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Noobs-R-Us
07/22/09

In reply to SPOT GPS Tracking Device Now a Smaller, More Powerful Lifesaver
You would think that they've learned from their G1 device and now put the SOS button undersomething so that you can't accidently push it.
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Edited by Noobs-R-Us at 07/22/09 2:15 PM Noobs-R-Us was starred Noobs-R-Us was unstarred

farcedude
07/22/09

@Noobs-R-Us: Except that's what they did.

From SPOT website: "Protective covers over S.O.S and Help button to prevent inadvertent message transmission"
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Noobs-R-Us
07/22/09

@farcedude: Oh, I see! I guess I thought those painted button were actual buttons, duh?
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ninjamurf
07/22/09

In reply to SPOT GPS Tracking Device Now a Smaller, More Powerful Lifesaver
My buddy is currently wrapping up an adventurous 6 month excursion with his girlfriend as they rode his motorcycle from San Diego to Buenos Aires. They blogged the whole thing along the way and they had a SPOT that tracked them on the website. You could go to the website and see exactly where they were and where they'd been, how long it took to get to each place, etc. One of the coolest trips ever. Amazing tool.
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Mediocre
07/22/09

@ninjamurf:

Care to share the URL? It sounds interesting.
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ninjamurf promoted this comment Edited by Mediocre at 07/22/09 2:14 PM Mediocre was starred Mediocre was unstarred

ninjamurf
07/22/09

@Mediocre: They are just wrapping it up and getting ready to come home. It has been freaking amazing to follow them. They've got links to pix and everything along the way as well. Pretty spectacular.

http://twofortheroad-storeylines.blogspot.com/
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not_a_virus.exe.vbs
07/22/09

In reply to SPOT GPS Tracking Device Now a Smaller, More Powerful Lifesaver
What would make this even better is a small monochrome LCD screen and a membrane keyboard, about the size of a small Blackberry. Then you could actually put detail in your messages.

You might need to warn your rescuers about the tribe of amazonian women that are keeping you hostage and snusnuing you to death.
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Edited by not_a_virus.exe.vbs at 07/22/09 1:38 PM

farcedude
07/22/09

@Δεν βρέθηκαν λέξεις: I dunno, I actually like the simplicity of it, and it keeps you from basically liveblogging your adventure over the spot, which is probably why they didn't include a keyboard - to keep operating costs down.
However, I wouldn't mind a simple two line lcd screen that would give you your latitude and longitude. As an outdoors guy, I know of places that I would definitely want a spot (and places I wished I'd had one), but I'll end up carrying a separate GPS as well, just to make position finding on a map simpler. If this could output your coordinates, it'd cut down on my gear load, without costing the spot people anymore. It's not like you need or end up using all the other features of an outdoors GPS most of the time anyway - I usually just want to know where the heck I am, so I don't have to bust out my compass and triangulate.

EDIT: And as to the being able to get word out, there are also times I'd want to travel with a separate GPS and Sat Phone, so I can call out if necessary. It all depends on where you're going and what you reasonably expect.
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Edited by farcedude at 07/22/09 1:51 PM farcedude was starred farcedude was unstarred

Sinecure
07/22/09

@Δεν βρέθηκαν λέξεις:

I have one of the originals and that was one of my suggestions to them. I don't think its as easy as we'd like to believe or they'd have done it already. Kudos to them for adding an additional "status" button so now you can pre-program 3 messages instead of just two. The tracking capabilities are great. Now I want a new one.
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