GPS Robots Swarm California Rivers

Swarms of robots equipped with GPS and sensors were released May 9 into California rivers to measure water flow, salinty levels, and pollution, reports OurAmazingPlanet.com. The Floating Sensor Network is intended to change the way water quality and flows are monitored in the Sacramento-San Joaquin river system.

Automakers Move Ahead on Mobile Connectivity

It wasn’t quite a call to arms, but Bill Ford, head of Ford Motor, called on the wireless community to work with car makers to avoid global gridlock and create a future of “urban mobility,” a network that will track vehicles and automatically instruct cars to change lanes, exit a road, or park. Vehicle connectivity was one of the major themes of the Mobile World Congress, held in February in Barcelona. For some of us, it brought up memories of the PATH automated highways project of the 1990s. You have likely seen photos of that prototype automated highway with platoons of driver-less vehicles riding on I-15 in southern California. The vision has changed, and we are headed towards autonomous, connected vehicles and away from the specialized, and prohibitively expensive, infrastructure that defined earlier efforts.

Suunto Ambit vs Suunto X10

Years ago we reviewed the Suunto X10. Earlier this year Suunto announced a new GPS watch called Suunto Ambit. We will be getting a Suunto Ambit to do a in-depth review but before that let’s do a side by side specs comparison. See this image below:

As you can see from this image there are some major differences between X10 and Ambit. Ambit does a much better job at keeping track of altitude changes. Ambit has automatic alti/baro switch and real-time vertical cumulative value and can report on your total ascent descent. As far as direction – Ambit wins again since it has the 3D digital compass.

In the heart rate tracking department Suunto Ambit boast ANT support where as Suunto X10 doesn’t. You can also use heart rate belts with Ambit. Both of these GPS watches are water resistant to 100 meters and weigh about the same weight.

In reporting weather Ambit and X10 do about the same. However Ambit has a barometer resolution of 1hPa/0.03 inHg.

Brought to you by your GPS navigation site NaviGadget.

Two New Galileo Satellites to Rise in September

The European Commission announced a September 28 launch date for the next pair of Galileo satellites. These will launch together on a Soyuz rocket from French Guiana, joining the two Galileo in-orbit validation (IOV) satellites already in space.