Blackberry Curve and GPS
With a BlackBerry Curve and a GPS receiver (puck) like the
Globalsat BT-359
, you may be able to forget the limitations of a dashboard mounted GPS and find your way whether driving or walking with your BlackBerry 8320. Of course this assumes that your carrier has not limited Bluetooth and/or GPS functionality and that you have a data plan with your carrier.
With the Curve, you can enable Bluetooth and pair the Curve with a GPS puck to add the GPS functionality. You can pick a GPS puck that you can carry with you or one that is vehicle mounted.
Before you invest in a GPS puck to work with your Curve using Bluetooth, you need to do some homework. You'll want to pick the software application you'll be using with your GPS:
- Make sure that the GPS puck you purchase is supported by the software.
- Make sure that the software supports your model of the BlackBerry Curve and your carrier.
There are some great GPS software solutions available, but not all of them may be available for your Curve with your carrier and not all of them will work with every GPS puck.
Several GPS software packages are available. None of them store data on your BlackBerry, so you will need to make sure you have a
robust or unlimited data plan. Otherwise you'll start to see a hefty monthly bill if you use this very much. Some of these GPS software packages will only work when you are in the coverage area of your carrier, so you'll want to check that out on each vendor's website.
Here are some of the options available depending on whether the package is supported by your carrier. I have a BlackBerry Curve with T-Mobile as the carrier and so some of my comments will be based on testing these applications using that combination.
- Telenav
Telenav is probably the cadillac of GPS applications for a BlackBerry with the slickest user interface and best eye candy. I used it frequently with a BlackBerry Pearl and it worked flawlessly within the carrier's coverage area. When I changed from a Pearl to a Curve, Telenav was not supporting the Curve with T-Mobile. However, a quick check of supported devices today shows that they now support the Curve with T-Mobile. Check their supported devices page to see if your device is supported.
Telenav offers you the ability to find where you are, get turn-by-turn voice prompts, find points of interest, and has good integration with your address book. Telenav provides a route view that is helpful in planning your trip. You can store locations in advance and pick them later when you need to get to a particular place. The service costs $9.99 a month. View the online demo.
- MapQuest Navigator
Mapquest Navigator (MN) worked flawlessly with a Freedom Keychain GPS Receiver in an urban environment during my testing. MN provides excellent turn-by-turn voice prompts and maps, offers one of the best route maps I've seen so far, gives route plans maximized to avoid traffic problems, readjusts when you miss a turn or decide to take a different route, and readily tells you your current location. You can store locations in advance and pick them later when you need to get to a particular place. Finding points of interest was a breeze with MN. The service costs $9.99 a month.
MN is currently offering a three day free trial for subscriptions purchased online allowing you to check out its features before buying. You can view a demo and check to see whether your carrier and model is supported on the MN Features page.
- Nav4All
Nav4All is a free GPS service based in the Netherlands (Free until 01-01-2010). Nav4All worked fairly well in testing, but exhibited a few quirks; e.g. was a little slow in announcing turns compared to MN and frequently issued voice commands to "Pay Attention" which were annoying. It provides voice prompted turn-by-turn directions, has a great toggle for day/night screens, and a fairly decent search capability. Although I have MN installed on my Curve, I'm keeping Nav4All as a backup program.
Nav4All offers the ability to take a picture of a location and post it to their Myworld website and boasts over 1 billion addresses in its database. That's pretty impressive.
- Wayfinder Navigator
Wayfinder Navigator (WN) wasn't available ofor the 8320 model of the BlackBerry Curve, but is available for the 8300 and 8310 models. You should check to make sure your BlackBerry or phone is compatible first.
WN offers voice promted turn-by-turn directions and a points-of-interest locator with real time traffic information. WN also offers day/night modes and more than 20 million points-of-interest covering more than 1000 cities. Unlike other services with monthly plans, WN starts at $99 for the version of the application you purchase with a lifetime license.
- Garmin
Garmin offers two products for BlackBerry. You can review Garmin's Product Specifications, if you are interested. The specifications indicate that the product does not offer routes although it does offer turn-by-turn voice prompts. I like to be able to look at the route ahead of time and consequently did not test this product.
- Spot
Spot provides maps, waypoints, tracklogs, moving map naviagation and field navigation. This is probably the best application for Geocaching and supports GPX and LOC formats. Does not include voice prompted navigation. It is available for $49.
- BBMaps
BlackBerry Maps (BBMaps) comes with your BlackBerry and is free. It is a great application for finding a place, if you already know the address. It lacks voice prompts and isn't much help if you need to find a business on the goal, traffic information, or inexpensive gas. If you want any of those features, I'd stick with Telenav, Mapquest Navigator, or Wayfinder. It is an excellent starter application to use when testing out your GPS puck and can come in handy if you are outside the coverage area of another GPS application. To get the most out of BBMaps, download the user guide for your Curve model. It has helpful sections on maps and GPS.
- Google Mobile Maps
Google Mobile Maps (GMM) offers very accurate searches for businesses and other locations, provides directions, but without turn-by-turn voice prompts. It performed well in a dense urban environment accurately pinpointing location on a map. You can also toggle to a satellite map. GMM also features traffic information. GMM's strength is the huge number of points-of-interest that you can find via search. And GMM provides excellent route maps. Even if you use a separate product to get turn-by-turn directions, you'll also want to have GMM loaded to be able to find just about anything you want.
- Windows Live Search
Windows Live Search (WLS) works with BlackBerry OS 4.0 and above and is in beta development. WLS allows local business search and provides directions, but without turn-by-turn voice assistance. It also provides maps and traffic information. Like Google, it also offers satellite maps.
