The Instant Alert Device enables drivers to immediately notify dispatch.

GPSTrackIt has developed an Instant Alert Device that can attach to a driver’s keyring, to enable mobile workforce team members to communicate with their dispatchers or fleet managers. If a driver is in trouble, help can be on the way with the touch of a button.

The compact communication device enables drivers to signal for help even if they’re not with the vehicle. Dispatchers are alerted that a driver is in trouble, and can provide vehicle location information to first responders for expedited assistance.

“The device works in a similar fashion to an electronic key,” explains Eddie Bermudez, GPSTrackIt product manager. “It’s a small plastic box with a single button on it. The driver can carry it on his or her keychain. So even if they’re not with the vehicle they can still call for assistance.”

When the button on the device is depressed, it sends a signal wirelessly to a receiver connected to the tracking device in the vehicle. The Instant Alert Device has a range of up to 500 feet.

Bermudez offered an example. “Let’s say you dispatch someone to a remote oil field and there is no cellular communication out there. The tracking device uses both GPS and satellite communications, a combination that provides optimum coverage. The worker can use the Instant Alert Device to notify their team members back at the office if something is wrong or to acknowledge the completion of a task. This gives real-time, up-to-the-minute notifications to the alert contacts via Fleet Manager.”

The feature can be used with any type of switch, button or Power Take Off (PTO) that connects to an input wire on the tracking device.

The Spotter Network is a website used by storm chasers to follow weather movements. Users have been adding position locations to spell out the initials TS, PS, and CY, shown here in an image at sfgate.com.

The Samarases were well known to TV viewers, having been prominent subjects of the Discovery Channel series “Storm Chasers” and frequent contributors to The Weather Channel. They weren’t working for either channel last week, both networks said.

ST-Ericsson, which focuses on mobile and wireless chips, announced the sale on Tuesday without naming the buyer. An Intel spokesman later said the U.S. chipmaker bought the assets.

According to ST-Ericsson, the sale “represents another step in the execution of Ericsson’s and ST’s announcement of March 18, 2013,” when the company announced it was winding down the joint venture. Ericsson will assume 1,800 employees and contractors, with the largest concentrations in Sweden, Germany, India and China. ST will assume 950 employees, primarily in France and in Italy.

In addition to the assets and intellectual property rights associated with this business, 130 employees in Daventry, UK, Bangalore, India, and Singapore are anticipated to join Intel at closing of the transaction, and will be added to Intel’s already-existing GPS assets.

The closing of the transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and standard conditions and is expected to be completed in August. ST-Ericsson estimates the proceeds from the sale, combined with the avoidance of employee restructuring charges and other related restructuring costs, will reduce the joint venture’s cash needs by approximately $90 million.

“Today’s transaction validates the leading innovation developed by ST-Ericsson in mobile navigation systems and marks a further important step towards the execution of our shareholders’ decision to exit from ST-Ericsson” commented Carlo Ferro, President and CEO of ST-Ericsson. “I am pleased that this organization will continue to develop leading-edge technologies and delighted that the team found a new home at a leading player in the semiconductor industry.”

By Janice Partyka

It’s a trifecta. The most interesting news at CES, Mobile World Congress, and now CTIA was the connected vehicle. Last week at CTIA, the biggest mobile conference in the U.S., GM and OnStar demonstrated ideas of what we can expect in vehicles once AT&T’s LTE network makes its way into vehicles. We heard about many of their concepts in February at Mobile World, but with the infotainment possibilities being shown at CTIA, it is clear the endeavor is evolving quickly. Providers of navigation, mapping, traffic, middleware, search, points of interest and mobile advertising have key roles. We’ll check in ahead with some of these companies.

