Before and after: Windows Mobile 5 (left) vs. Windows Mobile 6 (right)I’d read a few days ago that would be offering a free upgrade to Windows Mobile 6 so yesterday I went in search of such delights, and lo! As it says in the good book: seek and ye will find: software update for O 2 Xda Orbit only Browser caveatExcept, it doesn’t warn you in the Bible that if you’re trying to download the Windows Mobile 6 upgrade from the O 2 website you can’t use, it has to be Internet Explorer (or, oddly, ).I spent ages entering my Xda Orbit’s serial number again and again only to be told that the serial number was wrong. I tried it again a little later in IE7 and got straight through to this page: O2 Xda upgrade page on HTC website, where I was able to download the 44.7 MB upgrade file. Installation preparationsInstallation was thankfully very simple and straight-forward.

• Xda Orbit Sdhc Patch 3

Acer n35 running GPS Data LoggerThe Acer is primarily a conventional relatively low spec Pocket PC PDA with built in GPS receiver and Destinator Maps (UK and Ireland maps provided in the price here in the UK). To turn it into a logging device while using the Navigation software I needed to duplicate the GPS COM port which is being achieved without problems to date using from Franson in Sweden (US$29.95 for the Standard version, US$9.95 for the Express version). This software provides virtual COM ports for the GPS receiver so that more than one software package can access the GPS receiver at the same time.For more on using an Acer n35 GPS see page. Also has one.The Acer n35 is almost identical to the Navman PiN 570 GPS receiver, with the software being the main difference.was able in the spring 2005 to run PDA.

See also the. The n35 is a follow-up to the n30. Where the n30 had a Bluetooth chip, the n35 has the GPS receiver chip.The Destinator (v.

3 and up) software is able to log by itself. You get a binary format which is described by, that page also includes a plain converter. Currently you lose information about number of satellites and how good the position is, but may be an alternative if you do not wish to use extra software.The N35 is known to have problems with the power/USB connectors with time. So after months of usage (specially in a car) the connector on the N35 will loose contact with the mother board, and the N35 battery will not be recharged nor it will be recognized in the computer.Acer N50. An Acer N50 with a Bt-77 antennaAcer N50 is a normal PDA without an integrated GPS antenna. Asus A696, with display protective film, running TGPSThis device is a PDA with. Windows Mobile (version 6 is installed on most devices).

GPS receiver: SiRFstarIII ( Caution: static navigation is ON by default!). Display: 3.5 in LCD (240x320).

Xda Orbit Sdhc Patch 3

CPU: Intel XScale, 416 MHz. Internal memory: 256 MiB (the operating system reports total of 169 MiB for data storage and 53 MiB for program storage). SD-Card slot (supports SDHC; I use a 8 GB card.

Serious sam second encounter levels. You may need to install a firmware update - download from Asus website). WLAN, USB, Bluetooth, infrared, headphones connectorI tested different GPS tracking software (OSMtracker, TGPS, NoniGPSPlot) as well as commercial navigation software (Navigon MN7) and everything worked well.Bad things. Static navigation is activated by default. I used the SirfTech tool to deactivate it (just google for 'SirfTech').

As already stated somewhere on this page, when the static navigation is activated, it is not possible to create usable tracks when moving slow, means with normal pedestrian speed (under 4-5 km/h) or slower - the GPS unit will just not update coordinates. Data transfer is slow over all interfaces (WLAN and USB are slow on this device, and Bluetooth/IrDA are slow per definition). When WLAN is activated, a blue LED is blinking; when Bluetooth is activated, an orange one is blinking. This is sometimes disturbing, especially at night or/and in the car. I found no way to deactivate these lights; tried some registry hacks from internet but they did not work.Good things. Long battery time.

Delivered with all needed accessories, including USB data/charger cable for PC, AC charger, car charger cable, car mounting bracket (not very stable; the device often vibrates, which makes reading the display very difficult)Asus GPS BT100. Asus GPS BT100.

