Amber Alert GPS™ Child Safety Blog

I am always on the lookout for any resource that will assist me in protecting my kids and my family. I recently came across a fantastic child safety website that should become a resource for every family with children at home:

http://www.criminalcheck.com/

Basically, this is a site where you can type in your zip code and a map will come up showing where all, if any, registered sex offenders are living in your neighborhood. You may think that no one close to your home is a sex offender, but I am afraid that you may be alarmingly surprised. I typed in my zip code and found a number of registered sex offenders in my community. I knew one of the offenders from an association I had with his family previously, but fortunately there was no one that I was familiar with who had had contact with my children or family. Now I know where potential problems may exist. I am certainly more aware of who is in my community and what potential threats may exist.

I feel this is important data to know especially if my kids happen to be walking past the home of a sex offender on their way to and from school or if they have a friend’s home that they frequent to play that my be across the street or next door to a registered sex offender. So, go ahead and check it out. This information, I feel, is crucial to your child’s safety.

Julia Howard
www.amberalertgps.com

Amber Alert GPS was featured yet again in a national publication. Yesterday msnbc.com had an article in their Technology & Science section on the subject of “A good find: GPS to locate the kids -Programs offer a useful tool, but are not a panacea for parents.”

The article goes into some detail of the importance of a tracking technology to keep your kids safe. Amber Alert GPS is covered on the second page. This topic certainly is gaining some momentum on the national level…and with the increased number of reasons to fear in our society, gps tracking technology is almost a “must-have”. Not just for abductions, but for the common everyday occurences where kids go where they weren’t supposed to go, or leave without telling the folks, or just getting lost in a busy mall or amusement park. The technology is important…and I am speaking as a mother here, not as a rep for Amber Alert GPS!

Here is a link to the article for those who are interested in reading:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26318777/

If you have any stories regarding the permanment or temporary loss of a child, we would be very interested to hear it. Feel free to add a comment to this or any other blog entry on this site. There are lessons to be learned, and trouble to be prevented, from other’s experience.

Julia Howard
www.amberalertgps.com

For Christmas we gave Grandma and Grandpa a trip to Disneyland. They finally went on their trip in March. Before they left we had them take an Amber Alert GPS with them. We thought that it would be fun to track them in Disneyland – while we were home in Utah. We weren’t too worried that Grandma would get lost – she was in a wheel chair and knew she couldn’t get away too fast! The first night they got there, they didn’t go out and do anything fun. I guess they were tired from the plane ride. We checked the GPS unit, saw that they were in their hotel room, and then texted them and told them they needed to get out of their room and do something fun. They ignored us! The next day, while they were at California Adventure, we called the GPS unit to see where they were. From the text and the map on our phone, we quickly determined where they were and then texted them again. We said, “You’re right in front of Soaring Over California, aren’t you?” They said, “How do you know?” Then they remembered that they had the GPS unit on them. It was a lot of fun to track them. In a way we kind of got to experience their vacation with them!

Julia Howard
AmberAlertGPS

Amber Alert GPS was recently reviewed by GPS magazine.com and then compared to other child tracking devices on the market. We are so proud to announce that Amber Alert GPS given a 4 out of 5 star rating by the publication and considered one of the hands-down favorites for parents with children.

In a separate review of our product, the Editor of the publication said that “Amber Alert GPS has a lot going for it: with up to 48 hours of battery life per charge, SiRF’s high performance StarIII GPS receiver, Assisted-GPS for indoor/outdoor tracking, Geo-Fencing, and speed alerting options, this tracking GPS is a bargain at $199.”

He went on to say that “One of the best aspects of Amber Alert GPS is the long battery life; I was able to get around 24 hours of regular usage per battery charge (it laster longer if I didn’t use it much). The device doesn’t sacrifice much in the performance department, utilizing SiRF’s high performance StarIII receiver for solid GPS tracking both indoors and out.”

His final verdict was

Verdict: Great for Parents

Check out the review here:

http://www.gpsmagazine.com/2008/04/amber_alert_gps_tracking_syste.php

GPSmagazine.com also created “The Ultimate Child Tracker Buyers Guide” where 9 units, including the AmberAlertGPS model were tested and compared. This is the conclusion of that review:

“A more practical, and much less expensive, solution is Amber Alert GPS. The sub-$200 device worked well indoors and out, but lacked the reporting features of the WorldTracker. For example, you can’t configure Amber Alert GPS to automatically send location updates — you have to call the device and wait for it to send your phone an SMS message with a link to view the location on Yahoo maps. Amber Alert GPS also doesn’t have the 3D mapping capabilities or advanced geofencing features of the WorldTracker. Still, Amber Alert GPS is simple to use, and doesn’t require a computer to find out where your child is. Provided you already have an internet-enabled smart phone, Amber Alert GPS is a great tool for parents and children alike.”

I just might add that our unlimited service DOES have “bread-crumbing” which is an automatic text sent to your phone at a pre-established time frame to give you regular updates as to where your child is. Also, if you do not have an internet-enabled smart phone, you can simply input the latitude and longitude coordinates from the text message into Google Maps or Yahoo Maps on your home or business computer and you will get a map demonstrating the location, just like what would appear on an internet-enabled phone.

Here is the link to that buyer’s guide:

http://www.gpsmagazine.com/2008/05/the_ultimate_gps_child_trackin.php

Julia Howard
AmberAlertGPS.com

We are so excited to tell you that Amber Alert GPS was featured on ABC channel 4 news in Salt Lake City, Utah on Monday, May 12th. They talked with the founder of the product, Russell Thornton, and with a couple of mothers that have been using the product throughout it’s development phase.

Below are the links to the two clips that ABC news did. You will get a good feeling for how this product is to work, especially for younger children, which is our primary emphasis right now. Of course, the product can be used for any number of purposes, from tracking vehicles and pets to hikers and skiers. The only limit to the potential number of uses for this product is your imagination. We feel that a really substantial benefit of this product will be in tracking special needs kids and seniors. Kidnapping incidents are very low relative to the number of kids and seniors lost or “misplaced” by virtue of a handicap.

Here are the links to the news clips…enjoy!

http://www.abc4.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=ff23277e-61d8-4c9c-a5b1-c8104f9ec44f

http://www.abc4.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoid=82062@video.ktvx.com

Feel free to leave a comment or contact me if you have any questions about the coverage or about the product.

Julia Howard
AmberAlertGPS.com