( snipped-for-privacy@despammed.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :
The fact that there are GPS units available retail for £60 or so shows that the GPS chipset is dirt cheap - and under a tenner doesn't surprise me at all.
Take out the cost of the retailing, the distribution, the packaging, the manufacturing and the rest of the "receiver", and you're not left with a lot for the chipset.
No, it suggests the opposite.
Right, so you reckon that putting in the chipsert into a box and marketing it costs more than £50. I wonder what you pay for a box of matches.
( snipped-for-privacy@despammed.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :
How much is a GSM chipset? How much is a *bare* bones handset, retail, without any network subsidies?
Now compare volumes.
Sorry, you're wrong. You can buy single units of some GPS modules (i.e. chipsets) for under $15. In bulk they will be even cheaper.
There is of course more work to make a GPS receiver than putting a GPS module in a box though.
It's good to see that someone has grasped my point.
That's not GPS, that's SatNav :-)
If you put a GPS chip in a box of matches it won't be nuch use, however a box with a battery, a keyboard & a screen would be quite handy. Those are fairly common on telephones. I can't see knowing your OS grid reference is going to be a big selling point to much of the world though.
Duncan Wood ( snipped-for-privacy@dmx512.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :
Well, no - since the OS grid reference is a uniquely British Isles thing. Lat & Long might be useful, though...
I reckon OS reference is more use for most people, which coordinate system you displays arbitrary as they all tend to start out by calculating WGS84 coordinates & then transforming them
Duncan Wood ( snipped-for-privacy@dmx512.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :
In the UK, yes. Outside the UK, OS grid refs are utterly useless, as the OS grid doesn't cover anywhere else.
I hadn't realised just how damn lucky we were until I got a GPS and tried finding OS-style grid references for other countries. They Don't Exist. Nowhere else has such a simple system or even anywhere close.
Hi there all !
In my last entry, I wrote the following:
" Just to let you all know, I understand from good authority that the Police are the only emergency service to locate / tracing a mobile by " Pinging ". No other company, organisation is allowed to do this and this includes the AA and RAC. The Police work in close contact with the mobile telephone companies and with BT."
All motoring breakdown companies do NOT have access to the equipment to locate you - they do not have the authority to trace you via your mobile, and only the Police are allowed to do this tracing.
Odd then that the Police always ask me where I am. They claim they can not locate me from the cellular handset...
whereas I saw an advert in the paper where the RAC claim to be able to locate me to within some radius.
I can't see a problem as long as the locating is consensual on the part of the handset owner/user.
Richard [in PE12]
I'll say it again:-
Clearly people can do it with consent - there are websites allowing you to do so[1]. If you call the RAC from your cellphone, they can assume such consent - you're not calling for a nice chat...
I have the equipment on my own phone to find out where I am by AGPS, and it's accurate in urban areas to a few yards, in rural areas to within
3-400 yards. This is on 3.[1]
snipped-for-privacy@paran---andr---.wanadoo.co.uk declared for all the world to hear...
It can be done of course, but it's not like it instantly pops up on a screen somewhere. They have to liaise with the network operator.
It would be a strange call if you were broken down but didn't want to be found!
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