as possible, it will be easier to find your location. Some maps are on the hard drive of the system, and you can just download the updated ones and put them onto the hard drive as updates. There are also actual maps, which are on a DVD the system can read. So you will have to purchase the new DVD maps so that you can stay up-to-date on new roads.

There are take-along GPS systems that are available at all cost levels. For a little money, you can avoid getting lost in the future, as well as have the amusement and usefulness factor of a GPS.

Portable GPS navigation in your vehicle is relatively inexpensive especially when compared to the overpriced dealership charge that comes with a factory navigation system. After market units use the most current technology and maps to get you where you want to go.

It has been ages since the military has been using GPS to monitor the enemy and ascertain locations that are important for their operations. GPS vehicle tracking technology is crucial to operations where the military needs to scout and locate places that will not be found on any major mapping devices.

GPS tracking is critical to the military as it can identify the type of vehicles used by the enemy and get their exact location within seconds. With this level of timely and detailed information, the chances of completing an operation successfully are very high.

GPS vehicle tracking systems are very beneficial to police officers, too. One of the reasons is because police officers can use GPS vehicle tracking to keep tab of suspects and fugitives. They can keep track of the location of the vehicle they are pursuing without being discovered by the suspects. Also, with GPS vehicle tracking, police officers can get to the perpetrator's location without engaging in a dangerous high-speed pursuit through crowded neighborhoods and along busy highways. A GPS vehicle tracking device is a great tool for police enforcement in the event of lost or missing vehicles and their potentially expensive cargo.

GPS based vehicle tracking is also useful for ordinary folks like you and I. It can be used for personal and commercial use. In our high-tech world, this system has become one of the best inventions that assist us with our daily tasks. Almost all drivers are grateful for their GPS vehicle tracking systems. With the GPS vehicle tracking system, fleet owners and managers are now able to track their vehicles effectively. This is the main idea and rationale behind the GPS vehicle tracking system. When fleet owners and managers need to locate their employees and vehicles urgently, they can rely on the GPS vehicle tracking system to get the job done.

GPS Vehicle Tracking Has Additional Purposes

Many people who use a GPS system as a form of anti-theft device. Should there be any unauthorized movement of the vehicle, some of these devices may have the capability to disable the vehicle's engine. With a GPS system installed in the vehicle, car owners can have piece of mind.

There are people who use GPS tracking to keep track of some important people in their lives or of their vehicles when they are not in town. Usually, parents will use GPS vehicle tracking to keep tab of their teenage kids should they attempt to drive the family car. Although it may seem like prying, in some cases, the caution is warranted.

GPS vehicle tracking technology offers all owners of vehicles peace of mind. Although this comes at a cost, in most cases the vehicles or the cargo they carry or the people they transport are worth every single cent paid for this technology.

A Variety Of GPS Vehicle Tracking Systems For Different Needs

There are many different kinds of GPS vehicle tracking systems. Some are more suited for personal use; others for business users. Some examples of GPS vehicle tracking system are:

1) Wireless GPS tracking system

This system allows you to get quick and simple access to all the crucial information that you need. The footprint for this system can be extensive. The GPS tracking software delivers thorough fleet tracking and data reporting automatically.

2) Entry-level GPS tracking unit

The difference between a wireless GPS tracking system and an entry-level GPS tracking unit is that it is customized for fleets that have basic vehicle tracking needs, like vehicle location, speed, stops and route.

3) Advanced GPS tracking system

This system is equipped with "real time" tracking which is meant for larger company fleets which delivers detailed historical information.

Buying A GPS Vehicle Tracking System

It is not too difficult to find a retailer that provides GPS vehicle tracking systems and related services. Some retailers are better than others. The better ones have experts who actually use the products they sell and give expert advice regarding the features and functions of the devices that they sell. Others will have also quality customer services to handle any user queries regarding the products that they have purchased. Advanced Tracking Technologies, Inc. (ATTI) is one of the most popular places to such systems since they stock a wide range of different kinds of GPS vehicle tracking systems at reasonable prices. Moreover, they provide useful information on their different products and the most suitable ways to use them.

