When is the GPS active, how do I turn it off?
The GPS isn't active once you exit all applications that may be accessing it. Trying putting your Titan into standby (press the power button), wait 20 seconds, and turn it back on. If the GPS is still active then that means you most likely have some program running in the background keeping the GPS alive.
To disable the GPS, set your phone's location setting to "OFF". You can do this by launching the
"Phone" app (found in
Start->Settings->"Personal" tab), then:
- Under the "Services" tab, choose the "Location Setting" item in the listbox, and press the "Get Settings..." button.
- Make sure the "Phone: Location Setting" is set to "OFF"
- OK everything, and soft reset your phone
How do I enable GPS Camera Mode?
Our HTC cousin the Tilt/Kaiser/TyTn II has a feature that lets you populate a camera phone's photo
EXIF data with GPS location information. It looks like the Titan has registry entries concerning this feature, but no one has been able to make it work yet. Information on an attempt to enable this feature can be found
HERE.
Can I use the internal GPS on my Titan as Bluetooth or USB GPS device for use with my PC?
Yes. though I haven't tested this myself, you should be able to do this through the free application
GPS2Blue. To use your GPS via USB cable, check out the section titled
"How to use with TCP/IP over USB?".
A commercial alternative to GPS2Blue is
Franson GpsGate.
Observations:
The GPS turns off when the mobile device goes into standby mode (would be nice if there was a way to keep the GPS alive even in standby mode).
If you put the Titan into standby (power off) while it's attempting to initialize the GPS the system will respond very slowly. It will take a long time to turn back on, and may even appear hard locked. Once the GPS is initialized the system responds normally again. This behavior can also be seen if your terminate an application while it's attempting to initialize the GPS.
What's the best GPS navigation software?
This is one of the most often, and trickiest question to answer. It's tricky because the feature-set and selection of available navigation software changes quickly, and some of what's considered "best" is based on opinion. One person may consider a certain feature crucial, while another wouldn't care about it at all. There are tons of articles, forum posts, and reviews you can find on-line comparing navigation software. I will try to do a quick and dirty rundown of available software. To read discussions concerning Windows Mobile navigation software I recommend visiting the
GpsPasSion forums (specifically the
PDA Navigation subforum. To see what a particular piece of navigation software looks like when running, I recommend visiting
YouTube.
Also be sure to read the "software notes" FAQ below for any gotchyas concerning software you may be considering.
Some feature terms to learn:
- Voice Navigation = The software will direct you with voice prompts (eg. "in 500 yards turn left")
- Text-To-Speech for road names = The software will direct you with voice prompts that include road name (eg. "in 500 yards turn left at Main street")
- Offline Navigation = You don't need an active data (Internet) connection to get map/navigation data.
- Online Navigation = You need an active data (Internet) connection to get map/navigation data. Map data is typically stored on your storage (SD) card. For instance iGuidance requires 1.3GB for its North American mapping data, and TomTom request 896MB for its North American mapping data. iGo has state by state maps available, which are smaller in size (California is about 140MB).
The software that is:
- Most popular for US/Canadian areas:
iGuidance (no current European maps), TomTom
- Most popular for European (and other countries) areas:
TomTom and iGO
- Free (currently no free navigation software supports voice navigation, and all are online):
Google Maps Mobile and Microsoft Live Search
- Online:
Google Maps Mobile, Microsoft Live Search, Sprint Navigation
- Offline (All support voice navigation):
iGuidance, TomTom, iGO, Garmin Mobile XT, Route 66, Destinator. Mapopolis
- Supports Text-To-Speech for road names:
iGuidance, Mapopolis, and Sprint Navigation