GPS for the Windows Mobile 5?

billapepper asks: "I recently purchased a Sprint PPC-6700 and was looking to add GPS navigation functionality, however there are quite a few to choose from. I've read about TomTom, Co-Pilot Live, and Garmin Que, but haven't been able to tell which one is worth the $200+ price tag. I was wondering what the Slashdot community felt was the best based on support, functionality, accuracy, map sizes, and ease of use. As a side note, I already purchased Microsoft Pocket Streets 2006 (which came with a GPS receiver), so the ideal option would be a way to hack Pocket Streets to add routing capabilities and, if possible, voice guidance."

Comments

Depends on where you use it...

[cookiej]

I love the Tom Tom software. I installed it on my iPAQ and use a bluetooth GPS.

That being said, I hate the database. I think TOMTOM is much more euro-centric that they would lead you to believe. The online traffic stuff (last time I checked) was England-only. I went on a trip up to northern Wisconsin in the U.S. and it lost track of the major roads about halfway up the state.

Major cities in US seem to be fine, however. Denver, LA, Minneapolis, all tested fine. However, it almost didn't even have Chandler (growing suburb of Phoenix) in the database at all!

For contrast, we had gone to the same Wisconsin location on a previous trip and took my 2001-Navi Acura (this was 2004 when we went) with a fixed DVD for data and the map data was spot-on. I think Acura uses Navteq, not sure who TOMTOM uses. I'm sure someone else here can fill in that blank.

Re:Depends on where you use it...

[Stocktonian]

Well I don't know how good the U.S. maps are in the TomTom, I can tell you all the European ones are excellent.

My Mother was visiting me in England recently from Spain and bought herself a TomTom 700 while she was here and was planning to drive a car back. After I showed her how to program in a few routes and find Points Of Interest along the way, she was able to navigate from my front door in Manchester to her door on the Costa Blanca _and_ be taken to couple of hotels along the route to break up the journey.
She's no techie and she loves the simplicity, and no it doesn't really bother her that the U.S. maps are a bit old.

TomTom

[jcostantino]

TomTom has great navigation instructions and the routing is great. But the database is terrible! I bought the most recent Fort Lauderdale database and entire subdivisions STILL don't show up! On top of that, the POI database is limited and sometimes inaccurate.

I've noticed that it's not very helpful getting you to where you have to go unless you already know how to get there! We drove to Orlando, couldn't find the subdivision (existed for 5 years) because it wasn't on the map. On top of that, the only thing that almost none of the Disney hotels showed up on the map.

IPAQ 6515

[MBraynard]

Hi,

If you can, I'd suggest returning your current device and buying an Ipaq 6515. It has the GPS unit built right in - no attachments. It comes with TomTom and one free map of a city. You can purchase some of the other maps online. It has worked great for me for the east coast. A little flaky at times, but overall very reliable.

I'd add that the device is not perfect, but it does work exceptionally well. A WM5 version came out recently and while it has a little less memory, you can send it away for a memory upgrade. Cingular is packaging it's 6515 for only 500 with a 2 yr contract, but I believe their version is running WM2003.

Re:IPAQ 6515

[wfberg]

Geez, you're a might touchy about the capabilities of an inanimate object you happen to own.

GPS operates on microwave frequencies. Those signals are highly directional, you need a line of sight. In fact, if they were easily dispersed and bounced off of lots of things (the way AM bounces of the stratosphere itself for example) it would be pretty useless as a navigational tool. Now, I'm sure it operates in your pocket. Pockets don't insulate that well against microwave RF. So your receiver will still see the RF pouring down from the sky.

Most car roofs, and some specially coated (against the sun/heat) windshields do too (they usually have a non-shielded spot in the middle of the windshield where you can put an RF toll-token or a GPS receiver). Also, in built-up areas buildings on either side of the road will obstruct the line-of-sight to satellites, and your receiver will be best off lying horizontally on a flat surface, with no roof obstructing the view of the sky above it.

