Navigation Tools

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Navigation Tools

A key application on the internet tablets is navigation. The N810 has a built-in GPS receiver the N770 and N800 can connect the GPS receiver over bluetooth with the NMEA interface

Open Source

Maemo Mapper

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Pro:

  • Pretty stable application
  • Works by default with openstreetmap, but can also use commercial maps
  • The maps download is convenient within maemo mapper and maps can be stored on the device. No PC required.
  • Routing is possible but requires online connectivity.

Con:

  • works only with pixmaps (i.e. inefficient map storage)
  • routing requires online connection.

Gosmore

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Pro:

  • uses vector data from openstreetmaps

Con:

  • Not yet stable
  • very few releases, little development progress visible, no routing yet,
  • map conversion from openstreetmap format to gosmore .pak format has to be done by user.
  • I did not get gpsd working.

Navit

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Pro:

  • uses vector data from openstreetmaps
  • can do offline routing
  • 3D view
  • good touchscreen interface,
  • rich set of configuration options via an XML file
  • almost daily development releases, good progress

Con:

  • altough works already pretty reliable, no stable release yet,
  • configuration requires frequently modification of XML file in text editor
  • the default configuration is not good for the internet tablet (see the wiki page internet tablets configurations)
  • Little interaction with developers, no public development mailing list, little support on the user list.
  • No complete documentation.

Tips and Tricks:

  • the main communication channel for navit is on IRC. You will find the core hackers there as well as some users. See the navit Contacts page for details
  • it automatically routes if it has a gps fix and a

destination. A destination can either be set by pressing on the map and selecting "set as destination" from the appearing context menu, or via the address search.

Roadmap

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Pro :

  • Use vector maps from OpenStreet Map
  • Rich configuration file not in XML
  • Good graphics on the tablet
  • Development of the software is active but the portage to the tablet is often two or three releases late

Con :

  • OpenStreet maps must be processed before use. There are a few procedures to do that on PC but sometimes they crash specially with big files.
  • Only one map at a time can be used

Roadnav

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I could not get it working so far, no updates on news site since two years.


Commercial

Navicore

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I did not try it.