Nokia E61 and GPS sat nav - any comments?

Anyone got any pointers for using the E61 with a Bluetooth GPS dongle?

Is the pre-installed software any good?
Any advice re which Bluetooth GPS receiver to buy?

TIA.
Rob

Kalico wrote:

> Anyone got any pointers for using the E61 with a Bluetooth GPS dongle?
>
> Is the pre-installed software any good?
> Any advice re which Bluetooth GPS receiver to buy?

Search on ebay for Holox - there's a guy selling them one every half
hour or so. Watch out for the delivery charge though! Even so, you
should be able to pick one up for about £33 delivered, or a bit more if
you're impatient.

In my experience it's the best around - it works inside on the ground
floor, also works quite happily behind a coated windscreen under which
my old GPS unit used to fail completely. The built-in li-ion battery
lasts for 11 hours of use (I've personally used it for 9 hours without
recharge) and it charges with a standard mini-usb connector.

I've bought two (one for me and one for my wife) and my boss bought one
after seeing mine, as has (just this week) a friend of mine. It's
working with my old iPaq, my iMate SP5 smartphone and my new T-Mob Vario
II with no problems at all, TomTom sees it as just a standard Bluetooth GPS.

Time-to-first-fix in real-world terms is around 2 minutes, warm-start is
almost instantaneous (probably around 20 seconds).

Note however that the charging circuit is fairly picky - if you plug it
into eg a car USB charger that pushes out 12v or so it will charge but
the unit shuts off while it's charging (not helpful); I'm still unable
to find out if the car USB charger they sell separately (for £9, I
think) will solve this problem. It will stay on while charging from the
supplied (4.5v) mains charger, so I assume it's a voltage issue.

I've no idea about how good or otherwise is the software in the E61, sorry.

Geoff
No connection with Holox except as a very satisfied customer

On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 13:37:17 +0100, Kalico wrote:

> Anyone got any pointers for using the E61 with a Bluetooth GPS dongle?
>
> Is the pre-installed software any good?
> Any advice re which Bluetooth GPS receiver to buy?

Shaun has reviewed a Holux GPS receiver on his blog here:
<http://stmcgill.wordpress.com/2006/10/17/holux-gpslim240-gps-receiver-review-perfect-add-on-for-the-e61/>

Seems to work perfectly with his E61.

"Mehdi" <vioccc@REMOVEME.gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1b61qh3l9vzha.1u910g5ac0a2m$.dlg@40tude.net.. .
> On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 13:37:17 +0100, Kalico wrote:
>
>> Anyone got any pointers for using the E61 with a Bluetooth GPS dongle?
>>
>> Is the pre-installed software any good?
>> Any advice re which Bluetooth GPS receiver to buy?
>
> Shaun has reviewed a Holux GPS receiver on his blog here:
> <http://stmcgill.wordpress.com/2006/10/17/holux-gpslim240-gps-receiver-review-perfect-add-on-for-the-e61/>
>
> Seems to work perfectly with his E61.

Looks good but do you have to put in a TomTom SD? Or can you copy the
software on to another card?

Newshound wrote:
> "Mehdi" <vioccc@REMOVEME.gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:1b61qh3l9vzha.1u910g5ac0a2m$.dlg@40tude.net.. .
>> On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 13:37:17 +0100, Kalico wrote:
>>
>>> Anyone got any pointers for using the E61 with a Bluetooth GPS dongle?
>>>
>>> Is the pre-installed software any good?
>>> Any advice re which Bluetooth GPS receiver to buy?
>> Shaun has reviewed a Holux GPS receiver on his blog here:
>> <http://stmcgill.wordpress.com/2006/10/17/holux-gpslim240-gps-receiver-review-perfect-add-on-for-the-e61/>
>>
>> Seems to work perfectly with his E61.
>
> Looks good but do you have to put in a TomTom SD? Or can you copy the
> software on to another card?
>
>
Tom Tom Navigator 6 is now out and this works on both Symbian S60 Series
3 and Windows Mobile 2005. It comes on a 512mb MiniSD card but only
takes up about 128mb. You can copy the data but the software has to be
registered and this locks it to the device its installed on. If you ned
to change unit, you have to get Tom Tom to change the registration.

Simon of Tooting

Mehdi wrote:

> On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 13:37:17 +0100, Kalico wrote:
>> Anyone got any pointers for using the E61 with a Bluetooth GPS dongle?
>> Is the pre-installed software any good?
>> Any advice re which Bluetooth GPS receiver to buy?
>
> Shaun has reviewed a Holux GPS receiver on his blog here:
> <http://stmcgill.wordpress.com/2006/10/17/holux-gpslim240-gps-receiver-review-perfect-add-on-for-the-e61/>
>
> Seems to work perfectly with his E61.

I don't believe any review which states a TTFF of "2 seconds". It might
have been 2 seconds after he connected the two together but TTFF is
meant to be how long the unit has been turned on to the first point it
returns a valid GPS position.

To be honest the whole article sounds like a badly disguised press release.

It does look very nice though - it looks slightly smaller than the
cheaper "Holox" rip-off I mentioned, however the battery life isn't as
strong (as you'd expect) and this post from Richard Colton in
uk.adverts.computer <http://tinyurl.com/ykov8c> suggests that the
cheaper unit worked better in his experience.

I haven't used the Holux, however I find it difficult to imagine a
reason for me to spend over twice the money on it over the one I have.

Geoff

Geoff Winkless wrote:
> Mehdi wrote:
>
>> On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 13:37:17 +0100, Kalico wrote:
>>> Anyone got any pointers for using the E61 with a Bluetooth GPS dongle?
>>> Is the pre-installed software any good?
>>> Any advice re which Bluetooth GPS receiver to buy?
>>
>> Shaun has reviewed a Holux GPS receiver on his blog here:
>> <http://stmcgill.wordpress.com/2006/10/17/holux-gpslim240-gps-receiver-review-perfect-add-on-for-the-e61/>
>>
>>
>> Seems to work perfectly with his E61.
>
> I don't believe any review which states a TTFF of "2 seconds". It might
> have been 2 seconds after he connected the two together but TTFF is
> meant to be how long the unit has been turned on to the first point it
> returns a valid GPS position.
>
> To be honest the whole article sounds like a badly disguised press release.
>
> It does look very nice though - it looks slightly smaller than the
> cheaper "Holox" rip-off I mentioned, however the battery life isn't as
> strong (as you'd expect) and this post from Richard Colton in
> uk.adverts.computer <http://tinyurl.com/ykov8c> suggests that the
> cheaper unit worked better in his experience.
>
> I haven't used the Holux, however I find it difficult to imagine a
> reason for me to spend over twice the money on it over the one I have.
>
> Geoff
I haven't used them yet either. My wife has bought this as our
anniversary gift so I cant play with it until 17th next month. Do'h

Simon of Tooting