It is well possible that you never drive in built-up areas and have a rooftop that is made out of some sort of flimsy balsawood. That does not in any way discredit a piece of general advice given to ALL readers of this website. You're line of reasoning is basically "STFU". Yeah. Real helpful. I respond to that with a hearty "Cognitive dissonance or phallus symbol?"

Accuracy

[figleaf]

As far as accuracy is concerned I doubt these small devices can provide accurate voice instructions.
I have driven around the country (US) using a tablet PC and using a voice addin to Mappoint 2004. It is by a huge measure the most reliable navigation system that is commericially available.

Mappoint 2006 comes with built-in Voice-Prompted Driving Guidance -- but I have not tried it.

Just my 2 cents.

Pharos GPS

[cmarks03]

If your phone has bluetooth or a CompactFlash slot, you can get the adapters from Pharos (their iGPS-360 is the exact same as the one with Streets and Trips). The Bluetooth adapter runs about $100, and the CF adapter will run about $50. I've used a Pharos GPS for just over a year now, and I love it (though I use their Ostia software, not M$'s offering). You can check them out at www.pharosgps.com.

copilot ...

[madhippy]

I'd avoid copilot ... software is buggy and they tend to only fix things in new releases which cost $$$ to upgrade to ...

I bought copilot 5 - should have stuck to tomtom ...

navigon or tomtom i suppose.

[dunkelfalke]

my job is actually writing a intelligent transportation system which uses a navigation software for pocketpc. we have reviewed maybe 5 different systems: tomtom, navigon, fleet navigator (the same software is also sold as falk navigator and marco polo), destinator and idrive navigator.

they all have their pros and cons
tomtom is great and quite fast. a nice allrounder with a nice sdk
navigon is actually the best one, but a major memory and cpu hog with a REALLY expensive sdk
fleet navigator is buggy as hell and crash prone. the sdk is primitive. but there is a version of fleet navigator called truck navigator and it is the only pda navigation software (and maps) which is optimized for trucks
destinator is ok, but you can contact them about the sdk as much as you want, they never answer.
idrive navigator has the least features but the best sdk - you can build it completely and seamless in your application.

Links & Slashgeo.org for GPS news and discussi

[Lord Satri]

I invite you to slashgeo.org. Quite smaller than slashdot (and only 6 months old), but it reach thousands of geospatial professionals and has over 8000 daily hits right now. It has an active GPS section that will undoubtly interest you and of course, the usual Ask Slash section.

"As a side note, I already purchased Microsoft Pocket Streets 2006"

Stories in other sections, such as web mapping, might also interest you since it includes stories such as Open Source Alternatives to Consumer Map Programs. A part of the story: "Open source tends to be lacking in consumer map programs ala Microsoft Streets and Trips and Delorme's Street Atlas. There are several efforts to repair that situation. GMap, Roadster, and RoadNav are three examples. [...]"

Mapopolis

[AdminGamer]

TomTom has a pretty good UI, and I think that's what sells it more than anything.

Mapopolis http://www.mapopolis.com/ runs on Windows Mobile and Palm, and the updates to the actual software are free.

You get a year's worth of free updates to the maps, which are based on NAVTEQ maps (ie, Google Maps, etc).

While it's closed-source, they do have an open beta program they run which lets you try out the latest features and get suggestions put in. It's definitely more of a power-user's app, but with a free demo, you can't beat it. :)

(One important note about TomTom. You CAN NOT move it from one PDA to another. It hardware-locks to your pocket device. Mapopolis can fit itself and most of the United States on a single mini-SD, which is real nice for the iPAQ RW6515 that Cingular has with integrated GPS.)

Avoid Tele-Atlas at all costs

[Andy Dodd]

Both TomTom and Lowrance MapCreate (the software for Lowrance's GPS receivers) use Tele-Atlas as their data source for roads and POIs.

