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Those old reruns of "The Wire" I've been working my way through, in which seemingly at least once a season Baltimore police used the latest GPS tracking gadgets to follow a bad guy, just wouldn't be the same had they been written after Monday, when the Supreme Court ruled that its unconstitutional for police to use GPS tracking devices without a search warrant.

Sort of.

In effect, the court ruled that it's okay for police to track every move you make. The only thing wrong they did in this particular case was commit common trespass when they applied a tracking device to a car. And future courts in future cases are free to rule differently.

The urge for control is powerful, made exponentially more so whenever two or more representatives of a government get together. Among the more prominent, and ridiculous, examples of this trend are Iran's attempt to create a "halal" Internet (ostensibly to safeguard Muslim sensibilities, in reality to control the political thought of Iranian citizens) and the American former intelligence chief's proposal for a ".secure" Internet in which users would voluntarily give up their Fourth Amendment rights.

Add to this China's "national" global positioning system. This Chinese satellite navigation network will obviate the need to use the Pentagon-created and U.S.-run GPS system, which dominates location technology worldwide.

In another move that shows how the browser is the definitive killer app on mobile devices, location-based services company TeleNav is using HTML5 to give developers the ability to implement GPS turn-by-turn directions into Web apps. The service will be completely browser-based and free. No native app platforms needed at add GPS to the browser.

Avis, the global car rental company is testing an RFID technology that will enable it to keep 5,000 of its cars at the parking lots of client businesses. Clients will be able to use a PIN with their mobile devices and pick up a car kept on their own premises.

Avis teamed up with RFID manufacturer I.D. Systems of New Jersey to launch the technology and will roll out the service in the US and Canada next month.

Today, Barnes & Noble has been revealed to be the first-ever location where you can unlock the free Mighty Eagle character in Angry Birds Magic, the new game from franchise creators Rovio. The idea behind Angry Birds Magic is to use technology, like GPS and NFC (near field communication), to connect gamers with their surroundings in order to augment gameplay and unlock special location-based rewards.

Information workers aren't the only ones affected by information technologies. For example, computers aren't the only piece of equipment being remotely monitored by employers anymore. The Wall Street Journal reports that employers are increasingly using tools like GPS and wireless communications technologies to keep tabs on heavy construction equipment, long-haul trucks, delivery vans, buses and police cars.

"Now, they can see who is wasting fuel by idling too much, operating outside their assigned area, working machines too hard or driving too fast." the paper says. The data received from this equipment can be mined for insights into how to increase efficiency. Also, Equipment dealers sometimes arrange to receive the data from machines to help with scheduling routine maintenance.

TomTom, the maker of portable GPS devices, has apologized for turning over data it's collected from its customers to the police, who in turn have used this information to catch speeding motorists.

The data has been sold to local and regional governments in the Netherlands for use in helping the police establish speed traps, according to the Dutch newspaper AD.

Although trowels and brushes are still de rigueur for archaeologists, electronic and web-based tools are fast losing their exception-to-the-rule status. The latest patch of ground to get the electronic treatment is the seminal World War I battleground of Gallipoli.

The Turkish European peninsula of Gallipoli in the Dardanelles was a lynchpin in the fight against Germany's ally, the Ottoman Empire. During the eight-month campaign, which began 100 years ago Monday, over 70,000 allies and 20,000 Turks lost their lives. Now a group of archaeologists in Turkey are uniting GPS and WWI-era maps to create a definitive record of trenches, redoubts, battle lines, tunnels, roads and paths and burial grounds.

If you visit Stratford-Upon-Avon, it's hard to escape the town's connection to Shakespeare. But when you visit London, the place where the playwright actually spent most of his life working, there aren't so many signs. It's with that in mind that Victor Keegan built the Shakespeare's London iPhone app, "to remind us of these buried memories of the playwright."

A walking tour through Shakespeare's London is not a terribly novel idea. There are books and guided tours available already should you want to do more than simply visit the reconstructed Globe Theatre. (And for many, that's probably plenty.) But for those who want a more in-depth exploration of London's literary history, then an iPhone app might be just the thing.

Device convergence is happening everyday as new tech gadgets combine the functionality of previous devices into one handy solution. I first experienced this when the iPhone replaced both my previous phone and my iPod. Not having to carry both devices around all the time was a huge step forward for a music fan like myself, and now we overlook simple pleasures like these.

Another device that could soon be swallowed by the smartphone is the dedicated GPS receiver. Friday, Google announced some updates to its Android app, Car Home, which provides big-button access to car-friendly apps for your windshield-mounted Android smartphone. Are the days of the dedicated GPS numbered?