GM and OnStar envision an in-vehicle curated app ecosystem with downloadable apps and remote vehicle management. Developers will have access to APIs that can access the vehicle’s speed, performance, GPS, fuel economy and other information, but are kept out of areas that could cause safety issues. GM, as well as other OEMs, is not ready to let the app marketplace take money out of its pocket. The automaker is pushing to get apps built specially for its vehicles. Mary Chan of GM said that the business model hasn’t been decided, but the apps may be free, bundled into a service that GM charges for, or paid out to the developers. Another possibility is an app subscription paid for on a smartphone could be applied to a separate app in the car. We have to wait until model year 2015 to see it come off the assembly line.

Snippets heard at CTIA:

“The biggest challenge of indoor location is having a good enough return on investment by the venue.” Derek Peterson, Boingo

“We hear many pitches from companies that want to supply us with indoor location technology, but so many of them are just unscalable.” David Hildebrandt, ATT

“Relevant, connected car data trumps free.” Mary Chan, General Motors

“The future killer mobile apps are banking, retail, medical (records, diagnosis) and government (voting, administrative).” Michael Saylor, MircoStrategy

“The ownership of data in connected cars will be a huge issue. And what happens to data in a vehicle when you transfer ownership?” Mary Chan, General Motors

Traffic Information Is Getting Better. Traffic information is getting more granular, hence more useful. INRIX and others are collecting traffic data in road segments about 250 meters long, a significant improvement from the past. Not too long ago, traffic data was provided solely by sensors, cameras and helicopters, which covered only highways and some arterial roads. The use of crowd-sourced traffic data now provides a leap in the amount of traffic data collected, enabling more current traffic conditions, as well more roads, to be monitored. “We can collect traffic data for these small road segments from all sources, crunch it and turn it around in under a minute,” says Bill Schwebel of INRIX.

How Fast? In a few years, Schwebel says we will see an expansion of navigation that goes beyond driving from point A to point B. This would include accurate estimates of the entire length of your trip, for instance, driving from your home to arriving at your airport gate. “We will be getting more feeds from parking lots with electronic counters, but we can also see the dwell time in a parking lot, or cars that exit without parking, all from crowdsourcing,” adds Schwebel. Waits at TSA lines or rental car counters can be devised using historical and near real-time data. When schedules of events in the area and school calendars are added, the predictions get better.

Navigation Changes Ahead. Turn-by-turn navigation will take a step forward to becoming more interactive when it becomes a two-way broadcast. Niall Berkery of Telenav, predicts that two-way connected navigation will appear in 2014-2016. “We are now focused on reducing the complexity of navigation and making it more personalized,” says Berkery. The entire industry, hindered by the perspective that navigation is free, is focusing on adding value. Telenav acquired ThinkNear to add hyperlocal marketing to its offering.

Embedded Navigation and the Delivery Man. Berkery estimates that 30% of navigation systems are embedded in the vehicle, which can makes updating or servicing the devices challenging. Some years ago an interesting solution was developed in China. When an embedded navigation system needed servicing, it was handled by a package delivery service, similar to FedEx. The delivery person manually removed the navigation hard drive from a consumer’s vehicle and sent it off to be fixed or replaced. When the drive came back from the factory, the package delivery person reinstalled it. That’s pretty special service.

If you missed last week’s CTIA show, held May 21-23 in Las Vegas, you will have to wait a year and a half for its next appearance. With CES and the Mobile World Congress positioned on the calendar prior to CTIA, the other shows drew the lion’s share of product announcements and crowds. CTIA will reposition itself in front of these competing shows. CTIA’s new “Super Mobility Week” will be more international and take the place of the current fall and spring CTIA shows. Super Mobility Week will be held Sept 9-11, 2014 in Las Vegas and will include MobileCON and other major partnerships to create a bigger show experience.

Since the recent CTIA conference wasn’t the buffet of location news, one potential deal could really set the industry on fire going into the summer months. Google and Facebook both are rumored to be in talks to purchase Waze. Some say this would mean Facebook would transform into a mobile advertising company, with local ads, if it were the winning bidder. Google’s rumored interest would block the social media giant’s momentum in that marketplace.

by Kevin Dennehy

In what could be one of biggest deals in the location industry, both Google and Facebook have been rumored to be interested in buying Israel-based mapping and navigation company Waze. Published reports indicate the deal could be worth $1 billion.

