Using a GPS Receiver in the Car

[Ram]

Found an interesting video of GPS being used on a Nokia N95.
http://www.youtube.com/v/jJ-Nxcf5TOQ

In the Nokia N95, besides integrated GPS system with free maps, which is a cool feature by itself,
one also finds a 5 Megapixel (2592 x 1944) digital camera with Flickr support,
Carl Zeiss lens optics, autofocus & digital zoom.

It has a plethora of broadband hooks: Bluetooth, WLAN, 802.11g WiFi, WLAN, HSDPA(High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) (3.5G) - 3.6 mbps download speed, Bluetooth v.2.0, FM Radio and FOTA ("firmware over the air" update ability), Video recording at near DVD quality, storage for 6,000 songs, 3D stereo effect speakers, TV-out functionality and 150MB of internal memory,

And like a high-end PC it even has fully hardware accelerated PowerVR 3D graphics engine from Imagination Technologies including OpenGL ES 1.1 and M3G).

Friends, is this a new category or is this a new category?
-- value positioning, the same way that the players in the PC era did it.
Combining the digital camera, MP3 player, video camera, GPS and phone, with Internet connectivity into a single pocket-sized natively programmable computer.

After playing with PC-based geoservices (from MapQuest maps to Google Earth) and the Dutch TomTom, we consumers are are now hungry to find places and things fast, and online! Enter free-of-cost location-based services. I think this will really take-off in 2007. ABI Research predicts that 25% of all 3G handsets will include GPS capability by the end of 2008.

So, once GPS functionality becomes a regular feature on mobile phones (uh, handheld multimedia computers) -- Nokia's N95 has a Texas Instruments GPS tranceiver module --, will the soul of the standalone handheld GPS receiver, join the souls of the standalone FM receivers and MP3 players in the happy hunting grounds?

Exciting times ahead!

Ram

[babhishek]

Do any of you use NAVMAN GPS Recievers? are maps available for kolkata ?

[Ram]

Yesterday (Mon. 30th Oct 2006), Nokia announced its portable 330 Auto Navigation device.
It comes with maps covering most of Europe, promising seamless cross-border navigation.

Maps are stored on a 2GB memory card with 2D and 3D maps.
ROUTE 66 Navigate 7.0 software provides navigation and NAVTEQ provides Map data.


And when the Nokia 330 isn’t being used as a GPS device, it can play MP3 music, DivX videos and view photos.

The expected price is EUR 360 (Rs. 20,650).

[manu]

I dont think India maps are available for Route 66... though I may be wrong.

The times they are a'changing... gps is definitely coming to india to stay.. there is a lot of work yet to be done in the mapping department. I have tried both satnav maps with destinator and mapking maps for delhi... they are nowhere close to the navteq maps of USA, but its at least a start and thats what counts!

[Insane Devil]

Are India Maps available for TOM TOM NAVIGATOR? I am planning to buy a new Windows Mobile 5 phone which is coming with builtin GPS and they are providing TOMTOM Navigator as standard software for the gps, and SIRFSTAR III equipment in it.

Can the Destinator software from Satnav (is it from satnava here?) be installed on any PPC and maps taken from them work on it?

[netarchie]

Originally Posted by Insane Devil

Are India Maps available for TOM TOM NAVIGATOR? I am planning to buy a new Windows Mobile 5 phone which is coming with builtin GPS and they are providing TOMTOM Navigator as standard software for the gps, and SIRFSTAR III equipment in it.

Can the Destinator software from Satnav (is it from satnava here?) be installed on any PPC and maps taken from them work on it?

India maps are not availble for TOM TOm, For india maps are only availble for a software called mapking and another is the destinator. (as far as i know)
Eicher provides maps for mapking and satnave provides the maps for destinator.
Apart from this there are lot of other softwares which allow you to make your own map using any bmp,jpg files ect.

You can use the destinator software for your PPC and the satnav maps will work on them.

