Seven Paid GPS Apps for Android OS Phones: Worth the Price? Discussion

[Adama D. Brown]

Hot on the heels of a roundup of free GPS apps for Android OS phones, we'll now take a look at seven paid rivals ranging in price up to $29. For each of these seven, we'll answer the burning question, "Does this app offer you enough to justify its price?"

Read the full content of this Article: Seven Paid GPS Apps for Android OS Phones: Worth the Price?

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[RickAgresta]

Another nice article, Adama! There's a bit of a problem with Locus (free version, but I suspect the paid version, too), in that OpenStreetMap has blocked them for abuse of tile services:
Blocked applications - OpenStreetMap Wiki

[Adama D. Brown]

Thanks. But what you mention is really odd, since OpenStreetMap is still working great for me. I just fired it up on my phone after you mentioned that, and it loaded the OSM maps fine, even completely new areas.

[rkevwill]

Adama, those of us who came over here to bright hand years back, from the iQue 3600 forum, like myself, (and we are unabashedly GPS freaks) might mention the one minor thing with all GPS programs for smartphones. The gps chips in the phones are not near the sensitivity of standalone GPS's. I read your review with interest, even though I don't have an Android phone. I was really glad to see you mentioning the value of having the maps on the device itself. Many reviewers just don't "get" the importance of that in particular situations. One thing that TomTom offers for the iPhone, is their car cradle, which has an additional Sirf3 gps chip in it, and it significantly increases the sensitivity of their package. It is nearly (but not quite) an equal to standalone devices with sensitivity. I am curious, are there packages (for android) with car kits, or bluetooth external antennas, that add sensitivity to reception similar to standalone devices?

[Adama D. Brown]

Adama, those of us who came over here to bright hand years back, from the iQue 3600 forum, like myself, (and we are unabashedly GPS freaks) might mention the one minor thing with all GPS programs for smartphones. The gps chips in the phones are not near the sensitivity of standalone GPS's. I read your review with interest, even though I don't have an Android phone. I was really glad to see you mentioning the value of having the maps on the device itself. Many reviewers just don't "get" the importance of that in particular situations. One thing that TomTom offers for the iPhone, is their car cradle, which has an additional Sirf3 gps chip in it, and it significantly increases the sensitivity of their package. It is nearly (but not quite) an equal to standalone devices with sensitivity. I am curious, are there packages (for android) with car kits, or bluetooth external antennas, that add sensitivity to reception similar to standalone devices?

While it's not a very common setup, there are apps that will let you use an external Bluetooth GPS device as a source for GPS data. (As it happens, I was looking up one of those today in connection to maybe more GPS roundups.) So if you have a Bluetooth receiver that you prefer, or the like, you can use that. I'm sure that there's also other options, such as USB GPS units, however these are less standardized because not all Android phones have USB Host, or the same connectors, etcetera. I would imagine that these setups are more often used for survey-accuracy GPS systems than anything else, but you could use them for anything theoretically.

[rkevwill]

Garmin had a great bluetooth antenna, the Garmin 10. We used it for iPaqs, and palms. Worked great on the windows PDA's, not so great on the palms. Its discontinued now, but I still have one. Wish Garmin did a hook to let this work on the iPhone. Perhaps it does on Android devices.

[Adama D. Brown]

I would imagine that if it's a fairly standard BT link, you could get it working with something like Bluetooth GPS or Bluetooth GPS Provider, both free from the Android store.

[rkevwill]

Ask and you shall receive! Garmin just announced they are offering an external BT connected GPS antenna, for mobile devices. This includes IOS and Android. Its called GLO. looks like the same shell as the previous Garmin 10, but includes the US and Russian sat's. This should improve the GPS sensitivity on any smartphone, almost, or equal to standalone GPS's (I assume). One would think this would at least equal the sensitivity of the TomTom car kit, which includes an additional sirf3 gps chip. I have no idea which nav apps on Android and IOS have hooks to external gps's, but I know Garmin did not. Obviously, they will when this is released in August. Here is the announcement.
Garmin unveils GLO Portable GPS and GLONASS receiver - SlashGear