I have to say that Wayfinder has quite a few problems that telenav doesn't. It seems to freeze a lot causing me to do a battery pull, It doesn't show full maps (ie streets that aren't on your route are only displayed as "pseudo streets" that show up as dead-ends on the map) and it doesn't list street names for streets not on the route. It's isn't as accurate and I think this is because they're maps aren't accurate (at least in my area). There are some cases when I'd be turning at the right spot and Wayfinder showed me a couple hundred yards further than I actually was. This caused wayfinder to "recalculate" when it shouldn't have. The recalculation and map drawing take much longer than telenav. Lastly, if you leave it on directions/route mode the backlight will always stay on, even if you switch to another program and leave it running in the background.

It does have some nice features though, like the ability to calculate your route based on traffic flow. All in all, I am much happier with telenav though it's a lot more expensive at $9 a month instead of $14 per year.

edit: just wanted to state that this is using the free trial program an not the full program. Not sure if that makes a difference though.

No, the $14/year is for a city guide. It is not GPS software. The GPS software is $99/life. The city guide gives you info like restaurants and movies and things like that.

dammit. that really sucks. im sorry but $10 a month is just too much unless you use it everyday. there has got to be free alternatives, or at least much cheaper ones.

What's wrong with the built-in maps. Yeah, it doesn't have voice directions, but it's very useful for what it is.

do we really know how much Telenav is for us TMO customers? it doesnt really say, going by their website - TeleNav GPS Navigator Pricing

well youre right. i guess if i want street-by-street voice guides then i should just get a real gps like a garmin. this $50 receiver for the phone is a damn good deal if it works.

btw, i uninstalled bbmaps. i thought google maps were all i would ever need. dammit again

You can reload it with the App Loader in Desktop Manager

I subscribed at $9.99 per month, and I use t-mobile. I didn't see any options for the "5 trips per month" that other service providers get.

i didnt really care for bbmaps when i compared to google maps. google was faster

yeah the bbmaps software is pretty good but I can't get the backlight to stay on with it ;P. I change the settings to "disable blacklight timeout if power is over 50%" but it still shuts off. Can't be clicking the pearl every 30 seconds while driving.

wayfinder should not be crashing on the 8100. if it is please email their support. I have be dialoging with them re the releases. I have pretty much outlined the issues at my tips page. They are using the same map source as BBMaps which I beleive is TeleAtlas.

Telenav has better POI's in the US but the interface for routing is not as good IMO because you can't easily change views from turn by turn instructions to navigation map to route on map like Wayfinder can. These views are very useful IMO.

I'd like to turn this thread back to what it started with, and ask if anyone has used this GPS receiver yet, and if so, please give us a review!!!

not a bad idea. i can review the service from computer geeks, as im still waiting for my reciever to come. this is my third purchase from CG over the last two years, and i have no idea why i dont buy from them more. their service and my experience with them is as good as it gets. they are a 5-star type of online retailer. they have incredible prices and they ship as soon as humanly possible. in fact, this time they sent me a shipping confirmation just 4 hours after i placed the order.

for this price, it will be hard to loose out. even if i find the software sucks, or the overall gps isnt fast enough to use turn-by-turn, at least you will always be able to find out where you are. i have a feeling it wont be fast enough to use in subdivisions and such, but will work fine for highway and rural-area travel.

I got a Motorola h805 headset at compusa for $49.

Review of Ambeon GPS reciever:

I've been using the receiver for a few days now and I am very pleased with it. Obviously it doesn't have all of the bells and whistles of a higher end model but it works fine with all of the applications I will use it for.

Speed:
The Ambeon GPS receiver tracks very nicely and my GPS software has no problem with calculating speed, direction or position. As such turn by turn directions work fine. The update rate is every 1 second so the tracking isn't perfectly smooth.

Accuracy:
It seems quite accurate to me, the speed that it calculates is the same as the one on my speedometer. The position it gives me on the map is right on with the position that I am at. Geeks.com reports an accuracy of 3 meters. For the most part it can easily form a connection with the satellites. I was able to get a connection even inside my house, which was a surprise to me. When I brought it into my work however, I wasn't able to make a connection. I'm guessing the ceilings and walls were way to thick (I work in a semiconductor plant).

Software:
I don't have a bluetooth adapter for my PC so I couldn't test out the software that comes with the device but it does setup easily with the pearl and works fine with bbmaps, telenav and wayfinder.

The only downside I have found with using the device is with the GPS software I am using on the pearl. Telenav, bbmaps, and wayfinder all use GPRS/EDGE to download maps to the blackberry as needed. As such, it would seem that if you don't have GPRS/EDGE coverage, you won't be able to get a map view of where you are, just altitude, latitude and longitude. I would like a way to save the maps from a trip directly to the pearl so I don't have to always have a net connection. I'm not sure that this is possible though.

that would be nice, but it would seem to me that a full map would be too large of a file to fit in the pearl. maybe with a memory card someday?

thanks for the info though, this seems perfect for those trips out of town. probably not the best for time-critical stuff like pizza deliveries, but at least you wont get lost anymore.

Thank You for the review! It seems like an average reciever, and it's worth the money it's worth. I ordered mine yesturday and it should be here today I paid 44.99 (they are running a promoton now) used my companies account for next day air shipping, and should be getting it in some time today! Really looking forward to recieving it and start using it. The only thing that I am missing now is the cradle for the car, otherwise its really uncomfy to pick it up and look at directions all the time and drive at the same time! Anybody knows where to get a nice, comfy car holder?

bah, thats what a cupholder is for. if there is a good car holster that still works with the seido rubberized case then i might look into it...

Yea.... cupfolder is not doing it for me.... there is usially a cup of coffee in there!

Good review dregan!

