If you own a Nokia Cellular Phone with built in GPS and don’t know already - you’ll be happy to know that Nokia Maps was updated.
Nokia Maps is available for the Nokia E61, E61i, E65, E90, N70, N72, N73, N76, N93i, N95, the Nokia 6110 Navigator and finally the 6120 Classic.
If you have one of these phones hook it up to your computer and get some updates! You’ll need the Nokia Map Loader which can be (more…)
Since Macintosh has been scraping together more and more of the computer market share with every passing day I thought that I’d check out just which GPS manufacturers were willing to recognize the aggressively rising popularity in the OS X operating system.
My goal was not to find out which GPS devices could with a whole bunch of tweaking and 3rd party software possibly be hooked up to a Mac and have some type of support. I wanted to see which manufacturers put the time in to produce their own software that slips right into the system without any fiddling around.
This OEM type of support for a less popular operating system really represents who’s working hard to keep their market share and their users happy.
The results were no less than what I expected with OEM support for Mac OS X on TomTom and Garmin devices and with Magellan and Mio being left out in the cold totally unsupported.
Garmin devices have a small, powerful suite of software to use - all beautifully integrated with the Mac operating system. Bobcat, MapInstall, POI Loader, Connect and the Communicator Plugin for other software and services like Google Maps, Mapquest and Geocaching.com allow you to do everything you’d expect and more from your Garmin GPS device and a Mac based system. All their OS X software is available on the Garmin Mac OS X Software Page.
Although TomTom devices also have OEM support for Mac OS X the software seems to be a bit more of a storefront to help them sell more services to you. The TomTom software however is fully functional and allows you to do all the things you need to do with your device like adding points of interest, doing backups, changing voices and updating your maps.
With the software storefront you can also purchase subscriptions to their ’safety camera’ updating service and their traffic service - both of which will for sure save you time and money.
You can download their Mac OS X software from the TomTom Plus Services web site.
Not that it’s a super-surprise to me - but Magellan doesn’t have OEM support for Mac OS X and the Magellan devices.
You can see from my interaction with the Magellan uber-cool Ask Maggie Web Support System that no Mac software support is available.
I do find it kind of funny though that Maggie decided to ask me if the ’solution’ provided was helpful or not. Even though Maggie ever so thoughtfully provided a link to the front page of the Apple web site I’m going to have to say “No her SOLUTION was not very helpful”.
Mio was the least supported - Yes… even less than Magellan without even confirmation in a search on their web site that Mac support was not available.
With the type of support that Garmin and TomTom offer their users you can see why they are the real front-runners in the GPS market. You can expect them to hold on to this position because they’re going to work hard on the development of their devices to expand their user-base and keep you happy.
Pretty cool that both the TomTom and the Garmin let you change the voice files at your every whim if you want to. It’s so easy to do that you can have someone different tell you where to go every day (Like that doesn’t happen at work already right?).
You can learn how to change your GPS voices with these tutorials:
http://www.sourcegps.com/2008/04/21/change-your-garmin-gps-voice/
http://www.sourcegps.com/2008/03/08/changing-and-creating-tomtom-voices/
However - I’m going to have to say that Garmin is the front-liner though when it comes to customization and total tweaking control because not only do they allow you to have the ability to change your voice files but you can have some real control over your vehicle icon too. Garmin has a garage (actually a web site) set up just for storing cars to share with the planet. There’s over 50 vehicles in the garage to choose from like the blue RC Buggy pictured on the left.
Some of you knowledgeable people are going to say “TomTom lets you change theirs too!” - but the cheezy little vehicle bitmap icons that TomTom utilizes don’t even come close to comparing to the vehicle icons that are available for the Garmin GPS Navigators.
Garmin says their vehicle icons will work for the Nuvi series, the Zumo series and the StreetPilot c510, c530, c550 and the c580. You can download the vehicle icons from The Garmin Garage.
Check back at SourceGPS in a little while and we’ll have a tutorial on how to make your own custom icons for the Garmin series of GPS Navigators.
Geotagging is a fairly-new, automatic and easy way to keep your digital photos organized. With a GPS enabled camera you can include GPS location information within the Exif data in your pictures. The problem however is that the cameras that have this functionality built in are still very expensive. Pictured on the right is Nikon’s D300 which is a GPS enabled camera. The last time I looked at the price for this camera it was about $1,700 which is a little outside my budget especially since the price doesn’t include any lenses for the camera.
No kidding around the D300 is a beautiful camera and I would love to have one but I still want to be able to eat more than a little bowl of rice every day next month so really I can’t afford one.
Lucky for me (and all the rest of the people on strict budgets) that there are alternative methods to automatically Geotag your digital pictures without burning up the money you’re going to spend on food for the next two months.
The i-gotU Travel Blog Master is the best deal at about $50 and it comes in two different models.
The water-resistant and non-water-resistant models are the same price so you might as well go for the extra security of having a more rugged model that comes with a cozy rubber-bumper case too.
The i-gotU Travel Blog Master is compatible with all digital cameras and camera-phones and can actually be used as a PC-GPS as well. It comes with the software that helps you easily create a 3D photo-journey in Google Earth and in Google Maps.
If you’re wondering about accuracy you can be assured this will be as accurate as any other device on the market. It comes with the widely popular SiRF III Chipset that is used in many GPS systems.
Sony says that the GPS-CS1KA GPS Image tracker is compatible with virtually any digital still camera and camcorder. Record the time, date and location to each shot you take. You can use with any of camera since now Picture Motion Browser software is included in GPS-CS1KA. Once the images and data are on your PC, the supplied image tracker software synchronizes the photos with latitude, longitude and time reading from the GPS-CS1KA unit. Activate the Picture Motion Browser software are your photos will pop up next to push pins on Google Maps or Google Earth by the actual location where you shot the picture.
