Alternate GPS device? Tablet?
 

My wife and I have a specific need for a GPS but I don't really need nor use one regularly for our upcoming trip to France (from NTE to NCE).

We'll use using our traditional tool of navigation, a Michelin Atlas Routier (truckers' map). That's fine for small towns and villages (our preferred destinations/waypoints and we travel on tertiary roads) but navigating through the occasional large town is more complex (and we'll have to go into Nice).

Our need for a GPS is more for locating where one is in town and trying to get through it where local signage/directions are poor to non-existent (Sicily for one). As such, we don't need a GPS. We don't use cell phones other than making calls and the display is too small anyway.

Other than a PC with a GPS PCCard/PCMCIA (do they even make the latter anymore?) or a traditional GPS, are there any versatile solutions? E-book, tablet or some such that can function as a GPS for our purpose?

You might want to look into getting a Viewpad 7 by Viewsonic (yes, it's made in China) available worldwide, sometimes under a different brand name.

http://www.google.com/products/catal...d=0CF0Q8wIwAQ#

Got mine about 6 months ago & I loved it - has a sharp 7" multi-touch screen, Android 2.2 unlocked with full Google Mobile Services, operate on 3G and quandband GSM frequencies - has Maps & (voice) Navigation with aGPS receiver. It's a eReader, MP3 player but does NOT support Flash Player 10.x (support for Mobile devices being dropped by Adobe soon anyway) and it's easy to take along & go anyway, much easy to see & generous battery life. CPU or processor speed isn't fast by today's standard but with a 16GB SD card support, it's quite generous for serving my needs - and playing Angry Birds for hours on a long transcon flight (4+ hours before plugging into seatback's charger)

Paid $270 USD for mine but could be a bit more up north with CDN exchange rates & import duties, if any? On the road, I use WiFi when necessary but otherwise a prepaid 3G mobile Sim card is enough to bring in data to keep things running (so, no contract terms or huge monthly bills to pay extra for, strictly Pay as You Go with AT&T prepaid cellular) The Euro ROM is available in XDA-Developers Forum and support over 15 local languages. My Garmin brought in 2006 has not been replaced since it "expired" earlier this year - as I had the use of this 7" device (not designed for car's dashboard or windshield mounting) until I upgraded my aging mobile phone with a newer 4" smartphone with readable mapping screen display.

Configuring it across Euro borders with continuous data access could be a challenge, but there is an inexpensive mobile mapping software (via Android Market) to pre-download routes & map points, and you can access & read it on the go (DW to serve as chief navigator .... ) - that will solve your issues of possibly not having real-time data access on the road driving to update the aGPS chip & map display.

The Samsung Galaxy series is available with both 3G/WiFi and has a faster CPU, etc. but also cost more, cellular carrier generally offer them only with a contract - you can check out eBay and see what Rogers or Bell Canada has in their local stores.

Hope this is useful to steer you in the direction! ;)

I was looking for something similar recently on the Android platform. The problem with smartphones and the like is the need to be constantly connected. Very few apps have (European) maps that can be stored off-line. The few ones I've found were very limited.

The advantage of having a dedicated GPS device is that the stats in the cities are far more richer and the GPS device itself is pretty small - which is what I'm assuming you want if you're travelling. You could buy one off Craigslist and sell it at the end of your trip. For a RTW trip I took last year, I had bought a Garmin, loaded it up with the maps I needed, actually used the thing once or twice while travelling, and sold it for a $0 loss.

Maybe pick up an Ipad with 3g and then get a sim card (for data) while you are in france? It may seem like a lot of work but it would give you what you need and you get the benefit of being able to go online whenever you need it while you are on vacation (very useful to find restaurants, check email, etc).

The Navigon Europe app for it (and the iphone) allows for downloading maps while on wifi and storing them on the device.

I'm not sure how data connectivity would be in some of the mountainous areas I've driven through or may drive through, so went this route.

Just went through the same decision process as I will drive in Europe on 3 trips this year. I am good with directions, and on past trips google maps actually did pretty well the few times I was lost (and I do not pay for data). But will be in a few pretty remote places and wanted something more robust. Also did not want to purchase a dedicated GPS even though you can find several good deals on eBay.

In researching I found that the TomTom and Navigon Apps iPhone apps do not require data access. The maps are stored on the device and it can take advantage of the assisted GPS capability of my iPhone4. TomTom just dropped their full Europe app to $99.99, and then I was able to purchase $100 in iTunes credits for $80 during one of the black friday deals. Of course then Navigon dropped their price even more for the holidays - $69.99.

