HGE-100 GPS receiver - Any good?

Posted by MattyGB
I've had my W810i for over 2 years now and really want to upgrade to a better phone. The coming-soon G900 is very appealing, but it lacks GPS, which is very disappointing, as this is a feature I would use a lot, as I'm always getting lost!

I know there's the HGE-100 accessory, to get GPS functionality, but I've heard things about it like the software is crap, or you have to have an ongoing subscription payment to the service, or that it's internet-based or whatever.

Is it actually any good, and therefore, would the G900 in conjunction with this device give me all I need or should I look for a different phone that has it all?

Posted by Dart5
Hi, it works OK as headphones & GPS. The S/W is the drawback. You get a couple of basic apps with it the most useful of which is good for exercise. You can record how far you've run/cycled and how fast, while listening to music as you do it. Neither of these apps will save waypoints and direct you back to them which is a major drawback as it stops you using this for so many things. You can load more advanced GPS apps but when I tried I could get it working and you'd also need a data plan as it downloads the maps on the fly. I also haven't found anything for this that give your position in OS format, and as that's the map format in Britain and along with no waypoints, it makes this useless for walking/camping or generaly being off-road. I think the Nokia offerings are better as not only is the GPS built in, you get maps pre-loaded. Since I've had this I've barely used it as a GPS, just as headphones (which I could have got at half the price!).

Posted by RLP06
I think its quite good actually... I have a pair, and I installed some tracking software... I don't use it to navigate, just really to geotag/sync with my camera pictures

Gets fixes quite fast.

Posted by MattyGB
Hmmm.... well I would need to use it simply to navigate with - ie to find my way to addresses and locations that I 'm not familiar with.

I'm not interested in exercise sessions geo-tagging photos, simply navigation.

It's sounding like this thing is not very good for that then...

Posted by faultymonkey
Get a bluetooth GPS device. I got one off ebay for around Ł20 and it works pretty well. My one isn't too happy with indoors or with big obstructions, but you can get better quality ones now that will do indoors and right up close to big buildings. You can also use it on any phone with bluetooth, so you don't have to keep changing it with new phones

The only trouble then is the mapping software (which if you trail google long enough you can get for free

)

Posted by RLP06
I'm selling a Holux GPSlim 240 in the Market if anyone's interested, I only use SE phones, so no need for the BT gps anymore

Posted by MattyGB
Cool, well then, which would be the best GPS receiver to get?

The Holux GPSlim 236 gets a good review on Amazon, but there's so many of them out there.

Also, what is the software I would need, (preferably one I don't have to buy or keep paying subs for!).

And... can I load all the maps into the phone, or do they have to be downloaded, and therefore incur data costs?

Posted by RLP06
Do you want just maps? or navigation as well?

For maps, theres a lot of free choices, for navigation, a bit less

Posted by alukardgt
anyone has testing the Google Maps with HGE-100 ??

Posted by MattyGB
Well, I suppose I want maps and navigation.

Basically, I want it to tell me how to get somewhere, turn by turn, if I don't know the route!!

I don't need it for the car, but do if I'm on foot.

Posted by Dart5

On 2008-06-06 11:57:34, MattyGB wrote:
Well, I suppose I want maps and navigation.

Basically, I want it to tell me how to get somewhere, turn by turn, if I don't know the route!!

I don't need it for the car, but do if I'm on foot.

If you can get it to work, the Wayfinder software will do that. You can download a trial version. I gave it a quick go but it didn't work properly, as I already have another GPS I didn't spent to much time on it. That was several months back so it may be OK now. It has the option to Nav by car or foot.

Posted by MattyGB
Ok, and how can I pre-load a map of London, to work with this, so that I'm not having to use an internet connection on my phone all the time?

Posted by Dart5
I'm not sure if you can. I believe with Wayfinder you need a subscription to use it, but then that covers you for all sorts of things. It may be worth checking their web site to find out if it allows you yo downlaod files to your PC & then phone.

Posted by IRFCA_WDG-3A
Nav4All is a free Java-app that works pretty decent with my BT-GPS and it's pretty good too. The downside is that it needs a GPRS conn to download the Maps. There are a few more apps that come with an option of using pre-loaded maps...but I don't know where to get the maps.

BTW anyone knows where to get the maps for free (not requiring GPRS/3G connection)? I need India maps. Also, what format the maps need to be in?

Posted by hovercraft
Could this be an option together with HGE-100 ??

http://www.amazegps.com/welcome.php?language=uk

[ This Message was edited by: hovercraft on 2008-06-07 19:47 ]

Posted by MattyGB

On 2008-06-07 20:46:49, hovercraft wrote:
Could this be an option together with HGE-100 ??

http://www.amazegps.com/welcome.php?language=uk

[ This Message was edited by: hovercraft on 2008-06-07 19:47 ]

Well, it looks OK but still requires a lot of ongoing data transfer to use it.

Why can't you just load a map of London and get the GPS software to guide you around it, without requiring tons of streaming data all the time? My car sat nav does this ok!

Posted by Rifqi_Aziz

I got Operation Failed when running this software in my T650i.