Some of the advantages experienced by companies with mobile fleets who use ATTI's GPS tracking system product line include:

1) Aids them to reduce operating costs and also handle their mobile assets effectively.

2) They help to minimize increasing fleet expenses.

3) Increase fleet efficiency, decrease car and truck operating costs,

4) Decrease time taken at unauthorized locations and track the activities in a competent way.

Cindy Heller is a professional writer. Visit best car gps system to learn more about gps tracking device and gps tracking system.

Sony Ericsson has this week announced another new mobile to add to their collection, this time it is the turn of a clamshell phone. Now clamshell or flip phones seem to have become a little bit scarce these days as slide phones have become flavour of the moment.

The Sony Ericsson Z780, is an upgraded version of the recently announced Z770, with one key added bonus. The main selling point of the Z780 is the integrated GPS which will be ideal for those who travel a lot, and you will also have access to the latest version of Google Maps for Mobile. Google Maps for Mobile can show you where the nearest coffee shop is and then tell you how to get there by determining where you are and providing the best directions.

The mobile has a 2 megapixel camera – which to be honest is slightly disappointing given what Sony Ericsson can do. The Z780 also comes with the typical MP3 player and FM radio, with an internal memory of 35MB, which can be expanded by M2 cards, it should do quite well to hold your music, videos and photos.

The Sony Ericsson Z780 is also 3.5G which means you have HSDPA for fast downloads and video calling. There is a web browser, email client and a blogging tool – which should come in useful for people of the social networking generation.

The Sony Ericsson Z780 should be due for release over the next couple of months, so if you are looking for a stylish flip phone that has a fast data connection and GPS installed this could be your next mobile phone.

This and many other articles on mobile phones and the latest mobile phone deals was written by John Gray.

John Gray's writing can often be found at

Time is an abstract concept. We cannot necessarily see it, touch it or change it, but we are aware that it exists and that is continues to keep passing us by. It has long been thought that time was constant and was the same everywhere in the Universe.

However, Albert Einstein's theories of relativity (General and Special Relativity) have changed the way we think about time. Einstein suggested that time is part of a four dimensional 'space-time' the other three dimension being the up/down, left/right, forward/backward dimensions we are all aware of.

Einstein suggested that this space-time could be bent or warped by the effects of gravity meaning that an observer on the moon with an identical clock to an observer on the Earth, will find that when they compare the clocks, the passage of time will be recorded differently, as the extra gravity of earth will have bent space-time more so than on the moon.

In fact Einstein suggests not only is time part of the very fabric that makes up our universe, it is not constant but relative to different observers and that the only constant in the universe is the speed of light. He argued that to different observers, time would be perceived differently depending on their positions and speed. For example, to an observer travelling to a destination at near the speed of light the journey may only take a few seconds, but to another observer awaiting their arrival, the time elapsed since the traveler departed may have been thousands of years.

While this time dilation, as Einstein called it, is very apparent at high speeds (approaching the speed of light) experiments with atomic clocks sent on aeroplanes discovered time does pass differently than with identical clocks on the earth. Einstein's work was groundbreaking and made possible technologies such as satellite communication and GPS (Global Positioning system) all of which have to account for Einstein's relative time.

Time has always been measured in relation to the movement of the Earth, a day, for instance, is one revolution of the planet, while a year is an entire orbit of the Sun. The measurement of time is known as Horology and different ways of telling the time have been developed throughout the centuries from the sundial to grandfather clocks.

Today electronic clocks are more commonly used and are based on the movement of a crystal oscillator ' a vibrating crystal used to create an electric signal that has an exact frequency. However, in many modern applications, such as the stock market or the airline industry, exact and precise time keeping is essential.

UTC (Universal Coordinated Time or Temps Universel Coordonné ) was established after the development of atomic clocks which can measure time to an exceptionally accurate level using the frequency of the caesium -133 atom which oscillates at exactly 9,192,631,770 every second.

Since 1967 this oscillation has been the definition of one second by the International System of Units (SI).Around the world, time is split up into time zones that are longitudinal. All time zones are generally one hour apart and they all use UTC time as a reference to calculate their local time.

The development of atomic clocks has been vital for modern technologies, allowing computer networks all over the world to be synchronized to UTC utilizing Network Time Protocol (NTP), a computer protocol designed specifically for the task.

