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

We are so proud to announce that we have sponsored the new BYU “Cougar Legends Live” program for the express purpose of promoting child safety to football fans and their families.

Beginning on August 30th, and each home game thereafter, Amber Alert GPS will be at the pre-game ceremonies with a different BYU Cougar legend for each game. The first game will have Vai Sikahema, former Cougar and Philadephia Eagle Pro-Bowler, who will be on hand to meet and greet folks who have visited amberalertgps.com and requested our free Child Safety Package.

You see, we have put together a very impressive and potentially life-saving Child Safety Package for all visitors to our website. To promote this package and to increase awareness of our amazing new child location technology, Amber Alert GPS has sponsored the BYU home football games.

Future Cougar Legends to appear at the pre-game festivities will include Rob Morris, Heisman Trophy winner Ty Detmer, Reno Mahe, Chad Lewis, and more. Just check out this link on our site to learn more.

Julia Howard
www.amberalertgps.com

This is an interesting experience of a friend of mine that she shared with me from her blog. I thought it was pertinent enough to include on our blog:

“So about a week ago, I had a dream that really really freaked me out.  I couldn’t get it out of my head.  Turns out, it was pretty darned accurate.

In my dream, my 4 year old daughter was ignoring instructions to walk with me, and not run off… and she kept getting further and further in the crowded public place.  I warned her, and she ignored again.  So I sternly called her by her full name and warned her to get back to me.  She obeyed, as she usually does when I use her full name.

But a stranger had heard me use her name.  And they happened to be a child abductor with some skills.  They used HER name to look up on geneological record websites that store all public birth information.  Through that, they saw MY name, and my husband’s name.  Finding our names made it easy for them to locate us through other public records- even though we’re not listed in the phonebooks.

And because they found public records with my name, they basically found out where I lived, without really having to “follow me” and risk being seen in the area prior to a crime they were about to commit.  (Kidnapping my daughter.)

**This is where I woke up.  Totally freaked out as I always am since the instance of Elizabeth Smart 5 or 6 years ago.  I lived in the Salt Lake area that same time, and have always been afraid of something so violating and painful happening to my family too.

But I got on the internet to see how true this dream really could have been- and it took me only 5 minutes to find myself based on the details of my dream.

So the moral of my blog?  Don’t use your child’s full name in public EVER when you are disciplining them or calling out to them.  You are practically shouting your address and telephone number, no matter how private you think you live, and you don’t even know it.

So am I just a little clairvoyant?  Or criminally minded?  You be the judge.  Just don’t use your chlid’s full name in public.  Ever. Ever. Ever. ”

Kinda scary, eh? Something to think about when in public with your kids…it applies to your child AND you.

Julia Howard
www.amberalertgps.com

We are so excited at Amber Alert GPS.com because our gps unit is very close to being ready to apply for FCC approval. Though it is not required for sales to folks like you and I, it makes us feel better knowing that it is approved by a government agency. It just further validates what we are doing and lends confidence to our users. This is not some cheap, fly-by-night outfit that is just selling gps units to make a few bucks. Heck no. We are all parents of children and have a vested interest in the safety of them. This translates into fanatical principles of the company who want to have the best for their children. This translates into a bettre, more effective product for you and your children.

We will keep you posted as to the updates of the application and approval process. We are tentatively shooting for July, 2008 for approval. Many of the existing components of the unit are FCC approved, but it is now time to have the whole unit approved as a final product.

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

This is the inaugural entry into the Amber Alert GPS blog. Amber Alert GPS is a new spin on a familiar technology. GPS has been all the rage for years now, but has never been used as effectively for child safety as it is being used now with the Amber Alert GPS system.

A pager-sized unit that is placed on a young child is accessed by mobile phone by parents who want to klnw the whereabouts of their child. A  phone number is called by the parent, a text is sent back by the GPS unit with coordinates of the exact location of the child. If the mobile phone is internet ready, the text will include a Yahoo map graphically showing the location of the child. If the phone is not internet ready, the coordinates can be entered directly to Yahoo or Google maps and the map will come up on your computer monitor showing the parent the same location.

Other features of this remarkable unit include:
1. Safe-Zone geo-fencing. Establish a perimeter within which you would like your child to stay. If they breach the perimeter, a message is sent to mom and  dad’s phone notifying them of the breach.

2. SOS Button - if your child is in a compromised situation and they are feeling threatened or otherwise unsafe. they just have to push the SOS button on the unit and mom and dad are notified of the distressed situation.

3. Speed alert - want to know if your kids are respecting their driving privileges? Speed alert will tell you how fast the vehicle is traveling that your child is in or is driving.

Thank you for visiting our  blog today. If you have any questions, comments, or inquiries, feel free to post a comment to this or any other entry.

We are in the process of perfecting the Amber Alert GPS software function so that it is functioning optimally all around the world. We will keep you updated about this remarkable product as we continue toward it’s full development.

Dr. Alan Weidner
www.AmberAlertGPS.com