FCC chairman Ajit Pai has sent a letter out to all carriers that they will soon be fined for selling users' GPS location data to third parties. Leo says it'll likely just be a slap on the wrist.
Vince is going to be sailing around and he wants a tablet to stay connected. Leo says to stay away from third-party tablets and stick to the iPad or an Android tablet. They are the most reliable. Cheaper third-party ones will not give you the experience and performance you need. Leo also recommends getting a Dual Electronics Stand Alone Bluetooth GPS receiver. Leo has one and it's far more accurate than the GPS in the mobile devices.
Danny called last week about his phone's GPS lagging behind where he actually was. His wife recently figured out what was wrong, and that was the metal mesh that supports the rearview mirror attached to the windshield was causing interference. When he moved the phone to the left side of his windshield, the GPS was suddenly accurate again. Leo says that makes sense. The Mesh is causing a kind of Faraday cage for that particular area of your dashboard.
Danny is getting different results using his Map app in his three cars. Two of his cars has his maps apps working great in them, but his Hybrid doesn't work well at all with his maps app at all. Leo suspects that Danny's hybrid may have something in its design that prevents the phone from triangulating its position with GPS satellites. Some electric cars don't have AM radios because of interference from the electric engine. So it may be that there's interference going on.
Steve is amazed at how GPS mapping apps can know what the best and fastest route is. Leo says that WAZE is crowd sourced, so it gets real time traffic data from Waze users themselves, and it can work to route you around it.
Steve is also a photographer and wants to know what are good online sources to share and get feedback. Leo says that while it has changed recently, Flickr is a good place to post for community input.
Sam wants to talk about GPS, which helps you to figure out where you are around the planet. So far, there's GPS here in the US, Russia has GLONASS, and Europe has their own. China is also developing their own GPS network. Experts estimate that our economy is so dependent on GPS, we could lose $1 Billion a day should it go down. It works by triangulating three GPS satellites that sync up with time code to estimate the distance from where you are to the satellite, and then it calculates where you are on the planet.
Lyle is looking for a tracking device for kids, so he can keep track of them, especially when missing. Leo says that there's the Little Tracker ($69) and there's some you can put in shows and other clothing. The Trax Play is $99 plus a $10 monthly subscription. The cool feature is Geo Fencing, which alerts you when the kid moves out of a set area. TomGuide has a list of the Best GPS trackers for kids here - https://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-gps-child-trackers,review-2884.html
Chris needs a new tablet that supports GPS. Leo recommends the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 with LTE. Leo suggests Chris to go to his carrier store (AT&T) and tell them you're thinking of going with the competition. They'll give you a good deal to keep your business.
Chris also asks how he can mount his tablet? Leo says to put a metal disc on the back and affix it to your dash with a magnet. It's perfectly safe.
Norm is a contractor and likes to GeoTag photos for his clients. But Google killed Picasa, which is what he uses. What can he do to add the GPS coordinates to it? Leo says that in the EXIF data of your phone's photos will be the GPS coordinates. Upload them to an album of Google Photos and you should be able to have it show photos on a map. It's called Google MyMaps. Create a new album, then new layer, then import.
Mark needs to prove where he was to someone. Leo says that you can see where you've been by going to google.com/dashboard. Click on maps, then more, then timeline. If it's enabled in the application settings, you will see a history of where your phone has checked in within the network. It should go as far back as 18 months at least. If that isn't good enough, you could contact your carrier as they will have that information available. But that information is only available to law enforcement as they can get access to that information without a warrant. So using Google is your best bet.
