If you're a guy whose idea of a vacation is grabbing a backpack and kayaking down white-water rapids or hiking through the mountains for a week, it's likely you'll be in areas where there are no roads or guideposts. And getting lost is a real possibility. Not the good lost where you forget about work and your pain in the ass boss. The kind of lost where search parties are sent out and your mug is on the nightly news.
If you're going to do any hiking, fishing, hunting, boating, skiing, or anything where you're outside the safety of roads and cell signals, you can avoid the embarrassment of being that guy by taking SPOT with you.
SPOT Satellite Messenger is a lightweight personal GPS tracking device that let's you stay connected - and call for help - even when you're miles from a cell signal.
It's got four function keys that transmit messages depending on how much trouble you're in. Pushing the Track Progress button sends and saves your location every 10 minutes for 24 hours, plotting where you've been on Google Maps. Anyone you give the password to can also watch your progress live online, complete with virtual views.
Check-In keeps you in contact with friends and family by letting them know where you are and that you haven't killed yourself yet. Every time you push it, they'll get
an SMS message with your coordinates, or an email with a link to Google Maps, showing your location. (A feature you may not want your wife or girlfriend to know about, say, if your "fishing trip" is really a weekend in Vegas.)
If you're not in serious danger, but still have an emergency, pushing the Ask for Help button notifies the friends or family you've chosen as contacts with an SMS text message that includes your coordinates, or an email with a link to Google Maps showing your exact location. (Then they can decide whether to save your ass or not.)
If you're really in deep shit, hit the Alert 9-1-1 button and it'll grab your coordinates from the GPS network and notify a GEOS International Emergency Response Center every five minutes until it's cancelled. Hopefully by the rescue team, and not the attacking bear.
$169
$99 per year for satellite service.
www.findmespot.com