Without NTP servers, atomic clocks and UTC; technologies and industries such as communication satellites, the stock exchange and even airline companies would find it impossible to operate in the modern world

GPS Receivers are becoming more and more versatile. A modern GPS unit can do all manner of things apart from merely telling you where where you are (which street or coordinates), A GPS will tell you how far away from you vehicle you are, tell you in which direction and what speed your dog is moving (or your auto that your teenager borrowed for the evening). It may also be able to tell you when the sun will set, which way is north and how high above sea level you are. It talk to you telling you which direction to go in and confirm when you arrive. It will play music: suggest a route which avoids traffic congestion or severe weather. You can use a GPS to record your vehicle's mileage for tax purposes and spy on where your employees or spouse takes the car after hours.

With a proliferation options its therefore important to decide what is important for you and what is not.

Consider some of the following:

Weight - if you are carrying the unit weight is critical

Battery Life - how long can your GPS unit last on battery power - hopefully at least 24 hours. A bright large screen is nice in a car which is plugged in but it drains battery power.

Water Proof - water proof units are also, by definition, dust proof too. Even if you aren't boating you need a unit that is water proof.

Size of Screen – a larger, brighter screen is important if you want to view your real-time map: but remember it will consume a lot of battery power so

Adaptors to power off your vehicle – make sure you can get an adaptor and cradle for your auto GPS unit which will position it correctly on your dash and allow it to charge via your cigarette lighter or similar.

Maps – if you want specific maps or marine charts check these availability and cost prior to purchasing a specific model.

Data Services – to receive real-time alerts when a vehicle moves outside of a pre-defined area or speed you will need to subscribe to a service. Also if you want real-time traffic conditions and weather check on availability in your town and for the model of GPS receiver you are considering.

For more information on the best GPS receivers check out

Most of us have experienced that feeling of being completely lost in a big city or somewhere in the country side without a clue how to get back to our original point of origin.. well now you never have to get lost again! Its time to check out a new GPS.

One new product on the market destined to save you a lot of time and money navigating the streets alone is the GARMIN GPS NUVI 350. The NUVI 350 is not only an extremely stylish and slim lined navigation system it also has the ability to be an MP3 player, audio book player, JPEG picture viewer, clock with world time zone capabilities, currency converter, measurement converter, calculator and of course an anti theft device to deter anyone who might be interested in stealing this attractive addition to your car!

The NUVI 350 can be bought and used just about anywhere due to the preloaded City Navigator® NT street maps. Depending on your location for travel it is possible to insert a micro SD/SD data card with the designated country map to find your way happily out of any spot of bother you might find yourself in.

Some features of this hot little product include a 2.8" wide x 2.1" high screen with the total product size being 3.87" wide x 2.91" high. The screen features a nice QVGA color antiglare TFT with white backlight and also responds nicely to touch screen commands. The rechargeable lithium ion battery will run for 8 hours and can be easily charged while driving. Further features include voice prompts, spoken street names, the options of either 2D or 3D map views, auto re route (fast off route options and recalculations for ETA), route setup (allowing you to achieve faster times, shorter distances and off road options), and route avoidance (if you are wanting to avoid tolls or freeways). Custom points of interest (POIs) is another strong feature which will alert you to when important town information is approaching such as safety cameras or school zones, ATMs, restaurants, and hotels.

Like all good technology these days the NUVI 350 is not just a navigation system and comes with additional accessories to boost your already highly efficient system including data cards, traffic receivers, accessory kits, adapters, antennas, cases and covers, memory, cables and mounts. From the accessories available, my top choice would be the data cards which enable the user to access travel and language guides for various countries. It is getting easier and easier to travel the world these days and it is in part due to the amazing technology which is now available globally. The SD data cards, relevant for the country you are traveling, can provide you with current travel information ' sites to visit, shops to wander through, and restaurants to eat in. The data is provided by Fodors who are one of the leading trip planning and information companies available. The language guides are equally as important as you visit new countries. The information is provided by Oxford University Press and contains comprehensive word and phrase banks and bilingual dictionaries! Global Positioning Systems (GPS) rely on a variety of satellites to assist you in figuring out where you are at any given time.

