Notices

I managed to get my mapping program limping using QT4 (why do they change the API?).

It does display the US census tiger maps (with zoom and pan), but the repaint isn't double-buffering like I want. It is slow (note it was designed for a Zaurus which is slower). That may be an artifact of all the layers it goes through and that I haven't even tried to fix the multiple repaints.

It does read and track the GPS as it is gpsd based.

I may put up an alpha/demo when I get a chance. And a screenshot or two.

This is the first pass, and you will need to know linux and/or the n810 to get things going. Please feel free to start up something on the wiki. I've limited time, but this worked as proof of concept. (Maybe a full zaurus emulator...)

The program, starter data files, and the two Qt libraries (From http://tablethacker.com/kde.html KDE for the n810) needed are in:

http://homepage.mac.com/tz1/.Public/n810/nokqzmap.tgz

For more maps, you need a posix environment - cygwin, linux, or macosx and:

http://homepage.mac.com/tz1/.Public/n810/getmaps.tgz

It still really needs to be ported to GTK, and I need to get kismet for the n810 since that is already there, but it mostly works including GPS tracking. The READMEs are brief but should answer questions.

I can afford upto $150 for a good navigation s/w on my N800, but I hate recurring charges (like wayfinder's $130/every 3 yrs). I even don't mind paying to get an updated s/w version or maps whenever needed.

Isn't that what Wayfinder's $130 is covering?

When was the last time navicore/telenav had a good update? </rhetorical>

I am waiting to hear back from the contracts department over there so we will see what we can get moving. I am going to shoot for a price point of $49 one-time life-time transferable license. I don't see why every tablet user should not have what Nokia should have included for free anyway. Now the crap internal GPS receiver... you're on you own.

If all goes well I would like to see this happen by 2008 Q2. Thanks to everyone for input. Please feel free to keep posting suggestions or feature requests.

At this point things are really in their hands.

Cheers,
James

I think this is a great idea, and thank you for the good work. I'd be interested in alpha-beta testing. I use an n800, os 2008, and a BT GPS (Holux).

First alpha, but useful release

http://homepage.mac.com/tz1/.Public/n810/tzmap01.tgz

And it will automatically download the map zip file for your location from the US Census bureau and convert them, it just takes a while (1/2-5+minutes) - you can watch in xterm. So as you drive (or scroll or zoom) it will pause to load and/or convert a new map. The startup defaults to a location where I have three preloaded maps. A README (very important to actually do it at this stage) is included. And of course you need an internet connection for the map download to work.

The conversion script (download, unzip, sort) and program (gather.c) are included if you want to do the maps on your linux box (or cygwin under windows, or an intel mac - ask if you need endian conversion).

And feel free to help me port it to GTK - the readme contains links to the source. Is kismet available (it does live wardrive mapping, at least on the zaurus)

I watched all these discussions about navigation software on Linux devices, on X86, Zaurus, Nokia internet tablets or similar.

All theses threads have in common, that the problem of having maps exists only in Europe not in the U.S. There are free maps and 'only' the software is missing.

So because of that you either can encourage a software company to port their navigation software to Linux and do a closed job. They have to decide if it's worth developing and most time definitely aren't interested in making the source open.
But this and the license should be no problem for you if you want working software now.

The other and a definitely good way is maemo mapper - take the maps from google or, virtual earth or openstreetmap, cache them and
that's it.
But maemo mapper is not so navigation friendly like TomTom e.g. is today and it will take some time to make it such 'car friendly'.
And maemo mapper uses google maps which are bitmaps (need spaaaaace). OpenStreetMap doesn't have the details yet.

But I found another approach on the net, too.
Write 'open' software and use the vector maps of a commercial windows navigation software.
If the navigation software supports different commercial vector formats you can also switch between the maps.

So perhaps is it worth to have a look at:

http://navit.sourceforge.net/

I bought a cheap navigation software from last year for Europe at ebay and give it a try.
It works good but it's officially still in alpha.

Screenshot
http://mineque.quanteam.info/navit/skin-greenie3.jpg
http://www.kazer.org/navit/navit-sdl.png
more by looking for pics with 'navit gui sdl'.

Regards,
asys3

There's also roadnav:

http://roadnav.sourceforge.net/

It runs, but it really needs some optimization for the tablets, as it hogs resources, and option windows are too big.

The big plus with roadnav is the offline routing (not sure how well this works, though), I really hope someone can get it working better