I remember when (e:jacob) stole my first Delorme Earthmate GPS for my iBook. I loved it. The maps it used were so innaccurate and Arizona was developing so fast . that it often showed us simply driving through the desert. Using it was the utmost complicated endeavor as it required a serial to USB converter, batteries, plenty of sky view and like ten minutes of setup before it was ready. No tto mention the software and iBook itself were flaky.

Then when I worked on Public Transphere we had some 2000 serial GPS unit that was a little more sophisticated but the interface was just as bad.

Recently I ordered a bluetooth gps for my phone and today I started actually playing wiht it. It is so incredible. It is tiny, like the size of a pack of gum, fully rechargable via usb and even works in the house. Furthmore, it is so accurate that it can detect me lifting up and putting down the phone or the speed at which I walk down the driveway. The potential is incredible and it output fully standard compliant NMEA sentences.

Look at the data mapped to google earth as I drive down elmwood. It's really great because my phone is also a 700k-1MB/s modem for my laptop.



Before I even used it I ordered another GPS but this time just the little chip which can record to a SD card. The advantage of this setup is that it can be standalone and tiny, not much bigger than a quarter. I can attach it to anywhing and it will reocrd its position for up to two weeks.

Soon enough, I want to make my journal track me as I move around the city. To bad I sit at a desk for 8 hours a day. It might be kind of boring.