Some industry analysts are skeptical that a deal could be valued that high, which would place it in the same realm as Facebook’s $1 billion purchase of photo-sharing service Instagram.

“We really do not know if Facebook is willing to spend a billion dollars on Waze, but if the deal happens, (Facebook) must have considered its options. How could this be? First, I suspect that Facebook is certain it will grow beyond its current boundaries to become the world’s most valuable company,” said Mike Dobson, Telemapics president. “Operating under this mindset, a billion dollars is peanuts, and they will not care if everyone else thinks they overpaid. In other words, Facebook might not be basing its calculation on the same ‘time-value of money’ that the rest of us are using. Second, if the economics do not really matter to Facebook, the more important question is ‘What advantages would Facebook accrue by acquiring Waze?’”

Dobson believes that Waze map databases are not competitive with Google or such commercial providers as Nokia or TomTom. “In essence, Waze does not offer competitive map coverage, competitive data quality, competitive data attributing, or a useful source of POI data. More importantly, I suspect that the Waze database will be a major league headache if Facebook plans to use it as the basis for its mapping activities supporting local search,” he said. “Further, I doubt that Waze understands enough about local advertising to help Facebook realize its most important goal of becoming a powerhouse ad agency capable of creating its own captive local search market, comparable or exceeding that enjoyed by Google.”

Another industry insider, Marc Prioleau of Prioleau Advisors, said that quality and coverage of the maps would make the deal successful — if it really is going to happen. “The rumor mill on Waze seems to be quite active so it is hard to know if there is substance there. Waze has built a very innovative traffic application, and they use the user data to build a digital map data set,” he said. “The value of the company would be tied largely to the quality and coverage of that data set and the perceived ability of a big platform like Facebook to build that out into a truly serviceable worldwide map.”

Waze is a mapping company built through crowdsourcing map and traffic data over mobile phones, which is the “magic” Dobson believes Facebook finds beguiling about the company.  While Waze claims 45 million users, its active base is more likely around 10-15 million, Dobson said. “Conversely, if you stop to consider the amount of data you could generate if all of Facebook’s mobile users were gathering mapping data through an app built on Waze, then the company might be willing to gamble on the acquisition,” he said. “Providing analytics on the behavior and location of its mobile users to advertisers and other interested parties could be a huge opportunity. On the other hand, there are numerous paths to this endpoint, not just Waze.”

Dobson said if he were to advise Facebook on the acquisition, a suggested course of action would be that the company write their own crowdsourcing application and build a good quality map database through licensing and direct and indirect map compilation techniques.  “My off-the-cuff estimate is that this could be done for less than the cost of the Waze acquisition. Beating Waze into a quality map database is going to be an expensive — well beyond the acquisition cost — and time consuming effort. Perhaps the most glaring lack in the potential Waze acquisition is the absence of a suitable POI database, which, in my opinion, is the most critical need that Facebook will have in local search.”

Dobson said he suspects that Facebook’s competitors are not concerned about the company’s potential acquisition of Waze. “Those who already in the mapping business — Google and Apple — will anticipate that it is likely that Waze could become a significant distraction for Facebook and delay the company effectively competing in the local search market. As far as the competitors are concerned, the longer it takes Facebook to mobilize its efforts in local search, the better,” he said. “In business, as in life, strange choices are made. Perhaps Facebook sees a future in Waze that depends on strategies being implemented by the company that we know nothing about. I hope so, as a good dose of innovation is just what the local search market needs.”

Distinguishing itself is another reason Facebook may be interested in Waze. Providing mapping and traffic capabilities may bring more consumers to its mobile users.

The company is also is redesigning its mobile pages platform to enable local merchant information, according to published reports. These new improvements may even challenge Foursquare and Yelp.

