I love GPS Navigation. There, I have said it. Other than basic PIM functions, it is the greatest use for a PDA. There are many choices of hardware and software that will give you the basic GPS navigation functions. The limitation of any system is usually the software. The speed and performance of available software packages can vary greatly. So when I heard about a new navigation software package from Gate5, I was very interested in giving it a try.

GPS relies on a series of satellites that circle the earth and allow GPS devices to triangulate its location on the earth. The system, created by the U.S. Military and paid for by the U.S. taxpayers, can allow anyone with the appropriate hardware and software to plot their position on a map. With a set of maps and navigation software, the system will even give you directions to reach a location defined in the map database. Maps are available for most parts of the world. The first thing you need is the GPS hardware for your mobile device. Gate5 has partnered with Socket to bundle their smart2go software with Socket’s Bluetooth GPS Receiver.

The Socket GPS Receiver is a small, rechargeable, Bluetooth receiver. It uses a Li-Ion, rechargeable battery similar to the ones used by many Nokia phones. It also features four rubber strips that keep it from slipping on a table or car dashboard. Behind one of the rubber strips is the AC Adapter port. The only control is a power switch on the front. A full battery charge should give up to 9 hours of use. The front panel also features lights for recharging, GPS signal, and Bluetooth. The performance of this receiver is fast. It normally has a satellite lock in less than one minute and the Bluetooth sends a clear signal anywhere inside the length of the largest car. The smart2go package is expected to include a device cradle, a memory card reader to assist in transferring data to the PDA or Smartphone, and a CD containing maps for the US and Canada. Maps for Europe will be available as an option. While this system is sold as a package, I will mainly focus on the smart2go software.

While the smart2go software is expected to be available for PocketPC, Palm, S60 / S80 smartphones, and Windows Mobile smartphones, the only version that was available for testing was for the PocketPC. So that is the one I will focus on. Other versions of smart2go will have additional features such as the ability to receive up-to-date current events for the point-of-interest database of the city where you are located.

The test version I tried was still in Beta, so there may be changes in features and performance before the final version is released. smart2go will be provided on CD with a complete set of maps and the point-of-Interest (POI) databases for the U.S. and Canada. The basic application takes about 3MB of storage including the voice files. The maps are highly compressed. The map for the San Francisco Bay Area is around 16MB with an additional 9MB of POI data for all the cities in the same area.

Once the smart2go software is installed and the maps and POI data are transferred to the PocketPC, you only need to follow the basic “pairing” instructions to connect your Bluetooth mobile device to the Socket GPS Receiver. Then start the smart2go software to begin.

Be aware, like most navigation software, if you are planning a trip that starts and end on different maps, you must have every map between the two locations loaded on your PocketPC. Otherwise a complete route cannot be calculated. If you are using a small memory card or planning a really long trip, this can be a major problem. A great feature of smart2go is its desktop tool which runs on a Windows PC and allows the creation of a custom map set using the basic maps which are provided by Tele Atlas. The custom map builds a “corridor” around the route so that the required amount of storage will be greatly reduced. You will only need to load the city maps for the start and end of your trip plus the custom map rather than all the city and regional maps between the two points.



After the initial title screen, you can select to switch to a different map / POI database or begin navigation. If you select Navigation, smart2go will detect the GPS receiver and then wait for location data. Once this is accomplished, you will be at the main navigation screen where you can see your GPS status and select a destination by entering an address or choosing one from a list of recent destinations or bookmarked locations. Unfortunately, smart2go does not provide any display of GPS satellite tracking information or Bluetooth status. So when you are having trouble getting a solid GPS signal, you do not know what is wrong other than the fact that you have no signal.

All the features and functions of smart2go are available from either Navigation or Find See Do. The primary difference between the two is that Navigation is the GPS-enabled mode and Find See Do is the non-GPS enabled mode.

On the main navigation screen, you can instantly select to navigate to your preset home location by choosing MyHome or chose a destination based on address, saved bookmark, your preset work location, or a list of recent destinations. The last choice is to go to the Guide, POI mode, and choose from a list of destinations. You can also go immediately to the map to select a destination. The settings screen allows you to set the type of route and the travel mode. Travel mode is a really nice feature since it allows you to set a walking mode when you want to walk to your destination. Great when you want to make a walking tour of a city you are visiting.



When Find, See, Do is selected, you are taken to the City Selection screen where you can chose from the available POI cities installed in your mobile device. Select a city and then proceed to the search screen. You can enter a name, category, and/or location. One, two, or all three can be entered and a list of matches will be displayed. A number of categories can be selected such as Dining, Hotels, Attractions, and Nightlife. The icons on the bottom of the screen are used for selecting menus, displays, and functions.

The available icons are:

Road and Turn Arrow Navigation
North Sign Map Overview
Magnifying Glass Search for an Address
Direction Arrow Sign Route Planning
Page with Figure of Person MySpace (Bookmarks)
Lifesaver Help
Tools Configuration
Windows Flag Provides access to the Windows Start Menu
Landmarks with W Wcities (POI)

Two Points-of-Interest data sets are expected to be provided with smart2go. Wcities, the same company that supplies points-of-interest data to some of the most popular travel web sites, and InfoUSA are the two databases. Wcities covers the major US cities with location, address, and phone number data as well as reviews and details about the places in the database. While Wcities covers a variety of categories, the size of the database for each city is relatively small. It is useful when traveling since it will give you a nice set of choices, but if you are looking for a specific restaurant or nightclub in your home town, there is a good chance that you will not find it in the Wcities database. The InfoUSA database is a much more extensive set of POIs for the US and Canada. It does not contain reviews, but covers the basic information such as type, address, and phone number. The combination of both databases provides an excellent way to find almost any airport, attraction, restaurant, shopping center or major store, gas station, parking lot, etc. that you are looking for.