The one major benefit of buying an in-car GPS is so that you don't end up wasting time and money finding a location that should have ideally taken you perhaps only 20 minutes. The technology now available for these systems is getting better and better and the GARMIN GPS NUVI 350 is no exception, it is sitting comfortably in the market at the top of the range.

The average cost of the GARMIN GPS NUVI 350 is $348.00 in the Canadian market. The NUVI 350 is available at most Canadian electronic stores and to save you hours on your feet you can now search online for the best deal in Canada.

Find out more information on the Garmin GPS NUVI 350 quickly and easily and compare prices in Canada using the Deal-Eh price comparison site

Is there such a thing as the best gps? All buyers would like to have only the best. Then again the term can be a little too general. What exactly makes a gps unit the best? If you base the answer only on the opinion of users, you will never arrive at one common general answer. Find out what's best for you on your own. Here's how.

Comparison Shop

There are some things you have to do before finding the best. One of the first steps is to comparison shop. There is no way you can zero in on the ideal unit if you do not even know what is available out there. You can use a regular search engine to compare various product pages.

You might be pleasantly surprised that gps products have evolved a lot. The new models have gone a long way from originally being just mere navigation assistants. Now, new models have so many features that you'll find it hard to pick just one. There are now units with features like accurate voice navigation, locators, traffic monitors, multiple maps, media players and waterproof exteriors.

Look for What You Need

It may be tempting to buy the gps unit with the works. The best unit however is not always the most expensive one. Remember that your primary purpose in looking for a gps is to get navigation assistance. This is therefore the first feature you should look into. If navigation is all you need and all you can afford, you can get a good gps system for as low as $200. If you can afford to pay higher to answer your growing needs, you can higher gps models that can cost around $400-$700.

Look for What You Want

Finding the the best gps system is a relative experience. For some people, it is enough to simply get a unit that can point the right direction. If you can afford to splurge a bit though, you may be able to afford units that you actually want. As mentioned, there are now high end units that have their own entertainment systems and voice functions.

Find What's Easy to Use

Users will always disagree when it comes to gps features. Some will prefer a particular model only because it has this or that feature. Nearly everyone agrees though that the best devices are those that aren't difficult to use. A gps device should be user friendly regardless of its price or number of features.

When you talk about user friendliness, you have to consider yourself. Younger people who love technology may be able to do very well with the portable units that aren't very easy to read or use. Older individuals on the other hand might find it better to opt for a device that can talk and point directions with little user effort.

Find Out From Others

Another way to find the best is to ask. You can ask fellow users or computer experts to help you out. In this modern age, this is easier than you think. Forums, message boards and review sites have all the advice you will need to pick the best gps device.

The the best gps may be a little hard to find. Simply because different users have different needs, wants and situations. Pick the one that will best serve you.

Find cell phone GPS to car GPS tracking systems online. Choose the best GPS product for your needs now.

The synchronisation of computer time is highly important in modern computer networks, precision and time synchronization is critical in many applications, particularly time sensitive transactions. Just imagine buying an airline seat only to be told at the airport that the ticket was sold twice because it was purchased afterwards on a computer that had a slower clock!

Modern computers do have internal clocks called Real Time Clock chips (RTC) that provide time and date information. These chips are battery backed so that even during power outages, they can maintain time but personal computers are not designed to be perfect clocks. Their design has been optimized for mass production and low-cost rather than maintaining accurate time.

For many applications, this is can be quite adequate, although, quite often machines need time to be synchronised with other PC's on a network and when computers are out of sync with each other problems can arise such as sharing network files or in some environments even fraud!

Microsoft Windows 2000 has a time synchronisation utility built into the operating system called Windows Time (w32time.exe) which can be configured to operate as a network time server. Microsoft and others strongly recommend that you configure a time server with a hardware source rather than from the internet where there is no authentication.

If you want to configure Windows Time service to use the internal hardware clock, then first check that w32time is located in the system services list in the registry, to check:

Click Start, Run then type regedit then click ok. Locate and then click the following registry entry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesW32Time

It is highly recommended that you back up the registry as serious problems may occur if you modify the registry incorrectly, modifications to the registry are done at your own risk.

