[shawnmobile]

am i the only one that wants a real gps app on the playbook?

[Fubaz]

i dont know, did you take a poll?

garmin already makes one for BlackBerry, hopefully they make it for PB as well.... I am not a fan of tomtom products

[zoban]

TomTom? I thought you said a REAL GPS.. LOL..

Garmin or notta ..

[diegonei]

Bash all you want, but I'd like to see BlackBerry Maps released for the PlayBook (with multi-language voice directions).

[zoban]

BB Maps or BB Traffic would be great.. Rather them over TomTom any day ..

[Morten]

Bash all you want, but I'd like to see BlackBerry Maps released for the PlayBook (with multi-language voice directions).

please enlighten me, WHY would anyone want Blackberry Maps?
It is very very outdated,
It has the weakest coverage of them all,..
Its sluggish,
It don't easily communicate with other systems,

[mandony]

A dedicated GPS is not what the PB was intended for. The PB GPS antennas do not give the the accuracy of a stand alone GPS.

[peter9477]

The PlayBook's GPS antenna, in practice (by me) and across numerous units, seems to provide accuracy on the order of better than 10m. I can typically walk down a sidewalk and have it pegging me to within a metre or two, 19 readings out of 20, with maybe 3-4 metre meandering from side to side which could be nothing more than a stray reflection from a house, or my body blocking a satellite or two.

Seems pretty darn accurate to me, and more than acceptable as a dedicated GPS unit.

There are issues, some software, and possibly some hardware. I believe most of the issues should be resolved in 2.0. I do have one unit, my original, which gets a lot worse readings when WiFi is enabled, at least under some conditions.

That one's thought by RIM employees to be a known-and-fixed-internally issue as well, but I'll believe it when I see it. I've used a half dozen other units now, none of which has the same problem, and I suspect a hardware issue with some of the original builds. Accuracy with WiFi off is as good with that unit as with any of the newer ones, however, so the GPS itself is just fine but suffers interference, or it really is just a software bug. (Could be there are hardware differences and the bug only affects some models, so it may still be fixed in 2.0.)

[diegonei]

please enlighten me, WHY would anyone want Blackberry Maps?
It is very very outdated,
It has the weakest coverage of them all,..
Its sluggish,
It don't easily communicate with other systems,

Tell me, are any of the PB apps a copy of the handheld versions?

Of course I was talking about of a native version... Unless BB Maps does have turn-by-turn voice guide and I missed it...

[blackberrystorm1234]

I find the PB gps to be very accurate. I use the offline map program Mapdroyd

[FF22]

Everyone does have an opinion. I have a Tomtom Go 920 and find it an exceptional gps. It has served me very well both in the US and Canada and in Europe. My hiking units have always been Garmins.

[beemaabeemababy]

I too wish there was a TomTom app for my PlayBook. In the UK, TomTom is known to be the best sat nav (even though they seem to be in trouble at the moment).

I've grown tired of using Google Maps on my 9800 as I find that it takes ages to start up. But when searching for a destination, it is very good as you don't necessarily have to type in the post code (but if you type the postcode, you HAVE to put the space in the middle which is annoying).

BB Maps works lovely although the search function is slightly more tedious that Google Maps.

And after hearing about BB Traffic, I wish it would be released here in the UK soon!

Now if only these apps worked on the PlayBook!

However, since the Porsche demo at CES, I'm confident that RIM will soon perfect and release the ultimate GPS app for PlayBook.

[alnamvet68]

I prefer a separate stand alone GPS; my Garmin 3490 LMT gives me that all important handsfree smartphone capability where I can receive and make calls with just a voice prompt. Don't see that capability with my PB, besides, I like my functioning, purpose built gadgets.

[boldkeyboardholic]

A dedicated GPS is not what the PB was intended for. The PB GPS antennas do not give the the accuracy of a stand alone GPS.

don't know what kind of gps is built in the playbook but smartphone gps normally is way better than that in normal tomtoms & Co.

reason: its got the info where the satelites are over the umts etc and in normal navi devices it has tobe done via plug in to the pc.

of course this is simplicifite reason and only one of them, also there are exists higher class devices which get the correct positions of the satelites via mobile net works as well.

[peter9477]

reason: its got the info where the satelites are over the umts etc and in normal navi devices it has tobe done via plug in to the pc.

of course this is simplicifite reason and only one of them, also there are exists higher class devices which get the correct positions of the satelites via mobile net works as well.

It sounds like you're referring to the "ephemeris" data. While it's true that many smartphones are able to retrieve up-to-date ephemeris data rapidly (in seconds) through the cellular network, it's not required that you do it that way.

Each satellite actually transmits this information for itself periodically, and the PlayBook is perfectly capable of receiving the information, and in fact does. I would assume standalone GPS units do this perfectly well also... can't imagine they have to be synced to a PC periodically to do this.

The downside of getting this only from the satellites is that it can take a while. Assuming a clear signal, I believe it takes on the order of 20 minutes to retrieve the required info. It has to do that for each satellite as well, and not all are visible at any one time, so as some dip below the horizon, others come up. If the GPS doesn't have up-to-date info for the new one, it may not be able to use it for accurate readings for half an hour.

