Only USA got gps lah. They allow us (and all other countries) to use their crippled system for free at the moment. Now waiting for the new European GPS Galileo to be available (targeted to launch 30 satellites by 2010, so far 1 is in orbit).......but don't know whether they will give free access too.
added after some more googling : yes, it will be free, too and seems likely it will be compatible with existing receivers.

This post has been edited by March05: Jan 22 2007, 12:35 PM

Sorry guys, I was just splitting hairs as usual.

I know normally ppl mean the receiving radio equipment and mapping/routing software when they talk about gps, and not the actual GPS by the U.S. of A. So a bit of confusion.

When Galileo is operational sometime next year, we will have to be a bit more careful which GPS we refer to.

Hey guys, it looks like China has sneaked up and overtaken Galileo! It has already launched its 4th Beidou satellite for its own satellite navigation system covering China only.
Word is that China plans to continue to launch as many as 30 satellites for its worldwide Compass Navigation Satellite System.......
Now we know why so many new cheap GPS receiver designs are coming from China nowadays.

This post has been edited by March05: Feb 6 2007, 11:10 PM

Does anyone know whether the Dopod S300 WM5 smartphone is capable of running either Mapking or Garmin Que with a BT GPSr?

stimix, u're bang on target. I forgot the importance of the touchscreen controls/stylus. This phone doesn't have that feature as it's just a smartphone, not a WM5 PPC. So even if it could run Mapking or Garmin Q, it'd be next to useless.

I'm looking for a new phone, and I thought it would be nice to have some kind of basic navigation system in a small form factor.........don't want to carry a big PDA phone in my shirt pocket.

I guess then I should be asking what's the smallest WM5/6 PPC phone in the market?

I'm still hunting for a ~8" SVGA LCD Monitor (touchscreen if possible) for in-car sat navigation to hook up to my notebook. Let me know if you come across one.

Thanks, stimix, will be checking out the PDA phones you mentioned, but they all seem a bit bigger than what I'm trying to get. The Dopod S300 would have been ideal but.......

Maybe I'm being impractical.

Thank you, easirider. I think he offered it here in LYN too, but I can't find the thread anymore.

BTW are you still using the GPSr from LeVisGuY? I'm very happy with mine, very good accuracy and trouble free. That was a crazy bulk, right?

That's exactly what I was looking for...you are a mind reader! Mighty indebted to you.....