I just bought a new Garmin GPS for the car. :-(

Navteq and Nokia.

Not that it matters.

Its amazing, a whole industry, growing for a good while now, based on the premise of a technology that could be turned completely useless at any time, esp at times of war.

GPS tech works on US deployed nav satellites, and while a former US prez promised that GPS wont ever be pulled, the US gov I believe has apparently repealed this claim and could go about single handedly destroying the whole sat nav industry in one fell swoop! All to stop Al Quaeda from navigating during a possible future attack!

And no we're not talking about just reducing its accuracy (which would prevent sat navs from knowing which road you're on) but they do also have the power to completely stop GPS signals.

Unlikely, yes, but a bit hairy for a multi-million $$$ industry no? Sure you could still use the maps on your TomTom Go but it wont tell u where you are or how to get somewhere.

And theres no sign of the EU equivalent (Gallileo isn't it?) any time soon either.

I love using GPS satnav myself but I wont throw out my atlases just yet. I'm waiting for that satellite with TomTom engraved in its belly to be sent up next shuttle launch - yeah right! ;-)