Technology gets everywhere these days. Tip out the contents of a mountain biker's Camelbak and he* will probably get somewhat annoyed, but said contents are highly likely to include some sort of GPS gizmo, a mobile phone and a digital camera. There's a strong chance that the phone might have a GPS receiver built in, too. And if you were to compound your chosen victim's annoyance by breaking into his car, you'd probably find a GPS-based Navigate-O-Matic thingy (complete with windscreen-sticking sink plunger attachment) in the glovebox.
What we're getting at here is that GPS gear is becoming pervasive to the point of ubiquity. It won't be long before absolutely everything with a battery in it will know exactly where it is. How useful they'll all be is anyone's guess, which brings us neatly to the SPOT, a GPS-enabled gizmo that may possibly be amazingly useful, or may just be yet another small electronic gadget that lurks in the bottom of your pack until some wandering lunatic empties it all out on to the trail.
SPOT is described as a "satellite personal tracker". It actually uses two satellite networks. The first is the good old GPS network, but the second is a communications network that lets the SPOT send text messages independently of the mobile phone network. This combination allows it do do a few potentially handy things, depending on which of the four buttons you press.
For a start, it can be set up to automatically send your position every 10 minutes, with the waypoints being plotted on Google Maps in real time and accessible to anyone you've granted access to. Or you can "check in", which essentially sends an "all is well" message to friends and family with your current position.
If things all start going a bit wrong, there's a "Help" button that requests assistance from said friends and family. It can get hold of them either by SMS or email, with the latter including links to Google Maps. And if your situation gets really serious, the "911" button will send your current location to the emergency services.
The SPOT is waterproof and floats, although its claimed operating temperature only goes down to 5°C. It's powered by two AA batteries, which should last for up to a year if you don't actually send any messages.
It's not cheap, though. All the prices we have are in Euros, but at the time of writing the SPOT unit itself costs £140. Then there's a £67/year satellite subscription which includes emergency alert, "Check In" and "Help" messages. If you want the rolling progress-tracking feature, that's an extra £30/year. And if we're reading the blurb right, the "911" function relies on having a GEOS Alliance Search and Rescue account at £8/year.
We're not sure about it, really. On the one hand, it could conceivably save your life. On the other hand, with mountain rescue services already stretched, is a widget that makes an emergency call just a button press away something that should be available to the (let's be fair, sometimes quite clueless) general public?
Still, there it is. Find out more at www.findmespot.com.
* Not guaranteed to be a he, but statistically almost certain