There were questions whether the deal with Facebook will go through as published reports indicated that Waze’s research and development activities would remain in Israel rather than go to California, where Facebook’s headquarters are based.

Google Interested in Waze to Cut off Facebook at the Location Pass?

The rumor mill is heating up as Internet giant Google and Apple are said to also be interested in Waze.  “I saw a report indicating that Google was interested. If so, it would seem that this would be a move to deny Facebook access to Waze,” Dobson said.  “Google already derives a significant amount of information from passive crowdsourcing — recording the GPS traces of the devices of their users — and I am not sure that the acquisition would provide them any opportunities that they are not already exploiting. Of course, we might remember that Garmin, who had no intention of buying TeleAtlas, made a bid and significantly raised the price that TomTom paid for the mapping company.”

Other analysts say while there have been several news articles on why Google should buy Waze, it all could be poorly informed speculation. Others say that the Israel tech press is quick to spread rumors. One analyst said, “I hear that the talks are legit, but my guess is that the deal in discussion is not $1 billion.”

Initially, wireless carriers deployed 4G/LTE solely for data use. Without VoLTE9-1-1 capabilities, carriers must process emergency calls over 3G networks (circuit-switched fallback), even in areas where LTE is deployed. However, with TCS’ VoLTE9-1-1 service, they can now process 911 calls in an all-LTE environment, enabling them to reclaim or reuse 3G spectrum.

“As carriers increasingly move toward LTE networks, the ability to handle 911 emergency communications is critical,” said Thomas Ginter of TCS. “By leveraging VoLTE9-1-1, network operators are helping to ensure subscribers receive the responsiveness they need in an emergency situation, while expanding coverage to areas where 3G coverage is lacking.”

TCS VoLTE9-1-1 features:

• Call routing to the PSAP: The TCS VoLTE9-1-1 service routes a 4G/LTE-originated 911 call using coarse location via the route determination function component.
• PSAP telecommunicators can call back if disconnected: The TCS VoLTE9-1-1 service remains fully backwards compatible, supporting necessary functions such as providing PSAPs with full 10-digit subscriber callback numbers.
• Re-bid by a PSAP for precise location after call routing: The location retrieval function allows a wireless carrier complete flexibility in choosing its underlying high-accuracy location technology and supports updated/precise position requests.
• Emergency voice call continuity for location service: Location continuity and location delivery to the PSAPs are supported in usage scenarios where the 911 call switches from 4G/LTE to 3G/2G networks.
• Expansion beyond voice: As wireless networks advance, multimedia objects such as text, audio and video can be transferred to a compatible termination point with LTE IP networks, for example, an NG ESINet and i3 PSAP. Leveraging an all-IP network makes it easier and more cost effective to interconnect services.
• Small cell support: The TCS VoLTE9-1-1 solution supports small cells, including femtocells, microcells, and picocells, which are now commonly used in dense urban, indoor areas and enterprise networks.

TCS supports half of all U.S. wireless E911 calls, serving more than 140 million wireless and IP-enabled devices.  The company holds more than 280 patents, 43 of which relate to public safety, and more than 360 pending worldwide.

MAX-M5Q: ideal positioning solution for industrial M2M and Russia’s ERA-GLONASS emergency call system.

Swiss u-blox introduces the surface-mount MAX-M5Q, a compact satellite positioning module that supports GPS and GLONASS, as well as Japanese QZSS satellite GNSS systems. High-performance GPS/GLONASS parallel operation is also supported to enhance positioning speed and accuracy.

Designed for use in rugged environments and wide temperature range, MAX-M5Q is intended for industrial machine-to-machine (M2M) applications as well as Russia’s ERA-GLONASS emergency call system. MAX-M5Q enhances positioning in poor GNSS satellite visibility conditions as well as in high latitude and polar regions, u-blox said.

