With an increasing number of car owners and businesses choosing GPS tracking to ensure better protection of their vehicles, it is important to understand what type of GPS tracker is the best. Of course, there are different technologies on the market, and they have their pros and cons. When shopping for tracking devices, one should have a clear idea of what type of tracker they need to fulfill their specific requirements.
Primarily, GPS trackers can fall into one of the three broad categories, i.e., Cellular GPS Trackers, Non-Cellular GPS Trackers, and Bluetooth GPS Trackers. Let’s explore these options a bit more closely and see which of them should work for you the best.
Cellular GPS Trackers
One of the most common, and probably the best, types of tracking devices are the ones that use cellular networks for capturing and reporting data. These are small-sized GPS trackers that can be secretly placed in the vehicles that you need to track, and they share tracking data over a cellular network with a monthly data plan. They are faster compared to satellite-based tracking options and can deliver more accurate results in real-time.
Often used by delivery companies and individual car owners, cellular-based trackers are synonymous with accuracy, convenience, and reliability. In fact, some of the top providers like Tracki even offer worldwide coverage, and you get accurate location alerts no matter where you are. They often cost you around $100-$200 only.
Pros
Cons
Non-Cellular GPS Trackers
In areas where cellular coverage is not available, satellite-based GPS trackers would be the best bet. GPS satellites orbit the Earth twice every day and transmit unique signals along with their orbital parameters, allowing the GPS devices to decode them and determine the satellite’s precise location. This information is then used by the GPS receivers to calculate the exact location of the user being tracked.
The best thing about these non-cellular trackers is that they can track location even in the most remote areas with no cellular coverage. While they offer a practical tracking solution in remote areas, they are large and expensive, costing you anywhere between $250 and $1000.
Pros
Cons
Bluetooth GPS Trackers
Finally, we have Bluetooth trackers. These are small devices that can be attached to your belongings that you want to track. They connect to your smartphone over a Bluetooth connection to give you the location alerts for the items being tracked. Usually, these trackers are used for tracking small items like wallets, keys, backpacks, purses, and even pets. They are effective at what they do but have a small range because they connect to your handset using Bluetooth. They are quite affordable and won’t cost you more than $25-$30.
Pros
Cons
So, if you are looking for the best GPS tracking devices for your car, look for a cellular-based tracker. Make sure that you look into the features it offers to get accurate and seamless tracking with timely alerts.
]]>He was never seen again.
The young boy’s disappearance made local and international news. He was also the first missing child to have his photo printed on milk cartons, in hopes of catching the attention of those who might have seen him. A wide search operation was also conducted. All the effort bore no fruit. Almost five decades later, Etan remains missing.
The worst thing about missing children cases is that they did not start and end with Etan. A lot of other young children left their houses ready for a blissful day ahead only to disappear without trace.
Here are eight missing children cases with surrounding circumstances that gave the world the creeps and remain unsolved to this day.
First on this list of missing children cases is that of Sarah Kinslow. It was 2001 when tragedy struck the Kinslow family. In May, 14-year-old Sarah Kinslow was dropped off at her school in Texas; little did her family know, it would be the last time they’d see her.
According to her friends, they and Sarah were planning to skip school that day, but their plans never pushed through, as they did not see Sarah either.
It was later found that at the time of her disappearance, Sarah was in a relationship with a man four years her senior, who was arrested a week after Sarah vanished and charged with sexual assault of a child. He then told the police that he and Sarah thought about eloping, although he asserted they were never serious about it.
Although it was clear that Sarah didn’t take with her her purse and any set of clothes when she “left,” the circumstances of the case led the police to believe that the teen ran on her own. It’s been seventeen years since the girl disappeared, but until now, nobody could tell what exactly happened to Sarah Kinslow.
Leroy McKinney often drove little Cherrie the 50 yards from the school bus stop and Wilfield roads to their mobile home, but on February 22, 1985, he and his wife, Janice, decided to have the 8-year-old walk home—a decision they’d forever regret.
Last seen wearing a gray coat, blue denim skirt, blue leg warmers, ankle boots, and earmuffs due to the cold weather, at around 4:00 p.m. and just a short walk away from their house, Cherrie went missing. It was a snowy day but no footprints were seen on the way leading to the McKinneys’ home, prompting the police to believe Cherrie was abducted shortly after she got off the school bus. Leroy shared that he heard the bus pull up and leave that day. When he noticed that Cherrie still wasn’t home a few minutes after the bus left, he drove to the stop. But he did not see her stepdaughter there, so he rushed back home, and Janice called the police.
There was little to no clue on how the girl disappeared, except for a unique-looking van. Interviews with neighbors and children onboard the bus helped the police determine that the van was a bright blue or green 1976 Dodge, which had been following the bus. It had an unusual mural painting of a skier scaling down a snow-capped mountain.
