Old News
 

GPS/Mapping News
Website News 

 

GPS/Mapping News
Date Description
10/13/02
bullet Mapopolis announces details and pricing for Navigator?
The part that I find interesting is the "map region limited to 20 million population" feature which could potentially mean maps much larger than the County maps that are currently available.
bulletDiscuss here
bulletUpdate - The official announcement is now on NavTech's front page
10/10/02
bullet QUALCOMM Announces Advanced GPS Radio Receiver for UMTS and GSM/GPRS Systems
bulletDiscuss here
10/09/02
bulletAnother TomTom Navigator update - Just the GPS drivers this time that get upgraded to 1.41
Details for what's new can be found  here   Thanks to JRC for pointing out the news!
10/08/02
bulletTravroute gives more details on its new GPS CoPilot Jacket:
bulletLooks like there have been a lot of improvements since the previous version, here are the main ones:
bulletDraws half the power of the competition (ed - probably uses the new IIe/LP chipset)
bulletExternal Active Antenna (optional) (ed - this can be handy for tough situations)
bullet35% slimmer than other GPS Jackets
bulletPosition updates every second (versus 2 seconds for the competition)
bulletStill no details on who the manufacturer is, most likely not Navman judging from the way the features are spelt out
10/07/02
bulletOne piece of interesting news that apparently went unreported is the August 19th announcement that ALK Technologies, Travroute's parent company, had licensed NavTech's European maps. This explains how CoPilot acquired the European coverage shown in the BMW MiniPDA system.
bulletWhat remains to be seen is whether they can keep the great map management flexibility of the US version, currently based on their in house maps.
10/05/02
bulletTravroute (makers of CoPilot) are offering a new CoPilot GPS sleeve and giving away the Navman GPS sleeve for FREE with their software !
bulletMy take on this is:
bulletTravroute is not very happy with Navman for releasing SmartST Pro
bulletAs a result, the new GPS sleeve is NOT a Navman sleeve, if it was they would surely highlight that fact, like they highlight the
"Free Navman sleeve"
bulletThat new sleeve has a novel design
bullet$199 for CoPilot and the Navman Sleeve is a very good deal !
bulletDiscuss here
10/04/02
bulletAnother TomTom Navigator update - Version 1.41 for the program and version 1.40 for the GPS drivers
Details for what's new can be found here for the program and here for the GPS driver - Thanks to JRC for pointing out the news!
10/03/02
bullet

New version of Travroute's CoPilot ? It sure looks like it when you watch the demo of BMW's Mini-PDA (hit Start/Navigation)
Coverage appears to have been extended to all Europe instead of just the UK.
It looks like the system (not sure if CoPilot will do all of that or if it's just a component of the system) offers a lot:
bullet

Landscape mode

bullet

GPS Navigation - Available 11/2002

bullet

Entertainment (MP3 player)

bullet

Mini Assist (Emergency Call, Breakdown Service, Traffic Info, Info Plus) - Available 2003

bullet

Phone - SMS - Available 2003
10/02/02
bulletRelease of PocketMap Navigator  - A complete PPC navigation solution with the best POI database around
10/01/02
bulletThe revised version of the Leadtek 9534 CF GPS receiver has now been pushed back to November according to Leadtek USA.
bulletContrary to what I originally reported, the new Pretec Low Power CF GPS does not use the Sirf IIe/LP chipset but a Trimble one instead
Thanks to Hamish for sharing his findings
09/24/02
bullet Press Release: Motorola Unveils Latest in Family of Single Chip GPS Devices - First truly single-chip GPS solution
Question: where do you fit the antenna ?!

09/20/02
bullet Read Skotz's (PocketPC Passion Board Member) first impressions about the Navman 3420 navigation software
bulletTomTom Navigator - 1.40 version - Our UK friends of PocketGPS compared versions here

09/19/02
bullet Read Graeme's (PocketPC Passion Board Member) first impressions about the beta of Destinator's new version
09/18/02
bulletMajor TomTom Navigator (One of the best Navigation solutions for Europe) available for download on the TomTom website
 
bulletHolux releases the GM-270 a CF GPS based on the IIe/LP chipset, which should mean more autonomy for your PPC.
09/16/02
bullet"first display-free voice navigation system" by Vcommand - a novel concept but not many details yet !
09/15/02
bulletInteresting new GPS related technology by Rosum - using DigitalTV signals !

09/12/02
bulletAn announcement dating back to last spring - A new GPS form factor - SD, i.e. Secure Digital
bulletsee also here
bulletPretec releases the first Low Power CF GPS based on the SiRF IIe/LP chipset

 

 

Website News      

Date Description
10/12/02
bulletHave you seen the new logo ? Do you like it ?

