Ok, I got this weird idea when thinking about Timenow clock addon and power consumption of the gps enabled device. Could it be done in software so that the GPS-chip would be most of the time off after the initial fix, and the map software would turn it on in user determined intervals and again turn it of after the fix. If the off period is short enough (60 secs) the new fix would be gotten very fast and major power savings could be achieved. I think the default N900 draws around 10-20mA when Mapsi is running without GPS and screen is of (almost as same as in idle), but when the GPS is active it draws 50-70mA, so it is 3 to 5 times more.

I think it would not affect the track logging as it is already a collection of point connected with straight lines? Of course you'd have to somehow disable the A-GPS feature for the additionals intervalled checks, so it would unneccessary open the internet connection when it already has the almost current almanac and rough estimate for the location (I'm assuming people would use this when hiking/biking/running, not in car where you have charger handy)

What do you people think? Is this too crazy?

Edit: corrected mAh to mA

Edit 2: Tried switching the GPS off and on in the Mapsi, and if it had good enough fix for the first time, it didn't open the internet connection for AGPS, so it might not have to be disabled at all.