Navigating Denial

Don’t plan on navigating to the Sphinx with your GPS on your next visit to Egypt.A government ban on the use of GPS technology outlaws the import of GPS-equipped mobile phones, including the Nokia N95 and N82, iPhones, and some 3G phones, reports Daily News Egypt. Retailers found selling these phones could have their entire stock confiscated. The ban applies to any kind of commercial use of GPS technology, including cars equipped with GPS devices.

“GPS is allowed in Egypt but you must have a license after getting approval from security authorities,” Sherif Guinena, vice chairman of the National Telecommunication Regulator Agency, told Daily News Egypt. “No doubt this technology is very important, brand new service and a big advantage if it is allowed, but we have to abide to security laws; because when we give a license to any new communication device we need the approval of the board which represents all state agencies.”

The ban hasn’t kept smartphones out of citizens’ hands. “I bought my mobile from outside Egypt and got it in through the backdoors,” said one anonymous N95 owner. Nokia and other mobile manufacturers are taking Egypt’s government to court to revoke the ban. The ban has also hurt mappers. “We opened two years ago and since then we haven’t worked because of the ban on the commercial use of GPS in Egypt” said Walid Ramadan of GPS Egypt.

Syria and North Korea are the only other countries that ban the commercial use of GPS, most countries having lifted bans in the 1990s.

Hey, Warden! It’s Me, Kimani

Kenyan elephants are sending text messages to park wardens when they stray too close to family farms, says Discover magazine. Save the Elephants devised the method to stop the endangered animals from leaving the geofence of the Ol Pejeta conservancy, and possibly being shot. A collar with GPS and cell phone SIM card text-messages the location every hour. Kimani, a once-nightly raider, was intercepted 15 times in the last two years, but the bull elephant hasn’t been near a farm in four months.

Immediate Wrong

For the second time, a car got stuck on the Metro-North tracks in Bedford Hills, New York, because a driver insists his GPS told him to make a right turn, reported WCBS-TV. The driver’s inability to realize “immediate right” meant to stay on the street led to his car being crushed October 1. He and his passengers escaped the car before the train came.

“You don’t turn onto train tracks. Even if there are little voices in your head telling you to do so. If the GPS told you to drive off a cliff, would you drive off a cliff?” Metropolitan Transit Authority spokeswoman Marjorie Anders said.

The October driver passed a railroad crossing sign and gates. In January, a second driver got struck on the same tracks, so more safety features were added.