One of the most talked-about missing children cases, disappearance of Cherrie Mahan remains unsolved. No arrests have been made and the schoolgirl is still nowhere to be found.
Six-year-old Adji Desir was just playing outside his grandmother’s house when he strangely disappeared. Adji was with other kids that day, and he came in to eat dinner but went back out again to play. His grandmother checked on him from time to time. Fifteen minutes after she last saw the boy from the window, Adji’s grandma took a peek again, but the young boy was gone.
What worries Adji’s family more is the fact that the boy has developmental issues. He is six but has the mind of a two-year-old. He easily gets scared and hides when he’s afraid. The sight of strangers scares Adji too, prompting them to believe that he might have hid from searchers.
It was January 2009 when Adji Desir disappeared, but until now, his family is still hoping the boy will come back to them safe and sound.
The McCann family from Leicestershire were a holidaying in Algarve, Portugal, when 3-year-old Madeleine went missing. It was May 3, 2007, and Madeleine’s parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, both doctors, decided to have dinner at a tapas bar 120 meters away from the apartment they were staying. The couple left Madeleine and toddler twins Sean and Amelie who were all sleeping in their rented room.
At around 10 in the evening, Kate returned to check on the children but was left in shock when only the twins were there and Madeleine was nowhere to be found.
Madeleine’s was one of the missing children cases that made worldwide headlines, and a massive investigation was started. Countless leads were found and a few theories emerged, with some theorizing the young girl was taken by a trafficking ring or was unfortunately the victim of a burglary gone wrong. But until now, after countless search operations to find the missing girl, Madeleine still hasn’t been found.
Lisa Irwin was not even a year old when she disappeared. Her mom, Deborah Bradley, tucked her into bed one night in 2011. The mother then went to have a few drinks. When Lisa’s father, Jeremy, got home from work at 3:00 a.m., he noticed his daughter was not in her crib.
It was believed Deborah had too much to drink that she blacked out. Also missing were a few working cell phones. It was only to be expected that Deborah had to face suspicions, as she was the only one present at the time of the disappearance. However, she has always maintained her innocence, and she and Jeremy are still hoping Lisa will come back to them alive seven years after she strangely vanished.
Born on September 9, 2002, Kyron Horman was only seven when he disappeared without trace.
On June 4, 2010, Skyline Elementary in Oregon opened early to give students and parents enough time to tour the science fair happening that day, an event Kyron was to take part in. Shortly after eight, he arrived at school with his stepmom, Terri Moulton Horman. Thirty minutes later, she left after watching her stepson walk to his classroom.
Nine in the morning was the very last time Kyron was spotted, by a student near the south entrance of Skyline School. Classes began at 10 and Kyron’s homeroom teacher had to report him absent, as he was nowhere to be seen.
Eight years later, Kyron remains missing. Suspicions were on his stepmother who has since maintained she has nothing to do with the disappearance of the 7-year-old boy. Kyron’s cases is one of the most popular missing children cases. And to this day, Kyron’s parents, Desiree Young and Kaine Horman, are still waiting for their son to come back, despite the lack of leads on where the kid could have been.
Probably one of the youngest subjects of missing children cases, Sabrina Aisenberg was only 4 months old when she was taken from her crib in November 1997. She was put down to sleep one night by her mother, she didn’t know the minute she watched her doze off would be the last time she could ever lay her eyes on her daughter.
Sabrina’s mother, Marlene, told the police her baby was still there at midnight, but when she took a look again at 7:00 a.m., Sabrina was no longer in her crib. There were no witnesses, no sound was heard, no signs of forced entry were found.
It’s been two decades. Sabrina would have turned 21 this year, but despite efforts to find the missing kid, until now, nobody knows exactly where she is or where she has been or if she’s still alive.
The pain the parents of the kids in these missing children cases have to live with is indescribable. They wake up every morning to the fact that one of the members of their family could have been there with them but isn’t. But even after decades have passed, they remain hopeful that one day, their family will be complete again.
If you’re a parent yourself, one of your foremost fears could be losing your child. The possibility is always there. You could be out camping in the outdoors or even just hanging out in the mall with your child. You look away for an instant, only to discover in the next moment that your child is gone. You frantically look around and call out his name, but to no avail. It seems like he has disappeared into thin air. You can see how easy it is for a child to go missing, regardless of whether or not he is in the company of his parents or adult guardians. As you can glean from the above-mentioned cases, most of the children who went missing were under the supervision of their one or two of their parents or an adult guardian. And it can take as little as a few minutes to a child to disappear under an adult’s nose.
You can protect your child from going missing or being abducted by carrying out some preventive measures. While you can say that you’ll always have an eye on your child when you go out, the reality is that’s quite impossible to do. The best thing to do in any situation is to ensure that you’ll always know where your child is despite him not always being in your line of sight. You can do this with the help of a 3G GPS tracker.
