Since GPS technology became available, the number of devices that contain GPS units has increased. You probably have or know someone that has a GPS unit installed in their car. Technically, the GPS units that are installed in cars are mobile GPS systems, since a car has wheels and it moves around. Other, newer devices that contain portable GPS systems are just as popular.

Serious Portable GPS Systems

Many of the devices that contain portable GPS systems are used for business purposes, emergencies and other very serious matters. The mobile phone is a device that is most likely to contain one. In the past several people would call 911 but they were unable to give their location, so a law was passed that required mobile phones to contain a GPS signal emitter.

Now, a 911 cell phone caller can be located as easily as someone calling from a home phone. PDAs are used by delivery people, sales people, repair people and other people that need them to find their way around, are used to track their positions and keep track of their phone calls. Some software that is being used in conjunction with GPS units can create routes that are efficient by grouping customers together by their location.

Surveyors use a very precise portable GPS system to plan roads, map fields, and locate survey markers and boundaries. Besides PDAs, laptops can be equipped with a Global Positioning System as well as software to use the signal for mapping, traveling and many other purposes. Police and Fire services find new ways to save lives with different types of portable GPS system every day.

Fun Stuff

Almost all electronic gadgets gets turned into toys for adults, and the portable GPS units are no different. Remember that tracking your own position isn't the only way to use a portable GPS system. You can use them track the position of someone or something else too.

Competitive glider pilots use portable GPS units to provide proof that they reached the race markers. Geocaching is a game that is played using a small item that emitters a GPS signal that is hidden and players with PDAs compete to find it. Now that watches and cameras can be found with a portable GPS system, the possibilities of their uses are seemingly endless.

The camera can imprint photos with the latitude and longitude of the places that they were taken. This is very useful on vacations. Smaller GPS units can be used to track pets and other things that might wander off. Besides doing fun things, just having some of the odder new items equipped with a portable GPS system is pretty fun, too. It looks like GPS units are here to stay!