Jon Fischer, a 17-year-old rising high school senior from Lurenurg, Mass., was named the grand-prize winner, walking away with $7,500 in seed money for developing a GPS Teen Driving Monitor. His company, Speed-Demon, developed a portable GPS box (vehicle GPS navigation) that mounts on a car dashboard and records what roads a driver travels on and at what speeds � allowing parents to monitor their children’s driving habits.
Source: Fox News

Royal Philips Electronics announced that leading developer of GPS navigation products, ALK Technologies, has integrated Philips’ ‘Spot’ software GPS solution in its latest product, the CoPilot Navigator 9. According to PC magazine, Philips Electronics said it would begin making mobile personal navigation systems (GPS) which could hurt route-finding market leader TomTom.

Philip’s GPS receiver will be thin and light - about 1 inch thick and a feather-light 5 ounces. Mapping data will come from Navteq . Philips will unveil the products starting in September focusing on Germany, France, and Belgium. The entrance of Philips underscores the evolution of the GPS (global positioning system) market from a niche product popular with hunters, hikers, and boaters into a thriving consumer business.

Philips is the first company to offer device makers a true software GPS signal processing solution. The result of over 5 years research and development, Spot draws on Philips’ expertise in signal processing and software for consumer products, as well as its long-standing experience in automotive GPS.

When Needham adventure racer Tim Reif begins the 500-mile Primal Quest race in southern Utah next month, he and his teammates will carry a device that could save their lives: a portable GPS receiver.He runs with a Garmin GPS watch, and hikes and bikes with a Magellan unit. He rarely leaves home without them. As they hike, bike, and paddle across some of North America’s most treacherous terrain, Reif’s team will lug a specially designed GPS unit that will allow race officials to electronically monitor every step of their progress during a non stop odyssey that could take up to 10 days to complete.
See complete Boston GLobe Article by By James Whitters, Globe Correspondent

Forbes.com just released it’s own top ten new list of “great GPS gadgets”.
Topping the list of new GPS releases is Garmin’s Edge 305 and Nuvi 360
along with TomTom Go 910, a vehicle navigation reciever.
We recommend taking a peek at the Forbes site for a brief backgrounder on the development and history of GPS plus you can view a slide showof their top picks, some of the newer GPS products and services being offered today.
Make sure to check out our new Store:

GPS Navigator Online Stores
Popular Garmin GPS Navigator
NEW Magellan GPS Special Offers
All-in-One TomTom GPS Systems
GPS Handheld Receivers
Vehicle Navigation Car GPS Units

A $400,000 Federal grant coined the MATRIX (Math Achievement To Realize Individual Excellence program) provided 40 GPS units, 175 Palm Pilots, Smart Boards, laptops, computers and geoboards for the Keyport and Redbank districts to experience geocaching - a high-tech treasure hunt with satellite-guided hand-held GPS gadgets. Setting up global positioning satellite waypoints and hiding secret caches the school district enjoyed a day of geocaching. With geocaching and GPS, children learn navigational skills while improving their math. Each kid used a GPS unit to hide their cache, mark its location, then post the waypoint locations on they post the coordinates on the Internet with clues about the exact location for people to try and find the hidden caches.Make sure to check out our new:
GPS Navigator Online Stores
Popular Garmin GPS Navigator
NEW Magellan GPS Special Offers
All-in-One TomTom GPS Systems
GPS Handheld Receivers
Vehicle Navigation Car GPS Units