Develop Bugs

XDA Orbit - Questions from a Prophet user!

Hi,
I currently own a Prophet (I-Mate Jamin model) which I bought around 12 months ago on an o2 contract. I'm happy with the device and haven't had any issues with it that I haven't been able to resolve myself (& by lurking on these forums) but as I mentioned, I've had it about 12 months now and I'm due an upgrade with o2.
I'm considering getting an XDA Orbit but the specs seem pretty much the same as my Prophet. I'm attracted to it becauase physically it looks nicer from what I can tell, but that's pretty much it.
Can any of you shed any light on what the main differences are between these devices and if it would actually be worth me upgrading to the Orbit?
WM6 is obviously a big factor in this, I don't know if it will ever be availible for the Prophet but it appears that there may be a chance it will be availible for the Orbit.
The only faults I have with my Prophet are the way it has the worlds worst vibrate feature (very noisy & long) & it's quite weighty and a bit bulky for my pocket. If these features are better on the Orbit then it would be a selling point for me.
Lastly, one thing that's importnat to me is the 'keypad' software that seems to be present on the Prophets roms. I'm used to this for one handed input, - is this availible on the XDA Orbit?
I realise this is all a bit drawn out but I'm hoping that there will be members hear that can relate to my issues and give me some advice!
If not, I might just stick with my Prophet for now and see what else comes out in the future, although I'm also slightly tempted to go the Symbian route and get a Nokia N95 which o2 also have an offer and it looks quite nice (but then I don't know a great deal about Symbian)
Any views??!
Thanks for any help!

An update to an Orbit will be fairly easy for you as you will be used to the operation of the phone
You will also get
wi-fi - I use this all the time
GPS - either Co-Pilot or you can get TomTom (worth the upgrade on it's own in my opinion
WM6 next month (hopefully)
O2 will let you have it for free, you can sell your old one on ebay for £150ish
I don't think the N-95 is all it was cracked up to be. The GPS is not as good as the Orbit - either the hardware or the supplied software
What have you got to loose ?
Hays

Gah, screwed up...

Thanks hays, I appreciate that.
This might be a silly question but can you get the T9 'phonepad' on the Orbit, it's just I read in a review that it wasn't available & I use this constantly on my Prophet.
One of the other things about the N95 that's been attracting me is the camera quality, but I do feel more comfortable sticking with windows mobile if I'm honest, especially if I can upgrade for free.
Also my Prophet does have Wi-Fi, I use this a lot...The N95 also has it...
Thanks again,

yes the phone pad was posted on the forum and I use it all the time with my orbit.
I cant argue re the camera - the orbits is good in daylight - not so good in low light. Definately 1-0 to the N95 for that one
I've not seen tomtom running on a 95. I gather the supplied s/w is pretty lame. The GPS chip is not SIRF III, meaning it takes a few mins to lock on when you start up. Also needs a failrly good line of sight in your veh according to some
My orbit locks on in around 20 secs. It can even get a lock from the middle of my house

Hi hays, thanks again for the free help!
Sorry to keep up with the questions, but one last thing - GPS is new to me. Is this something that there are data charges for? I'm not sure how it works.
I've a Vodafone sim from my works phone that I was hoping to use in the Orbit but I'm not sure if I'll still be able to use GPS with it or how much it costs if I stick with my o2 sim.
I guess I should probably be proactive and Google this!
Thanks again,
(also, good news about the phone pad)

GPS = Global Positioning System. Free and used worldwide
GPS is free on the Orbit as it behaves exactly the same way as a regular in car GPS (unless you subscribe to live traffic updates which use GPRS - which is your phone's mobile data service)
The maps are stored on your storage card and therefore require no downloads. It does not matter which network or sim card you use as the orbit's GPS is stand alone
I believe the N95 uses GPRS to download the maps so that may be a factor to consider

What's the best GPS software for Vario II (8525?)

