Navigation Tools
Contents |
Navigation Tools
A key application on the internet tablets is navigation. The N810 has a built-in GPS receiver the N770 and N800 can connect the GPS receiver over bluetooth with the NMEA interface
Open Source
Maemo Mapper
Urls:
Pro:
- Pretty stable application
- Works by default with openstreetmap, but can also use commercial maps
- The maps download is convenient within maemo mapper and maps can be stored on the device. No PC required.
- Routing is possible but requires online connectivity.
Con:
- works only with pixmaps (i.e. inefficient map storage)
- routing requires online connection.
Gosmore
Urls:
Pro:
- uses vector data from openstreetmaps
Con:
- Not yet stable
- very few releases, little development progress visible, no routing yet,
- map conversion from openstreetmap format to gosmore .pak format has to be done by user.
- I did not get gpsd working.
Navit
Urls:
Pro:
- uses vector data from openstreetmaps
- can do offline routing
- 3D view
- good touchscreen interface,
- rich set of configuration options via an XML file
- almost daily development releases, good progress
Con:
- altough works already pretty reliable, no stable release yet,
- configuration requires frequently modification of XML file in text editor
- the default configuration is not good for the internet tablet (see the wiki page internet tablets configurations)
- Little interaction with developers, no public development mailing list, little support on the user list.
- No complete documentation.
Tips and Tricks:
- the main communication channel for navit is on IRC. You will find the core hackers there as well as some users.
- it automatically routes if it has a gps fix and a
destination. A destination can either be set by pressing on the map and selecting "set as destination" from the appearing context menu, or via the address search.
Roadmap
Urls:
Pro :
- Use vector maps from OpenStreet Map
- Rich configuration file not in XML
- Good graphics on the tablet
- Development of the software is active but the portage to the tablet is often two or three releases late
Con :
- OpenStreet maps must be processed before use. There are a few procedures to do that on PC but sometimes they crash specially with big files.
- Only one map at a time can be used
Roadnav
Urls:
I could not get it working so far, no updates on news site since two years.
Commercial
Navicore
Urls:
I did not try it.