I just got the miniscule Holux GPSlim 240. It's smaller than an oldstyle pack of gum! It looks like someone cut the bottom 1/2 inch off of a video iPod...

I only used it for a quick trip, but it locked immediately and tracked very well on a 10 mile round-trip. Speed seemed accurate. Set up was virtually plug-n-play with the Pearl and BB Maps. No issues whatsoever!

I'm wondering about your comment on the map availability... if you have GSM phone service at ALL, don't you always have at LEAST gprs service? Even if you're roaming? Are you talking about an area where there is no phone service?

For those interested I just added Telenav to my GPS review.

Stinsonddog's Blackberry GPS Review

oh... then i guess you better have a water-tight skin on your pearl hahaha

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8100/4.2.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)

How does the gps work? I have it paired and turned on yet I couldn't seem to find how to just show where I'm at on bbmaps. It says on in the bottom but nothing else? The red light is on the reciever...

Do you have BT turned on on the BB so it reads the GPS puck?

yep. it pairs up fine, and on the bbmap there is a seperate bottom bar that pops up, and on the right it says ON. but it shows nothing else.

maybe i have to actually drive somewhere for it to start tracking? i was under the impression i could just have the map zoom into wherever i am currently. maybe its not picking up a signal? the red light is on like the manual says it should be.,..

Where are you? In a building or outside? It has to have a line of sight connection with the sattelites.

dirka dirka... it just wanted to go for a ride. it works good! it seemed like once it found two points then it figured out what it was doing. it now tacks inside my house fine too.

for $50, this is a no-lose device. you even get a car charger that will charge your pearl! this is too cool. also, i didnt realize the gps receiver comes with a li-ion battery pack, so you dont have to have the it plugged in all the time. very slick, just throw it up on your dash and thats it.

the tracking is definatley within a few feet, or at least when your driving 30mph think of it as house-to-house, even in a dense city.

going down the sidestreets got a little hairy, but i think bbmaps really isnt fast enough anyway. still, this thing will make mapquest obsolete, no question!

anyone know how long the reciever will last on a charge? i would imagine a couple days, i doubt it draws much power.

i can hear the cries for a car-holster now. it is a little bit of a pain to always hold onto the phone. we need a suction-cup holder for this phone!

anyway, for a $50 gps device, this kicks ass. surely the more expensive models would be much faster in tracking, but this does work and surprisingly well. thank you forum members, thank you RIM, and thank you TMO!

without question this is worth the $50. it seems to be just as fast as the bbmaps are (not blazing but it works) so i wonder if one did pay twice the price for a better receiver if it would even matter or not. in any case, i guess the best test will be when i use it in the winter and it gets frozen to the dashboard at -10F

They usually last around 15 hours of constant use.

double post sorry

It's out of stock now!!!

im still happy!

sucks for everyone else though. i would suppose this is good reference for those looking into cheap gps recievers. they seem to work fine, even if they dont have that better chipset in them. i know im happy with it, better then i thought it would be. my phone gets more use now then my pc!

also, holy crap does bluetooth drain your battery. this phone barely lasts a day with BT on, but when not it will go for two days or more. worth it though, and bluetooth doesnt work for media manager so it doesnt have a lot of use with the desktop manager anyway.

I agree bluetooth just drains the batt. but if you turn it on only when you need it (ie: driving using GPS ect.) you can still get a good 2 days out of your battery.

after looking extensively for a car cradle that also charges the phone ive come to the conclusion that i have to make one.

bummer, but i guess this will give me a chance to get creative. i do have an ipod holder that plugs right into my 12v socket, that would be ideal really for me. i guess all i have to do is drill some holes and put in some contacts for the back of the phone. right? it would be extremely convenient to just pop the phone onto a holder and have it charge while i can still see the map clearly. time to get that propane burnin...

You could spend a few bucks on a USB Y adapter and use the power adapter that came with the GPS. just a thought.

Here is another GPS with the SiRF Star III chipset, for only $59.00 from the same company.

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=GPT-801&cat=CON

i already have my head spinning with ideas. i know how im going to do it too.

it will involve sandwiching a set of #12 or #14 guage copper wires between two sheets of plexiglass with epoxy glue (this is not going to be something cheap and breakable). the wires will protrude out the back through a hole in the back sheet. from there, they are wrapped around the power wire going to a usb connector, type A male. this will allow flexibility when the phone is on the holster. there will also be a retention wire across the middle of the holster and one at the bottom to hold the phone in place (making sure there wont be any interference with the screen or buttons). in the front piece of plexiglass, there will be two holes where the pins on the phone are. the phone will drop into the cradle and charge when the holster is inserted to a usb port. any usb port, so i have a cirgar-lighter usb power adapter i would plug the holster into to give me a car-mount phone.

the whole thing will be dunked in plastic dip, and the flexible wire mount with the usb end will be heat-shrink tubing wrapped. the end result should look good, work good and be very durable. also, the retention bars that hold the phone in would be adjustable by bending them. this idea should allow years of use without the phone getting loose. also, it would allow skins or even cases to be on the phone and still fit in the holster.

i have all the details worked out already, i was racking my brain on how to make a somewhat easy to build holder that is still durable and attractive. i think this will fit the bill. just wait and see. if all goes well, i could see maybe selling them online. it would be, of course, the only car-holster that charges without a cable, and made specifically for the pearl.

Sounds good! please post pics as you get going on it and the final product.

for sure, if its nice enough. i plan on selling them if they look good enough. it would all depend on how well the plastic dip idea goes; ive never played with that stuff. but one thing is a given, it has to be absolutely durable. if i do sell them i cannot be having returns up the ass, so my first priority is durability. no crappy hot-glue with this project.

damn, that looks even better! had i known i would have spent the extra money. oh well, even though it has better specs its silver in color, not what i would want.