I'm in America using a euro-purchased Vario II on T-Mobile's network. Been upgraded to Black 3.0 but thinking of re-flashing it to something better. Also want to try using GPS with this unit, though I know I need an antenna.
So, what GPS software is best for my situation, and would any particular ROM be best suited? Thanks.

Well there are a few out there. I've used 3 of them. Telenav, iNav, and TomTom6. Of the 3 tomtom is my fav by far.
I thought telenav was the best as far as voice translation goes because it says the street names aloud and does so pretty well and on time. But thats where it ends. Telenav almost never found my GPS receiver and it was the one they recommended. It updates maps as you drive via the web which is a bad idea for GPS. Hit a dead spot and you lose where to turn and get lost easily. I can't tell you how many times i wanted to throw my phone out of the window while driving with that crappy piece of software. Especially paying 10 bucks a month to have it not work.
iNav works much like tomtom but I found the voice to be rather lame and the interface poorly designed.
So on to tomtom6. Works like a charm everytime without a hitch. Simple easy and intuitive interface. Never has any issues finding my bluetooth receiver. Never. Color choice for maps for night/day driving along with other features like weather updates, traffic updates, camera locations. Map of the US and Canada takes up about 1gig. Leaves me with another gig for storage however if I moved up to a 6gig I'd still have 5 left. Couple complaints I've heard with tomtom is map load time. I didn't find this to be an issue whatsoever considering my dealings with telenav. I'd rather wait all of 30 seconds for a map to load if I know its not gunna screw up at all once its loaded. Plus you can plan trips ahead of time so load time becomes a moot point.
Thats about it. I think if you do some research you will agree with me but I know some people who post on here prefer iNav over tomtom. Hell some even like telenav. =)

thanks
I actually almost went for Telnav - I was wondering how that "update as you go" would work. Seems like the preloaded maps are more reliable. Now it's more understandable why T-Mobile doesn't offer it directly. I have tons of space left on my 2gig card so Tomtom might be the way to go.
I noticed you didn't mention Delorme Street Atlas 2008 or any of its previous editions. I was about to try that one but thought some research was in order.
Was it a pain in the ass to get the Tomtom working? Though I like my 8525, I'm always frustrated at what this unit is capable of and what I'm actually able to make it do.

Have a try to iGo ( http://www.i-go.com/en/ ), I found it far better than Tomtom (auto zoom in/out, auto 3D => 2D, ...)

iGO is for Europe only, though, right? And it looks like some of the products have been discontinued.

if u live in the us tomtom dnt even think twice about it

Gman007 said:
iGO is for Europe only, though, right? And it looks like some of the products have been discontinued.
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Click to collapse
Not true... I use iGo 2006 in California. It is fast and map access is automatic and fast. Delay is the least compared with tomtom. Color options are more vivid and has day/night option auto-switch.
that brings us to another issue.... for the 8525 model you need a gps adapter. 8525 does not have a built in one. In my opinion, thats better, since all the devices that have built-in GPS receivers are weak and signal reception is minimized. In 8525 and while driving you can place the gps adapter anywhere you get the strongest signal. I use Holux 1200. I had a Nokia GPS adapter.. a piece of sh*T. The Holux is by far the best I used. You can get one on ebay real cheap.
As soon as Goggle-Nav gets its act together, the GPS they will produce will be the best. They are working on some kinks with MS DirectX-3D interphase. You can wait for it or enjoy iGo Nav right now.

one more vote for tomtom here. i don't know where i'd be without it, literally.

Not sure how you are using iGo in cali and where you managed to get your maps from. Their website offers nothing on the US not to mention it is advertised as "door to door navigation across europe". You sure you are even using iGo? lol
edit: Well I found some info about the US version. apparently its out in beta possibly final by now. From what I have read though the maps are not as good with iGO compared to tt6. I also read that some people don't trust iGO when it comes to navigating onto on/off ramps for the highways. Just cause a program looks cooler doesn't make it better especially when it comes to proper navigation.
I tried google navigator. There is a cooked rom somewhere that actually allows it to run even though it has a dx issue that prevents it from running on most roms. If the final version is anything like the version I tried. It will be worthless. Slowest application for GPS I've used yet. Sometimes a ton of graphical features are just a bad idea for a device with only 64megs of ram and poop graphics.