Bluetooth puck (bundled with 12 V car power supply, windshield mount & universal PDA cradle). No memory. Battery life: 10+ hours. Connection: Bluetooth & USB. Chipset: SiRFstarIIe/LP. Spec:Good things. Bluetooth mobile phone should allow tracking with no cables.

Small. Charged via mini USB connector. External GPS antenna connectorBad things.

Bluetooth requires re-pairing. No memory for standalone trackingSummary ATP Photo Finder. GPS Datalogger. Allows to write GPS-postion to jpeg-Exif-Data via built-in card-slot (SD/MMC/MS Card).Logging format not clear. The manual states 'By connecting the ATP Photo Finder directly to your PC via USB connection, you can back up all thelogged GPS position information' but does not indicate the data format.Logging frequency not clear.

The manual says 'logging interval Approx. 5 seconds' (p.

11) and 'Update rate Continuous operation: 1 Hz' (p. 14).Billionton CF-card(by ).

Billionton CF-card after a ski downfall. That's what I mean by 'fragile'.The serial CF card for PDAs and Laptops work out of the box with most Linux systems. It is the recommend card from Trisoft (The place to get the European Zaurus from).Since it is a serial CF card, it has problems with an unpatched Zaurus C3100's serial bus driver shipped with the standard Sharp ROM. Avoid using this device with a Zaurus C3100.Good things. Good supported CF card. OpenedFalk F/M/N SeriesThe Falk F/M/N Series is a Window CE based navigator. The bundled Falk Navigator software does not support vanilla data logging but with some tricks track recording is possible:After unlocking the Windows desktop you can use custom programs for data logging: One of the free programs is which is actually designed to display warnings when getting near a POI but also has data logging capabilities.

The forum (in german) has the program, scripts and a walk through to unlock the Windows desktop and use POI Observer in parallel to the Falk Navigator software.POI Observer is supposed to work with other Falk devices too.Another nice tool is the nfRunner and the nfSpeedMenu from. It is an excellent software for data-logging and much more.OpenMoko Neo1973 (FIC GTA01)The Neo1973 was the first cellular phone developed to run a OpenSource operating-system. Only a few hundredths samples have been produced for developers.GPS-Chip:See also:.Fujitsu-Siemens Pocket-Loox N560Windows Mobile 5 with freeware (program has bug in elevation). Questions about the device can be asked to.Good things.

SiRFstarIII. Up to 2 GiB of storage on a SD card. All in oneBad things. Windows.

Battery life (around 4 hours with GPS and no WLAN or Bluetooth turned on).OpenMoko Neo Freerunner (FIC GTA02)A update to the Neo1973 which has the mass market as target. Not like the 1973 is has only a few hardware bugs. While the hardware is solid, the software still has beta status.The GPS problem is now solved. New units have a hardware fix, and a software update helps a lot for older units as well.This is a nice gps for tracing details.

You can go around a 4×4 m square, stop briefly in each corner, and get a trace with straight edges and no rounding of the corners.The 2008.9 software includes, a nice app that shows the existing openstreetmap tiles while you trace. Is also an option, it uses openstreetmap for routing.See also:.FreedomFirst impressions on the Freedom 2000 is that it is no good in urban areas, it seems to be very sensitive to reflections from buildings. Holux GPSlim236This is a bluetooth device, about the size of a small matchbox (46.3x67x19mm). Its lithium battery lasts about 10 hours, and is a standard model so you can get a cheap spare from eBay, etc. You can charge it via mini-USB but can't transmit data over this, as you need a special cable from Holux. I haven't tried this - Bluetooth is fine for me.

The USB cable gives to possibility to upgrade the firmware (enable WAAS/EGNOS) and disable the Static Navigation (bad for pedestrian use) with SirfDemo.Have used this with a laptop, Dell Axim PDA and Nokia 6230i with no problems. It has a SiRFstarIII chipset so is quick and accurate in getting a fix, with the usual caveats of 'canyoning' in cities. Standard NMEA output.Had mine about 2 years. It failed after about a year but was promptly replaced. The newer GPSlim240 has a similar spec.

