UK Digital Cameras Blog

Police in Cheshire have urged people to make sure that any expensive gadgets are kept secure overnight.

Congleton Neighbourhood Policing Unit warned that many cars in the area were being broken into by thieves looking for items such as sat navs.

Speaking to the Crewe Guardian, Inspector Mark Gammage said: “If you have to park your car on the drive or in the street overnight remove any sat nav equipment.

“Also never leave items like mobile phones, laptops or iPods visible in the parked car.”

Although he stated that thieves could break in the hope of finding an expensive item, this was likely to happen if the car was kept safe and secure overnight.

This follows a warning from the Metropolitan Police that an increasing number of sat navs are being stolen from cars.

Forces across the UK have urged people to deter thieves by not leaving the devices in their vehicle while it is unattended.

Motorists should always take preventative action to ensure that their satellite navigation (sat nav) system does not fall victim to thieves, a senior police officer has said.

Residents are becoming more concerned about the growing level of sat nav theft in Berkshire, according to police superintendent Mike Ismay, who stressed the importance doing “something about vehicle crime”.

The website, icBerkshire reports Mr Ismay as stating that “between the efforts of what the community are doing, we’re struggling to reduce theft from motor vehicles,” he then called for “collective” action.

Sat navs are growing in popularity according to a recent survey undertaken by Trafficmaster, with one in five motorists in the UK owning one. It is this rising demand that is also fuelling motivation for thieves to target cars, Mr Ismay remarked.

Mr Ismay’s calls come after Gloucestershire police declared plans to issue motorists with yellow dusters aimed at encouraging drivers to wipe off the sucker marks left on the windscreen by a sat nav device.

The importance of the location of gadgets for the car such as satellite navigation (sat nav) systems has been stressed with new research showing that in a crash, a child could be seriously injured by these items.

Along with sat navs, DVD players and mobile phone holders could all conspire to cause serious injured to child passengers in cars if even a low-speed crash occurred, according to German road safety experts.

During crash tests the researchers found that the precariousness of the positioning of satnavs and other gadgets meant that a collision at only 18 miles per hour could prove to be hugely dangerous to a child.

Duncan Vernon, a road safety officer with accident prevention charity Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, told the Scotsman that he felt “worried” by the findings of the study.

He continued to state: “Manufacturers of these items need to ensure that they provide a high level of protection for their customers under reasonably foreseeable circumstances.”

Tests showed that while a sat nav device fitted to the windscreen stayed where it was during the crash, one that was attached to an air vent did not and could have caused serious damage to a passenger.

The humble yellow duster may provide the impetus for drivers to attempt to avoid having their satellite navigation (sat nav) systems stolen by thieves.

A new scheme which will first be rolled out in Gloucestershire will result in thousands of yellow dusters being handed out to drivers in a bid to remind them to wipe off the sucker marks on their windscreens that are left from their sat nav systems.

Criminals have been focussing their attentions on expensive sat nav systems such as those produced by Garmin and so Gloucestershire constabulary has issued a total of 2,500 free yellow dusters for motorists to get to work on their windscreens with.

Speaking of the move, Paul Francis, crime reduction officer at Gloucestershire police, said: “One of the easiest ways to crime-proof your car and stop your expensive navigation system from being stolen is to remove the equipment altogether but to also wipe off the sucker mark left on the windscreen.”

According to the Daily Mail, a police spokesperson also said that “satnav
thefts [have] risen by 75 per cent” since 2005.

Garmin is considered to be one of the best providers of satellite navigation (sat nav) systems, proving both popular and reliable, a new survey states.According to the research carried out by US analyst Robert W Baird, where 20 consumer electronics retailers were questioned, the overall view of Garmin as a brand was positive.

Typically, Garmin products “outsell other devices on a two-to-one margin”, Robert W Baird claimed and estimates for earnings-per-share have been increased from the initial predictions for both this year and for 2008.

The sat nav provider was also handed the tag of “sector outperform” by analysts at CIBC World Markets earlier in the month. On June 15th, the target price was increased by $67 (£33.55) to $79 (£39.56).

