GPS Maniac is the sister publication of big brother, GPS World. While it covers the professional, business, and technical end of GPS technology, our passion is, quite simply, the gizmos and what you can do with them.

Our Mission in Life

GPS Maniac aims to serve you in the same way that its sister publication, GPS World, serves the GPS business community. GPS Maniac acts as a clearinghouse for information that you can use to learn about the latest GPS devices as well as location-based services, including social networking and mapping applications, whether they are on a mobile phone or on the web. Alongside reviews of these devices and services, we continually update the site with relevant news of the latest GPS devices and services geared for you, the consumer.

Shopping and Buying Stuff

But we’re not in the business of selling GPS devices per se; rather we’re here to help you decide what you want and where to get it. We give you more than 40 retail shopping options over at our GPS Shop – you can sort by price, type of device, or feature. Know what brand you want but not sure which model? You can sort stuff by brand and find out who has the model you want and at what price.

The Resident Maniac behind GPS Maniac

It should be no surprise that editor Jeff Chappell ended up here at GPS Maniac, given his penchant for gadgets and the road less traveled. Liking to play outside – he’s been known to indulge in cycling and mountain biking, hiking and trekking, and has even dabbled in rock climbing and whitewater raft guiding – he is nevertheless a tech geek, having grown up tinkering with computers and playing video games long before it was cool.

Loving to travel and having managed to get himself lost on three different continents now, and remembering when navigation meant squinting at minuscule, squiggly lines on paper maps, along with a compass and the sun, he welcomed the advent of consumer GPS gadgets. Like Jeff says, following your intuition is great when the weather is nice and there is plenty of gorp in your backpack, but when it’s getting dark, thunderheads are threatening rain, and you just noticed your Camelbak is empty, it’s best to have a trusty handheld to help you find your way back to the trailhead.

In his professional life, Jeff’s career in journalism and newspapers has spanned everything from local courts and police and fire coverage to health and medical issues and politics at the state and local level. His career has taken a decidedly high-tech bent in recent years, including a five-year stint with Electronic News, the semiconductor trade publication that coined the term “Silicon Valley.” Not long after that, he came to Questex to work on GPS World’s website and newsletters, first as a freelance editor, and then as a full-time web editor. So Jeff and GPS Maniac is a natural fit, because in addition to being a writer and editor, he is a bit of a GPS maniac himself.

And while we’re at it, while much of what you see here is his doing — he’s a fair to middlin’ web coder being the nerd that he is — he wants to give props to Questex Media’s web operations manager extraordinaire , Troy Peterson, without whom GPS Maniac would not be nearly as functional as it is. Jeff also needs to give a shout out to Annie Leung, a former Questex artistic director; without her assistance GPS Maniac would probably hurt your eyes.

We also have to give props to Open Street Map, where we grabbed the map used in our current logo. Check it out; it’s pretty cool — ever wish you could edit Google Maps? Well, you can edit Open Street Map.

Other Current and Past Contributors

Eric Gakstatter: An active participant in the GPS industry since 1990, Eric rarely turns down the chance to try a new GPS-enabled product. He’s known to cart devices around the world on his various mapping projects, standing on his soapbox and preaching the value of knowing where you are (he also moonlights for our sister pub, GPS World). Eric’s experience includes working with many of the early GPS pioneers such as Magnavox, Motorola, Ashtech and Trimble, and his knowledge of digital mapping goes back more than a decade. As is the case with many dyed-in-the-wool techno-geeks, Eric’s garage (unbeknownst to his wife) is a veritable graveyard of legacy GPS receivers, antennas, PDAs and computer equipment.

Lawrence Letham: Lawrence learned to navigate with map and compass at the age of 12 as a Boy Scout. Even though he did pretty well with the compass only (temporarily lost only a few times), he was elated when GPS technology become affordable. He vividly remembers the day his got his first GPS receiver. Since that day, Lawrence has hiked, camped, and explored in several states and extensively in Arizona. The only thing that can get his GPS receiver out of his hand is a new GPS receiver that needs testing. Lawrence holds BS and MS degrees in electrical engineering and a JD degree from Arizona State University. He currently works as a registered patent attorney in his own firm.

Contact Info:

EDITOR/RESIDENT MANIAC
Jeff Chappell
513-276-4772
jchappell@gpsmaniac.com