Hasta La Gadget!

Ready to supersize your favorite RC helicopter and bullseye some perps with an aerial bean bag launcher? The Sheriff’s office in Montgomery County, Texas is, and it’s really freaking out the local news. KPRC Local 2 News feverishly asks if the Sheriff’s new unmanned Shadowhawk helicopter is a safety asset, or a privacy violation — we just think it’s awesome. Built and sold by Vanguard Defense Industries, this wireless whirlybird comes equipped with a remote video camera, an infrared heat-seeking device and an onboard GPS. It’s also capable of carrying weapons, although the Sheriff said that there were no plans to weaponize the UAV. The 50-pound chopper is FAA approved to help track down criminals on the run or assist swat teams in a standoff — a blessing that should keep this police drone from being grounded. Hit the source link below see KPRC‘s local coverage, “Big Brother” freakout and all.

Texas Sheriff’s office receives weaponizable drone, alarms local news station originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Nov 2011 03:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s not enough for AT&T to simply sell cellphones, its emerging devices unit also traffics in everything from GPS dog collars to connected pill bottles. Now the company wants in on the fitness tracking craze. Forbes is reporting that Ma Bell will start offering apparel that could track GPS routes, heart rate and other vital stats — similar to the E39 shirt above from Zephyr and Under Armour. The clothing isn’t just for athletes though, the military, first responders and seniors could also benefit from the technology. Sadly, no firm release date or prices were announced, so don’t expect to wander into a Modell’s and pick up a wicking t-shirt that uploads your workouts to RunKeeper any time soon.

AT&T plans to sell exercise apparel that tracks your vitals, performance originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Oct 2011 06:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Contrary to the promise of its name, Pioneer’s Potternavi will not help you find platform 9 3⁄4

What sits on the handlebars of your bike, has GPS, an accelerometer, and LCD screen and ten hours of battery life? Nope, it’s not your smartphone — it’s the Potternavi, a specialized bike GPS from Pioneer.

The trouble is, it’s worse than your phone in almost every way. If we ignore the fact that you can’t do anything with it other than navigation and bike computering, and it still looks bad. The display is a tiny 2.4 inches, with 240 x 320 resolution, and the battery life isn’t much better than you get from a phone. Worse, when it launches in Japan next February, it’ll cost over $500.

On the plus side, it has built-in ANT+ support for hooking up wirelessly to cadence and power meters, and the price includes two years of cellular network access.

But the best part is the name, Potternavi. It’s not, as you would be forgiven for thinking, a device to navigate the Harry Potter universe. The name comes from the activity of “pottering,” or “puttering” as you call it across the pond. Who can’t love a device devoted to “occupying oneself in a desultory but pleasant way”?

Potternavi press release [Pioneer via AVWatch]

See Also:

• Garmin's New Tiny In-Bike GPS
• Should UK Police Use GPS-Equipped 'Bait-Bikes' to Catch Thieves …
• Bike My Way, a Bare-Bones iPhone GPS-Logger
• Review: Garmin Edge 705 GPS Offers Maps and Metrics for Data …
• Five iPhone Apps That Replace Bike Hardware

Earlier this month, we found out that after a software update HTC’s Android handsets had a serious security flaw — any app could gain access to user data, including recent GPS locations, SMS data, phone numbers, and system logs. To its credit, HTC responded quickly to the security issue, and now an OTA update with the fix is going out to those on the Now Network. Sprint users with an EVO 4G, 3D, Shift 4G, Design 4G or View 4G can get the download, as can Wildfire S owners. The patch available now for a manual download, and more info on the fix can be found at the source below.

[Thanks, Korey]

Sprint issues OTA fix for HTC Android handset vulnerability originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Oct 2011 18:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This article was written on November 28, 2007 by CyberNet.

Google has launched a service called My Location, and it could be a huge breakthrough in mobile mapping technology. My Location is available at no cost to those who use Google Maps on a mobile device, but don’t have GPS capabilities built-in. Technicalities aside, it uses cell towers to approximate the location of the user so that it is easier to find out where you are headed.

Naturally this is not going to be as accurate as GPS, but they say that it will get you within 1,000 meters (a little over 1/2 mile) on average. That does sound like an awful large variation, but for not being triangulated through a GPS receiver it’s actually rather good.

Sounds pretty cool, huh? Here’s a video demonstration that Google put together to show how it works:

This would be a great addition to the iPhone, and I’m sure iPhone owners will start pushing Apple to integrate this into the already powerful Google Maps application that comes with the device. It might not be perfect, but it’s better than having nothing, right?

And since privacy is always a big issue Google assures us that they are not storing any of our information, and that they don’t even see the name or phone number associated with a device. Who knows though … this could just be one more step in Google’s evil plot to take over the world quest to provide users with wonderful, yet free services.

My Location Press Release [via jkOnTheRun & Google OS]

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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