Database Users

Best Freeware GPS software?

As mentioned earlier, I purchased the i-Blue 737 GPS receiver online. I've not received it yet, so not sure if it comes with software and/or maps. It should be here anywhere between the 14th to the 19th of this month.
Now for the questions. First and foremost, I want to use this without using GPRS service as I removed that from my AT&T plan. Second, I would like freeware software(s) that let me load and interact with the maps on the 8525. If possible, I would prefer a software that does not require Wi-Fi to find locations on the go, as GPRS will not be available. I should have access to Wi-Fi in the hotel I will be in, but may not have Wi-Fi when out and about. Lastly, I would like a freeware that lets voice calls through without freezing up the device.
I've read that Google Earth is great, but I haven't seen if it uses already loaded maps or I'd have to use GPRS (or Wi-Fi) on the fly. As for money, that's pretty tight as it's all going into the wedding and honeymoon; if not for that I would spend the $129 that TomTom wants for it's software!
Thanks for all the help you can offer!

I'm not really sure about Freeware software that DOESN'T use data, but I use TomTom 7 w/o a data connection and it works great. I love it and swear by it.
I know that doesn't help, but IDK what else to say.

Freeware offline GPS navigation software
You may try Terracrosser.

pay for GPS?

I'm wondering do you have to pay any fee when using GPS in my X1? I had successfully managed to install iGo 8 in my X1.
Thanks,

No you dont have to pay any fee

Receiving GPS signals itself is free.
The program you use to read the signals and provide navigation might not be.
GPSTest for instance tells you where you are (longitude and latitude). Not very useful in itself. Google Maps is free, and puts a GTA2 like map with a Dot on it where you are.
TomTom puts a GTA3 like map with direction based navigation (but isn't free).
Some not free applications:
- TomTom (once off charge for maps)
- Wayfinder (one charge for limited period of use i.e. 3 years)
etc.
Hope that helps!
Edit:
By the way, consumer GPS devices are [hard] coded to recieve updates only 1 or 2 times per second, hence they are inaccurate to about 10-15 meters. Rumour is that US military recievers are coded to recieve several (10+) updates per second, and therefore are far more accurate (you wouldn't want to bomb the school next door with a missile fired from 100km away now would ya )

only have to pay for GPRS, not GPS

GPS itself is free . .
but sometimu'l b charger for updatingMAPS , not for usingnavigation

what GPS software you recommend?

I noticed that there's no way to get free GPS software to work with my HD, so which ones you guys recommend? I heard the google maps charges way too much based on how many times it is used and data.
Can these softwares once bought provide different maps? I travel different places around the world.
thanks

The best GPS navigation software in my opinion is TomTom 7. However, it does not have maps in every country. Therefore, I have about 4 different GPS in my HD. For asian countries, the best one is MapKing.

Do need to have internet connection for GPS to work?
Does the GPS needs some data service to work? or does it work like a regular GPS?
Or is it based on the software used?
thanks,

stzd8 said:
Does the GPS needs some data service to work? or does it work like a regular GPS?
Or is it based on the software used?
thanks,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, you do not need internet connection for software such as TomTom, iGO, Mapking and Garmin. Only if you use such additional services (strictly optional) that such connections are needed. Most people use only the map data which resides on the device itself, unlike Google Map, which need to download the map data as you use it.

question on Garmin
I noticed Garmin might work for me in the US (don't know in Europe) but the packaging details that it comes with a cd and a memory card. So how am I supposed to use that if I got my 16gig memory on????
thanks,

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=514349

3D buildings in GPS navigation is so useless, your looking outside the windscreen so everything is 3D anyways.

gps with t-mobile usa

I've read that the HD2 has the new snapdragon chip which has built-in GPS. i have the t-mobile usa version. i'm having problems figuring out how to get my gps software to recognize the gps radio. maybe i'm just missing a setting (i hope). is the gps radio even available in the t-mo usa rom or do i need another rom? if i do need another rom, any suggestions?....or pointers in the right direction.
thanks
tom
no data plan
ps - iguidance support is as clueless as i am.