“With parallel GPS/GLONASS operation, MAX-M5Q is able to track all 50 and more U.S. and Russian satellites to deliver incomparable speed, accuracy, and positional availability,” said Thomas Nigg, vice president of Product Marketing at u-blox, “Its compact size and high-reliability makes it an ideal positioning solution for mobile resource management and ERA-GLONASS emergency call applications.”

With dimensions of 9.7 x 10.1 x 2.5 mm, MAX-M5Q is the newest member of u-blox’ MAX GNSS LCC module series. Additional features include autonomous A-GPS that reduces warm start TTFF by as much as 90%, and an embedded data logger which can store location information to internal Flash memory for up to 16 hours at 15 second intervals.

skobbler is looking to exploit the weaknesses of established Android navigation alternatives with the fully featured GPS Navigation & Maps, which offers an improved experience compared to both Google Maps and high-priced third-party alternatives, skobbler said. GPS Navigation & Maps is effectively two apps in one, with both online and offline turn-by-turn navigation and digital mapping for smartphones.

Using open-source digital map OpenStreetMap and powered by the skobbler NGx map engine, GPS Navigation and Maps has full online and offline capability. The £1 price includes worldwide online functionality as well as an installable map of one country of choice for offline use. From here, users have the option to in-app purchase individual cities, states, countries and continents to use offline, and worldwide maps are available as standard for online use. Existing users of ForeverMap 2 will receive a free upgrade to GPS Navigation & Maps. New users can either purchase the full app or try GPS Navigation & Maps’ free app with unlimited online functionality and a 14-day navigation trial.

While Google Maps is free to download and use, its offline functionality is restricted. Users cannot perform any searching or routing tasks without an Internet connection, which means that when abroad or in low signal areas they either have to pay expensive roaming costs or spend a significant time without map coverage, limiting its usability while traveling, skobbler said. Expensive alternatives such as Co-Pilot Live or TomTom UK & Ireland/Europe do offer premium features and offline navigation, yet none of them give users a choice of which areas they want to use online and which offline. Most premium sat nav apps generally cannot be used as travel apps at all, as their pure map functionalities are limited at best. GPS Navigation & Maps is the perfect blend. Offering the best of both worlds for a fraction of the price, it can be relied upon to deliver any place, at any time, and being two great apps in one offers a fantastic cost-to-benefit ratio and unbeatable flexibility for consumers, skobbler said. Individuals can build their own navigation and maps app depending on what resources they use the most, and more effectively manage the limited storage space on their devices, skobbler said.

GPS Navigation and Maps has full turn-by-turn navigation, worldwide mapping and all features of the software accessible both online or offline. This unique move, and market first, is made possible thanks to skobbler’s NGx map engine, which delivers a seamless browsing experience with ultrafast real-time rendering and stunning map visuals, skobbler said. NGx also offers a range of unique map styles to, for example, accentuate color density for outdoor use to improve clarity. Maps are highly customizable with control over features such as online/offline functionality, map display (style and zoom), routing, map matching and more.

“We’re very proud to launch the first navigation product utilising our powerful NGx mapping engine,” said skobbler CTO Philipp Kandal. “Being the first and only company on the Android platform to offer full online and offline capability for both mapping and navigation, we hope both new users and our existing customers will be won over by the high performance and flexibility GPS Navigation & Maps offers. We’re already working on future updates and have a few powerful additions lined up to improve the app’s functionality and flexibility even further in the coming months.”

Additional maps beyond the free map provided will be available via in-app purchases for offline use. In keeping with the low price for the initial app purchase, add-ons are similary competitive and are priced at £0.77 for cities, £1.11 for states, £2.22 for a whole country, £4.44 for a continent and just £7.77 for the entire planet, so users can quickly and easily supplement their map coverage as they see fit.

skobbler is committed to providing regular updates to users to keep maps fresh and accurate, and promises a range of new premium features in future updates. GPS Navigation & Maps is now available from the Google Play Store, with existing ForeverMap 2 users able to upgrade for free.

The full version of GPS Navigation & Maps, including one free offline country map, can be downloaded.