'Sat-nav on a mobile: cheap and effective' blog discussion

jimfrayling

Cheapest and best sat nav is to go to:
m.google.co.uk
and download google maps mobile v2. It has a thing called my location - which calibrates your location according to mobile phone mast data. It's not as accurate as GPS, but works ok in cities (less accurately in countryside). Google maps has a directions thing, so it's really like a poor man's version of GPS. Works perfectly well when you need it, just not as snazzy. Oh and it's free. You only pay for data, which given I'm lucky enough to have a work mobile means mine is completely free.

Very good however for walking and cycling, which living in a part of town not far from MS Towers I do a lot (traffic and congestion charge make it worthwhile).

JimF

ChemicalBrother_2

As well as Google Maps Mobile and Nokia Maps there's Mobile GMaps, J2MEMap, 8Motions and although it's not for navigation it works at the same time as Nokia and Google Maps on my N73 and is great for running, cycling etc - Nokia Sports Tracker

Those are all free and all work on S60 3rd Edition phones (some also work on older S60 devices too and the Java ones probably work on any phone with Java that has bluetooth)

My favourite, TomTom, isn't free though. It may be possible to get a cheap legal copy of it for older Nokia phones (such as the 6630). I also like TomTom Citymaps but you can't get hold of that legally anymore - it's also only available for older S60 phones. It's great on foot when exploring foreign citys - even if it's a bit out of date.

Happy_Girl_2

Are there any legal issues with using Sat Nav on your phone while driving? Could you be proscecuted for having your phone in your hand to look at the map?

ley07

there is no problem to use most of the european countries a part from spain. but these days most of the garmin and tomtom gps system coming with including bluetooth handsfree future.like garmin nuvi 310 or tomtom go 520 i ve got mine web site calling www.junglezon.com they are selling pretty cheap and they can help you all your issues regarding to set up etc.

ley07

the way you saying is %100 makes sense but i ve been using these gadgets last 9 years ,they are great units but if you dont charge units you would lose all your data,and also when you add diffrent programs unit getting slower

i just reply to other gps question i would say stick with seperate system and do not forget in the car www.junglezon.com customer service will give you free advice


:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

so you wont get lost

MoneySavingDan_2

Hi all. Having played about with various bit of sat nav software on mobiles, I just wanted to add a bit of info to the above posts.

A few people have mentioned Google Maps Mobile. While this is excellent for navigating around on foot, it doesn't currently offer voice guidance (not sure whether there are any plans for it to ever do this), and therefore isn't really suitable for use when driving (unless you've got a passenger to read out each direction to you).

Someone mentioned that Nokia Maps is free. It is, but if you want voice guidance, it's an extra £40-ish a year (last time I checked). If you don't pay for that it provides similar functionality to Google Maps Mobile.

I have used Nav4All on a number of occasions now and thoroughly recommend it. The software is free, and the only costs involved are the data charges from your mobile network for when it looks up your route over the Internet. This isn't much of a concern for me as I've got a 1GB data bundle on my tariff, but I believe the amount of data it uses is negligeble anyway, so those without a data bundle probably don't need to worry much. In order to minimize the amount of data it uses, it will only show you directions (rather than maps) on the screen, unless you specifically request a map.

I use Nav4All on my Sony Ericsson K660i with an external bluetooth GPS receiver, which cost £30-ish from Mobile Fun.

Hope this info is useful

johnsgsltd

This is the best gadget I have ever had thank you MoneySavingDan