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A lot of devices with the Windows Mobile operating system are coming out GPS enabled as well. A lot of times they don’t even come with the software to handle the GPS part of things.

I recently purchased some GPS software for my Windows Mobile OS based device and believe that this is some of the most advanced GPS software you can get for just $24!

Actually there’s 3 different versions of the software Basic (without upgrades), Standard (1 year of upgrades) and Geo (allows you to do area calculations and comes with 1 year of upgrades).

Since I use my GPS in mother natures great span of wilderness I really prefer this type of software to navigational software.

One of the best things for me with this software is the ability to use Google Earth’s satellite photography as my maps. So when I’m hiking around in the Mexican sierra I won’t get lost! The compass view with the sun’s direction is also really helpful for me when trying to find out which direction I should be going. Of course, the software has all the functions of regular GPS software like the ability to add waypoints and tracks.

When I’m on the road or traveling in a city I’ve never been in and more so if it’s a popular tourist destination, the ability to use maps from Terraserver, OpenStreetMaps or Google Maps is perfect because I don’t have to shell out $50 to $100 just to get a CD with all the maps on it for where I intend to go.

Another neat feature if you’re traveling with a bunch of friends in a real connected city is the ability to share your GPS location with your friends in real time. Yes - I believe this software had the GPS Share functionality long before the iPhone even existed.

Download a free trial of GPS Tuner - Offroad Navigation Sofware today!

There’s been a lot of rumors going around that “turn by turn” navigational software will become available for the iPhone very soon - but so far everything is still rumors.

The Dutch company TomTom says they are coming out with turn by turn software for the iPhone but no date or details have been released so far. While TomTom makes great navigational software it’s all wait and see when it comes to TomTom living up to Apple Style and I’d give Garmin a better kick at being able to develop a user interface that still “feels like an iPhone”.

I may be a little bit biased here but what I would really like to see is behemoth Google step up to the plate and develop a navigational system that works with Google Earth. For them to do this they’d have to be making some big changes though and I’m sure they’re much too busy on other projects to be working on a little one like this.

As a consumer all we can do is wait for it. If you ask me - we’ve already been waiting WAY too long!

Sometimes even really big companies make small mistakes that allow you to get their stuff for free and Garmin isn’t above doing that.

We’re not sure on how long Garmin will leave the door open on getting their MapSource for free with no cracks or hacks so you’ll want to do this as soon as you read it.

The first part (more…)

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…)

There’s a few places on the internet that offer FREE (as in beer) user generated maps for Garmin GPS owners. Of course nothing replaces a comprehensive map database but if you’re planning on traveling to foreign lands check out these maps to see if they’ll get you around to where you want to go - it might save you a few bucks in buying a whole map disc that you might not even use.

First here’s a couple of sites with a lot of maps:

Map Center
Free Garmin GPS Maps

Here’s some more sites with specific location maps.

Australia - Tracks for Australia
Canada - Canadian ‘eh’ Topo Maps
Caribbean - This maps site has maps of Japan, Bermuda and Antarctica too.
China - Yunnan Explorer
Greece - Greece GPS Maps
Morocco - Maps of Morocco
New Zealand - The New Zealand Open GPS project
South America - Argentina and Uruguay with some more countries on the way.

If you don’t have it already you’ll need a utility to help you get your .img files to your Garmin GPS you can download Img2GPS to help you along with that.

Don’t forget that a lot of these projects are all driven by public contribution, if you think you can help the project in some way don’t be too shy to send them an inquiry.

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.

There’s now a 2009 North America Map Update available for Garmin GPS Navigators. The DVD contains full coverage for the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.

The DVD comes jam packed full with almost 6 million Points of Interest too! With the latest maps you’ll have no problems finding businesses, coffee shops, lodging, attractions and more entertainment than ever before.

Get your 2009 City Navigator Map Update for the Garmin GPS Navigator now and be on your way in confidence with the latest interstates, highways and streets all up to date and available when you need them. The security of knowing you’ll have the latest maps and the enjoyment of the most up to date Points of Interest for your next road trip is less than $60 - RIGHT NOW.

You gotta tweak your stuff! Don’t think that your GPS can’t be tweaked to your liking, one thing you can start with on your Garmin GPS is a changing of the voice.

Just in case you’re looking to modify a TomTom voice file you can read about how to do that here: How to Change or Create TomTom GPS Voices

It’s not that hard to do but we’re going to assume that you have your Garmin GPS fully hooked up to your computer and you’re able to access it like a regular drive. If you can’t get to this point with your GPS just stop reading right here because this tweak is just not for you. (more…)