Once you have located an address or POI, The location will be shown on a map. If it is a POI, you can view detailed information about it.



When using the Navigation function, you will select a starting and end location to create a route. When the route is created, you can view a text list of the travel directions or view a simulation of the trip on the map. Once you start the route navigation, the map will display and smart2go will give you visual and voice directions as you travel. If you lose the GPS signal while driving, smart2go will pause until it reacquires the signal. If you have got off-course during that time, it will automatically recalculate a new route. smart2go’s fast performance makes this quick and easy. An occasional problem with the way smart2go calculates routes, if you go the wrong direction on a street, it will keep telling you to make a U-turn instead of looking for another route in your current direction. This can be especially annoying when you are on a street where you cannot perform a U-turn, but smart2go does not know it.



While you are driving, you can select all the POI category icons that you would like displayed on the map while you drive. This is a nice feature especially if you are sightseeing or exploring a new area. Once the navigation screen is displayed, it will provide the following information as you drive:

Next turn direction
Street name for the next turn
A scale showing your proximity to the next turn
Map with line showing travel direction
Arrow representing your vehicle
Map Scale
Distance traveled of total distance
Estimated time of arrival (ETA) at your destination



smart2go constantly monitors the travel speed and adjust the timing of the voice prompts so that they are not given too early. This is especially useful since the voice prompts do not include the name of the street. The voice prompt would simply say “Turn left” or “Turn left in 75 yards”. Many GPS software systems have a problem with telling you to turn left while there are still 2 or 3 left turn possibilities before the correct street. This forces you to always check the display for the correct street. smart2go does not have this problem because of its speed based prompting. The voice prompting would still be more useful if it announced street or road names, but this would only be possible with systems using speech-synthesis. To my knowledge, there is no PDA or Smartphone based system that has this feature.



Additional icons that are available during the route navigation mode are:

Pin on cross 3D Map mode
Gear Navigate to selected location
List on page Display a list of destinations
Radio Signal GPS Signal status
Letter I Select POI Category Icons to display on map
Slider Bar Zoom In/Out

smart2go has a great “auto” zoom feature that zooms into your location when you are driving slow and zooms out when you are driving fast. This is useful for showing more details when you are going slow such as when you are driving in a city and a greater distance when you are driving fast such as on a freeway or highway. The greater distance displayed allows you more time to react to direction changes when you are traveling at a higher speed.



Clicking on the map during navigational guidance will display the options screen where you can select an alternate route, repeat the voice instruction, toggle the 2D/3D mode, toggle the Day mode / Night mode which changes the screen colors for easier viewing, mute the sound, saving your position, and sending your position. Sending your position is a neat feature. If you are using a Smartphone or a phone enabled PDA, you can send your position or the information about a POI via an SMS message to a friend so that they will know your location. If you send your position, smart2go will send an SMS message containing the address of your location. Sending a turn-by-turn routing or a POI review, smart2go will send the information as multiple SMS messages. This is a great feature when someone wants to meet you at your location or a POI and does not have smart2go.

One problem I had was interrupting the route navigation by turning off the PocketPC. An example is when I stop for food during a trip. If I turn the PocketPC off and then back on, smart2go has lost connection to the GPS receiver and does not attempt to reconnect. So it stays at the last map position waiting for GPS data. The preferred reaction to a power down and no Bluetooth would be an automatic reboot of the Bluetooth and continuation of the route guidance once the GPS signal is restored.

Overall, smart2go has impressive performance. The map scrolling and zoom is quick. Recalculating a route is equally quick compared to many other software packages. The address search in smart2go is the fastest of any package I have tried. Entering only the number and one word of the street address will return a complete list of every address that matches in the selected map database. Most searches only take 2 or 3 seconds, even when there are over 20 matches.

While there are a few things I would like to see fixed or improved, smart2go has a lot of new, innovative features. Combined with fast performance and the Socket Bluetooth GPS receiver, this is a full-featured package for navigation, both at home and when you travel. I will be making smart2go a permanent addition to my PocketPC and I cannot wait to try the Smartphone version.

Pros
Fast performance
Speed Adjusted Directions
Auto Zoom
Walk Mode
US and Canada Maps in one package

Cons
No auto reboot of Bluetooth
No GPS Satellite Tracking Info

Rating: 9.0 out of 10 Stars. {UPDATED}


-Harvey Lee
Technology Editor

Buy Bluetooth GPS Solutions

Product: smart2go Mobile Navigator GPS Software with Socket Bluetooth GPS Receiver
Manufacturer: Gate5 NA / Socket Communications

Web Site:

www.smart2go.com
www.gate5usa.com
www.socketcom.com

Category: PocketPC / Software
Price: $299
Release Date: April 30, 2005