To begin configuration for an internal clock, click on the following subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesW32TimeParameters In the right pane, right-click ReliableTimeSource, then click modify. In Edit DWORD Value, type 1 in the Value Data box, then click OK Exit registry editor

To restart the Windows Time Service click Start, Run (or alternatively use the Command Prompt facility). Type: net stop w32time && net start w32time Then press enter.

To reset the local computers' time, type the following on all computers except for the time server which must not be synchronised with itself: w32tm 's

To configure the Windows Time service to use an external time source, click Start, Run and type regedit then click OK.

Locate the following subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesW32TimeParameters In the right pane, right-click Type then click Modify, in edit Value type NTP in the Value data box then click OK.

Now in the right pane, right click ReliableTimeSource, then click Modify. In the Edit DWORD Value box, under Value Data, type 0, then click OK.

Right-click NtpServer in the right pane then click Modify. In Edit Value, type the Domain Name System (DNS), each DNS must be unique. Now click Ok.

For Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 only, set the time correction settings to do this locate: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesW32TimeParameters In the right pane, right-click MaxAllowedClockErrInSecs, then Modify in the Edit DWORD Value box, , type a time in seconds max number of seconds difference between the local clock and the time received from the NTP server in order to be considered a valid new time. Click OK.

To set the poll intervals locate: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesW32TimeParameters In the right pane, right-click Period, then click Modify. In the Edit DWORD Value box, under Value Data, type 24 then OK Exit registry editor

Click Start, then Run then type the following and press Enter: Net stop w32time && net start w32time

To reset the local computers' time, type the following on all computers except for the time server which must not be synchronised with itself:

Network Time Protocol (NTP) is an Internet protocol used for the transfer of accurate time, providing time information along so that a precise time can be obtained

To enable the Network Time Protocol; NTPserver, locate and click: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesW32TimeTimeProvidersNtpServer In the right pane, right-click Enabled, then click Modify. In the Edit DWord Value box, type 1 under Value data, then click OK.

Now go back and click on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesW32TimeParametersNtpServer In the right pane, right-click NtpServer, then Modify, in the Edit DWORD Value under Value Data type In the right pane, right-click NtpServer, then Modify, in the Edit DWORD Value under Value Data type the Domain Name System (DNS), each DNS must be unique and you must append 0x1 to the end of each DNS name otherwise changes will not take effect. Now click Ok.

Locate and click the following HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesW32TimeTimeProvidersNtpClientSpecialPollInterval In the right pane, right-click SpecialPollInterval, then click Modify. In the Edit DWORD Value box, under Value Data, type the number of seconds you want for each poll, ie 900 will poll every 15 minutes, then click OK.

To configure the time correction settings, locate: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesW32Timeconfig In the right pane, right-click MaxPosPhaseCorrection, then Modify, in the Edit DWORD Value box, under Base, click Decimal, under Value Data, type a time in seconds such as 3600 (an hour) then click OK.

Now go back and click: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesW32Timeconfig In the right pane, right-click MaxNegPhaseCorrection, then Modify. In the Edit DWORD box under base, click Decimal, under value data type the time in seconds you want to poll such as 3600 (polls in one hour)

Exit registry editor Now to restart windows time service, click Start, Run (or alternatively use the command prompt facility) and type: net stop w32time && net start w32time

And on each computer, other than the time server, type: W32tm/ -s And that's it your time server should be now up and running.

Bluetooth Security

These days, all communication technology faces the

issue of privacy and identity theft, with Bluetooth

being no exception. Almost everyone knows that email

services and networks require security. What users

of Bluetooth need to realize is that Bluetooth also

requires security measures as well.

The good news for Bluetooth users is that the

security scares, like most scares, are normally over

dramatized and blown entirely out of proportion. The

truth being told, these issues are easy to manage,

with various measures already in place to provide

security for Bluetooth technology.

It's true that there has been some Bluetooth phones

that have been hacked into. Most devices that are

hacked into are normally those that don't have any

type of security at all.

According to Bluetooth specialists, in order to hack

into a Bluetooth device, the hacker must:

1. Force two paired devices to break their

connection.

2. Steal the packets that are used to

resend the pin.