But no replaceable battery, though it's a bit smaller.More info:.Holux GPSlim240Also a Bluetooth device as the GPSlim236, but this unit is more compact (64×22×15mm 3), slightly less battery life (somewhere between 6-8 hours). Data is transmitted over SPP Bluetooth and gives standard NMEA output. Receiver should be up to 3 meters away. Packaging includes USB cable and car lighter adapter ( Caveat: This should be obvious, but always remember to check the package contents list before buying; never had any trouble so far, but it's always good to be careful) for charging up the battery. Claims to have WAAS/EGNOS demodulator included, but never tested this.

The unit has room for a lanyard which is not included in the package. Its only control is the on/off switch, and it has three LEDs for indicating low battery power, Bluetooth connection status and GPS signal acquisition.This unit was successfully used with Bluetooth-enabled laptops and Nokia N80 with only one firmware-related problem. Care should be taken not to use SiRFdemo's 'Synchronize Protocol/Baud Rate' option on Bluetooth devices, or to otherwise tinker with this unit's baud rate, as this caused it to output garbage from that point onward. Turning it off and back on didn't work.

Letting it run out of battery charge didn't work. What solved it was opening up the unit, finding the battery and shorting two of the three battery terminals.More info:.Holux GR-213This is a simple receiver that is to be connected to any computer. Delivered with a driver for most recent Windows. To make it run under Linux, just compile your kernel with support for pl2303 serial-to-usb (as a module or into kernel), then everything should be fine with GPSd.It features a magnet, which is quite useful to put it outside your car, on the roof.

I could ride at 130 km/h in quite heavy wind without having it to move a millimeter. It is also completely waterproof (once, i've forgotten it, and after being covered by 5 centimeters snow for a few hours, it still works).It outputs standard NMEA.Holux M-241.

Holux M1200The M-1200 is Bluetooth device, though can be used with a custom USB lead. It is a sealed unit with a rechargable lithium ion battery. Recharge via USB or included car lighter lead. It uses the MTK MT3318 chipset and claims up to 23 hrs per charge. Colour LEDs show satellite lock, bluetooth connection and low charge.They can be bought on eBay for about GB£25. Performance seems much the same as my older GPSlim 236, in a slightly smaller package. Only disadvantage is not being able to carry a spare battery.

18:50, 22 January 2009 (UTC)HP iPaq hw6915. Motorola A780 Linux-Smartphone showing the OSM map of Ludwigsburg with BikeAtorThe Motorola A780 mobile phone with build-in GPS receiver can be used with the -Software to track GPS. New versions of BikeAtor directly store tracklogs in GPX format compatible with JOSM.The original battery only lasts about 2 hours, but of course it could be replaced with one of a higher capacity to easily double the time.

Other devices might give more exact results, but keep in mind: It's a cellphone with full navigation on board! No need for thinking about if you will or won't need your GPS - it's there, because you won't leave your cellphone at home, will you?Mio P550Mio P550 is a PDA that runs Windows Mobile 5. It has a built-in GPS module with the chipset. It´s possible to attach an external antenna. The device also features Bluetooth and WLAN. Car mount is included in the package. The device can be bought with or without included maps and navigation software from MIO.

A few of the devices sold before August 2006 had a problem with weak signal level, but the problem has now been by Mio. Questions about the device can be asked toGood things. GPS chip.

Up to 2 GiB of storage on a SD card. All in oneBad things.

Windows (crash, bluepage, etc). Battery life (around 4 hours with GPS and not WLAN or Bluetooth turned on).The main problem with battery life appears to be caused by the Windows ActiveSync software continually trying to make PC contact.

To fix this, follow this link:This details a procedure which adds a dummy connection, then sets ActiveSync to manual. As a result, battery life is extended considerably. The Mio software also seems to be a bit of a battery hog.

If you just want to log your track, look at Beeline GPS software - its inexpensive and includes a lot of useful geo-caching functions for quick annotation.Mitac/Mio DigiWalker C510A standard car navigation unit driven by SIRFstarIII and WinCE with simple media support and Bluetooth.As delivered the iGo software is completely useless for mapping, since it is not possible to get the GPX files out of the device. However, if you don't mind voiding the warranty, go to and learn how to hack it to add that feature (it is quite easy).Pros. Quite accurate. Very good for car navigation. Easy hackable if you are into that sort of thing. Add a cheap SD card for practically infinite mappingCons. Does NOT work for mapping without hacking.