Which is the device you are geting?? Eten??

[manu]

I am not aware if India maps are available for Tom Tom.

I know that Destinator maps for Delhi/Mumbai/Hyd/Chennai/Pune/Blore are available from Satnav. They will sell you the software + maps of Delhi/Mumbai/Hyd for 4990. Will run on most windows mobile 2003/WM5 PPCs.

Mapking software + maps are available on the net for the equivalent of 1400 odd rupees for each city.

Garmin does have software and maps for india cities (but it will not work on your PPC).

Hope that helps.

[babhishek]

Do any of you use NAVMAN GPS Recievers? are maps available for kolkata ?
Can some one confirm Maps can be loaded to navman gps receivers.
I mean are there any software compatibility issues with using NAVMAN GPS?

This is urgent.. in the UK currently and planning to pick one up.

[netarchie]

Mapking has updated its map for Indian Cities..
Download and trial

I have downloaded, let me see what are the improvements..

[manu]

I have tried the new mapking software (G10) for the delhi ncr map.

The map is the same as the V7 (new format though so you'll need to download the 10-11mb file again!)

Its the software interface which has changed majorly and there are many improvements.
Its still beta, and I think needs some improvement in the stability front.
Also the memory footprint needs some looking into - it is a 23-25 MB install file and just installing it was a hassle because i guess it loaded it into the ram and then ran out of memory a couple of times.
I was able to successfully install it finally and test it for a couple of days.
As i said earlier, there are many improvement in the software and interface, but the map accuracy and details as such remain the same as the V7 version.

This is from what I tried and saw in my 2-3 days of trial. Netarchie, I would be interested in inputs from you on how your trial goes....

=
Manu

[netarchie]

These so called new maps are no good. I really cant figure out whats "new" in it. I downloaded because it had the info updated "OCT 18" on the maps.
The car still shows out of the road. Wrong direction for road indications ect. Mapking really sucks.
Abt the software too i did not find any much difference.

Does Garmin have a better map of India. Also heard satguide is going to come out with a MAP where the Highways of India are going to be mapped. I hope its true.

[manu]

Hey netarchie
look at the satguide.in site.. it has been revamped.. and it mentions a highway map... for less than 2k.

though they are playing it safe and claiming (or rather DISclaiming) that it is only 60% accurate!!
:-)

the software had some fuzzy logic kind of feature.. though i didnt try it long wnuf to find out what it was.. and a compass mode.. simple stuff... but additions to v7.
Doesnt make much sense if the map is not accurate... as you said correctly..

[manu]

Originally Posted by manu

the software had some fuzzy logic kind of feature.. though i didnt try it long wnuf to find out what it was.. and a compass mode.. simple stuff... but additions to v7.
Doesnt make much sense if the map is not accurate... as you said correctly..

I was refering to the Mapking G10 beta software in the above post and comparing it with the V7 version... just to clarify lest it confuse anyone.

[netarchie]

Thanks Manu..I saw the satguide.in site. Yes it has the all india map for 1990/- and some city maps for 990/- also. I have contacted them. But their response has always been poor.

Will test out the maps and post my feedback.

[vishnugs]

Guys, there is another way to GPS enable your car. You can pickup a Bluetooth GPS Receiver for $80 (around 4000Rs) and use an interfacing software GPSWatch from GPSWatch | iNTERCHAIN Solutions and view all the data on your regular phone.

GPSWatch supports India maps as well so its very nice to locate ourselves on roads. I think this solution is pretty powerful than other GPS Receivers because they are stale devices and cant interact with internet. GPSWatch accesses internet from phone here lets u update your location online to services like Welcome to Trackut . It also provides performance enthus reports like time to 60 KMPH calculation, top speed, average speed, time to reach distance, etc.

On the whole its worth checking out a solution for 4000 bucks. I developed this for European customers, more than 500 users grabbed this in less than 6 months of its launch.