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 SILICON CHIP www.siliconchip.com.au Publisher & Editor-in-Chief Leo Simpson, B.Bus., FAICD Production Manager Greg Swain, B.Sc. (Hons.) Technical Editor John Clarke, B.E.(Elec.) Technical Staff Ross Tester Jim Rowe, B.A., B.Sc Nicholas Vinen Photography Ross Tester Reader Services Ann Morris Advertising Enquiries Glyn Smith Phone (02) 9939 3295 Mobile 0431 792 293 glyn<at>siliconchip.com.au Regular Contributors Brendan Akhurst David Maddison B.App.Sc. (Hons 1), PhD, Grad.Dip.Entr.Innov. Kevin Poulter Dave Thompson SILICON CHIP is published 12 times a year by Silicon Chip Publications Pty Ltd. ACN 003 205 490. ABN 49 003 205 490. All material is copyright ©. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. Printing: Hannanprint, Warwick Farm, NSW. Distribution: Network Distribution Company. Subscription rates: $105.00 per year in Australia. For overseas rates, see our website or the subscriptions page in this issue. Editorial office: Unit 1, 234 Harbord Rd, Brookvale, NSW 2100. Postal address: PO Box 139, Collaroy Beach, NSW 2097. Phone (02) 9939 3295. E-mail: silicon<at>siliconchip.com.au ISSN 1030-2662 Recommended & maximum price only. 4  Silicon Chip Publisher’s Letter How my GPS SatNav suddenly flew out the car window I have been using GPS SatNav units for quite a few years now and I must say I have had a love/hate relationship with them. On the one hand I continually marvel at how the signals from the constellation of GPS satellites are all brought together in a typical Sat/Nav unit to bring you maps and directions to go to virtually anywhere on the planet. On the other hand, I have found all Sat/Nav units to be extremely frustrating at times, as most people do, particularly when you are relying on them the most, when travelling to an unfamiliar destination, when time is pressing and most of all, when you are tired. I wrote on this topic in my Publisher’s Letter in the October 2014 issue and this year I thought that the latest unit I have been using, which also incorporated a dash camera, had fixed some of the problems. Well that was wrong and it had new problems of its own. For example, occasionally on a hot day the display would simply lock up but it would continue giving spoken instructions and would even refuse to turn off. This had happened a few times but it was not until a trip from Sydney to Melbourne that it did it again. Fortunately, I had a phone with GPS and we programmed the destination in and continued on our way. Then for most of our Melbourne stay it performed without mishap until a particularly hot day when it again locked up. The remedy was the same – use a phone with in-built GPS. Next day, on a cool morning we departed for Sydney and got onto Hoddle Street, heading North. The GPS then instructed us to veer left, which I was expecting and we entered the M3 expressway. Shortly after, it took us off the expressway and in a large circuit, back onto the now very choked expressway, in the opposite direction, going towards Hoddle Street! You can imagine the sheer frustration and the flow of expletives – there was nothing I could do about it. Eventually we got back onto Hoddle Street and with the aid of the trusty map book, navigated our way out of that mess and on to the Hume Freeway, having lost about three quarters of an hour. As we approached the Freeway, the Sat/Nav started to make sense but I was still steaming. Then as we barrelled north on the Freeway, it again started to give stupid instructions, such as turning left when that wasn’t possible. I tried turning it off and I even disconnected its USB cable – it still kept blathering on. So that was how it suddenly came to fly out of the window, at 110km/h! Mind you, I did not have the satisfaction of actually seeing it smash into smithereens. I also realised a little later that it had a perfectly good 16GB SD card which I could have retrieved before it departed the vehicle. But enough was enough. There was no remorse. As we drove North (in stony silence), I thought about its other annoyances, such as warnings about “combined safety cameras” in Sydney’s Eastern Distributor tunnel – where there are no traffic lights. Or the stupid instructions to turn left or right after the “Caltex petal station”. Or how about “turn into Merri La”? La! Obviously some map has the abbreviation La for Lane and so that is what the narration says. Or what about taking the “such and such mwy”? That one had me really tricked until I realise that “Mwy” is the abbreviation for Motorway. (It really did pronounce “mwy” phonetically!) How idiotic! And I lost count of the tortured pronunciations of quite normal street names. Clearly, people who market these GPS units don’t realise just how ridiculous these instructions can be and that their products leave a lot to be desired. Companies selling GPS Sat/Nav units should realise that they have a very powerful competitor who, by and large, does a much better job of navigation. That company is Google and while you do need to have internet/data available on your phone, you don’t have to do, or pay, for any map updates. Besides, mobile phone data is getting cheaper all the time. Leo Simpson siliconchip.com.au