surrept said:
Not sure how you are using iGo in cali and where you managed to get your maps from. Their website offers nothing on the US not to mention it is advertised as "door to door navigation across europe". You sure you are even using iGo? lol
edit: Well I found some info about the US version. apparently its out in beta possibly final by now. From what I have read though the maps are not as good with iGO compared to tt6. I also read that some people don't trust iGO when it comes to navigating onto on/off ramps for the highways. Just cause a program looks cooler doesn't make it better especially when it comes to proper navigation.
I tried google navigator. There is a cooked rom somewhere that actually allows it to run even though it has a dx issue that prevents it from running on most roms. If the final version is anything like the version I tried. It will be worthless. Slowest application for GPS I've used yet. Sometimes a ton of graphical features are just a bad idea for a device with only 64megs of ram and poop graphics.
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I have been using iGO for the last two months. I have downloaded US maps, 8 of them alltogether. I also have maps for Europe and the Mid-East. I have no problem with it, as I did with TomTom, which in lots of incidents lost the GPS signal, doing the same rout as I do with IGO. It is now a matter of personal preferance.

asfoor said:
I have been using iGO for the last two months. I have downloaded US maps, 8 of them alltogether. I also have maps for Europe and the Mid-East. I have no problem with it, as I did with TomTom, which in lots of incidents lost the GPS signal, doing the same rout as I do with IGO. It is now a matter of personal preferance.
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Do you have a torrent for that? All I get is spam and trojans.

No warez here guy. Asking for stuff like that will flip people out.

Navigon trial and network connection

Hi
Just downloaded the navigon 30 day trial and I noticed it requires network access to run. I`m going away in a few weeks time to Italy so dont want to use any network data. Any ideas if the full version requires network connection too?
thanks

I was under the impression that it only needs network access to download the maps to your SD card.
Regards,
Dave

Nope, if you disable all network connections it doesnt run, complaining of no network. Once it finds a network then it comes up with the screen to upgrade,trial,etc

Does it work with just WiFi or does it need cellular data connection?
Maybe trial version needs network to decide how long it has been installed.
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

paulruk said:
Hi
Just downloaded the navigon 30 day trial and I noticed it requires network access to run. I`m going away in a few weeks time to Italy so dont want to use any network data. Any ideas if the full version requires network connection too?
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As a user of the full version I can confirm that it is only the trial version that requires a network connection. The full version doesn't.

martuk said:
Does it work with just WiFi or does it need cellular data connection?
Maybe trial version needs network to decide how long it has been installed.
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
Yes, the trial does work with a WiFi connection. As you surmise it is to check that you have not gone beyond the 30 day limit, and also to give you the options to upgrade to the full version.

I'd be interested to know if this is any good? Dont even wanna attempt the trial if it was as bad as the iphone version?

ok thanks for clearing that up, have to test it out before going away and then purchase if its any good.
What was so bad about the iphone version btw?

It sucked, I had virtually all the main gps navigation aids on my 3gs, and I used then with the tom tom gps cradle (enhancer). The problem with nearly all of them was rerouting. This was my main gripe. Lets say you take a wrong turn, by mistake. This is easy with navigon as I found its graphics were the worst in as much as road names were tiny and the colors were pooh. Navigon and copilot would somehow assume that you know where your going and recalculate a completely different route. Now if that means a 20 mile additional journey, who cares. It showed you a way, you didn't take it, so have this 20 mile detour! And you would be none the wiser. Tom tom would get you to do a uturn at the first available point, if it was still the quickest route and straight away you know you've gone wrong.Its routes were generally poor regardless of setting. As were the rest to be fair. But tom tom was the best, followed I believe by sygic, copilot had a great ui, probably the best in fact, but it often failed to find signal, the same as navigon. And that was with the enhanced gps. Copilot took over a month to reply to my email. What i really like about the desire maps is the road in front is accurate, the severity of bends is correct, a little laggy, but the maps are spot on. I didn't see this on navigon, they straighten the roads out, some more than others to save space which can add to confusion as to where you are. Navigon I also found laggy, roughly the same as google navigation.

