Sep 26

Bluetooth GPS   Posted by sharps, tagged with bluetooth gps tomtom treo

About six months ago I bought TomTom Navigator for my Palm Tungsten (see my previous blog entry) and more recently upgraded my Palm to a Treo650 (blog entry). The GPS receiver for the TomTom was the serial cable type which doesn't support the Treo650 (different physical connector) so I've been looking to upgrade to a Bluetooth GPS receiver so I can sell the Palm Tungsten and wired GPS receiver on ebay and just use the one device. TomTom doesn't sell just the wireless receiver so I had to take a bit of a risk and buy one from elsewere. As it happens my concerns were unfounded; after a little research I bought the GlobalSat BT308 Bluetooth GPS receiver which I also believe is called the iTreck M3. I'd originally envisaged connectivity or compatibility problems but the device was detected immediately (and having added it to my Treo650's trusted device list - connects quickly whenever the two devices are close enough).

The GPS receiver is very compact - about the size of a very small cell phone; and very light. It has a couple of LEDs (indicating power, satellite acquisition and bluetooth activity) and a power button - very simple. It can apparently handle up to 20 satellites (but TomTom Navigator only display 14 and I've only seen 8 acquired) and the battery lasts up to 17 hours (yet to test this). It has a good auto-power off feature - so you can throw the device in your glove-compartment or bag and forget about it - when it fails to find a bluetooth device for a while it'll turn off and save your battery.

I haven't really 'test driven' the combo yet - the latest version (5.0) of TomTom Navigator provides new route setting features for pedestrians / cyclists and over the weekend I did try that out (whilst trying to get Jack to sleep) - though next week I should get to try it out in the urban canyons of San Francisco as I'll be attending the Web2.0 conference. To me this is the ideal trip for a portable GPS - driving to a place you don't know well (and having to deal with roadblocks and grid-locks) then parking and having to navigate at street level.

It'll be interesting how the combo deals will cell phone calls (using a BT headset) whilst navigating - I don't know if the Treo650 (or BT in general) handles multiple concurrent device sessions - I'll let you know when I find out.