3. Decode the pin.

Of course, the hacker must also be within range of

the device, and using very expensive developer type

equipment. Most specialists recommend that you

have a longer pin, with 8 digits being recommended.

Fundamentals of security

The "pairing process" is one of the most basic levels

of security for Bluetooth devices. Pairing, is

two or more Bluetooth devices that recognize each

other by the profiles they share - in most cases

they both must enter the same pin.

The core specifications for Bluetooth use an

encryption algorithm, which is completely and entirely

secure. Once the devices pair with each other,

they too become entirely secure.

Until they have successfully paired, the Bluetooth

devices won't communicate with each other. Due to

this pairing process and the fact that it is short

range - Bluetooth technology is considered to be

secure.

As the news has indicated, experienced hackers

have developed ways to get around this level of

basic security. There are ways to get around this

threat, as you can install software to prevent

hackers from getting in.

With Bluetooth becoming more and more popular, it's

really no wonder that security is always in

question. As Bluetooth gets bigger and better,

security will always be something that no one

really takes lightly.

If you've been concerned about Bluetooth security

in the past, rest assured that newer devices will

offer bigger and better security. Preventing

hackers from getting in is something every owner

is concerned about - and the manufacturer's are

very aware.

Other wireless technology such as Garmin GPS utilizes complex wireless systems that let you know where you are, on any place in the world.

If you would like to know more about the latest bluetooth technology or latest models of gadgets with bluetooth technology visit,

Bluetooth Wireless Networking

Bluetooth technology offers three distant types of primary ranges, based on crop ranges. Class 1 devices are the most controlling, seeing they importance own up to 100 mW of aptitude, reserve a regular antenna giving them a compass of around 130 - 330 feet.

The class 2 devices are lower dynamism, offering up to 2. 5 mW of skill. A regular antenna will gift them a scale of around 50 - 100 feet. Class 3 devices usability polished less qualification, up to 1 mW of competency to betoken exact. Stash a regular antenna, they will obtain a scope of around 16 - 33 feet.

Rolled though you may not catch on existing, Bluetooth wireless technology has never been intended for person other than short distance types of communication. Shroud Bluetooth wireless, the short area is all a gain.

For one, the short reach will cut the quarters of monkey wrench between your devices and those that belong to others who are nearby. Overall, this is a basic type of security, designed to protect you and your devices.

Secondly, the lower competency used for short compass means a longer battery oomph. Most Bluetooth devices will arouse their gift from a battery, suggestion that element you amenability halt to never cease the battery enthusiasm is very same material.

The wireless networking offered by Bluetooth is in truth among the highest, identical though palpable uses short scale communication. Bluetooth is used shadow wireless controllers, the internet, and even wireless headsets.

For the best in short range technology, Bluetooth is extremely hard to beat. If you ' ve never tried Bluetooth before, now is the time. It ' s the best with wireless networking, especially for those who enjoy hands free talking on their cell phone.

Other wireless technology such as Garmin GPS utilizes complex wireless systems that let you know where you are, on any place in the world.

If you would like to know more about the latest bluetooth technology or latest models of gadgets with bluetooth technology visit,

Sometimes I think back of the days when I started playing golf. Things were simple then. A wood was still made of wood, and a 5-iron was a 5-iron. Or at least that's what I thought until I learned more about equipment. Still, things were relatively simple, but they are not anymore. Just read some golf equipment reviews. It's totally amazing how technology has changed the game of golf, and how radically golf equipment has changed over the past couple of decades.

As someone interested in new gadgets, I have been fascinated by the introduction of Golf GPS. Let me give you a few basics. GPS stands for Global Positioning System and uses satellites and a receiver to determine where you are on the planet with amazing accuracy, as close as a couple of feet. GPS is available in most new cars and it's also available for golf where it can help you improve your game. It's not a traditional training aid, though. What a Golf GPS receiver does is figure out where you are on a course, and then give you the exact distance to the green, water hazards, bunkers and fairway boundaries. This way you know the number of yards, golf clubs to pick, and even the size of the green from the angle you're approaching it!

