LocoGPS brings GPS positioning to iPhone without dock connector
By Will Park on Saturday, March 8th, 2008 at 12:14 am PST In Accessories, Announcements, iPhone
GPS on the iPhone. Now that would be nice. Sure, Google Maps My Location feature gives a good approximation of your location, but if you want turn-by-turn navigational features you’re going to have to wait and hope that Apple endows the next-generation iPhone with integrated GPS.
Now, remember that little outfit that slapped together the locoGPS module for the iPhone? Right, that was a great GPS solution for the iPhone, but you still had to live with that awkward locoGPS module sticking out of the dock connector at the bottom of your iPhone. Now, gomite is back to show off their newest, wireless variant of locoGPS.
This time around, the wireless version of locoGPS hangs inconspicuously on your keychain - locoGPS Mobile Navigation Server frees up your iPhone dock connector There’s no need for a GPS module connected to your iPhone’s dock connector. But, how exactly does it transmit all that GPS data to your iPhone? By WiFi, of course. The iPhone doesn’t like to talk to other devices over Bluetooth (save for the Bluetooth headsets and speaker systems), so gomite rigged their wireless locoGPS module to serve up that delicious positional info over WiFi.
The locoGPS Mobile Navigation Server module sports the GPS and WiFi internals along with a microSD card slot to store navigational maps. The iGO 8 navigational software is web-based, so there’s no need to install any software on the iPhone. Of course, with the release of the iPhone SDK, we’re crossing our fingers for a native iPhone navigation application.
Look for the wireless locoGPS to hit the market in June for €120 (about $183).
I’ve got GPS in my car, so I don’t really have a need for GPS on my phone. But, with the prospect of having a locoGPS receiver hanging off my key-ring, I think I’ll be picking up a wireless locoGPS module in a few months.
[Via: NaviGadget]
March 8th, 2008 at 7:12 am
This sounds great, but my worry would be that when the iPhone is connected to an ad-hoc WiFi network for the GPS receiver to transfer positioning data, all the other data features (particularly e-mail) will fail - it can’t use EDGE and WiFi simultaneously.
March 8th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Actually, the best way to use voice and data simultaneously on the iPhone would be to use WiFi.
EDGE data gets in the way of voice calls (there’s a type of EDGE network that is not as commonly used that will halt data and let a voice call through, the other type of EDGE network will simply block voice calls when using data).
WiFi GPS positioning is the perfect solution. Now, if only someone could figure out how to tweak the Bluetooth stack to support more than just headsets and external speakers.
March 12th, 2008 at 6:18 am
Will the GPS receiver have to be charged or will it have Disposable Batteries?
GPS does not work indoors generally, so will it work when indoors.
April 14th, 2008 at 9:27 am
Check out this site for the dock GPS module:
iphone-gps.blogspot.com
PmgR