Omnitech GPS Fiasco

Apparently, there is a glitch in the GPS receiver branded "Omintech" on 6/14/2009: the Omnitech GPS ( model:16678-US) stopped working as of June 14, 2009. The company, which is based in Taiwan (http://www.gonav.com.tw/) and operates in Mainland, China as well (http://www.gonav.net.cn/), made an announcement that the GPS chip stopped working. The following are screen-shots from the company's official website. The one with 6 red Chinese-character title is from http://www.gonav.com.tw/ while
the one with date at the bottom from http://www.gonav.net.cn/. A friend who reads Chinese kindly translated them for me and I am posting the translation for those who don't read Chinese:

• Translation of the announcement from Taiwan: http://www.gonav.com.tw/

Grave Informational Announcement

Due to the error in the default value setting in the GPS receiver chip by the (chip) supplier, the GONAV-branded satellite positioning devices/products sold by our company (including GPS and satellite-assisted tracking systems etc) were unable to receive real-time satellite positioning signal as of GMT 0:0 of June 14, 2009.

To protect consumers' interest, the company has assembled an internal task-force to deal with the incident, and will announce the detailed correction measures within 2 days on our company's official website and through major newspaper and other medias. This company offers sincere apologies to consumers for the convenience this incidents has caused.

• Translation of the announcement on http://www.gonav.net.cn/:

Urgent Declaration!

The US GPS satellite changed the emitting code suddenly on the morning of June 14(,2009), which led to malfunction of some of the GPS receiver chips.

As of now, the supplier of GPS receiver chips which our company uses is tackling the problem urgently and has proposed a solution. Our company will provide an updated GPS software (NK.bin), which will solve the problem of abnormal signal reception. In the meantime, we ask you for your forgiveness for the inconvenience this has caused.

ShenZhen GONAV Digital Communication Ltd.

2009.6.14