The hottest tool for the cellphone today is a global positioning system, or GPS. With it, you can do everything from locating the nearest clinic to tracking back to a spot where you have been before.
The downer is that GPS features only in very high-end PDA mobile phones such as the E-Ten G500, the Mio A700, the Dopod P800W, the HP 6515 and the Goldfish X500. The new Nokia N95 is one of the first smartphones (on the Symbian operating system) to have a built-in GPS device.
What about the other mobile phone owners then? There are several ways of hopping onto the GPS bandwagon if you own a handset running on different Symbian operating systems such as Series 60 (3rd edition) or UIQ operating systems. Examples include the Sony Ericsson P-series and the Nokia N- and E-series mobile handsets, just to name a few.
Digital Life tests three GPS-based software solutions that work on such phones and in Singapore. All three were tested on my Sony Ericsson P990i.
NavFone Pro allows searches by description, address, HDB Block or postal code.
Mobile GMaps Free
This software works for all J2ME-enabled mobile phones and smartphones. You can visit www.mgmaps.com for a comprehensive list of supported phones.
Although the software is free, be prepared to pay for data connectivity charges. The software downloads the appropriate Google maps as you drive along any highway. The maps are for display only and there is no facility to store the downloaded maps.
What's good about this GPS software, though, is that it allows you to display satellite images as well as a hybrid image with road maps superimposed.
By far, this software has the best display of Singapore roads. All roads and one-way streets are clearly demarcated. Navigation, though, has room for improvement: I was not able to get the software to find me a route from point A to B and the search capability was unable to find common Singaporean destinations and addresses such as HDB blocks of flats and postal codes.
However, I was able to get the software to return me a list of recommendations such as eateries and food courts around my location when I was testing it around the Upper East Coast area.
Agis NavFone Pro About $99
The Agis NavFone Pro has a nifty feature you can use to sniff out your whereabouts by identifying the communications cell you are linked up to, simply by pressing the 'Where am I' button.
Because the software measures the signals from the different base stations around you to triangulate your location, it is accurate to several hundred metres.
Another nice feature: The software shows you points of interest (POI) in your vicinity such as ATMs, eating joints, cinemas, bus interchanges and medical outlets.
For drivers, mobile navigation is handy to get them from point A to point B. This requires an additional purchase - a Bluetooth GPS receiver unit costing around $130 to $200. Examples include the Holux SlimGPS 238 and the InTell GPS-009 from EastGear.
Voice navigation is a prerequisite as the driver cannot be looking at the map all the time. The NavFone Pro excels in this area. Operating it is simple enough - just place the Bluetooth GPS receiver on your car dashboard such that the front portion faces the sky.
Switch on the device and pair it to your mobile phone via Bluetooth. After about a minute, the GPS receiver will find your exact coordinates and transmit the information to your phone. A small arrow on the map denotes where you are in real-time as you drive.
To navigate to a particular destination, search for it by the description, address, HDB block number or postal code and the software will recommend a route to take. As you drive along the designated route, a calm and reassuring female voice will guide you to your destination, with prompts to 'keep left', 'turn right' or 'proceed straight ahead'. It even warns you of impending speed cameras and tunnels ahead, as I found out while driving along the CTE to town.
The NavFone Pro can be purchased from Agis (www.agis.com.sg). You will need to go to the company's office to have the software installed.
SmartCom Navigator Buy online for US$25 (S$38)
SmartCom Navigator excels at tracking and recording the paths you take
Working on a different concept from the Agis NavFone Pro, the SmartCom GPS software is really designed for the logging and tracking of routes taken on land, at sea and off the beaten track, working in tandem with a Bluetooth GPS receiver.
This is particularly useful for people who want to accurately calculate the distances travelled while abroad on holiday. Maps for many places in Europe, Britain, Thailand and the Middle East are available for purchase from www.gpswildmap.com. There are some maps of Kuala Lumpur, Johor and Penang for download at www.malsingmaps.com, but I wasn't able to check them out as my tests were confined to home ground.
The software has a whole host of very useful functions, such as a view of all the available GPS satellites that are connected. It can also record the route taken, while navigation is limited to tracks previously recorded.
The tracking facility is great in instances where you need to backtrack. For example, you can record the route to get to an ancestral burial ground and then follow the track year after year during the Qing Ming Festival. It is also great at calculating mileage travelled, for transportation claims.
But the program is not good at locating and leading you to new destinations. There is a lack of good home-based maps - mostly, it just contains roads and key landmarks. I was also unable to locate good POI databases, such as for postal codes and amenities.
Of the three GPS software, I find myself using the Agis NavFone Pro the most. With it, I have become a very lazy driver, depending on its voice instructions to guide me to my destination. SmartCom Navigator is great for jungle tracks and holiday romps where I can record the pathways I have taken.
Finally, MGMaps is is a fancy software which I use to locate landmarks, through the satellite images. Not wanting to bear the expensive data connectivity charges, I usually do it via the Wi-Fi connection on my phone.
