Cell Phones With Gps Capability

[+GeoGin]

Anyone know if there are any cell phones available that will also function as a GPS device? I'm noticing some cell phones on the horizon will soon be GPS enabled. I'm looking to purchase the Handspring Treo 650 cell phone which has BlueTooth, but not sure if it could double as a GPS device.

 

I currently have a Garmin Street Pilot III for my car. I'm intrigued with the Garmin 60c and 60cs due to the Geocaching feature. I would like to have some type of handheld GPS and need to get a new cell phone anyway.

 

Any suggestions or comments of how to combine the two would be greatly appreciated.

[+team kweb cakes]

I actually looked a bit before I got my phone and nothing local was available. When the lady at the shop said that my phone had a GPS installed.....I was like....hey can I use it too? or is just so the government can track my movements......she said....you know you're the first person to ask me that question......and no I don't think you can use it....it only works one way. Now why would I ask such a question?

[+TotemLake]

Nextel makes phones with a GPS built in but it only gives coordinates and you can't load maps. A buddy of mine had one. He successfully found hundreds of caches and TB's with it before he had to give it up.

[+junglehair]

Actually Nextel and Trimble have teamed up to create a GPS enabled phone that you can use for geocaching. Check out trimbleoutdoors.com.

 

You can enter waypoints into the phone and navigate to them the same as you would your GPS. It also allows you to download street maps, topo maps or aerial images to the phone which then act as the basemapping for the GPS.

 

I asked for information about the phone for a presentation that I am doing in December and they sent me a demo phone to test out for a few weeks. I have logged several caches with it now, and the accuracy is equivilent to other GPS units (without WAAS).

 

The thing I like best about it, is that you have everything built into one small package. You access the Web from the phone to search the wap.geocaching.com site for geocaches in your area, use it to navigate to the cache, take pictures with the built in camera, and even log the caches through the WAP interface!

 

edit: the phone they sent me is the Nextel i860 camera phone.

Edited November 18, 2004 by junglehair

[+GeoGin]

Thanks all, for the feedback. I've checked into the NexTel. My company will spring for a Handspring Treo (Palm PDA-based). Therefore, was looking for some GPS/geocaching software which would run on it.

 

The TrimbleOutdoors solutions looks promising. Thanks JungleHair!! I wonder if they'll partner with other cell-phone vendors.

 

Thanks again!

[+GeoGin]

Thanks all, for the feedback. I've checked into the NexTel. My company will spring for a Handspring Treo (Palm PDA-based). Therefore, was looking for some GPS/geocaching software which would run on it.

 

The TrimbleOutdoors solutions looks promising. Thanks JungleHair!! I wonder if they'll partner with other cell-phone vendors.

 

Thanks again!

[+junglehair]

You're welcome. I see they've even added Geocache and Geocache Found symbols to their library. I'll be testing it out again this weekend.

[Azaruk]

Looking at the Nokia site, they have a model 5140 which has what they call a GPS Shell, turning the mobile phone into a GPDr.

 

I'm getting one to play with, will keep you all informed.

[+Cloudchaser]

The Trimble Outdoors looks really nice...I wish there was something like that for Verizon Wireless!

[+spyder8]

The Trimble Outdoors website for their Nextel/GPS software

and their PC Trip Planner software

now has a discussion forum online -

 

http://www.trimbleoutdoors.com/forums/

[+geospyder]

<Warning - Thread drift >

 

Spyder8 - why Spyder8? I'm Spyder13. I drive a Spyder (see my avatar) and was married on a Friday the 13th many years ago.

 

<End of thread drift>

Edited March 17, 2005 by Spyder13

[+AtoZ]

I have sen referanc to cellphone sleeve tha is a GPS, didn't pany much attention. Now if the Theo 650 is a full function PALM unit you might check out if there is any PALM based software so you could use a bluetooth gps unit. If so that would be the way to go.

cheers

[+spyder8]

spyder8 = Spyder (paintball) + birthdate -

 

FYI -

Trimble Outdoors has 3 GPS related items for a general user -

 

1 - GPS software for the Nextel phones

 

2 - PC Planner software for mapping out a Trip,

or importing cache locations

http://www.trimbleoutdoors.com/cito_geocaching.aspx

 

3 - Website for posting Trips and Search Trips

http://www.trimbleoutdoors.com

 

Of course, the GPS software, the Trip Planner software,

and the Web Trip sharing are all purchased/bundled items.

 

Here's a sample Trip of a couple of local caches.

http://www.trimbleoutdoors.com/TripViewFra...asp?TripID=2021

 

Trimble Outdoors is offering the PC desktop Planner for 90 days.

 

You can also visit the forums, if you have any questions...

http://www.trimbleoutdoors.com/forums/default.asp

--

[+TheAlabamaRambler]

GPS Cell Phone, yup, soon they'll all have it - advertisers will make sure of that - as you drive down the street you'll be bombarded with text message sales piches from every store you pass by! I hate it, but believe it's inevitable - it's in test now.

[+VegasCacheHounds]

Hmmm, the Trimble-Nextel one sounds great, too bad I will not switch to Nextel. IMHO, their coverage leaves a bit to be desired. I always saw problems in Las Vegas when I used to work for a cellphone repair shop, and now that I live in Dallas one of my co-workers couldn't wait to get rid of his due to spotty service. All day long you could hear his phone go in and out of service here at the office, and all the rest of us get great service on other carriers.

 

Just my two cents.

[+TheAlabamaRambler]

On a completely unrelated but, to me, funny experience:

 

While working on a contract to Sprint in their Overland Park headquarters a couple of years ago I noticed that most Sprint employees carried PacificBell cell phones - Sprint had little if any coverage capability in their corporate headquarters!

[+VegasCacheHounds]

Yeah, when Sprint launched their PCS coverage in Vegas it was a similar story. I was friends with a sales guy for them, and he said it was terrible trying to sell someone a cellphone that wouldn't even work where they were trying to sell it.

Of course, their policy regarding coverage areas was a bit odd. They only tryed to improve a specific area after they got enough complaints about it. Not very proactive...