How did I learn about all this? Certainly not by going to an electronics store. If I want information on golf, I go to websites dedicated to golf and golf equipment. I love to read what golf enthusiasts have to say about golf shoes, golf bags and other equipment, as I have no use for the usual marketing hype. I mean, where else than at a golf enthusiast site could you read comparisons of electric golf carts and what's important when you consider getting one of your own? Did you know, for example, that you can create tricked-out custom golf carts with special suspensions, paint jobs and fancy wheels?

But it's not only emerging technologies like Golf GPS or big ticket items like carts that you can get good information on at a golf review site. There are probably thousands of different golf bags out there, and I love to read about the latest from some of the best companies like Burton, Ogio or Nike, and that includes the good and the bad. Nothing's perfect, and I rely on unbiased reviews to give me the real scoop.

Same with clubs. We all have our favorites, of course, but I keep an open mind. Nothing can replace trying out a club, and that's where the pro shops come in, but I like to do my research online. Did you know companies like Ping actually have online fitting systems? Or that Titleist clubs are no longer just for top-level players with low handicaps? The company is clearly going for new and aspiring golfers with their new lines of clubs. Again, I found out on an enthusiast golf site that also does golf equipment reviews. There's just nothing like it.

Chris Robertson is an author of Majon International, one of the worlds MOST popular internet marketing companies.

For tips/information, click here: golf equipment reviewsVisit Majon's Sports directory.

Car alarms are installed in cars in order to reduce the growing number of car thefts. Alarms fitted in the car usually alert the owner of the possible theft attempt. Some alarms also shut down the fuel delivery system so that the thief is not able to start the car. This is helpful when the owner is beyond earshot of the car. Some alarm systems are smart enough to send a text message or dial a preset phone number to inform the owner of any impending trouble.

Some systems also have a GPS system in built to track whether the vehicle is moving or is stationary. This is helpful when you are away on tour or vacation and there is no way you would be able to hear the car alarm. As soon as you receive the car alarm notification, you must inform the police. It is better if the law intervened. The carjackers may be dangerous. Therefore, you need to be extra cautious and not try to tackle it yourself. A car alarm is an electronic device that can be installed in a car to prevent theft. The alarms emit very strong signals in the form of a siren or a horn or any recorded message. The sound comes as soon as the circuit breaches. The alarm system of the vehicle can be designed to set off as soon as a vibration starts or the car is tilted or even if someone touches the car at specific points. At times, the alarm can be set off by accident. This can happen when a large truck crosses the area and causes the car to vibrate or due to a thunder vibration. At times kids playing around the vehicle may accidentally touch the sensitive points of the car and set off the alarm. Since alarms are set off by accident, a majority of the population is immune to the noise of the alarm. Even when the real theft takes place, they think it is a false alarm. This makes the situation worse. Thus, most car manufactures opt for fitting the vehicle with in-built alarms instead of sound producing alarms.

Most alarm systems nowadays come with a GPS tracker. Apart from tracking the location of the car, these systems also have various two-way communication preferences. Car owners are notified via a message or a call whether any thief has broken into the car or not. Vehicle owners can also get in touch with the cars from a distance with the help of GPS tracking options of their car alarms. The tracking systems are advanced enough to let you know whether your car door is open or locked or whether your car engine is running or not. A very desirable feature of the GPS tracker is that the owner can immobilize the vehicle from anywhere and at anytime he wishes to. He can even fiddle with the vibration sensor. The tracker notifies the owner as soon as anyone tries to violate the car security. If the owner has selected the silent mode, the he can take action against the carjacker even before the thief realizes it. If you compare the cost of the GPS system to the cost and hassle of trying to recover a stolen car, it would seem to be a very cheap bargain. The system allows the owner to sleep in peace at night. The owner does not have to live in constant fear of having his car stolen. Moreover, even if it is stolen, the owner knows exactly where to find it.

we are in the automotive industry, we have several articles as well as info on many automotive parts and see us at

The use of electronics and instruments in outdoor activities such as hunting, camping, hiking, and fishing have become as important to the hunter as his gun and to the camper as his sleeping bag. Electronics such as GPS units, atmospheric measuring instruments, compasses, radios, walkie-talkies, and game locating and surveillance cameras have become widely used.

