Smart Phone GPS Apps Make Life Easy

Mobile devices created by Samsung, Nokia, Google and Apple have bursted onto the consumer market and changed the way people interact with one another. Mobile devices are no longer only used for receiving/placing phone calls, and instead are now the primary method many people send emails, surf the web, draft notes, play games and social network. One thing that all cellular phones have in common is an embedded GPS tracking system. This GPS can be used for a variety of purposes and is essential to the function of numerous mobile apps. Mobile apps that provide a wide variety of benefits to their users.

Yelp, MySpace, Google Maps, Twitter, Instagram and almost every other popular mobile app accesses and utilizes Global Positioning System data from the user of the smart phone. This GPS data can be beneficial on a number of different levels. For example, through the use of GPS cell tracking smart phone users can use Yelp to check-in at local restaurants to get discounts, Facebook to share locational info, Instagram to geo-tag a camera phone image and of course let's not forget Google Maps for the most accurate navigation and routing data. None of these would be possible without the assistance of GPS technology.

GPS is critical to the function of many mobile apps, but another one of the benefits of the satellite tracking technology is in emergency situations. Depending on the wireless carrier providing service, emergency personnel (911) can often times locate where a person is at within 3,300 meters by using cellular triangulation. Having this ability can be life-saving, especially when a person is in a emergency situation and is in a unfamiliar location. The GPS tracking data from the user's cell phone results in quicker and more accurate response times and that can literally make the difference between life and death.

Almost everyone in the United States has used a smart phone and it is estimated that over 90% of Americans own a cell phone. These mobile communication devices are now critical in both the business and consumer world. However, it is the advancement of mobile technologies and GPS that is providing benefits to all smart phone users.

OBD Tracker Provides Tow Truck Businesses Real-Time Data

When a motorist is placed in the unfortunate situation where their automobile runs into mechanical failure one of the first phone calls placed is to a tow truck company. Tow truck companies are often the savior for stranded motorists in need of a lift home, but in order to assist those in need, tow truck companies need to be operating at a very high level of efficiency. One particular device that is helping tow truck companies reach that optimum level of efficiency is the Sync vehicle tracking device, a real-time device that connects directly into the OBD port of any tow truck.

Widely described as one of the best GPS units for tow trucks, the Sync tracker provides live locational information, unlimited access to historical driving data and a number of features designed for total evaluation of tow truck activity. These automotive monitoring features include things such as length of time a driver leaves a tow truck engine idling, how fast drivers are traveling throughout the day and whether drivers are riding the brakes of the tow truck. With this information tow truck businesses are able to understand if drivers are over-using fuel, wasting time while on the clock or simply not being as efficient as they should.

Sync GPS For Fleet Oversight

Most tow truck operations are small businesses running on fairly thin margins. With every dollar counting and customer service always being at the forefront, tow truck companies have to take advantage of every tool available to reduce overhead costs while helping stranded motorists in the shortest amount of time possible. When asked about the role real-time trackers play in their tow truck business, a representative for California Towing stated, "GPS tracking devices are critical in helping us quickly route our tow truck drivers to motorists broke down, better manage fuel consumption and most importantly provide the highest level of response time possible. The reason our towing business made the decision to invest in the Sync was because the tracker device easily plugged into the diagnostics computer so the unit did not need professional installation, and of course the truck tracking unit was highly rated on a number of independent review websites."

Tow truck companies have many of the same logistics and monitoring needs of taxi cab operations, public bus systems and limo services (companies that are routinely involved in fleet oversight). GPS monitoring systems are continuing to meet the needs of all these service related businesses, but it is the Sync tracker that continues to receive praise from tow truck companies when it comes to tracking their service trucks.

Rise In Drug Robberies Prompts GPS Tracking

On a cold December night in 2011, a man by the name of John Capano stopped at a local pharmacy to pick up some prescription medication for his father who was battling cancer. The Long Island man was a retired member of the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) agency and had been no stranger to standing up against criminal activity. That is why it was no surprise that when he walked into the Long Island pharmacy to get his father's medication and noticed a man wielding a firearm attempting to rob that pharmacy for prescription drugs he stepped in to intervene. What happened next was a series of unfortunate events that left Capano dead as well as the gunman.

Only a couple months after the incident that took the life of Capano, a prescription pill addict by the name of David Laffer shot and killed four people during a botched pharmacy robbery in the same Long Island area. Two customers doing some shopping and two employees simply trying to earn money lost their lives over what essentially boils down to addiction. Laffer was later arrested and is now serving a life sentence behind bars.

A short time later in April a couple of armed men rushed into a pharmacy in the East Harlem area in search for the potent painkillers OxyContin and Percocet. After a brief standoff with police agents, one suspect gave himself up to authorities. His partner in crime on the other hand fired his weapon at police and tried to escape but was later shot and killed by a officer who was fueling his vehicle at a nearby gas station.

Sadly, pharmacy drug robberies have increased sharply over the past decade as more and more people are becoming dependent on powerful narcotics such as OxyContin. Now in an attempt to save innocent lives while still bringing the criminals involved in these drug robberies to justice, New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has developed a new plan. What this plan consists of is the use of bait bottles equipped with real-time GPS tracking devices to catch pharmacy robbers after they have left the store they targeted. When questioned about this new program, Kelly explained that if a pharmacy robbery occurred police would be able to not only determine where the suspects are, but also where different stash locations and drug houses are throughout the city. Kelly also stated he has a vision where sometime in the near future that police will work together with GPS monitoring system manufacturers to create some form of nano-type technology device of a real-time tracker device the size of a prescription pill to be used as a bait pill!

GPS Tracker System Ends Lunchbag Bandit's Bank Robbery Career

Sharkey Elam, better known by police investigators as the "Lunchbag Bandit", was a serial bank robber with a long history of involvement in criminal activity. Serving considerable time in state prison on three separate occasions in 89', 93' and 97' for crimes related to bank robbery, Elam was known on a first name basis with numerous police officers in the Chicago area. However, multiple stints in prison and bank robbery convictions over three decades did little to curb the appetite Elam had for breaking the law. This was validated when a GPS tracking system placed in a stack of money during a bank robbery resulted in likely the final arrest of the Lunchbag Bandit.

Elam was fortunate to get second and third chances to change his life, after time in jail, but the 67-year-old man simply couldn't leave his past life in the past. What the Lunchbag Bandit was doing was robbing banks at a furious pace, knocking off at least six since the beginning portion of December according to authorities. With his success probably came a sense of invincibility, but the Lunchbag Bandit got more than he bargained for when he demanded cash from a teller at First American Bank located at 33. West Monroe.

When the Lunchbag Bandit walked up to a First American Bank teller he demanded cash in $100 denominations. The teller complied with the demands but was crafty enough to also include some bait money with a real-time tracker device. Although the Lunchbag Bandit may have gotten away with some of his past robberies the real-time tracking unit would make certain this time he would not evade police.

Roughly 20 minutes after the Lunchbag Bandit escaped from the First American Bank he had robbed, Chicago authorities were able to acquire the data from the real-time tracker device, determine his position and make an arrest. One of Chicago area's most persistent robbers was in custody. Currently, the Lunchbag Bandit is being held without bail while prosecutors gather evidence to show his involvement in not only the First American Bank robbery but other bank robberies throughout the area.

When officers were interviewed about catching the Lunchbag Bandit they were quick to state that the personal tracking device was critical in a getting fast and accurate arrest.