Low battery time, made worse by the device locking with a battery warning at 25%. Takes ages to recharge. Occasional 'blue screens'NavGear PX3015. AcessoriesReally look like Transystem i-Blue 747Good things. Easy to use: plug on 'Log' to start logging, 'Nav' to enable Bluetooth communication, 'Off' to stop. Small 46.5×72.2×20 mm. Charge on USB.

Removable battery. Deliver with a car lighter charger + normal charger. Documentation include a Quick Start guide and a complete documentationBad things.

No external antenna port for precise in car logging. Quick start Guide only in English.

Software for Windows only. Saving capcity in raw NMEA, CSV, or KML but no GPXNavibe GB732.

Navibe GB732Interface: BluetoothDisplay: noneMemory: 0 TrackpointsChipset: SiRFstarIIIPrice: €50 (eBay)The GB732 seems to be a pretty cheap and good device. It is proven to work with PC, Nokia 6230i and Nokia E61.

The signal strength is pretty good and it outputs NMEA. Coupled with the Nokia 6230i running TrekBuddy it's a perfect solution for logging. The 6230i has a slot for MMC cards (up to 256 MiB) and TrekBuddy logs to the GPX format. This format can be used directly to upload it to OSM. Alternatively it can log to NMEA. It also has a separate rechargeable, replaceable battery (compatible with Nokia 6230i) with 1050 mAh, a hard power switch (no standby) and an external antenna connector (not really necessary since the internal antenna gets lock on 6-8 satellites outside). The device has 3 LEDs: Bluetooth, Battery, Satellite.

It seems to be made in China since the manual and the drivers CD feature simplified and traditional chinese as main languages (others available, too). It comes with a USB recharging cable (USB - MiniUSB), a car charger and a normal charger. All in all a good device for a small price.Good things. Good GPS chipset. CheapBad things. Don't move it during startup, it won't get a lock.

Signal quality really sucks when carried in pocket. The device must 'lay flat on the floor' for good signals. In narrow streets with high buildings the signal might 'drift' (moving north west while in reality you only move west).

Standing still for a few seconds helps the device to get you back in position.Navibe GB735. Interface: Bluetooth. Display: none. Memory: 0 Trackpoints. Chipset: SiRFstarIII. Price: €50 (eBay)It is proven to work with PC and SE K600i (with TrekkBuddy).Good things. BL-5C Li-ion battery (used in few Nokia mobiles as well) removable by user.

AC charger and car charger in bundleBad things.Navibe GM720. Interface: USB. Display: none. Memory: 0 Trackpoints.

Chipset: SiRFstarIII. Price: US$35 (eBay)Works very well in combination with gpsd on Linux.

Very cheap, but comes with minimal documentation and without software.It is also possible (although unlikely, and this is not a specific risk for this particular device but probably for each 'gpsmouse' device) to mess up the settings in such a way that one cannot connect any more with the device, leaving one no solution but to open it and disconnect the battery (which is soldered) to reset the device to its factory defaults. Of course this voids your warranty. See also the utility SirfDemo.Navilock BT-359.

Navilock NL-302U USB GPS ReceiverBased on the engine board EM-411 from Navilock mounted in a more or less waterproof casing and an attached USB cable.Connection: USB. Based on SiRFstarIII chipset (most time a good fix).

USB Powered (max. 100 mA). 1.5 m USB cable attached to the device.

PL2303 USB-Serial converter chip (good Linux driver support). Single status LED near the cable outlet (might not be available on earlier devices; might not work when in binary mode).