GPS, or Global Positioning System, is a satellite navigational system orbiting the earth and their receivers on earth. The GPS satellites transmit digital radio signals that contain data to the receivers on earth. Based on this information the receivers can pinpoint a location on the earth. By using three satellites, GPS can calculate the longitude and latitude, and by using four satellites, GPS can also determine altitude. Any prepared outdoorsman will include a GPS unit as part of his gear, especially in unfamiliar locations.

The compass, as a navigational aid, has been around since the 11th century. Even with advancements in other electronics and instruments, the compass is still a valuable instrument to get your bearing with. Mostly, compasses are built as a sealed instrument with a magnetized needle on a pivot, or floating in a fluid, and is able to point north and south.

Other electronics and instruments include the game monitoring and surveillance camera. These cameras are set up in suspected game areas to confirm the movement and patterns of game. One camera can be used or they can be set up as a group. The game cameras mostly operate without a "clicking" sound or a flash.

Radios, walkie-talkies, and throat mics are important communication tools for a group of hunters to help prevent accidents by knowing everyone's location, report game sighting or movement, or staying informed about changing weather conditions.

Portable and hand-held atmospheric measuring electronics & instruments are valuable to the outdoorsman to verify wind speed and direction, temperature and changing weather conditions.

Keith Grable is a sports enthusiast, outdoorsman and the owner of an outdoor sports and recreation website where a large selection of electronics and instruments for use in the outdoors can be seen.

When it comes to GPS, most people think of mapping and navigation, and perhaps of sports like geocaching. While those are the most popular uses, GPS also has other applications, and some of them are downright amazing. Did you know, for example, that GPS can be used for tracking vehicles both for personal and for business use?

Think about it; the implications can be enormous. With GPS alone, you always know where you are, but a GPS tracking system also lets you know where your vehicle is at any given time even if you are not in it. How does it work? A GPS vehicle tracking device consists of a GPS receiver, a cell phone, and a variety of sensors. The tracking device therefore a) knows where it is, b) can call or respond to calls, and c) can perform certain actions in response to a call, to its location, or to a condition. It's a wonder of the new millennium, plus it gives you the security you desire.

After all, personal use of a GPS vehicle tracking system essentially means adding safety and security to your vehicle. You can, for example, program a "geofence" around the vehicle. If it is stolen, it will alert you via call, email, or computer message as to its location. It is a very effective anti-theft system as the starter can be remotely disabled, the alarm triggered, or the doors locked. Parents of teenage drivers may simply want to track and enforce vehicle use. A web-based application will show where the vehicle is, provide satellite photos of the location, report when geographic boundaries are exceeded, and also report speed and top speeds. In addition, if someone gets locked out, the system can unlock the doors or start the engine.

Business use of GPS vehicle tracking has even greater benefits. Intelligent fleet monitoring can absolutely revolutionize the way a business is run. In addition to theft protection, business owners and dispatchers know at any time where their vehicles are, what routes they have run, what the odometer reading is, and whether they are being used according to plan and policy. One system we looked at, called Millennium Plus, not only provides vehicle location on a map, geofences, remote alarms and door unlocking, but also detailed history reports that can show hourly usage, violations, speeding, or many other parameters. But even that is not all. Special sensors can retrieve information from the OBDII onboard diagnostics system. OBDII tracks dozens of vehicle functions, and that data could be used to provide fuel efficiency data, warn of potential vehicle failures or manage maintenance requirements.

If all this sounds enormously complicated, it's not. Installation of a GPS vehicle tracking system is inherently no more difficult than that of a car audio system. Setting up the web-based tracking reports is simple as well, and can be done both for individual as well as multiple vehicles.

How much does it cost? That depends on the type and system. A typical GPS tracking device can cost little more than a fancy smartphone. Usage is generally charged in a similar way to cell phones, but even comprehensive plans cost less than a basic phone plan. That's a very small price to pay for theft protection and peace of mind if used on a personal vehicle, and potentially dramatic savings and increased efficiency in a commercial fleet monitoring tracking system.

Chris Robertson is an author of Majon International, one of the worlds MOST popular internet marketing companies.

For tips/information, click here: GPS trackingVisit Majon's Automotive directory.