I support this idea. There must be a separate section for Easy Debian.

From my memory lane, several months back, there was a decision made (?) that ALL subforums are to be merged into ONE big subforum, the Alternatives, and specific interests are to be labelled with tags. I was told, as I complained openly and bitterly, this merging into one Alternatives subforum would decrease chaos, increase signal to noise ratio,...even accomplish as much as Tiger Wood! Any how, it is beyond me that click on a subforum is percieved NOT as convenient as click on Alternatives + search + advance search + tags (search engine itself is another joke). Bottomline, unless there is a change in policy, subforum is NOT being encouraged.

bun

It's a little touchy, have had to un-pair / re-pair GPS to get it to work twice, but I've only got it set up since last night.

As I couldn't find it on the internet or marketplace, I emailed support and they sent me a copy of the free version.

At only $3, I'll probably buy it next week. Even if NitDroid gets GPS working, my bluetooth seems more accurate and stable. So it will still have its' uses.

How is your experience with these tools comparing to the alternatives on Maemo5?

To preface this, my only experience with Android is via NitDroid (I haven't used Sygic either).

Driving home tonight, running Maps/Navigation was a joy compared to using Ovi Maps. Easy to type in a location with the onscreen keyboard. It quickly found my destination (I typed YMCA and was presented with the 3 closest, selected the right one) and off I went. I Re-routing was quick and easy. There are several different views you can quickly select. You can also get the traffic view to show up as well.

Another nice feature was the street view that shows up when you reach your destination (you can also get it from a button on the nav screen as well).

Voice worked at lunch (very much a computer voice as opposed to human). It didn't work on the way home? Not sure why. More playing needed.

I have good T-Mobile 3g coverage, and did not notice it pausing to download more map tiles, ran smooth the whole time.

As I mentioned the trial bluetooth mouse GPS software kicks off after 10min, but only took a couple seconds to restart. Finding my recent destinations were right off the main Find Directions menu, very convenient.

It also appears to work with at least 2 of the 3 golf gps programs I installed (haven't gone golfing yet though).

Downside is you need a data connection to use it. If Ovi Maps wouldn't require a data connection (despite having all the info it needs to search) it would at least be semi-useful where you don't have service. Since it does require a data connection, NitDroid beats it hands down.

I keep wanting to write a review (but I'm sure you can find plenty of those), so I'll just say it was pleasant and easy to use, did what it was supposed to (or at least what I expect of a Navigation app), which is far more than I can say for Ovi Maps.

If Ovi Maps doesn't get an update (either via PR1.3 if we ever get that, or at QT that we can run), I'll probably delete the US maps (almost 1GB) regain that space, and boot over to NitDroid for my Navigation needs. Major bonus when calling and gps work in NitDroid (and I'm sure they will at some point).

Great review, pal lemmyslender!

To use bt on 0.0.8 nitdroid, do this under maemo.
From forum.nitdroid.com helper, mornage with modification:
========================
root
cd ~/MyDocs
wget http://downloads.nitdroid.com/nitins...00-700.tar.bz2
bzip2 -d oc-profile-500-700.tar.bz2
mount /dev/mmcblk1p2 /and
cd /and
tar xvf ~/MyDocs/oc-profile-500-700.tar
cd ~/MyDocs
umount /and
=============================

I was able to test Bluetooth GPS, Bluetooth GPS Mouse Unlimited, and also a vivid user of ovi map.

1st thanks to OPs report about external GPS, and the idea of search about similar apps, thanks.

1) Bluetooth GPS. It works like a charm. Go Android market, dl and install. You have to pre-pair your BT GPS. once pre-pair, open Bluetooth GPS, and choose your BT GPS device, it connects right away, and it also open map and allows one to look at map. It runs very smooth. Absolutely smooth without any hiccup. Unfortunately that is ALL to it. I was NOT able to make it run background. That means you would NOT be able to run any other apps while Bluetooth GPS is running. I have to confess that I did not read the manual, maybe it is more capable that that. And the cost - FREE.

2) BLuetooth GPS Mouse Unlimited. Using the trial version, yes, connected to BT GPS device is very easy, and straight forward, after connection, you can go back to desktop to start your favorite apps. I have tried several facebook like social networks requiring gps location, ALL worked. Google navigation, with voice/route/directions etc as reported by lemmyslender above post, ALL worked flawlessly! and smooth.

Google app Places works very well too, find anything you like, theatre, cafe, gas stations, hotels etc near your location, and 1 click take you the maps with search results. Very cool.

Google lattitude works too, connect to friends.
Obviously, it wont do no squirt when you are offline. It is a strict online app.

Google Multimap (paid app) allows hybrid, openstreet/sat etc up to 8 maps, cool. dl is NOT fast though, but it works.

Halfway playing with the BT GPS mouse unlimited, the famous airplane mode turned on, by self, it does not matter, just exit the app and re enter the map, despite its airplane mode, BT connect and business as usual. Terrific.

3) Ovi map, online or offline, both work somewhat, your choice.

Bottomline: If you have unlimited data online, go with nitdroid + Bluetooth GPS Mouse Unlimited. It is a full feature GPS and runs fast enough.

If you are a poor soul, like me, I still use ovi map, I aint got unlimited data online plan ... yet.

bun

Thank you guys for the nice words and my intention was to actually provide an angle I hadn't seen mentioned before. How it was turned by some into something negative and reprovable is a mystery to me...

How does a misleading thread that went so way off topic still be alive?

That is exactly the point, because it turns into some useful info to help people use gps while nitdroid gps still in progress. Just like Einstein, when he was born, he is just a baby, who would know he later turned out to become Einstein :-)?

Anyhow, the external GPS allows one to run ANY PROGs that requires GPS, including some social network apps, even though you are not interested in GPS per se. I was able to run Google lattitude, MyTerritory, Google's EditMyMap, and QUITE A LOTs of APPs that crashed without gps.

bun

The thread title is missing one word "bluetooth". I can't edit it or I would. IMHO, the title is only slightly mis-leading, no worse than many of the other threads we have on here. I don't believe it was intentional as some suggested.

That being said, I choose to continue this thread with my information as I believed it fit in with the original topic. The people that started complaining are the ones that drew it off-topic. We were back on topic until you choose to add your two cents.

Perhaps a mod could go through and remove the off-topic posts to a separate thread. You know, to "clean it up", as so many here seem to want.

To keep it on topic, here is a zip file of the free trial version. I couldn't find it, so I contacted customer support and they emailed it to me. Hopefully others can test it out as well. If any mods prefer this not be here, feel free to remove it.