krcoburn

Recently I wrote on the subject briefly on how human communication is greatly affected by culture. Littlejohn states, "what we perceive, how we understand, and how we act are very much shaped by the language of our culture" (Littlejohn, 2007). I saw great examples of this while I visited Mexico with a friend over this past summer. The differences in culture, communication and the importance of different things among cultures. For example, the United States and England are extremely time oriented. The centerpieces of our town and cities are gigantic and historical clocks whereas in Mexico time is not emphasized, extravagant beautiful churches are the centerpieces of society. While traveling in Talatenango, Mexico most individuals did not even know the time when asked. It seemed to me that importance was placed primarily on family, living and religion in Mexico.

While visiting at my friends house a neighbor in the village had passed away. I found it interesting that the bell of the church would ring to announce this event for everyone to say a prayer and morn for their lost loved one. The street outside of the family's home was blocked off and for a week friends and family prayed outside and spoke of memories. They took the time to recognize the passing of this person and were able to later move on after spending lengthy and comforting time with close friends and family.

I also learned the cultural differences in making eye contact. Within each town in Mexico exists a type of town square. In the evening this becomes the social center of the town where most teens and young adults come to socialize, eat, shop and date. The significance of eye contact and body language play a great role in the dating traditions in their culture. My friends mother explained the tradition to me as the girls will walk in one direction around the square and the boys would walk in the opposite direction along the outside of the square. After making eye contact witheachother numerous times this lets the boy know you are interested in having a date with him and then they will begin walking the square together.

The way of living in the Mexican culture is drastically different from that of the United States. I have to admit I found their unorganized but centered way of living somewhat more attractive then the hustled, deadline filled life of America.

Posted by Kristina Coburn at 03:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have been doing some research on the top GPS companies and thought that this might be helpful to my colleagues not only on a personal level but on a profession level as well. This could beneficial to my collegues as a research tool in the situation that they are looking for a GPS unit themselves and would like to know a little but about the new technology that has been developed by the company, get an understanding of the top competitors in this field. Also, they could use this as a prospective tool in their job search if they have interests in working for some of these companies.

According to the latest research reports from ConsumerReports.com the top rated GPS companies are as follows (www.ConsumerReports.org):
1. Garmin
2. Magellan
3. TomTom
4. Navico
5. Motorola, Inc.

Garmin Ltd.

Garmin Ltd. was established in the year 1989. It began as a brainstorming session over a card game amongst a group of engineers. Garmin’s goal as a company is to “create navigation and communication devices that can enrich our customers’ lives” (www.Garmin.com).

Garmin works as a vertically integrated company. This means that they design, market, manufacture and sell all of their products. This company not only supplies technological solutions for on the road; they also supply aviation, marine, fitness, outdoor recreation and wireless applications.
What’s New?

What’s new in on road GPS applications includes the nuvi 750. This device comes with preloaded city navigator. This is set up for immediate use and is equipped with millions of points of interests (POIs) such as hotels, restaurants, ATM etc.

Going beyond navigation this device also includes entertainment tools such as: MP3 player, audio book player, JPEG picture viewer, and currency converters.

Magellan
What’s New?
An example of a new product by Magellan is its Magellan Crossover GPS. Some features of this device include: Lightweight and Pocket-sized, Say-Where text to speech, Digital Music Player and many more specialized options. This mechanism also is the first fully featured GPS that gives customers the ability to go from on-road situations to the outdoors with the use of this one device. This tool allows the user to enjoy driving, hiking, boating, fishing, and many other activities. This piece of equipment is also waterproof to IPX-4 (www.magellangps.com).

TomTom
Company History
Originally named, Palmtop, this company was founded in 1991 by Peter-Frans Pauwels and Pieter Geelen. The company’s initial purpose was to develop applications for the first generation of handheld computers. After the fourth partnership was made with Harold Goddjn in 2001, former CEO of Psion, the company directed its focus towards making the first mobile in-car navigation solution, the TomTom navigator. They then changed the name of their company to TomTom to exemplify the change of their focus (www.tomtom.com).

TomTom Today
TomTom gives customers local information, entertainment and foreign language assistance in more than sixteen countries. The company focuses on three main product ranges including: PDA and mobile navigation with the TomTom NAVIGATOR software, services and GPS devices, create all in one navigation services and navigators for motorcycles and scooter riders, this is known as the TomTom RIDER (www.tomtom.com).

What’s New?
As of October 16,2007, TomTom has released the new TomTom ONE XL-S. This will be the first product created by TomTom that will offer text-to-speech technology. This will allow this tool to read aloud directions. This new technology also includes the TomTom map share and ‘Help Me’ features.

TomTom Map Share is a map improvement technology that allows users to make changes and improve maps. The new ‘Help Me’ menu includes information such as police stations, hospitals, car repair service centers etc (www.tomtom.com).

Navico
Company History
Navico began after two of the top international companies in marine electronics, Simrad Yachting and Lowrance Electronics, merged together. Later in March 2007, Brunswick New Technologies’ marine electronics division joined the company. B&G, Eagle, MX Marine, Simrad, Lowrance, Navman, and Northstar are all manufactured and distributed under Navico (www.navico.com).

Navico Today
Navico’s services and marine electronics are now being used in more than 100 countries. The company works in the marine industry spanning from small leisure boats to professional vessels (www.navico.com).
Motorola, Inc.
Motorola was founded on September 25, 1928 by Paul V. Galvin and his brother, Joseph.

What’s New?
On October 2, 2007 Motorola, Inc. introduced its new version of its MC70 mobile computer. This new technology includes Global Positioning System (GPS) capability. This will allow companies with field employees to “track and manage real-time tasking” (www.motorola.com). This will also improve location-based productivity.

Posted by Kristina Coburn at 02:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)