I choose the TomTom app when they were priced the same. Garmin has acquired Navigon, and already it looks like they are adding costs for updates. But if it had been the lower price when I decided, I may have chosen Navigon as I think I like its look and feel better.

My first trip is next week and am going to try using the TomTom app on my iPhone. Bought a $5 windshield mount to keep it visible. If the screen ends up being too small, I will probably invest in a Bad Elf GPS receiver and use that with my first generation iPad for the future trips.

The Bad Elf with an iPad is an excellent system. I use it for navigation when flying.

Cheers

Thanks for all the suggestions. The iPad solution is out as I'm not paying $500 for one. I was hoping a Kindle would work.

I have fielded inquiries to some local folk selling their GPSs with Europe maps but none have replied yet.

Looks like I can also get a 16GB Blackberry Playbook this weekend for $200 (just have to set up the account for the Canadian equivalent of "Black Friday"). The Playbook has aGPS and wifi but no 3G or 4G. I can buy an offline France map for $10. Will this work? I have no idea if I require real GPS or if aGPS will do.

It may work be warned not all maps are created equal. The Garmin/Tom Tom GPS maps are feature-rich with tons of sites, restos, etc.

No 100% satisfactory solutions yet that don't cost $$$. Bought a Blackberry Playbook cheap for other reasons. GPS works but no offline maps available (the map products from SkyLab I previously mentioned seem to be total junk and bordering on fraud, if not outright so) unless one tethers to a Blackberry phone and I don't want to pay for data. The Blacberry's GPS seems to work quite well but if you don't have any maps, it's basically useless.

I've used Autoroute by that Seattle-based software giant that many love to hate in the past and downloaded a new trial version (good for 60 days by which time I will be home) ~ the old one predated Win 95. Maps look good and works on my tiny Fujitsu U1010. I have ordered a GlobalSat GPS USB receiver which I hope will work with Autoroute. That will hopefully give me an approximate position which in conjunction with the notebook will allow us to navigate through the urban areas.

I would just buy a GPS when you get over there or get one here before you go over that has Europe in it.

If you already had an Ipad or a whatever adding on the software to do a GPS may make some sense, but as you currently don't have anything I think anything other than a GPS would be a waste of money.

Under $200 can get you a new one with US and Europe maps. Use it while you are there, and sell it when you get back. If you want to go used or refurib you can usually get them for around or just over $100.

Just having one beep the speed cameras at you in Europe can pay for itself in one or two speeding tickets.

Maybe a bit cumbersome but I bought a GPS USB receiver. Works with a Win 7 machines and I've tested it driving with both Autoroute (Europe) and Street and Trips (N. America). With Autoroute, it did show me where I was driving in N. America but w/o maps. The same engine is used for Streets and Trips and I tested that and it showed where I was going, what speed, altitude and direction (latter not while stationary). It can provide turn-by-turn directions and speak them (with the mandatory CYA warning about not using the s/w while driving) though I have yet to test these functions.

Works perfect for giving one a map view.

Might work better with a Win tablet that has enough RAM and storage.

That Bad Elf is interesting but for $99, you might as well get the 3G iPad for $129 with a 3G radio.

Yeah a cheap GPS is the way to go, especially for driving directions. For walking, a smart phone is useful because it's easier to do a Google search for your destination. But of course, that requires data access.

The Navteq and TeleAtlas maps have a lot of Points of Interest but the UI on GPS is horrible. Something like the Garmin 4390, which has a capacitive touch screen and I believe a multitouch UI, is too expensive for a PND which doesn't have the feature set of a comparably-priced tablet or smart phone.

I used the GPS receiver in combination with Microsft Autoroute 2011 for 6 weeks and 8,000 km of driving. Worked very well as a mobile map in conjunction with a 1:200,000 Michelin map. Great for navigating through/into/out of towns and cities so you don't get spat out of town in the wrong direction if following "Autre/Toutes Directions" signs. Also great for navigating on the tertiary roads which are often not signed to discourage traffic.

I like this solution better as we could change routing on the fly. It'd be better on an old-style tablet computer as a moving map (the UMPC we were using isn't much bigger than a 5" GPS).

If you're driving in unfamiliar territory, you can have the GPS mounted on the windscreen in front of you, and it's a lot easier to navigate than with your assistant making suggestions from a tablet next to you.

Get a TomTom or Garmin.