10/11/02
bullet French version of the site is launched, big thanks to JRC and to the ASP-NUKE platform for making it possible !
bulletCheck it out and if you like the interface let me know and you might convince me to migrate the English version to that format ;-)
Actually you can vote directly for that on the French site, but there's a trick! If you can't find it go here
10/08/02
bulletForums will be down for a few hours tonight while our ISP upgrades its servers. Sorry for the inconvenience.

10/07/02
bulletRedesigned forums completely. They are now customized like the rest of the site and hosted in the same place for faster access
Give them a try and stay tuned for some interesting additions to the categories shortly !
10/05/02
bulletAdded a page for miscellaneous GPS based PocketPC software - Added 3 golf programs
bulletAdded newly announced CoPilot GPS Jacket to table of Pocket PC GPS Receivers
10/04/02
bulletAdded a new front page poll "Should Navman open SmartST to other GPS receivers?"
bulletUpdated CoPilot and SmartST Pro reviews - Added an overall rating - Discuss here
10/03/02
bulletAdded a page about the BMW Mini PDA system that seems to be using a new version of CoPilot
bulletUpdated "Routing Quality" vote results, make sure you vote if you haven't already
10/01/02
bulletUpdated the Navman 3420 review - Discuss here
Navman have confirmed that the current version is not compatible with non-Navman GPS receivers
09/30/02
bulletForums relaunched, read about it here
bulletAdded a review of the PocketMap CF GPS receiver. There's a lot to like about this reliable and well priced device
Read the review here
bulletUpdated "The Fix" to show the TTFF performance of the Pharos i180 Mouse GPS receiver
bulletUpdated the "Battery" page to show the autonomy of an iPaq with the Navman GPS Sleeve
bulletUpdated the Bluetooth GPS review  - no longer possible to "lose" the BT GPS ! - Discuss here
09/28/02
bullet First Impressions of Navman's new 3420 (GPS Sleeve and SmartST Pro software) - Very impressive ! - Discuss here
09/23/02
bulletOld Message board is gone, no one was using it ;-) Remember to go to the PocketPC Passion one !
09/13/02
bulletReorganized software sections
bulletAdded a Map page (work in progress)
bulletAdded a "Future Shock" page  to discuss upcoming products
bulletAdded a "Polls" page to keep track of the front page polls - New poll starting on 09/15 - "What type of equipment purchase are you interested in ?"- bundle, hardware or software ?
bulletAdded the Pretec CompactGPS-LP - the first Low Power CF GPS based on the IIe/LP chip
bulletUpdated the "CoPilot" page

09/12/02
bulletAdded some pictures to t he Billionton CF GPS receiver  review - they show how it stacks up to the PocketMap CF Navigator
bulletAdded some data to battery life issues and providing related data
09/11/02 Major update today:
 
bullet Review of the ultra-thin Billionton CF GPS receiver - a world premiere AFAIK
bullet A page discussing battery life issues and providing related data (work in progress) for the combined PPC/GPS Use
bullet A page discussing "The Fix" and providing related data (work in progress) - how long does it take for a GPS to acquire/reacquire a position and how consistently does it do that ?
bullet A brief description on how to use Leadtek's great little "CE Monitor" configuration utility  
09/05/02
bulletAdded NeoGPS CF receiver to the hardware section
bulletAdded Alturion mapping software to the software section.
09/04/02
bullet Added a search engine for the site
bulletAdded links to reviews of Automobile Navigators (built-in and portable)
09/03/02
bullet Added a GPS Explained section in hardware
09/02/02 - Major overhaul of the hardware section !
- Added link to Dale's preview of Pharos Ostia 4.0
- Removed reference to the Pharos/Pocketmap CF GPS being a Haicom...it's not ! If anyone knows its origin, let me
    know !
09/01/02 - Added first result summary for routing quality rating, just to get the ball rolling !
- Added a definition for NMEA and Sirf
08/30/02  - Added a specific page for Copilot as notes were piling up !
 - Added a mailing list feature to keep visitors informed of updates
 - Added a mini-poll feature for the Type of GPS preferred by visitors
 - Added a series of polls to rate the overall quality and speed of routing of the various software solutions
08/29/02 - Major additions in the Software section - added large comparative chart for mapping programs !
- Minor revisions to the Hardware Notes
- Added some links to great sites in German
08/28/02 - Renamed the site to GPS PASSION with its own domain and no banners to celebrate  2.000+ visits in the first week !
- Added SiRF chipset configuration utility
- Working on bringing you some more hardware reviews - stay tuned !
08/21/02 - Added "Mouse GPS" receivers to the  Hardware page
- Update to Bluetooth first impressions - clarified concurrent protocol/baudrate switch warning
08/19/02 - Bluetooth GPS first impressions !
08/19/02 - List of GPS solutions (BT and CF format) with links to spec sheets, reviews and places to buy