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Enjoy The Outdoors? Take Your Mio A201 GPS Walking, Camping, Mountain Biking or Motorcycling…

Fitting neatly into the palm of your hand, the Mio A201 is a truly portable GPS and PDA rolled into one. With its rotating GPS antenna, the Mio A201 allows you to navigate in both portrait and landscape positions; offering you flexibility and comfort depending on your choice of activity.

The PDA is an integral part of the Mio A201, and since it’s supported by Windows Mobile 5, you can choose from a variety of navigational software. This is the beauty of this product. The Mio A201 is just as at home on a mountain bike and in the countryside; as it is in the car. Unlike previous PDA’s from Mio Tech, the Mio A201 has a new removable Lithium-ion 1200mlAh battery. With over 4.5 hours of operation from one battery, and the ability to double, or triple its operational life, this is the perfect GPS device for the off-road navigator.

Forgotten your compass? Mio Tech have also developed their software, Mio Map V2, to accommodate all you hikers and cyclists out there. The GPS receiver computes the direction of travel as part of the GPS solution, giving directions relative to true north.

Prefer Warmer Climates? Take the Mio A201 on Holiday With You… (you could even use it on your plane)

You go on holiday to have fun and relax, right? Well, what can be more frustrating than being in a country you want to explore, unable to find anywhere, without following a tourist bus to make sure you don’t get lost (again).

Hiring a car on holiday need never be troublesome again with the Mio A201. The Mio A201 operates perfectly with the TOMTOM Navigator 5 Software & Maps of Western Europe (Including GB), offering you as many hassle-free excursions as you want, within Western Europe. And don’t overlook the use of the Mio A201 GPS in finding your car in a busy city. Long-stay car parks, particularly those at airports, display an endless wave of parked cars. By simply marking your location as you leave will help you avoid any embarrassing situations.

If you prefer to explore new cities and towns on foot, thanks to Mio’s adoption of the new SiRF Star III chipset , you will find your Mio A201 will have no problems maintaining accuracy in the hustle and bustle of new city centers.

Traveling to your destination on commercial flights can sometimes become a bit tedious. With its improved accuracy and flexibility The Mio A201 can brighten up your journey; informing you of your ground speed, distance to your destination, real altitude and direction, and also your location on a world map.

All Work, No Play? The Mio A201 Gives You Both…

Unprepared for your meeting? Travel to and from work a lot? As a pocket PC, the Mio A201 can offer you the opportunity to catch up on work anytime, anyplace (if you really want to). With a generous 192MB of memory, the Mio A201 provides the latest version of Microsoft Word, Excel, and Media Player 10. You can even prepare a powerpoint presentation on the move.

If you’re visiting clients all day, the Mio A201 PDA has the ability to synchronize with Microsoft Outlook on your desktop, so your calender and contacts can go with you. What is really handy is; to make client visits quick and easy, you can plan your journey direct from your contact list in Outlook, rather than looking up the address on the navigation page.

When you’re ready for a break, you can relax and listen to your choice of music on its integrated MP3 Player, or browse through your album of digital photos. Sporting a 320 x 240 pixel colour LCD touch screen the Mio A201 ensures pictures and games appear vibrant, and maps easy to read.

If you have a travel companion, the Mio A201 can enable you to exchange files, photos, and music wirelessly via its built in Bluetooth connectivity.

Always Running Late? The Mio A201 can calculate your quickest route, and bypass those traffic queues (all within the speed limit)…

Of course , it is almost guaranteed you will hit a traffic snarl up when you’re running late.

On board re-routing options are a key feature for any GPS navigational system, and the Mio A201 gives you just that, with the addition of quicker route planning and calculation with its generous 312MHz processor and 64MB of RAM. Accompanying this, Mio Tech. have teamed up with the Traffic Message Channel (TMC), to provide you with free, up to date traffic data via your Mio A201.

Encouraging you to drive safely (and not only when there is a speed camera around), the latest Mio Map Software incorporates a pretty impressive feature enabling you to take note of the speed limit for each road you drive on. By activating this option, your Mio A201 will remind you to ease off your accelerator as your speed creeps above the speed limit.

Book a Table at a Restaurant, or a Room in a Hotel. With More Than 750,000 Points of Interest (POI) at Your Fingertips, You Can Prepare Your Day on The Move…

Whether you’re in a new city, or on a long journey, it’s very handy to know where the next petrol station or service stop is. If you tend to be a more organized person, it can be convenient to have contact details of your favorite restaurant, or hotel at your fingertips, so you can book in advance.

