What is GPS?

Ever lost your way, perhaps finding the grocery store just around the corner in a new neighbourhood, or even on that road trip you’d been planning for months? In such cases, in all likelihood, you turned to your GPS or Global Positioning System technology, for help. 

GPS, in simple words, helps people figure out where they are and how to get where they want to go, using satellite technology. What’s cool is, GPS can be used in any device, whether it is one’s smartphone, laptop, tablet or even their car’s infotainment system.  

However, the primary difference with GPS in smartphones is, is that it is typically used in conjunction with other location-based indicators, such as cell tower triangulation and Wi-Fi location tracking, to provide accurate and reliable information. This is in contrast to stand-alone GPS devices, which have a receiver that can pick up signals from a network of satellites orbiting the Earth.

Other uses of GPS

GPS is free to use and is available to anyone with a GPS receiver. Apart from the obvious function of pinpointing one’s location and navigating, GPS is also used for  various other purposes, including mapping, timing commutes, as well as tracking a person or object’s movement around the world. What’s even cooler, GPS also recently began to be used for gaming, with augmented reality games such as Pokémon GO.