Garmin’s official website says that it has “built and sold millions of GPS receivers”. Additionally: “While our immediate success has resulted from developing innovative products for a variety of markets, our long-term success is based on our commitment to support our customers after the sale.”

Some Brits are relying on hugely outdated information when they use road maps to get from A to B, highlighting the need for a more modern alternative such as a satellite navigation (sat nav) system.

It was discovered by automotive accessories provider, Trafficmaster, that one in every 100 motorists in the UK were using maps that dated back to 1950 and earlier.

This equates to a total of 138,000 drivers who run the risk of getting lost due to misleading and now out-dated information, while it was found that 364,000 motorists are currently employing maps that are from before 1990.

More people were found to be trusting a route planner that dated back to before 2000. The figures urged Philip Hale, spokesman at Trafficmaster to state that it is a necessity for drivers to “need to know all [their] options”.

Outlining the case for sat nav systems, he continued: “Outdated maps are at best unhelpful and at worst distracting and dangerous to follow.”

A study in how newsworthy stories can be generated through a mix of GPS technology and human interaction has been launched by the BBC, Nokia, the University of Brighton and marketing company Ymogen.

Entitled Geo-Stories, the so-called citizen story project has been trialled in order to ” explore how text, images and video, combined with location and time, can create ‘crowd pulling stories’”.

The citizen journalism project involved MA photography students being armed with a Nokia handset which was GPS enabled as well as a sat nav system and then images, audio and video as well as text and geographical information was captured.

A web-based gallery now houses the narratives created by the students which was launched by Ymogen. The aim of the project was to demonstrate “the rich capabilities of combined GPS and mobile devices.”

According to Earth Scope, geo-stories are “a map-based, multimedia presentation that communicates important information about our world - from global to local”.

Brits would like to receive their satellite navigation (sat nav) instructions from Homer Simpson, according to the findings of a new survey.

The slobbish, yet lovable, yellow cartoon character came out in first place in a poll of British drivers sponsored by Palm Europe, followed by Eurovision host Terry Wogan, former Bond Sean Connery and Ocean’s 13 star George Clooney.

In terms of regional accents, south-east and the home counties proved to be most popular with drivers using sat nav, while the Birmingham accent was least popular with just two per cent preferring this.

Quizzing drivers on a range of related subjects, it was found that 70 per cent of the Brits questioned believed themselves to be the finest drivers in Europe - sat nav or no sat nav!

Although 84 per cent of respondents admitted to getting lost on an average journey, half of these same motorists would not stop and ask for directions, instead continuing to drive and sorting out the problem alone.

Furthermore, sat nav systems were beneficial to 80 per cent of drivers questioned it was found.

New research has suggested that the European satellite navigation (sat nav) market will reach 35 million units by 2010, compared with 2005’s ten million sales.

A sample of nearly 2,000 people in the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain conducted by Frost & Sullivan has discovered that 59 per cent of non-navigation users would consider purchasing such a system.

In terms of brand awareness across Europe, Tom Tom leads the way at present, followed by the manufacturers; Sony, Blaupunkt, Navman, Garmin and then Acer.

Frost & Sullivan Research Analysts Praveen Chandrasekhar and Franck Leveque remarked: “Navigation systems have become increasingly affordable and are now the target of consumer electronics participants who view the automotive market as an untapped opportunity.

“Convenience, efficiency and the need to avoid using paper maps seem to be driving interest in navigation systems.”

The most important factor in determining which sat nav system to purchase was the ease of use, Frost & Sullivan found.

One of the key features that is set to make an entrance onto mobile phones in the near future is the Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and Sony Ericsson believes it can be a social networking tool.Rather than being a bland system, Miles Flint, president of Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications said that it could prove to be much more communicative and personal.

Mr Flint told the news agency Reuters’ Global Technology, Media and Telecoms summit: “One of the more compelling things that we might use every day is the integration of that information into knowing where my friends are.”

GPS chips are most commonly found in car navigation systems and they utilise satellites in order to provide the user with accurate information regarding their whereabouts.

Nokia’s chief executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo had earlier in the week expressed similar sentiments to Mr Flint, stating that mobile phones can prove to be very useful tools regarding social networking. “Your community’s in your pocket,” he said at a shareholders meeting.