Very accurate when used in a car. not very accurate when hold in hand, accuracy seems to depend on direction towards sky accuracy was quite good now, I think last times this was just due to quite bad conditions. 18:11, 10 November 2008 (UTC)Works good with!Navilock NL-456DL (EasyLOGGER). Navilock NL-456DL(Wintec WPL 1000 Easy Showily)Connection: USB. Based on u-blox ANTARIS®4 SuperSense®. Powered by battery (2×AAA(LR03, size S)) (ca. 15 hours).

Can be powered by rechargable batteries as well (2×AAA). (1100 mAh NiMH ca. Medion E3210. Type: Navigation System. Operating System: Windows CE Core 5.0. Interface: USB. Display: touch screen 320×240 px.

Memory: internal flash 1 GiB (probably less than 41 MiB free), optional SD-card possible (2 GiB tested), use of larger SDHC-Card unknown. Chipset: SiRFstarIII. Rechargeable battery built in, battery life: min.

3 h, car adapter included, recharge via this adapter or USB. Tracking update frequency: 1 HzSold at ALDI-Nord as Medion MD 96310 (E3210), navigation system. Software supports tracking, but this function is disabled by default. If a folder named 'Tracks' is created, the device logs all tracks there. This folder can be located either on internal flash disk (in folder 'My Flash Disk') or on optional SD-Card (in folder 'Storage Card'). The internal flash disk has very limited free space, the SD-Card can at least be up to 2 GiB in size. Tracks are stored in.trk format, which can easily be converted to.gpx with GOPALnachGPX.

Data transfer via USB and Active Sync (works fine with Windows 2000 and XP). As this device is a navigation system there aren't any controls for GPS, although some people created alternative skins which give more control. Tracking runs always in background if the navigation is running, in card view mode as well as in navigation mode. The recorded track contains the real positional data, not aligned to any street data.Medion GoPal Navigator 4 ME.

Type: Navigation System. Operating System: Windows CE Core 5.0.

Interface: USB. Display: touch screen 320×240 px.

Memory: internal flash 1 GiB (probably less than 10 MiB free), optional SD-card up to 2 GiB. Chipset: SiRFstarIII. Battery life: min.

2 h, car adapter included. Tracking update frequency: 1 HzSold at ALDI-South as Medion MD 96860 (E3212), navigation system. Software supports tracking out of the box.

The recorded track contains the real positional data, not aligned to any street data. To turn tracking on, do this:.

Press M button to leave the map display. Press the button for the system setup.

Select Programm settings. Make sure Plot GPS track is activatedThe track will be saved in.gpx format in the folder '/My Flash Disk/UserTracks'. Merkaartor and josm can load the tracks out-of-the-box.Medion PNA470T. PNA470T: Personal Navigaton Assistant 470 Tmc. Operating System: Windows CE Core 5.0. Processor: Samsung ARM920T-S3C2440A. GPS: SiRFstarIII.

Display 4.3 in, 480×272 pxNavigon MobileNavigator 4.X/5.X/6.XThe software is able to store the NMEA logs parallel to normal card view, but also in navigation mode. It is the real GPS position stored and not the displayed one!! The software tries to position the arrow always on the nearest street.First you have to edit the file NavLib.ini in the MobileNavigator folder (MN 6: Edit mn6/NaviLib.ini). Search here for the section GPS. If it not exist create it. Then enter the line Autolog=1. This enables the logging function.

0 means no logging. Store the file.All logs are stored in the Windows folder (From MN 6.2: Stored in mn6 folder). So be careful with long trips! They are named 'GPS Log Day-Month-Year Hour-Minute.txt'.When your tracks are logged you can move the files with ActiveSync on your computer and translate it with gpsbabel from NMEA to GPX.

And now you can load them into.Navman 3450 IPAQ SleeveA GPS receiver built into the IPAQ expansion-pack form-factor. Although the earlier models suffered from RF-interfence and excessively long warm-up times, the 3450 model seems to have solved most of these issues.It also has an external antenna connection for improved in-vehicle reception.Once the unit warms up (1-3 minutes), it will find and hold lock with clear skys with ease. Performance near buildings and under trees is also quite good, as it will often hold a 3D lock.I found the program to work well.Click on the PocketPC image.