Having an on board database of POI, and an ability to view contacts which are in the vicinity of your location, or across a region, the Mio A201 caters for both the prepared, and unprepared driver.

So, with the ability to connect your Mio A201 wirelessly with a Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone, and transform your GPS/PDA into your very own hands-free kit, why not start planning your day, on the move?

If you want to see the Mio A201 GPS full specification, or read about a variety of GPS systems and features visit http://www.globalpositioningsystems.co.uk.

With GPS systems becoming mainstream, Tracey Simpson has wrote this article to help readers understand what GPS systems can offer. Please visit http://www.globalpositioningsystems.co.uk to read about a variety of GPS systems and features.

Tags: features, GPS, Mio A201 GPS, Sat Nav

In this second of a three part series we’re going to go over how GPS receivers actually measure distance. A lot of math and science goes into this stuff so sit back and get ready to strain your brain.

At any given time, let’s choose midnight for this example, the satellite begins transmitting a digital pattern called a pseudo-random code. At that same time the GPS receiver begins running that same random pattern. When the satellite’s signal reaches the receiver the pattern transmission will lag a little behind the receivers playing of the same pattern. The length of the delay is equal to the travel time of the signal. The receiver multiplies this time by the speed of light to measure how far the signal actually travelled. We assume the signal travelled in a straight line and this therefore is the distance from receiver to satellite.

In order for this measurement to be able to be made the receiver and the satellite both need clocks that can be synchronized to the nanosecond. In order to make this possible you need atomic clocks, not only in the receiver but in every satellite as well. Atomic clocks cost between $50,000 and $100,000. That makes them a little too expensive for everyday use.

To overcome this cost problem the GPS system has a very clever solution. Every satellite contains an expensive atomic clock but the receiver contains a regular quartz clock which the receiver itself constantly resets. The receiver looks at the incoming signals from four or more of the satellites and compensates for it’s own inaccuracy. Once it calculates the correct time value this will cause all the signals that the receiver is getting from the satellites to align at a single point in space. That is the time value held by the atomic clocks in the satellites themselves. So the receiver sets it’s clock to that time value and therefore has the same time value as all the satellites. Atomic clock accuracy for quartz clock prices. You can’t beat that.

When you measure the distance to four satellites you can draw four spheres that all intersect at one point. Three spheres will intersect even if you’re way off but four spheres will only intersect if you are exactly right. The receiver can calculate the time needed for the spheres to intersect at one point. Based on this it resets it’s clock to match the atomic clocks of the satellites. The receiver does this constantly as long as it is on, which gives it the same accuracy as the atomic clocks in the satellites.

In order for this info to be of any use, the receiver also has to know where the satellites actually are. To do this, the receiver stores an almanac that tells where each satellite is at a given time. Any adjustments that need to be made because of gravitational pull are transmitted to the receivers by the department of the military.

In the last instalment of this series we’ll go over problems with the system, how they can be compensated for and how to use the data itself.

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Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Global Positioning Systems
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Tags: global positioning system, GPS

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based navigation system made up of a network of about 18-24 satellites placed into orbit. GPS was originally intended for military applications, but in the late 1970s, the government made a system available for civilian use. GPS works in any weather conditions, anywhere in the world, 24/7. There are no cost for the use.

How it works

GPS satellites circle the earth twice a day in the same orbit and transmit signal information to down to mother earth. GPS take this information and use triangulation to calculate the user’s exact location. The GPS receiver compares the time a signal was transmitted by a satellite with the time it was received. The time difference tells the GPS receiver how far away from the satellite it is. Now, with this distance measurements from a few more satellites, the receiver can determine the user’s position and display it on the unit’s electronic map.

A GPS receiver must be locked on to the signal of at least three satellites to calculate a 2d position (latitude and longitude) and track movement. With four or more satellites in view, the receiver can determine the user’s 3D position (latitude, longitude and also altitude). Once the user’s position has been determined, the GPS unit can calculate other information, such as speed, track, trip distance, distance to destination, sunrise and sunset time and a lot more.

How accurate is GPS?

Today’s GPS receivers are extremely accurate, thanks to parallel multi-channel design. Garmin’s 12 parallel channel receivers are quick to lock onto satellites when first turned on and they maintain strong locks, even in dense foliage or urban settings with tall houses. Certain atmospheric factors and other sources of error can affect the accuracy of GPS receivers. Garmin

Tags: garmin, GPS, magelan, navigator