I seems that the funding of Galileo, European equivalent of GPS, is arranged now. The negotiation (read: bargaining) went on long into the night.

The involved companies were afraid that they would never recover the costs on the project, so the EU had to put another 2,4 billion euro on the table.
The EU discussion was for a big part where to get the money from. A few countries were against the plan to get the money from the (yes, you read it right!) fewer agricultural funds.
The compromise is that only 1,6 billion will be out of these pockets and the rest out of the budget of innovation and research.

All increases in costs must come out of this latest budget too.

It indeed looks strange that the money is coming from agricultural pockets, but don’t forget that this satellite system is more aimed at civil use than military. ;-)

via Tweaker.net (Dutch only)

Galileo, the answer to the US GPS system is delayed another time. This time it is said not being financial, but problems with the launching schedule of the Soyuz rocket that should bring the Galileo satellite up.
Put the new date in your pda: so around March 2008.

The last few days the was a lot of talking about the Navizon Peer-to-Peer Wireless Positioning Software. The iPhone ready software is available since a week or two. This is great news! GPS support one way or another should have been built-in from day one to my opinion. The software for Blackberry, Symbian and other OS have been on the market longer.

Navizon is a positioning system that triangulates signals from Wifi access points and Cellular towers. It is based on a collaborative database where users who have a GPS device can contribute data on Cell towers and Wifi APs locations that will let other members of the community simulate a Virtual GPS on their phone.

This means that the area you are driving or walking with the Virtual GPS software must be covered by the data in the Navizon database. Interesting to know is that you can earn money with collecting data for Navizon. Now you are listening, right?! ;-)

You can try the software for 15 days for free, that you have to pay $ 24,99 (€ 18,57)

HERE is how to get Google Maps with Navizon. I am not sure whether this will work for every device.

Can wait to give it a try. And I will and tell you about it!
via GPS Gizmodo

GPS, the original, is going to be upgraded till the year 2013. I am calling it ‘The Original’, because the European Galileo GPS-like system would be born dead if no deal would have been signed with the US.

A several billion dollar bid has been opened for the making of eight next gen (GPS III) GPS satellites. There is another bid of US$ 160 million for a ground-based GPS system (GPS OCX).

I am curious on which side Galileo will be. It was intended as a (for the most part) non-military European version of the American GPS system. But now with a signed contract I would like to know what way we are going.
What is the extra for Europe now, except for preventing the theoretical possiblity that the US switches off the GPS signal? And are we up-to-date?

via Engadget

The navigation devices on the market now are real CAR navigation devices. These are build and programmed for that purpose. Most of them do however have the possibility to switch to cycling or even walking mode.
I have two questions on that:

Q1: Are the maps detailed enough to be used for REAL cycling or walking navigation?
Q2: Can the gps device be precise enough to show you the way at this low speed?

A1: I think for the most urban situations the maps are detailed enough to show you even the smallest street and alleys. But in rural areas I still have my questions, based on my experience while using TomTom Navigation 5/6 and Magellan MapSend DirectRoute 2.0 Europe in cities and in rural areas.

A2: I am not a technical specialist, but when walking or cycling with an gps I have the feeling that the devices are to fast for our own speed.
I had several discussions with my family while walking in different cities, because the devices were not always pointing the right direction and turning like a compass needle.
I understand that it is difficult to keep enough signal at this speed, between houses and buildings, while cars are getting from one block to another and pick up new signal fast.

Do you have an idea about this?! Tell Me!

gps