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On Fri, 12 Feb 2010 19:37:38 +0000 Julian Hall wrote: > Hi All, > > I know this is not *really* anything to do with Linux, but as you're > all pretty experienced with technology I thought it the best placed > to canvass opinions. > > The battery on my TomTom is dead so can only be used wired up in the > car, and it occurs to me that a smartphone with GPS built in would be > a good idea, especially as it would give me the advantage of having > both devices in one. Good idea in theory. In reality, however, using the GPS side of a mobile phone seems to drain the battery *very* quickly. If said phone also needs an Internet connection (3G, EDGE, GPRS or GSM) to download map info in order to display it, that'll drain the battery pretty quickly too. My Palm Pre has built-in GPS but requires an Internet connection to display maps (using Google Maps) and I *have* to have the phone charging in the car if I want to use it as a 'satnav'. My old N95-1 had GPS and I could either use an Internet-based satnav or I could use the maps software (now renamed 'Ovi Maps'). The latter drained the battery but at a much slower rate than the former. > I've looked at The Gadget Show website and so far the HTC Tytn, > Blackberry and iPhone look interesting. I've heard conflicting > opinions about Nokia - one person said they use Symbian and the GPS > software hasn't been updated in four years so he can't get new maps; > another say this is rubbish. They can't both be right. Currently I > have a (non-smart) Motorola Razr2 V9. Nokia own 'Ovi' and also "own" Symbian (although Symbian is now supposed to be open-source). Nokia have just released a full-featured SatNav suite for OviMaps, free of charge. With OviMaps SatNav thingame you can download the complete maps for all of Europe and store them on your phone, so an Internet connection isn't required to use it as a SatNav... the GPS will still drain your battery though. I have no experience with the HTC Tytn - I don't even know (and haven't Googled to find out) if it's a WinMo or an Android phone. The iPhone is interesting, and once it's been jailbroken is quite fun to play with. However, an unjailbroken iPhone is a bit dull, and it's reliance on iTunes is more than a touch irritating. On a personal note, I dislike the Blackberries. I haven't had much experience with them, other than trying to get the blasted things to work with an Exchange server (Glad I don't have to worry about that anymore) without having to install the Blackberry Enterprise Server software (which, I later found out, won't install or work (nicely) on Windows Server 2008 or its derivatives (which this machine was)). Personally I'd recommend staying with a non-'smart' phone (unless you really, really want/need to have the Internet capabilities with you at all times) that has a good battery life and get used to having a SatNav that stays plugged into the car. Do you often use it outside of the car? Grant. :) -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html