Indeed, the models I have seen have a very short battery life, or check in infrequently, or only check in when movement is detected, or use cell signal triangulation to save battery, etc.

I’ve seen some pretty small GPS trackers with cell modems, I wouldn’t be surprised if these were that instead depending on the price.

Yeah but luckily by the mid 80s it was completely digitized and just there in the basement for reference.

You are talking about the difference between a website and a web application. Nothing is broken. Given that the alternative used the be Flash/Coldfusion I’m not sure this way is worse.