A GPS tracking system is beneficial in that it can help you track the location of your child at any time and any place. Such a device boasts a selection of features that will help you do this. One such feature is real-time location tracking, through which you can discover the exact geographical whereabouts of the wearer even as he is motion and at any moment in time. Another feature is an SOS alert button, through which the wearer can send out an immediate call for help should he ever get into any kind of trouble. Lastly, there is an audio monitoring feature that allows the parent to discreetly listen in to the environment of the child, which can help him further identify the location of the child or find out if he is in any immediate danger. The last feature, however, is not so common in many tracking devices as it is only available in the really advanced ones. Tracki is one such advanced GPS tracker that boasts all the above features and many more so that you can better ensure the safety and security of your child.
]]>Nowadays, more and more parents are finding it advantageous to use GPS trackers for their kids. They do this not because they want to invade the privacy of their young children but because they want to ensure their safety even if they are not in their line of sight.
There are many reasons why some parents decide to use trackers on their kids:
Despite all the advantages that a tracking device can give to parents, there are a few questions that have been raised. For one, there is the issue of privacy. As in, how much monitoring is too much? And is it an invasion of the privacy rights of the child?
But you can easily shut down such questions if you sit down with your child and have an open conversation about the use of the tracker and what its purpose is. First of all, you should make it clear to them that the tracking device is there not because you don’t have confidence in their choices but because you want to ensure their safety. You can also point out to them that such a device can be lifesaving in case something bad happens, like when they get into an accident or somebody threatens to harm or abduct them. Ultimately, make them understand that the GPS tracker is there not as a threat to their privacy but to instill in them a sense of independence while also giving you some peace of mind as their parents.
Trackers have an alerts feature that allows you to customize the device so you can receive alerts whenever your child leaves your home for school and arrives home safely at the end of the day. There’s also a geofencing feature that allows you to set safety zones, also known as geographical perimeters. Whenever these perimeters are exceeded by your kid, the device instantly sends an alert to you. Upon receiving the alert, you can then access a convenient app to determine the exact whereabouts of your kid.
As a parent, this enables you to plan your day accordingly without having to wonder what time your kid will be home. On the part of your kid, they can gain some level of independence without having to feel like you’re looking over their shoulder every minute of their day.
It has a real-time tracking feature that can help you locate the whereabouts of your child on a map. A GPS tracker works through satellite technology, and this enables it to give you accurate location updates at certain intervals. Such a feature can be helpful when your child gets separated from you. All you need to do is to access the database and you can instantly know where he is.
In these dangerous times, a lot of children do get abducted, and majority of them unfortunately never get reunited with their parents. While you wouldn’t want that to happen to your kid, the possibility is very real. A GPS tracker is one way you can ensure that your child is secure. While it may not 100 percent deter any attempt, at the very least it can prevent anything really harmful happening to your kid. The moment you realize your kid is gone, you can instantly access the database to find out where he is, and with the help of the local police, you can rescue and recover him quickly from his abductors before anything really serious happens.
Aside from geofencing alerts, a tracker also has speed, motion, and acceleration alerts. It can even detect stopovers made during a journey. This makes it the perfect device to monitor your teen’s driving habits especially when he is new to driving. Think of it as a way of training him to drive even when you’re not there with him. There might be some dangerous driving behaviors he is in the habit of doing, such as swerving, hard braking, speeding, and the like.
The device gives out all these alerts and sends them to you, and you can use them to remind your teen to be more responsible with his driving by sending him a message.
Trackers have a health feature that can detect the heart rate and other vital stats of the person wearing them. It can also monitor their activities, so this can be helpful in instances when you have a sick child but you also can’t stay by their bedside all the side. A tracker gives you the opportunity to monitor their health even when you’re in another room. When your kid has a low heart rate or when he gets up from bed even when he’s not supposed to, you will instantly be alerted by the device.
If you have children who have been diagnosed with behavioral disorders like ADHD and autism, a tracker can be helpful too. Children who have autism or ADHD are prone to wander off and get lost, and you can use a tracker to monitor their whereabouts even when they are not in your line of sight.
Trackers also have an SOS button feature, which your child can use when he feels that he is in danger or doesn’t know how to find his way home. All he needs to do is to push the SOS button, and the device will alert you as to his location.
When shopping for a tracker, you have to keep in mind that not all trackers are made equal. There are some devices that offer just the basic features such as real-time tracking, while there are others that provide advanced features, such as a health monitoring feature. Here are some useful tips that can make the selection process easier for you:
In the industry of tracking devices, Tracki is known for being the maker of the smartest, most compact, and most cost-effective devices. For one, it offers the widest selection of features that you won’t be able to find in other devices. It is also known for being the smallest and most lightweight tracker in the world, so its user can easily wear it without being uncomfortable. Lastly, it has one of the cheapest devices in the market as well as one of the lowest monthly subscription plans.
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