By Evan Ackerman
GPS devices are good for three things: telling you where you are, where you’re going, and where you’ve been. Somewhat ironically, using them for the first thing doesn’t really help you out that much… Knowing that your present location is exactly 37.867828° N 122.269488° W won’t make you any less lost. Telling you where you’re going is what most people use GPS devices for these days, but really, it’s far less relevant than getting you back where you came from. So if that’s what you care about most, you’ll be perfectly happy with this GPS homing device. It only does one thing: it takes you back where you were.
There are a grand total of two buttons on the device. One of them turns it on and off, and the other one marks your current position, and if you go somewhere else, it’ll give you a distance and bearing back. It won’t actually give you directions, so if your path involves lots of twists and turns and bottomless pits and fearsome monsters and meteor showers, you’re probably out of luck. I guess it’s a relatively useful enough accessory for people who like to wander about aimlessly with their eyes closed or whatever, but the price tag of $80 puts it far too close to the pricepoint of a fully armed and operational GPS.
The GPS Homing Device will be available January 2 from Hammacher Schlemmagesundheit.
[ Hammacher ] VIA [ Chip Chick ]
