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.”

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.

The Synchronized ECC approach involves over-the-air transfer of measured data between the test platform and a mobile device in a synchronized fashion. This method, proposed by a leading U.S. wireless carrier, does not require any overhead or user interaction to calculate the ECC, making it easier and faster to execute test versus other approaches. 7Layers test engineers used the Rohde & Schwarz TS8991 OTA Performance Test System and software option R&S AMS32-K30 as a test platform for validation.

“”7Layers is excited to help bring an ecosystem of vendors together to advance testing of LTE enabled devices utilizing MIMO,”” commented Mahesh Kodukula, business development manager of 7Layers. “”As an accredited test laboratory, we provided a realistic test environment for our partners.””

“”We are pleased to enable this type of testing on our R&S TS8991 OTA test platform and to offer this functionality to a variety of customers that have been waiting for this feature,”” said Thorsten Hertel, OTA product specialist at Rohde & Schwarz. “”We strive to meet the industry needs of the leading edge development of LTE devices.””

Visit Rohde & Schwarz at CTIA 2013, May 21 – 23 at booth 4148 in the Sands Expo and Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV.

GPS+ delivers accurate location in real time directly to a smartphone, tablet or computer. eTrak products also contain geofencing capability, which triggers notifications if the device goes beyond preset boundaries. Additionally, the notifications provide a map and address with the location of the device.

“Small and large businesses will benefit from tracking their assets with loss prevention and cost savings,” said eTrak CEO, John Harris. “They will also be able to keep their employees safe and know if they are in danger or need assistance.”

Set-up and the use of eTrak products is simple, the company said. Users can go to eTrak.com and start tracking from any smartphone, tablet or computer and instantly see the location of the eTrak device. The eTrak consumer device is also equipped with an emergency panic button that sends help requests to predetermined recipients in the event of an emergency.

“eTrak is the size of a domino and weighs less than an ounce,” Harris said. “eTrak provides the longest battery life available, and is a low cost personal emergency-response product. And with Verizon’s industry-leading coverage map, it works almost anywhere.”

The eTrak product line encompasses commercial applications, as well as consumer segments including health-impaired, special needs, teens and pets. eTrak also supplies custom design and development services.