Dunbad said:
It sucked, I had virtually all the main gps navigation aids on my 3gs, and I used then with the tom tom gps cradle (enhancer). The problem with nearly all of them was rerouting. This was my main gripe. Lets say you take a wrong turn, by mistake. This is easy with navigon as I found its graphics were the worst in as much as road names were tiny and the colors were pooh. Navigon and copilot would somehow assume that you know where your going and recalculate a completely different route. Now if that means a 20 mile additional journey, who cares. It showed you a way, you didn't take it, so have this 20 mile detour! And you would be none the wiser. Tom tom would get you to do a uturn at the first available point, if it was still the quickest route and straight away you know you've gone wrong.Its routes were generally poor regardless of setting. As were the rest to be fair. But tom tom was the best, followed I believe by sygic, copilot had a great ui, probably the best in fact, but it often failed to find signal, the same as navigon. And that was with the enhanced gps. Copilot took over a month to reply to my email. What i really like about the desire maps is the road in front is accurate, the severity of bends is correct, a little laggy, but the maps are spot on. I didn't see this on navigon, they straighten the roads out, some more than others to save space which can add to confusion as to where you are. Navigon I also found laggy, roughly the same as google navigation.
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Thanks. Just tried Navigon today and yeah its a fast but hideous looking interface. Is it me or is there no way of removing all the POI info. It seems really lacking in settings, it also didnt re-route very quickly.
I`ve tried co-pilot, and I liked its features but like you say can take you on some wild detours. Instead of using motorways that were quicker but longer it would try and use A roads that were shorter, but slower. Even adjusting the settings to say not too, it just ignored it. So you really had to check your route before leaving.
I`d like to try sygic but there doesnt seem to be a trial, and at £50 / 59euros i`d rather not have to buy it and find out its not what I want.
I really wish tomtom would bring out an android app.

Yeah X2 on the tom tom. It wasnt great, but it was the best by some way. I could rely on it anyway. If I was you and had co pilot, id stick with it. try navigon and see what you think. It maybe better on android. Near in mind though, when you buy, those roads might straighten out! Would not surprise me! if you dont wanna buy a standalone, copilot once the route is checked with a map,??? and you've gone through the ball ache that is entering the destination on co pilot or navigon, then your good to go. It really is nice to follow. (providing come the day of the races it loads! Lastly, the tome it takes to recalculate the route, I thought was reasonable on all of them. But its HOW it re routes thats vital. And most get it wrong! That all said things might be different on android. As for me, im not even bothering till tom tom comes out.

Well after using Navigon trial for a while at both home and abroad I have decided to purchase , having tried all the other navigation software. Its slightly lacking in features compared to co pilot but what it does do well is navigation. Its fast, good display, accurate and comprehensive speech and the poi`s are pretty good. Probably used it for 300 miles without a hitch.
Thanks for the help

[Q] Blackstone Navigation

Up-to-Speed: I recently obtained a T8282 thinking it was a T8285, I live in the USA and expected to use this on the AT&T Network. I do not have or wish to have a Data Plan, so this might be a blessing.
Now the issue, I want Navigation. I am replacing a Touch Cruise which I was using TomTom 6 on, I was quite pleased with it. Now I have attempted to load it on the HD only to find what many others here have - no luck. There were success stories but I am not one of them - just in case others are reading, my version of TomTom 6 was 6.01. I see that the Touch HD is compatible with TomTom 7, but TomTom lists no usa maps on their site for the States. In contradiction to that there are reports of people using TomTom 7 USA Maps out there. While I prefer staying with TomTom (6 or 7) I would need more information pertaining to the Touch HD. I would also prefer not to have to start and/or stop other programs to get it running (ie changing resolution, which I see here and there). In addition to TomTom 7 being compatible Copilot Live V8 is also a contender. Copilot is less money and has Maps available, but reviews have the maps lacking - but those reviews are dated.
How have others dealt with "Non-Data Plan" Navigation out there? Like I said keeping it simple. Short Lags I can deal with, and not viewing Panoramic Shots, are some of the issues I read about, I can live with that. Not having POIs is less desirable and even less, not reflecting driving on the right road (all of what I have read in these forums. It would seem that if I lived in Europe I'd be better off, but here I am in the ole' USA. Any help/advice would be appreciated - and yes, I have searched for this data but most of it is old, and some is contradictive.

