I've been a keen user of digital mapping/SatNav on PDAs for many years now; way before the first car Satnav devices came to market. I started off with an old GPS CFD (Compact Flash Disk) used in an old Compaq iPAQ Pocket PC; in those days connecting to SatNav satellites was very slow. Through the years I've used various SatNav software on a variety of PDAs/smartphones including TomTom, Navigon Mobile Navigator, MioMaps, CoPilot and Garmin Mobile.Garmin Mobile EU, v.5.2.2 for Blackberry is the SatNav software I'm putting through a rigorous trial, with high expectations. I intend doing some tests in the next few weeks on how much it costs to navigate with streaming map data via 3G/GPRS, being the way all? Blackberry SatNav software works. I've blogged before about my conversation with a Orange data support guy, when he assured me that occasional use of SatNav software should not exceed my 250MB monthly data allowance; er... We'll see. He couldn't however give me any data costs due to the diversity of navigation. I believe that this one main issue would be the make/break factor about such smartphone set ups challenging the conventional car SatNavs. Well, I intend to do three tests over the next few weeks:
1) Motorway driving navigation at an average speed of 50-60mph for 30mins;
2) Town driving navigation at an average speed of 15-25mph for 30mins and;
3) Walking navigation at an average speed of 2-3mph for 30mins.
Based on Orange data usage logging and their co-operation, I hope to blog about what volume of mega-bytes my three tests resulted in.
Ok, now let me focus on Garmin's Mobile EU software.
When you launch the software, you're presented with the 'Main Menu' screen giving: Where to, View Map, Traffic, Weather, Settings & Exit. 'Where to' is where/how to find a location, navigate to etc. 'View Map' let's you see where you are, once you connect to a few satellites. 'Traffic' I've not seen in use yet but hope it'll pick up the standard traffic broadcasts over-the-air from organisations such as the RAC in the UK; like the way my traffic dongle works with my in-car Garmin Nuvi 300 SatNav. 'Weather' see later Part.16 & 17. 'Settings' and 'Exit' need no explanation. Whilst navigating the main menu has a 'Stop' (navigation) icon.
Continued, see Part.02.

No comments:
Post a Comment