i forgot to mention...
ROM version: 2.10.531.1
Radio version: 2.08.50.08_2
- tom
HTC HD2 USA
Iguidance (gps software)

I think the manual settings are com4, 4800 baud for the gps.
I tried manually setting it in google maps and it worked on Friday.

isn't google maps a web based gps? i trying to get the gps to work without a data (or internet connection). also, i have gone through every setting in settings and still cannot find where to set the com or baud nor do i see even any mention of gps.
- tom

tomX2 said:
isn't google maps a web based gps? i trying to get the gps to work without a data (or internet connection). also, i have gone through every setting in settings and still cannot find where to set the com or baud nor do i see even any mention of gps.
- tom
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
google maps does require data connection. I was just mentioning it since I can change the gps settings there. I vaguely remember that those settings work, so you can try it in your gps program if it doesn't detect automatically.

I used Telenav on my TMOUS HD2 5 minutes after I got my phone and it worked fine without changing any of the settings. I have a dataplan on my phone though.
Is the AGPS service on your phone on? Try turning it off.
Its in settings>Location>AGPS Service.

i have agps off. i am under the impression that agps uses data (i have no data plan) and of course, do not want to use data. according to wikipedia: "A typical A-GPS-enabled receiver will use a data connection (Internet or other) to contact the assistance server for A-GPS information". i'm going to call t-mo usa on this.
i can get the software to find my location (using agps) but this phone has a stand-a-lone gps radio and it should work without any assistance from anything other than the satellites. my tytnII did. my feeling is that it's my phone, it's my software why should i pay someone to use it? especially when it was designed to work independently, until the phone companies figured out a way to charge for it. in addition, when i'm trekking and there is no tower, the very reason gps was invented is rendered useless.
anyone have any experience with setting up their hd2 with gps (not agps), using any of the standard softwares? i.e. tom tom, iguidance, etc. i pretty sure this is possible, but hard to find information on.
thanks
tom
HTC HD2
iguidance
gps tuner

fyi - i have found out that (through several unhelpful contacts with the manufacturer as well as posts here and elsewhere) iguidance gps does not work with the hd2 (usa)....and the company provides no assistance in this matter.
- tom

tomX2 said:
i have agps off. i am under the impression that agps uses data (i have no data plan) and of course, do not want to use data. according to wikipedia: "A typical A-GPS-enabled receiver will use a data connection (Internet or other) to contact the assistance server for A-GPS information". i'm going to call t-mo usa on this.
i can get the software to find my location (using agps) but this phone has a stand-a-lone gps radio and it should work without any assistance from anything other than the satellites. my tytnII did. my feeling is that it's my phone, it's my software why should i pay someone to use it? especially when it was designed to work independently, until the phone companies figured out a way to charge for it. in addition, when i'm trekking and there is no tower, the very reason gps was invented is rendered useless.
anyone have any experience with setting up their hd2 with gps (not agps), using any of the standard softwares? i.e. tom tom, iguidance, etc. i pretty sure this is possible, but hard to find information on.
thanks
tom
HTC HD2
iguidance
gps tuner
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are plenty of other GPS apps that should work with the HD2 that don't require a monthly payment. I'm only using Telenav through the 60 day free trial, and will cancel it afterwards.
Tom Tom, iGo 8, and Navigon all reportedly work for the HD2. You will have to pay for the software and maps, but otherwise there are no monthly expenses. From my understanding, they only require data service if you're using something like traffic updates, or if you're using a trial version and they need use the data service for verification purposes.
I've not tried any other GPS software other than Telenav yet, but I see no reason why they others shouldn't work.

i been using Ndrive and works better then it did on my pro2

GPS Cost

For AT&T does using GPS cost money? From my understanding it only uses data to download maps but retrieving my coordinates is free. Do I understand correctly or have I been misled? (I do not remember where I read that.)
Also if it is true, then is there any GPS program that I can use that I can just download a map of a single city to my phone. That way I can just use Wifi at home to retrieve the map, then I can use it in my city for free.
Thirdly, assuming it true. Apps that tell me how fast I am going and how far I have traveled, would they cost me money. I think not because all they use is my coordinates, right?

