So Nokia’s first Mini-Laptop has GPS Built-in, in addition to 3G support.
And you’d think it’d work great right ?
Well we woudlnt really know.
You see, the Nokia Booklet 3G needs an active 3G connection before it can even attempt to get an A-GPS fix. That means regardless of whether you’re connected to the Internet via Wifi, or some other magical means, you wont be able to actually use the built-in GPS.
But then, if you are on a 3G capable network, it should work fine. We couldnt check it out, because didnt have a simcard on a 3G network handy (India still doesnt have 3G on many of it’s networks).
So technically, considering our previous experiences with Nokia devices, we’d think the A-GPS on the Booklet 3G would work fine.
But thats just one part of the problem.
The other problem seems to be that there arnt that many PC applications out there that do much with the built-in GPS. The booklet 3G has an Ovi Maps widget for Windows 7 that uses the GPS but thats it.
Here’s a short video showing you what we thought about GPS on the Nokia Booklet 3G :
At the end of the day, we figure GPS on the Booklet 3G seems like a nice thing to have. Unfotunately this dependancy of having a 3G capable Network and Sim card means this feature wont really be used by many, in our opinion.
Know any Windows apps that might use the built-in GPS ? Something we might have missed ? Do let us know in the comments section below, y’all !
Clinton is currently based in New Delhi, India and is executive editor for UnleashThePhones. He is responsible for all editorial decisions, and covers all forms of Mobile and mobile-related accessories.
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A-GPS, contrary to what a lot of people seem to believe, does not mean that you need an internet connection before the GPS will work.
This article is terrific and up to date. I totally agree with the writer regarding all this stuff of GPS The information provided in here is very fruitful and i would like to add on one more technology which i found during searching for last two hours on GPS in indiahttp://www.satguide.in/ check it and let me know, what you think about it. Regards:-Ishika MahajanSales Manager
The Booklet 3G can get a GPS fix without an internet connection. I've got one myself and I use it all the time for things like tracking my car journeys. Maybe you won't be able to take advantage of the assistance that the ground stations provide, I'm not sure because I don't use those anyway. A-GPS, contrary to what a lot of people seem to believe, does not mean that you need an internet connection before the GPS will work. It is assisted GPS, meaning that the azimuth and elevation data is retrieved for where the satellites will be in the future, so that next time your device can predict where the sats will be and therefore find them faster. If you don't have this data then it works just like any normal GPS does and scans the sky looking for sats. That means it will take about 40 seconds to get a fix instead of 5 seconds with A-GPS. Not exactly something worth complaining about.Additionally, you will obviously need an internet connection before OVI maps will work because it needs to download the map tiles. That is the more likely reason for the screenshot you posted.Here's what you should try, to prove my point. Get something like Poderosa or some other Hyperterminal application. Open COM5 and type AT_OGPS=2. That will turn on your GPS receiver. Now open COM4 and watch the output. You'll see bog standard NMEA sentences that all gps devices give out. Look for GPGLL or GPGGA because these will contain your latitude and longitude and amount of visible satellites. GPGSV will show you information about the satellites used to get your GPS fix and GPVTG will show you what your speed is.To turn the GPS off again, open COM5 and enter AT_OGPS=0.Now you see that GPS/AGPS works without any internet connection being required.
Same here Al. looks like it doesnt work too well with the built-in GPS then.
Seesmic crashed right away when I tried to run it on my Booklet 3G
My Booklet 3G came from Finland. I use an AT&T sim card and only get EDGE data speed. The GPS works fine.
Not yet ! Thanks for the tip though, I'll check it out !
Yeah that's sth I just couldnt believe myself either. Looks like there's no way to get anything to use the GPS Receiver on the Booklet 3G without it having to use 3G. Not so far atleast.
Are you serious?? That's ridiculous. My phone can use A-GPS with a GPRS connection. Why in the world can't the Booklet 3G. And before A-GPS even existed, the N95 used to get a GPS fix solely based on its reciever. And here i was googling for the Ovi Maps application for PC.
I remembered hearing about Seesmic for Windows (7) being able to utilize the built in GPS. Tried that yet?
I have implemented the full solution of getting all out of the GPS device. You can create raw NMEA data, link it to google earth and much more.. the software is freely available here: http://www.quadrillenschule.de/bookletgps/bookletgps.html
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