With Maps for Android updated to 5.4 you’ll be able to see your search history, this should save you a little bit of time because you won’t be entering the same search term over and over again. Maps for Android 5.4 also sports more detailed business information in the search results on the map – that’s helpful!

The most awesome new feature is the one that allows you to report a destination that’s not already available. Destination reporting will help Google keep up to date on what’s out there in our constantly changing real world.

Google Maps for Android is free and it’s available in the Android Market. If you already have it installed, you should be able to go to the updates section of the Market app to download and install the update.

Both Garmin and TomTom are behind on this one, the whole world outside of China, Taiwan, Korea and the UK are paying the price for their slip on GPS design advancements. As far as we can tell, Mio is only offering their Moov V Series GPS devices in the countries we mentioned above. We’re not sure when, or even if, they’ll be offered in North America. If you happen to spot the Moov V Series in North America, we’d appreciate it if you let us know. Mio also refers to the V Series as the Mio Spirit TV – just don’t use the TV part while you’re driving.

Are you taking a trip to one of the countries where you can buy Mio’s Spirit? You might want to pick up one or two of these and slip them into your luggage to bring them back with you. It’d be nice to show off and be a really special gift to a good friend.

To see Mio’s pitch, you can head over to the Mio UK Web Site and check out exactly what North America is missing out on.

The video left us a little confused. Like, we got the gist of what’s going on, but the video leads to believe that it’s so much more. Since we’re full of tech-stosterone over here at SourceGPS.com, we thought that we might be lacking some cultural and artistic aptitude and may not understand exactly what’s really going on in the video.

Have a look at the video yourself before you continue reading.

HEY! Are you with us?

We were inspired by the video too. We almost found the time to get a hundred or so of our closest friends together (preferably only those 100 who know how to play musical instruments) to start a parade and scribble out “SourceGPS.com” on the city streets with our GPS tracklog data.

We didn’t get around to scribbling out that new-age, funky artwork with our GPS tracklog, but we did figure out what’s what and who is who in the video.

According to Wikipedia, OK Go is actually a rock band in LA – sorry OK Go, we honestly didn’t know you’re famous.

The Range Rover Evoque is, not surprisingly, a vehicle produced by Land Rover, and they somehow managed to think up a marketing scheme titled “Hello Evoque” or “Pulse of the City” to help give their vehicle launch a central marketing point to hinge on.

You’d better act now if you want to become the da Vinci of Geo Art, because we’re pretty sure the Geo Art Craze is going to die off fairly quickly.

If you can handle it, check out more at HelloEvoque.com. Ok? Go!

Let’s not get the wrong idea about the touchscreen feature on the Forerunner 610 though, you’re not going to be able to pull a miniature stylus out of the back and finish up that late PowerPoint presentation while you’re on your morning jog before work. The Forerunner 610′s touchscreen feature is geared specifically to quickly and easily navigating through your current stats while you continue your exercise. The more advanced features, like recapping some of your historical data, is going to be difficult to do while you’re exercising unless you’re super coordinated and have really tiny fingers to tap the screen in just the right spot.

We think that the touchscreen on the Garmin Forerunner 610 is a pretty awesome innovation, and that any serious athlete will find the touchscreen feature easy to use and less distracting than little tiny buttons on most regular sport watches.

Manufacturer Description: A touch faster. The Forerunner 610 gives you several ways to get in touch with your training data. The swipe and scroll action makes it easy to adjust settings, review your run history and more. A quick tap of the screen is all it takes to advance to the next training page so you can see more data.

The 610’s sleek touchscreen is as rugged as it is functional, proving it’s more than just a pretty face. The 610 can stand up to rain, sweat and splashes, yet it’s sensitive enough that you can operate it with running gloves.

Quick Specs:
Physical Dimensions: 1.8″W x 2.5″H x 0.56″D (4.57 x 6.35 x 1.42 cm)
Screen Size: 1.0″ x 1.0″ (2.5 x 2.5 cm)
Screen Resolution: 128 x 128 pixels (monochrome LCD)
Weight: 2.54 oz (72 g) with batteries
Battery: rechargeable lithium-ion
Battery Life: 4 weeks (power save mode); 8 hours (training mode)

A Swedish firm called SWEPOS, who provides realtime and post processing data that allows global positioning system users to achieve extremely accurate data, has decided to use Russia’s GLONASS system because it works better in the northern latitudes.

Corrected GPS data requires specialized equipment which is still fairly expensive, this type of equipment, and the data and services that SWEPOS provides, isn’t used for vehicle navigation or hiking. Moves like this one, in any industry, shows the importance of competing systems and the weaknesses or strengths within them.

SWEPOS’s Web Site

Devices that serve multiple purposes are the logical way to go. You’ll have less cords hanging around, you’ll be able to take more stuff with you in one small package, and you’ll probably save some money in the end as well.

Mobile Phones are Not Navigational GPS Replacements

Cellular phones, no matter how advanced they are, are not the ideal replacement for full size navigational devices. The problem here is size – cellular phones don’t have big enough screens for them to be used safely for every day navigation in a vehicle.