GPS is free of charge, because it uses a satellite and no internet service.
There are a bunch of navigation softwares out there, but as far as I know, they all cost money. I, for example, use TomTom Navigator in Germany. You can buy it for around $100 with a detailed map of Germany and major roads of western europe. You can also purchase extra maps, for other countries. Dont know if you can buy a single city or state with at TomTom USA.
TomTom tells you how fast you are going at the moment you are using it. But there are a range of Tracking Apps, that can monitor the distance you do (Like TrackME). There is one program (forgot the name), that tracks your location like every 5 minutes and safes the coordinates in a format "Google Earth" is capable to read. So you can import the date and import it into Google Earth and then see the route you took.

If you have GPS in your phone, coordinates comes from satellites and is free. This is the signal that most of the non-map GPS apps use, so indeed free.
However, Assisted-GPS, which helps your GPS finding a signal faster, downloads a few kilobytes from the network, so costs very little, but is not free.
Maps are different. If you want it for active routing, you either need to buy and preload (TomTom, Garmin, and the likes), or you need an online service (Google) and you will need to pay data traffic for that
If you want the maps just for reference, not for active routing, and preload them at home, than there are a few nice programs, this one is very nice for the non-demanding user

Why does the edge symbol say its connected?
Don-Carlo said:
GPS is free of charge, because it uses a satellite and no internet service.
There are a bunch of navigation softwares out there, but as far as I know, they all cost money. I, for example, use TomTom Navigator in Germany. You can buy it for around $100 with a detailed map of Germany and major roads of western europe. You can also purchase extra maps, for other countries. Dont know if you can buy a single city or state with at TomTom USA.
TomTom tells you how fast you are going at the moment you are using it. But there are a range of Tracking Apps, that can monitor the distance you do (Like TrackME). There is one program (forgot the name), that tracks your location like every 5 minutes and safes the coordinates in a format "Google Earth" is capable to read. So you can import the date and import it into Google Earth and then see the route you took.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

The E will pop up while the phone asks the network for the co-ordinates of the local masts your are connected to. This can happen not just to get the original lock and your postition but if you are indoors it will stay on untill it picks up enough sats to navigate on its own.

Can I tell it to use Wifi for that instead of the Edge network? Will it only need to use this once?
anarchyuk said:
The E will pop up while the phone asks the network for the co-ordinates of the local masts your are connected to. This can happen not just to get the original lock and your postition but if you are indoors it will stay on untill it picks up enough sats to navigate on its own.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

If you are that worried about data connections, just disable AGPS. You can do that with Advanced Config tools 3.3. And/Or disable the data connections themselves, so *no* program can use data, also possible with Adv Cfg 3.3, but easier with Modaco NoData. Search the board for these utilities.
After disabling AGPS, you can still use QuickGPS when connected to WiFi to pre-download satellite positions, otherwise getting a fix takes several minutes. Search the forum for more info, all of your questions have been asked and answered before.

Thank you very much. I did search, however I must not have used the right keywords as I could only find programs that used GPS.
cybermaus said:
If you are that worried about data connections, just disable AGPS. You can do that with Advanced Config tools 3.3. And/Or disable the data connections themselves, so *no* program can use data, also possible with Adv Cfg 3.3, but easier with Modaco NoData. Search the board for these utilities.
After disabling AGPS, you can still use QuickGPS when connected to WiFi to pre-download satellite positions, otherwise getting a fix takes several minutes. Search the forum for more info, all of your questions have been asked and answered before.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse