how do I get my GPS to work with my VARIO II

[Guest gezza007]

hello all,

I bought a gps receiver the other day from mobilefun, as I wanted to expand the use of my phone.

What software do I need in order to get the GPS receiver to work?

the gps reciever did not come with any useful instructions. it connects with bluetooth at the moment. but thats all it does.

I am new to GPS.

thanks

gezza

[Guest Christopher Woods]

Well, the GPS signal supplies the raw location data to the phone (usually in the international NMEA data standard, which is just literally lines of text with the longditude and latitude coordinates encoded into each line), but then you need software to interpret that data. Probably the most ubiquitous piece of software is TomTom, which is both really good AND really problematic to get working on many smartphones (it took me a good few hours to get it properly working without crashing or hanging, and that was 5.21 on my old smartphone! granted it was a dodge copy though). You can buy it and most likely it'll work much better, but nothing's a given in this day and age. Smartphones. 'Smart' phones. Heh. :)

The problem you have now is that you either try to get hold of the software and the maps via one or more slightly 'underhanded' means :D or you go buy some legit software. It's not cheap though, and as far as I know there's no decent free software available to give you route guidance using GPS data from a bluetooth receiver. I'm sure people are working on them though, but it's the raw mapping data which companies charge a crapload for.

There are programs you can get which can use GPS data, such as the Windows Live Mobile search, but it won't give you route guidance, only show your location on a map and update it as you move - and it's not designed for while-you-drive viewing.

Step two for you I guess would be to get hold of the software (and someone who knows their stuff when it comes to getting it working on your device!) and having another stab at it. You'll need to set up your GPS receiver to work with your phone, which is a lot simpler in Windows Mobile 5 than it is in WM2003SE - I did it in a matter of seconds, just a matter of setting up a new Incoming port and then specifying an outgoing data port for the GPS device once I'd paired it.

[Guest jimbouk]

Try Modaco's own cameraware...