I use iGo 8, very good navigation software imo.

I have seen IGO8 out there, along with Ndrive, Navigon Mobile Navigator 7, Copilot Live V8, TomTom 7, and Garmin Mobile XT all outhere repotedly working on the Blackstone (maybe a few others too). While all of these have been reported to work on the Blackstone, all have negative sides as well (Maps, Lags, inoperative features, etc..). In my case, living in the USA, seems to weed a few of those out (Europe seems to be the center of the Navigation world). I actually attempted to purchase the Copilot product, the download price was hard to resist - but my ISP (Comcast) kept disconnecting before the complete file could be downloaded (it is a huge file), they were quite prompt in refunding the money (a HUGE plus for them!). I will probably go back and buy the Disc if nothing pans out here changing my mind.
What I need is actual feed-back from fellow North Americans (preferably USA) on these (or other) products being used.
Thanks for the feed back. I see that you are in Belgium though, you feed back is good for the product as far as features (a plus for IGO8), but I also need Map feed back.

Up to now I've testet TomTom, IGo, Ndrive, Navigon, Sygic McGuider and Route 66.
In my opinion the most promising software was Ndrive. It is fast, graphics are fluent, there'S just a little map lag and it's cheap

Thaks for the heads up!
Any USA/Canade users of NDrive out there that can vallidate the Map Quality?

Oh, by the way - I see you are from Germany. I just picked my mother-in-law up from the Airport, she was in Munich with family. She came over in the 60's after marrying an US Airforce member, after having experienced the War. Her father was actually in Hitler's SS. Pretty cool.

SGS using Symbian (N97) for GPS

I have a unique situation that makes take my main phone :SGS i9000 and my secondary phone N97 every day.
one time i made a gps test in the train and found out that the N97 is actually far better gps than the SGS(even though i remember many people complaining about n97 gps).
So i thought - maybe i can connect my sgs to the n97's gps and earn a "free" more powerful gps.
two ideas came to my mind:
1. using bluetooth :
tried to use some apps for symbian to utilize n97 gps over bluetooth - none worked. it seems that the sgs would not recognize the gps service.
2. using a web service:
upload in real time n97's gps info and use the data as a "gps provider" for the sgs.
what do you think?
which of the methods is more simple to develop, and is there any other options (im not going to buy bluetooth gps, i have no money for that in the close half year)
thanks

Well I think it is a good idea but I think not all people have this 'unique situation'.
Having a dual device with same functions (phones) just to increase GPS capability is a waste for me...
It might be better if you already developing it though (that was my thought)

The Galaxy S II has really good GPS. It uses the SiRFstarIV chip.

Well, personal I would try the bluetooth solution first. But I don't think it's possible, cause this scenario is very unusual, so I don't believe there exists any software solution. On the other hand: Using a server would mean a time loss and you still need a good network connection. That's a bad idea too in my opinion. Leaves the option to sell the N97 and buy some bluetooth gps mouse or stick to the actual solution.
All in all I don't get what you're trying to do. You still have to take both devices with you. Leaving the N97 in your pocket would mean a lower signal reception, making the GPS of the N97 as bad as that of the Galaxy S. So what is your idea all about?
gpnda said:
The Galaxy S II has really good GPS. It uses the SiRFstarIV chip.
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Well, Sirf isn't anymore what it used to be. But I agree that it's most likely better than any Broadcom solution.