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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.

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…)

Google Maps is a great utility to help you find your way. If you don’t have a navigational GPS with all the maps and waypoints to help you out you can still search for a location on Google Maps and add it as a waypoint to your GPS unit.

When you’ve found your destination just right click on it and then click Directions to here. The box on the left hand side of the screen will change and include the decimal degrees coordinates for the location that you’re seeking.

You can add the coordinates to your GPS unit and you’re on your way. It might not be as good as a navigational GPS unit but this will still help you get you there.

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!

There are so many different types of GPS devices on the market today - all with great price tags and they all do some pretty awesome things.

I’ve picked the Garmin iQue 3600 PDA with built in GPS, the HP iPAQ rx5915 Travel Companion and the Garmin eTrex Venture HC Handheld GPS to compare.

Here the Line-up which is linked to Amazon.com for your easy purchase:

What I like about the Garmin iQue 3600 is that it has a nice compact design and it includes the excellent Garmin software to go with it. It has a really decent price too - I mean c’mon this is a full fledged portable computer capable of playing movies, music, storing your contacts and transporting documents. What I don’t like about it is that it has the Palm OS. Even though I use OS X and Ubuntu Linux the Palm Operating System just doesn’t cut it for me. I’m already on a limited device (for power) and now and locked into a proprietary OS - I just can’t do that.

HP iPAQ rx5915 Travel Companion publisher: Hewlett Packard price:

The HP iPAQ rx5915 - Now this baby is sweet and it is my favorite of them all. I’m already partial to PDAs with built in GPSs and I actually paid a lot more for mine than what this is selling for. I’m really impressed by HP’s design on this one, it’s very modern and it really gives you a sense of mobility. They’ve gone all out here and have stepped far away from the typical PDA design. This device is loaded with the Windows Mobile OS and even though I’m not a Windows user on my laptops I really like the Windows Mobile Operating System for a handheld device. This comes with the popular and proven SiRF GPS chipset and is loaded with navigation software and maps.

Garmin Etrex Venture HC GPS Receiver publisher: Garmin price:

No matter what there’s a place for this type of device. I call the Garmin eTrex Venture HC a ‘Disposable GPS’ and I don’t do that because it’s a bad device. I call it a Disposable GPS because it’s cheap enough and has enough functionality to be worthwhile taking to some of the more rugged places on the face of this earth. When you’re hiking in the Upper Sierra of Chihuahua, Mexico with the guys toting their ‘cuerno de chivo’ (AK47) for your protection this is the type of device that you’ll be wanting to carry. If you lose it, scratch or break it or even if it gets stolen from you it’s pretty rough to take, but it’s not as rough as losing or breaking your PDA. This is also a great first time GPS device - something you can pass off to a friend or family member when you decide to upgrade to something more sophisticated.

By the way - take EXTREME care in the back-country of Mexico. If you happen to stumble on something that doesn’t look right - my suggestion is don’t ever touch it, don’t look at it, and keep moving as if you had never seen it.

There’s a lot of interest in freely available Points Of Interest files that people can load on or update their GPS with.

Lucky for all of us the Internet is a great place where people share and compile information for the benefit of all of us. The people over at The POI Factory have put together a whole bunch of information and compiled it into downloadable POI files. They’ve done a great job and really have a lot to offer - for FREE!

So if you’ve been tramping around the internet looking for these hard to find files you don’t have to look any further - head over to The POI Factory and grab a few files.

Drive safe and don’t forget to grab the Red-Light and Speed Trap POIs - might even save you some MORE money.

I’ve noticed a lot of people on the internet that are looking to find their lost cell phone with GPS capability or their GPSs that might have been stolen out of their car.

Since there’s so much interest in this subject I though that I would just let all those that are interest to know - that there is no way to track a stolen GPS.

A GPS receives signals from satellites (there are about (more…)

Everybody goes out once in awhile and buys a device that’s just a little bit above their head. They usually end up with a less than enjoyable experience from the device and might even feel a bit cheated.

I like to get the most out of the hardware that I buy. For me to do that I need to understand the concepts behind how the device works. Once I’ve studied and I understand the device better I usually find that I get much more enjoyment out of it.

The Dummy series of books is not (more…)