Nokia E90 running Sports Tracker ApplicationThe Nokia N95, N79, N810, E71, E90, 5330 XpressMusic, 5800 XpressMusic, 6220 Classic & 6110 (among others) have built-in GPS unit. It's useful have an up-to-date version of the Nokia software that uses to substantially speed up start up times (without the update, every time the GPS gets activated, it needed to perform a 'cold start' and download full almanac data from the satellites, which took several minutes).According to, on the N95 you get the best reception by sliding the keypad out, then holding the phone upsidedown, so that the numeric keypad is at the top, and has a clear view of the sky. However, once the phone has a GPS lock, it's fairly good about holding it when you close the keypad, and hold the phone.At least all Nokia smartphones based on Symbian S60 3th or 5th edition phones will communicate with external GPS devices using Bluetooth.There are many free alternatives for capturing GPS tracks. You can also photos taken using these phones using Nokia's free.MrGPSMrGPS is an high-performance, compact, robust, comprehensive application which logs GPS tracks and provides real time statistics with voice aid. It produces GPX logs including track segmentation and waypoints.The speech capabilities of MrGPS allow real-time hands-free assistance.

Nokia N810 with bluetooth headset, adapted mounting bracket, and external battery packNokia N810 is sold as an 'Internet Tablet'. It is a pocket size Linux computer with a built-in GPS, wlan and USB connectivity, Bluetooth, sound in/out, a not very useful camera, tiny but very functional keyboard, and a much higher resolution (touch screen) display than e.g. The Apple iPod Touch which is probably the main competitor (though not in our field because that doesn't have a GPS). It's 13×7×1.5 cm approx and comes with a car bracket (which can be adapted for bike handlebar mounting with some ingenuity). Note it.doesn't. include a mobile phone (though you connect through one using Bluetooth). As well as the 2 GB solid state disk, there is a miniSD card which makes storage expandable.

You would be hard put to fill 8 GB of card with tracks, but voice notes run at about 60 MiB per hour.It's comparatively expensive a solution, though no doubt second hand ones will start coming on the market in due course. However, if you are using audio notes (recommended, see below), the device can record these for you as well, so you don't need a separate dictaphone.The use of the GPS is highly dependent on which software is used. At the moment, OSM mappers will want to install. This records and displays tracks over a map background which is OSM's Mapnik by default. Progin T-368. SiRFstarIII.

Trackpoints: max. 2 GiB SD/MMC card. Weight: 100 g. Connection: Bluetooth (speaks NMEA), mini USB (needs special cable).

Price: €90. LC Display with blue backlight. 75 mA power consumption @ 5 V DCUnfortunately all SD cards in the image did not work on both two of these devices I had ordered. A new 2 GiB Transcend card however worked out of the box.O2 (general)O2 is a German mobile phone company. The PDAs labelled as O2 are mostly (or all?) produced by HTC and have a different name.

Qstarz BT-Q818 Bluetooth GPS mouseSome specs as specified by the manufacturer:. Chipset: MTK. Internal antenna with built-in patch antenna with LNA. Protocol: NMEA-0183 (v. TomTom Go with additonal Logging SoftwareMain article: andTransystem i-Blue 717My package didn't say it was a Transystem device, but it seems to be one.This small device works well with PCs and Mobile Phones. It is only a GPS mouse, so there is no setup or configuration.It has the same features as the Qstarz BT-Q818, so you might want to read its reviews, to, which is also found on this page.

It also appears to be identical to the BlueNext BN-800GR.Good things. Very cheap (€30, eBay, Nov. 2007). Smart Standby mode: In standby, battery will last more than two weeks. You can wake it up by simply connecting by bluetooth, after disconnecting it will go back to standy. Has a hard switch to completly power down. Charged over a mini-USB connector (but no data transfer over USB).

Replacable LiIon battery which is compatible with many Nokia cell phones. Connector for external antennaBad things. Accuracy may typically vary between less than 1 meter and about 10 meters. With bad weather, even 60 meters and connection losses may occur. While it gets a fix after 20-30 seconds when standing still, it takes up to 5 minutes when moving, even if you are only walking slowly.