Essential Apple Podcast 115: GPS – "From obscurity to ubiquity” with David Acklam

Recorded 8th December 2018 This week a slightly different show as I am deeply privileged to have as my special guest David Acklam, not a name you may know, but he was part of the development team for the Global Positioning System. Something that we now take forgranted but as one of the team described it a technology that went “from obscurity to ubiquity” and started out at what became known as “The Lonely Halls Meeting” which sounds more like a Peter Jackson fantasy epic than a world changing technology meeting! You can watch the documentary featuring David and many more of the team and telling the story of GPS on Amazon Prime here <h4>GIVEAWAYS</h4> Skylum has gifted us 5x of Luminar 2019 and Aurora 2019 to give away! Send an email to [email protected] mentioning Luminar or Aurora and the phrase I give in the show to enter. PLUS Listeners of this show can claim $10 off purchases of Luminar and/or Aurora HDR 2019 with discount code EssentialApple (If you buy Luminar 2018 you’ll get all the 2019 updates for free. Learn more.) Also we have a two Licenses for BeLight Live Home 3D to give away... 1x iOS and 1x Mac. Email the show on [email protected] mentioning Live Home 3D and the phrase I give out in the show. Winners for both will be announced on the Christmas Party Podcast which is recording on the 23rd December. Why not come and join the Slack community? You can now just click on this Slackroom Link to sign up and join in the chatter! We can now also be found on Spotify, Soundcloud and even YouTube. Essential Apple Recommended Services: 33mail.com – Never give out your real email address online again. Sudo – Get up to 9 “avatars” with email addresses, phone numbers and more to mask your online identity. Free for the first year and priced from $0.99 US / £2.50 UK per month thereafter... ProtonMail – End to end encrypted, open source, based in Switzerland. Prices start from FREE... what more can you ask? ProtonVPN – a VPN to go with it perhaps? Prices also starting from nothing! Fake Name Generator – So much more than names! Create whole identities (for free) with all the information you could ever need. Wire – Free for personal use, open source and end to end encryted messenger and VoIP. Pinecast – a fabulous podcast hosting service with costs that start from nothing. Everyone should have a font manager... I really do believe that. So I highly recommend FontBase — All platforms. Professional features. Beautiful UI. Totally free. FontBase is the font manager of the new generation, built by designers, for designers. Essential Apple is not affiliated with or paid to promote any of these services... We recommend services that we use ourselves and feel are either unique or outstanding in their field, or in some cases are just the best value for money in our opinion. On this week’s show: <h4>DAVID ACKLAM</h4> Retired Professional Engineer (PE inactive) BSEE, MS, University of Arizona Career Air Force Officer, retired (1966 -1987) Systems integration and test engineer with Texas Instruments Defense Group and Raytheon Missile Systems, retired (1987 - 2002) Part of the development program for Global Positioning System Documentary available on Amazon Prime Community outreach volunteer since retirement in 2003 Member, University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory Director's Advisory board 2006 to present. Chairman of the UA Lunar and Planetary Laboratory Kuiper Circle Community Outreach committee OSIRIS-REx Ambassador OSIRIS-REx on NASA Friend and Docent at the Planetary Science Institute Member of the Tucson Mac User Group Tucson MUG on Facebook Staff reviewer with MyMac.com (http://mymac.com/) <h4>APPLE</h4> Apple released a clear case for the iPhone Xr – 9to5 Mac Apple released watchOS 5.1.2 with the ECG function for Apple Watch 4... Apple Watch user discovers A-fib heart issue with new ECG app – 9to5 Mac <h4>TECHNOLOGY</h4> Corning is building impossibly thin, flexible Gorilla Glass for foldable phones – BGR 50 years ago, Douglas Engelbart's ‘Mother of All Demos’ changed personal technology forever – Mashable <h4>JUST A SNIPPET</h4> For things that are not worth more than a flypast Ask Siri “Why are fire trucks red?” for a fun answer <h4>WORTH-A-CHIRP / ESSENTIAL TIPS</h4> Faraday Bags for your kit MOSISO Keyboard Cover for Macbook Pro £6 UK or $7 US Non Plastic Beach offers alternatives to single use & disposable plastics to help you turn the tide on plastic waste, one sustainable product at a time. Force Apple’s iOS apps to use Dropbox or any other storage – Cult of Mac Apple’s iOS apps can store their files anywhere. You just have to know how to tell them. Ghostery Nemo’s Hardware Store (49:53) Bonx Grip earpiece - $139 US each or $260 US for twin packs Social Media and Slack <h4>You can follow us on:</h4> Twitter / Slack / EssentialApple.com / Spotify / Soundcloud / YouTube / Facebook / Pinecast Also a big SHOUT OUT to the members of the Slack room without whom we wouldn't have half the stories we actually do – we thank you all for your contributions and engagement. You can always help us out with a few pennies by using our Amazon Affiliate Link so we get a tiny kickback on anything you buy after using it. If you really like the show that much and would like to make a regular donation then please consider joining our Patreon or using the Pinecast Tips Jar (which accepts one off or regular donations) And a HUGE thank you to the patrons who already do. This podcast is powered by Pinecast.