Looking over the specs page of the iPhone 4S you might have noticed that as well as supporting GPS, the new smartphone also has support for GLONASS. GLONASS (meaning GLObalnaya NAvigatsionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema) is Russias answer to the US GPS system. The project started as far back as 1976 and is essentially a different system to track you around the globe. At the moment GLONASS isn’t active although the last satellite was sent in to space very recently.
Russia is expected to activate GLONASS sometime in 2012. As the last satellite was sent in to space just last week, the team behind it still need to run some tests before making it live. When up and running, it will act as a second network which means that the world wont be reliant on the US system.
A few other devices are already compatible and ready for when GLONASS comes online. This includes a Nokia device. Nokia will also be including GLONASS on future smartphones.
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