This whole issue is why the PlayBook currently can take quite a while (10-30 minutes) to get accurate GPS readings if it hasn't been used in a while (a day or two), or if you've moved significantly (hours of travel?) since the last time you used it. If you used it only an hour ago, however, and it had updated ephemeris data for all visible satellites, you should get an almost instant lock (5-10 seconds) when you start it up again.

[TaZ52083]

It would be nice to have tomotom for the playbook.

[boldkeyboardholic]

It sounds like you're referring to the "ephemeris" data. While it's true that many smartphones are able to retrieve up-to-date ephemeris data rapidly (in seconds) through the cellular network, it's not required that you do it that way.

Each satellite actually transmits this information for itself periodically, and the PlayBook is perfectly capable of receiving the information, and in fact does. I would assume standalone GPS units do this perfectly well also... can't imagine they have to be synced to a PC periodically to do this.

The downside of getting this only from the satellites is that it can take a while. Assuming a clear signal, I believe it takes on the order of 20 minutes to retrieve the required info. It has to do that for each satellite as well, and not all are visible at any one time, so as some dip below the horizon, others come up. If the GPS doesn't have up-to-date info for the new one, it may not be able to use it for accurate readings for half an hour.

This whole issue is why the PlayBook currently can take quite a while (10-30 minutes) to get accurate GPS readings if it hasn't been used in a while (a day or two), or if you've moved significantly (hours of travel?) since the last time you used it. If you used it only an hour ago, however, and it had updated ephemeris data for all visible satellites, you should get an almost instant lock (5-10 seconds) when you start it up again.

yeah I was referring to this, and you have it explained further ;p

this should be just a point about gps-a smartphones are not as good as tomtom and co. I belive often there are better or as good as the navi devices. the data is more important in the mean time. of course normal navi devices are very cheap, I mean the hardware compared to smartphone. heck even that isn't true anymore as you can get smatphone incl. gps below 120 bugs ( in my case Euro )

btw I haven't found much navi apps o playbook, but this also is a bad point for my 9900. my old 9000 I got an navi app free because my carrier has a deal with telmap. it was telmap 4.5 and was ok for me. sadly they does not support my 7.1 device (at least over my carrier)

the navi I found for 9900 are just to expensive for my usage as I not very often need it, but to have this option is nice/would be nice again.

Europe.

[Patatah]

i contacted tomtom today to ask whether they plan on release an app for playbook. the representative told that they will forward my enquiry to the development department! oh well.. it was try...

[tunes666]

I guess companies like Tom Tom might not want to throw their software around to easy as they also want to sell their own hardware.

I have a Tom Tom and it is great. works perfect.

I dont get it when people really think apps like google maps and BB Maps are anything close to a Tom Tom.

A Tom Tom has offline maps. So you do not need a Data connection and it runs perfectly and you can plan long or short trips and it will direct you consistently through out your journy.

google maps needs a data connection and loads maps as you drive, so if you your data connection is but off or runs slow, the app will freeze until you pass through a better area.

If you are looking for an app to help you out for the odd quick journey then maybe google maps, or BB maps will do the trick. But if you are looking for a solid Sat Nav then sadly there seems to be nothing close yet for the playbook. they are either online maps or just no good android ports.

They need to get Tom Tom or Garmin to offer a software pack for the playbook but maybe they would charge RIM for this as it would need to be worth their while.

But would it be that hard for RIM to find a developer to create something secure and with some Decent online maps?.. it would certainly give the playbook an extra reason for people to get it..

It was one of my reasons and I will just have to wait and hope... And Android is not a great way to do it as when you use an Android app you pretty much have to leave it as if you open other programs the Android app often crashes.

[BackDaws]

id be made up with Garmin Software on Playbook

[Cozz4ever]

I guess companies like Tom Tom might not want to throw their software around to easy as they also want to sell their own hardware.

I have a Tom Tom and it is great. works perfect.

I dont get it when people really think apps like google maps and BB Maps are anything close to a Tom Tom.

A Tom Tom has offline maps. So you do not need a Data connection and it runs perfectly and you can plan long or short trips and it will direct you consistently through out your journy.

google maps needs a data connection and loads maps as you drive, so if you your data connection is but off or runs slow, the app will freeze until you pass through a better area.

If you are looking for an app to help you out for the odd quick journey then maybe google maps, or BB maps will do the trick. But if you are looking for a solid Sat Nav then sadly there seems to be nothing close yet for the playbook. they are either online maps or just no good android ports.

They need to get Tom Tom or Garmin to offer a software pack for the playbook but maybe they would charge RIM for this as it would need to be worth their while.

But would it be that hard for RIM to find a developer to create something secure and with some Decent online maps?.. it would certainly give the playbook an extra reason for people to get it..

It was one of my reasons and I will just have to wait and hope... And Android is not a great way to do it as when you use an Android app you pretty much have to leave it as if you open other programs the Android app often crashes.

I don't understand how tom tom expects to live off selling hardware when less people are buying stand alone navi units. Their either built in to cars from factory or they might as well buy after-market unit that offers it. Head units have been dropping like hot cakes since the economic decline. Every generation Pioneer navi head unit is cheaper then the last with more standard features. Then you have smart phones to deal with. Then competition. Most navi manufacturers have signed up with partners. Garmin signed with Kenwood, etc.. But I have no clue what TomTom has been up to lately.