Both of them have HORRIBLY inaccurate data. POIs will be often off by over a mile, and in some cases will not even be on the correct road. For example, TomTom thinks my local Pizza Hut is on an access road in the middle of a river. In one case I had TomTom route me one mile along a road and then make a U-turn, only to pass my initial starting point. (This road had no turn restrictions and was two-way. No, I didn't actually FOLLOW the route...) Both TomTom and Lowrance's software have incredibly annoying DRM that makes anything a chore even for a single average user. (For example, Lowrance requires a special USB SD card reader to work with their DRM. Forget about using your nice convenient built-in SD reader or a portable reader like the SanDisk MobileMate series - Lowrance's is HUGE. TomTom requires device-specific map activation, so if your device gets damaged or you upgrade, you're screwed.) I'll admit, I tried TomTom in a less-than-legal fashion, so a legit version might be improved, but research I've done indicates that this is not the case. I've seen a lot of similar complaints from people who bought the software and are out $150 on a nice-looking piece of junk with a great user interface. (Yes, TomTom's UI is light years ahead of anything else I've tried so far, but the data is so inaccurate that it doesn't matter. I could get better directions using a TIGER/Line dataset, and TIGER doesn't contain any information on turn restrictions and one-way roads! TomTom's turn restrictions and one-way info are just plain WRONG.)

Mapopolis doesn't have the best user interface, at least not on PalmOS. I don't know about WM5. The next-turn info takes up over half the screen, leaving little room for the actual map. On PalmOS devices, Mapopolis is barely aware of the 5-way nav pad, as a result there is no way to do most things without the stylus. (To be honest, TomTom is also touchscreen-intensive, but they make the icons and touch areas large enough for fingernail operation.) Unlike TomTom, Mapopolis allows for time-limited demos.

DeLorme Street Atlas USA 2006 Handheld has some great features and some major deficiencies. SA2006HH is by far the most compatible with the PalmOS 5-way nav pad. It used to have major compatibility problems with WM5, but DeLorme just released an update on Friday. DeLorme's data is by far the most accurate I have ever used. Unfortunately, their routing engine is pretty slow and their POI search engine is so slow that it might as well not exist. (To DeLorme's credit, TomTom's POI search engine is so inaccurate that it may as well not exist either.) SA2006HH also has the slowest map redraw of any of the handheld software packages I've used. SA2006HH's saving grace - it is the only package that supports topographic maps if you also buy DeLorme's Topo USA. TUSA is the best topographic mapping software I've used to date. TUSA 6.0 + SA2006HH costs less than TomTom ($99 for TUSA, $39 for SA2006HH. If you're already a DeLorme customer you can probably get a significant discount on those, most likely including if you purchase one and then the other once you've registered the first.)

So what do I use? DeLorme for hiking and geocaching, and I'm going to purchase Mapopolis for driving soon. I'll probably wait until this summer though, DeLorme usually releases new versions during late summer, so SA2007HH might come out with significant improvements then.

TomTom, GPS and WM5

[redjupiter]

I recently purchased (first use of GPS for me) TOMTOM Navigator 5 with bluetooth, running on O2 ZDA Exec (I-mate Jasjar or HTC universal) over here in London. The software is pretty good and the instructions are very clear. Route calculations are very fast, fix acquisitions nor more than few seconds at most. Full post code search. Takes tiem to get used ot the instructions, for example, (not usre if it is a bug) ona roundabout in London it told me to take the fifth exit when there is none. Later as I was driving around the roundabout I noticed a road entering the roundabout. To TomTom it was an exit, according to the road rules it isn't since it is incoming only (the board at the roundabout says so too). Another mistake it made, it told me to turn left into a one way road, I did not and took the most logical route (after a lot of swearing from black cab drivers) and it recalculated my new route within a second. I have tested it on routes between London, Oxford and Swindon. Next week it is the country side. Some people here says bluetooth sucks on WM5. I am not sure how they found out that. I have been using my XDA for about six months, and I use bluetooth almost 20 hours a day non-stop. It is used for synchronization, business card and file exchange, and finally and most importantly, I use it with my bluetooth car kit. It never dropped a beat. It works fine with TomTom bluetooth GPS (I almost don't think about it as I take forgranted it is there, My bluetooth is on 24 hours). Other applications had no problem finding the bluetooth GPS receiver and communicating with it. Overall, I would have liked to see a better TomTom database and some utilities to make the most of the GPS when it is not used for navigation. Hope this helps.