But wait just a second! This is selling for $150 which is about $100 more than the i-gotU model that does exactly the same thing.
Alright - it does have a pretty cool design and also the hook for a carabiner (those ever so popular clips that are used for hiking and now everything else too) which makes it something you can just clip to your backpack and forget about until the journey is over. Your call on whether it’s worth the extra $100 though.
The GiSTEQ PhotoTrackr Lite is also a great choice - it’s reasonable priced at about $100 and has all the features you’d expect from a device like this.
They claim that “the most exciting feature of all is that you can upload your photos to flickr online” which you can do with any other picture too! That particular feature is not really unique to any device and if you’ve geotagged your pictures with any other device flickr will treat them the same when you’ve uploaded them.
With a cool design and also the clip for the carabiner you’d think it’d be worth as much as the Sony model. I’m guessing the extra $50 on the Sony is the price you pay for the little painted on Sony logo.
There’s been mention that this GPS device doesn’t live up to the advertised 22+ hours of normal battery usage time but that would be totally dependent on where the device is being used. If it’s always searching for satellites it’ll use up the battery a lot faster than if it has constant locks on them. Even so 10 hours on a rechargeable Li-ion battery would suffice for most users.
So there it all is! Geotagging your digital pictures automatically, cheaply, and easily!
So you’ve thought about making your own GPS? Nowadays such a feat of electronic genius can be done much easier than you think.
The guys over at MAKE Magazine put together a little video on how to do it from easily available parts.
Pretty awesome hey? You can buy all the parts that you need to make one of these beautiful, ergonomic wonders from the Parallax Online Store.
You’ll need the following:
That give you a grand total of $211.85! WOW!!! Makes you want to go out there and build one of these low function, unfinished devices doesn’t it?
If you want a functional GPS unit building one is not for you. You can get them pretty cheap these days and you’ll get a lot more functionality out of it - but if you’re just looking to play and explore your love for electronic gadgets then this might be for you.
It’s a great project if you’re into that sort of stuff. I’m 103.5% geek so I already have my own Board of Education from Parallax. I also have a couple of projects that are in continuous development stage too. Don’t forget that if you buy in bulk Parallax will give you a couple dollar break on the bucks you’re going to fork over for parts - what a great Christmas or Birthday present for all those you love! 
This has to be one of the most awesome Instructables I’ve ever seen and a lot of thanks goes out to Sudija for sharing this with everybody.
I’m guessing that Sudija uses a motorbike as his main means of transportation and has a GPS device that doesn’t have Bluetooth capabilities. He’s come up with a really simple and ingenious way of modifying his TomTom to give it Bluetooth capability. Now he can cruise around on his motorbike and abide by all those life-saving helmet laws while still comfortably listening to his GPS directions.
You’re going to have to be at least a 4 on the ‘Handy-Scale’ for this one. The project involves taking apart the GPS, drilling a little hole and soldering a couple of wires in. But all in all it is a pretty simple project that can be performed on pretty much any GPS device that has a speaker and gives you audible navigational directions. With a Radio Shack non-Bluetooth cellular phone adaptor he was able to get everything working just fine.
Sudija also says that he saved himself about $300 by being able to have the cheaper GPS device and adding the Bluetooth capabilities himself!
You can find Sudija’s great Instructable all the way over at Instructables.com.
If you already have a smartphone or PDA such as a Palm Treo, Palm Centro, or Motorola Q, there’s now a one-box solution for car navigation - the Garmin Mobile 20! The Mobile 20 is an all-in-one solution - simply pop in the pre-programmed data card that contains all the mapping information for the United States and Canada, then pop your phone into the Mobile 20’s smart mount. Plug it in - and you’re done! Best of all, Tiger GPS has an exclusive deal - the Garmin Mobile 20 for smartphones - $59.99 special! - over $200 off the retail price!
Step up to the Garmin Nuvi 350 - the Hottest GPS on the Market! Pre-loaded with detailed road maps for the entire United States and Canada, the Nuvi 350 features a 3.5″ screen, text-to-speech voice prompts, an MP3 and audio book player, headphone jack, and is compatible with a GTM receiver for live traffic updates. Available for a limited time for just $249.99!
If you’re ready for the big time, then you’re ready for a Garmin Nuvi 660. Similar in function to the nuvi 350, the nuvi 660 adds an extra-wide 4.3″ diagonal color touch-screen interface, Bluetooth for hands-free calling, an FM Transmitter, and integrated GTM receiver for live traffic updates. The nuvi 660 also features text-to-speech voice prompts and multimedia player. Now just $349.99, while supplies last!
If you still need a wide screen model but want to save a few dollars, try the Garmin nuvi 650 Portable Automotive GPS System. Similar to the 660 model, the nuvi 650 boasts the same text-to-speech voice prompts, MP3 and audio book player, headphone jack, and pre-loaded maps of the U.S. and Canada, but lacks the Bluetooth and included traffic features. Now just $299.99, through April 7th!
I’m active in different parts of the Internet and in my travels around I’ve noticed that there’s some people out there that have a little paranoia about GPS Tracking Systems in the sense that maybe themselves or their vehicle is being tracked.
Todays technology makes all this possible and in fact really easy to do. Bur keep in mind that these devices are still quite large so it would be pretty obvious if someone were to put one in your gym bag or purse.
So far the hardware that is ‘dedicated‘ to GPS tracking is (more…)
