So GPS navigation has been around for a while, at the top of the range, of course Garmin and TomTom units, with their “widescreen” versions about 4.3inches diagonal. So how about having a 10 inch Sat-Nav? Daft idea? Well I have travelled across Europe by car on numerous occasions, and I would have been quite happy to have a full size digital map. In order for it to be actually useful, it would need to have an autonomously running GPS module, not needing 3G connection to pinpoint your location.

Here comes the Nokia Booklet 3G, with a built-in GPS, and accelerometer, and 3G. However, typical Nokia, some of these functions are completely useless as you take the device out of the box.

My mother visited for a week, she has been to the UK only a handful of times and there were lots of places she wanted to see. As you can imagine, there was lots of driving, one of the days we did over 400miles! The Nokia was with us all the time and never let me down. Never did it lose signal or battery power, so it was easy to identify our next destination as we were on the move. Even at motorway speeds the 3G internet was flawless! Now what if… What if I could use the Booklet instead of my Garmin SatNav? It would be even more amazing, wouldn’t it?!

I’ve researched into the issue and with quite some fiddling around I found out how to make it work. Here is a picture of a basic application that shows the feed from the Nokia GPS unit.

If you wanted real navigation that works offline, Garmin Mobile is the way to go! Here is a snapshot of the signal strength inside a building. Impressive, isn’t it?

And finally, the ultimate challenge! Putting the Nokia Booklet 3G to the test, by using its GPS module to plot the location and its 3G internet for streaming maps on Google Earth, where you can also ask for directions on the go.

In the last analysis, the capabilities of this little netbook are substantial! However, there could have been more software support from Nokia.

Listen now using the player below or see the links below for other options:

Episode link and feeds:

[Link] Direct link to this episode’s MP3 to download
[iTunes] Subscribe or listen in iTunes
[RSS] Subscribe via your feed reader or another podcatcher

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The contributors:

Ewan MacLeod is turning off Motorola RAZRs and burning phone holsters he is SMS Text News.
James Whatley’s blog is here. He works for SpinVox doing clever social media stuff and their blog.
Dan Lane’s blog is at http://invalid.name. He’s CTO at Howler Tech.
Alfie Dennen is from Moblog… the original mobile blogging platform.  So that’s Mr Dennen to you m’kay?

Sites mentioned in the podcast:

Moblog

Ewan’s post on the Three store hoodie ban

The iPhone application store

Have O2 goofed MMS security?

James’s ‘Carephone Warehouse’ post

Things of the week:

Agfa Bluetooth photo frame
James’s midnite flit to York aided by Textperts
AGPS and Nokia Maps
iPhone Apps: Grafitio and Urban Spoon

We’re really keen to get your feedback on the podcast – please let us know in the comments or tell Ewan – ewan@smstextnews.com.

Listen now using the player below or see the links below for other options:

Episode link and feeds:

[Link] Direct link to this episode’s MP3 to download
[iTunes] Subscribe or listen in iTunes
[RSS] Subscribe via your feed reader or another podcatcher

—-

The contributors:

Ewan MacLeod is the gaffer, the boss, the big cheese, the head hocho, Mr Big and he’s back from the island.
Dan Lane’s blog is at http://invalid.name. He’s CTO at Howler Tech.
Ben Smith is a management consultant. He has a blog, but anything worth reading is contributed here.

Sites mentioned in the podcast:

Stuff Ewan took to the Conrad Rangali island:

The Polycom Communicator USB speaker-phone for Skype.
A Private Mobile Network from the nice people at Teleware.
An Iridium satellite phone.
Solio and Freeloader solar chargers.
A Dell M1330 ultra-light laptop.
An Apple Macbook Air slim laptop.
A Nokia E90 communicator smartphone.
A Pure Digital Flip Ultra with underwater case.

Yahoo’s mobile development platform.

Orange’s ‘animal 35′ tariffs now with fair-use data.

Phones discussed in pricing segment: 6220 Classic, E71, E66, N82, E90, Blackberry Bold, N96 versus HP 2133 Mininote.

Unlimited Drinks Dublin – 10th July.

Things of the week:

Agile Messenger for iPhone.
Aiptek mini DV HD camera.
AGPS – speedy assisted GPS locks.

We’re really keen to get your feedback on the podcast – please let us know in the comments or tell Ewan – ewan@smstextnews.com.