The Netbook Review

Satellite navigation (sat nav) systems are wonderful tools when attempting to determine the proper route to take while traveling in strange lands. When no opportunity to pull off the road and check your atlas or Mapquest directions, a sat nav is there to guide your turns until you reach your destination. Just attach a receiver to your vehicle’s visor, dash, or center console and you have a trip advisor that gives you peace of mind. How do sat nav systems work to point travelers in the right direction?

The United States manages NAVSTAR and Russia operates GLONASS two representative sat nav systems that function using 20-30 satellites. They are considered medium orbit satellites and rotate around the planet in various orbits. These satellites continually beam signals to Earth, where receivers interpret them. Information such as the time the signal was sent, the precise orbital location of the satellite, and the approximation of the other satellites’ locations is included on each signal. The receiver then determines how long it took the signal to reach its receptor and formulates a distance to the satellite. This distance, in conjunction with the satellite’s location and the time the signal required to travel the distance, is used to pinpoint the receiver’s location.

Sat nav systems must perform corrections when calculating positions, however. Satellites send out signals at the speed of light, and if the receiver is only slightly off in calculating the amount of time the signal was in transit, it is multiplied by light speed’s rather significant figure and that leads to huge positional errors. Receivers therefore gather information from four separate satellites in order to formulate an accurate reading of their ground position. This position is displayed on a screen, sometimes in motion, so that the user can read the receiver’s findings.

When utilized for street level navigation, sat nav systems use receivers equipped with maps that are stored within. These maps match up streets, highways, and occasionally landmarks with their satellite positions so that the receiver presents information to the user in terms of roads and turns rather than in latitude and longitude readings. Calculating its position via the sat nav system, the receiver displays its position in accordance with its location on specific streets. It will then guide the user based upon the final destination provided.

Via signals sent from space, sat nav systems identify a receiver’s location. This receiver is in the hands of a user who can then determine where he is. These modern technological advancements have made travel easier than ever.

Related Reading : HGV GPS Or Truck Sat Navs

Netbooks Reviewed computers, consumer electronics, gps, technology

The Apple iPad, a revolutionary and ground-breaking tablet PC was launched in early 2010 to critical acclaim. The 9.5” x 7.5” unit contains a 1 GHz Apple A4 processor and is capable of processing a number of intensive tasks. The iPad is often considered to be the big brother of the iPhone and contains a liquid crystal display built with scratch-resistant glass. Whilst impressive, the iPad is not indestructible and repairs can be expensive. For this reason, we’ve put together some comprehensive information on different iPad insurance plans available to consumers and business customers around the world.

If you prefer to insure your iPad with Apple, the manufacturer, you can opt for the Apple Care Protection Plan. This will set you back a cool £85, working out at £7 per month over the course of a year. In addition, the Apple Care Protection Plan is really only an extended warranty – it doubles it from one year to two and extends your complimentary technical support from 90 days to two years. It’s worth bearing in mind, however, that as Apple manufacture the iPad it’s quite likely that they’ll be able to fix issues more effectively than a third party.

If you’d rather look elsewhere for iPad insurance, there are lots of third party insurers offering great deals. Don’t simply put your iPad on your home contents insurance as it’s a specialised device which requires specialist insurance. You can get iPad insurance online quickly and easily for less than £5 per month and this often covers you for a wide range of accidental loss and damage related incidents. Choosing this method of insurance could save you lots of money.

Many well-known insurance companies will quite happily insure your iPad either under your home contents insurance or as part of a separate policy. However, it’s worth bearing in mind that the vast majority of household and consumer insurance companies are not experts in technological devices and will probably only send your iPad to the same repair companies as a specialist broker anyway. Make sure you’re dealing with specialists and that your money is well spent.

It may be tempting to insure your iPad through a large insurance company but their knowledge of technical products is often weak, making this avenue almost useless. Apple may be best placed to repair their own products but their service and reliance on admitting faults is sometimes dubious. Using a specialist iPad insurance company will ensure you’re dealing with the experts whilst experiencing very little hassle and paying a great price.

Continue : Apple iPad Insurance

Netbooks Reviewed consumer electronics, insurance, ipad, technology

Amazon must be absolutely delighted with the performance of its Kindle reader family in 2009. The Kindle 2.0 was launched in February and the large format DX followed shortly afterwards in June. The Kindle quickly became Amazon’s best selling product – even prior to the global launch of the Kindle 2.0 in October.

By the end of 2009′s festive season, the Kindle had become Amazon’s “most gifted” product ever and, on Christmas day, Amazon sold more Kindle books than they did traditional printed volumes. Of course, that was probably due to all those lucky people who had received a Kindle as a Christmas gift. In all probability, having opened their gift and got the Kindle out of the box, new owners would want to try out their new reader. That would probably have involved connecting to the Amazon website and downloading a Kindle book or two.

Nevertheless, selling more Kindle books than paperbacks and hardbacks is still a significant milestone. Even if some maintain that the method of realing this was just a little artificial then, when you think about it, that simply emphasises just what a good fit the Kindle is for Amazon’s business model.

Meanwhile, Amazon’s competition has been closely observing their success and taking steps to secure a share of the e-book reader market. The list of companies with e-book readers in development reads like a who’s who of consumer electronics multinationals. Microsoft, Apple, Sony and Samsung are just a small selection of the competitors who will be competing with Amazon in 2010. Not to overlook Barnes and Noble who have now entered the market with their new Nook reader.

Many of the next generation readers will incorporate features which will make the Kindle, in its current format at least, look out of date. Color displays, touch screen controls and an industry standard e-book format which will let users lend e-books to family and friends or even to borrow books from digital libraries are just some of the features which users can anticipate.

One thing’s for sure, Amazon will not sit on its hands while their competitors muscle in on the market which Amazon have done so much to develop. The present Kindles, although innovative only a few months ago, probably bear little resemblance to what e-book readers will be like in the near future. Amazon probably already has their next generation Kindle under development (the Kindle 4?) and, considering the level of drive and innovation that they have displayed thus far, Amazon will be probably be looking forward to even greater success during 2010. Kindle users can look forward to an updated, enhanced Kindle packed with new features – probably in the first half of 2010.

Netbooks Reviewed Amazon kindle, consumer electronics, e-books, ebooks, kindle 2, kindle DX, kindle ebook reader, Mobile Computing, personal tech