GPS enabled mobile phones have their purpose though, and they should prove to continually increase in popularity. Phones fit in your pocket and they’re the ideal devices for keeping track of where you are and for connecting up with what’s around you. For people that are walking or biking, a GPS enabled phone is the ideal electronic companion. However handy they are though, phones are not an alternative to a real navigational device that’s used inside a vehicle.

GPS Devices are Being Built with Bigger Screens

The trend with navigational devices seems to be bigger screens, bigger screens and bigger screens. In the last few years, screen sizes for navigational GPS devices have pretty much doubled from 3.5 to 7 inches. Almost all devices now come standard with free lifetime map updates and some manufacturers even offer free lifetime traffic updates. These are features that consumers expect to come free with the device so they not sale-able features. The only noticeable advancements that consumers would readily notice in navigational GPS hardware is the bigger screen size and the prettier packaging.

Take for instance the TomTom XXL series, it’s obvious that the XXL means extra, extra large. With such a reasonable price, the XXL must be refering to the 5 inch screen, not the price tag. At one time the XXL series had the biggest screens on the market, but the TomTom XXL is being dwarfed by the Magellan’s Roadmate 1700 – it has a massive 7 inch screen. The Roadmate’s screen is already as big as some tablet computers, and it’s just a hair away from being the size of an iPad.

The Garmin nüvi 3790LMT looks and feels more like a tablet computer than a GPS. With the new stylish design, Garmin was able to shed the toy-like look of most GPS devices. It’s a handsome machine, and Garmin should really think about putting an operating system on a GPS like this. We think that if anyone’s going to do it, it’s going to be Garmin – Follow the Leader.

Markets are Being Tested

One of the first things manufacturers need to do is establish whether there’s a market for a product or not. Many tablets are already being built with GPS chips inside and navigational software is already available for them too. Navigational capability with tablet computers is already available. If you look hard enough you’ll also find that dashboard mounts for tablets are already being sold. With a little harder push we’ll be replacing our single purpose navigational devices with the multi purpose tablet computer without even noticing. It’s going to be a very natural transition.

You Know You Want a Tablet Anyway

The computer revolution was supposed to replace paper, but it still has a long way to go, a properly used tablet will help make the replacement happen. If you’re a designer, a photographer, an architect or even a construction worker, a tablet with the right software can replace the use of paper. No printing your portfolio or schematics, a hardy version of a tablet PC will do the trick.

A connected tablet, although less powerful, is a lot more versatile than a laptop or notebook. The laptop is a mobile device, but they still make you want to sit down when you open one up. The tablet doesn’t have this effect on people, and, if you throw a lanyard or wrist-strap on your tablet, you’re going be even more comfortable with it.

You know you want one! With a little more time people will be transitioning in mass towards tablet computers as in-vehicle navigational devices.

Researchers that are studying bears around the Beaufort sea, located north of Alaska, have tracked a female polar bear that swam for 9 days straight. She covered around 427 miles (687km) while swimming through water temperatures ranging between 35-43F (2-6C) during her 232 hour journey.

The polar bear was fitted with a GPS tracking collar and was followed for two months by researchers. Seeing polar bears taking a swim is not new, polar bears have been observed in open water in the past, but with GPS tracking technology researchers were able to track the complete journey of this particular bear.

Although the bear survived the feat, it came at a high price – she lost 22% of her body weight and her yearling cub.

You can find condoms in almost any store these days, but the ones that you can locate with GPS enabled app are free. They’re distributed by the New York City Heath Department in an effort to combat sexually transmitted diseases. The only thing that’s better than a free condom is having some actual plans to use it. There are over 1,000 distribution centers around NYC and with the GPS enabled app you’ll be able to locate the one that’s closest to you.

To download the NYC Condom Finder application, just search for ‘NYC Condom’ in the Android Market or the iPhone App Store. New Yorkers with GPS enabled phones don’t have any reason to not stay safe.

You can read the full text of the NYC Health Department Press Release on their web site.

CBC reports that their fishing boat overturned into the frigid water. The party of five, including two children, weren’t able to get a distress message out before boarding their lifeboat.

After just half an hour, the coast guard located the people in distress. Without the GPS enabled beacon they could have been out there a long time before anybody realized there was something wrong. And, without their geographical coordinates being transmitted on the beacon’s signal, they coast guard could have had a rough time trying to locate them once they had been alerted that something was wrong.

The idea of the research isn’t to track the movements of the subject all the time, but just to mark the spot where the subject used their medical inhaler – or when the onset of an asthma attack happened.

After outfitting a bunch of asthma sufferers with GPS enabled inhalers and retrieving the data off of them, Van Sickle can construct a heat map that allows him to see if there are any locations that consistently put asthma sufferers in a situation that provoked them to use their inhalers. With this information Van Sickle can study the hot area and try and determine the environmental factors that provoked his test subjects to use their inhalers.

Ideas like this are a great way to help people. Hopefully he has it in mind to expand on the idea to produce an internet accessible asthma trigger heat map that’s accessible to people who are interested. The web site could function as a warning system to asthma sufferers so they know which areas are provoking asthma attacks and which areas to avoid.

If you’re interested in learning more about the project or even participating you can find more information about it on the University of Wisconsin-Madison Web Site.