Review: Garmin Mobile PC

Many people already have a mobile phone with internal GPS. Are there experiences with using such phones as USB or bluetooth GPS for Garmin Mobile PC? Do you recommend such solution? Or do you recommend rather to buy an extra GPS modul to be used with Mobile PC?

I am using it on a 8" touch screen monitor hooked to my laptop, It works great.

My Sprint aircard has GPS capabilities. It's ok in a pinch, but the external mounted BU-353 works MUCH better.

Does anyone know if Garmin will incorporate Lane Assist in the next version of Mobile PC? Thanks.

I'm not aware of any GPS-capable phones that will output the GPS data to an external device like a laptop. (If anyone knows of such, it would be good information to have here.)

Some handheld personal navigation devices can do that. For instance, some, but not all, models of Garmin's Nuvi can. But I have not seen any phones that can.

...ken...

Garmin has been very tight about what's next for Mobile PC. They have not released or even leaked any info about what might be in the next version, when the next version might come out or even whether there will be a next version.

The closest I've been able to get to any information was in a discussion with a Garmin tech who let slip that there might be a new version before the end of the year. Now that we're this close to Xmas and no new version in sight, I'm thinking that's unlikely to happen.

...ken...

Thank you, Ken. Guess I'll wait at least until the first of the year before I order.

Ken

I know that this is possible for Windows Mobile Phones. I have no information about other mobile platforms.

On WM, I know 2 solutions:

1) free GPS2Blue as bluetooth oriented solution

GPS2Blue: 4 GPS tools in one free utility...

2) shareware GPSGate

GPS Tracking and Vehicle Tracking: GpsGate Client

GPSGate is capable of redirecting the GPS stream to both USB or bluetooth serial port.

I don't know, if it works with Mobile PC.

I've been using this with my Dell Mini 9 for about 1-1/2 years - WORKS GREAT! I just wish the software was available for "up-to-the-minute" traffic stuff and alternate routes.

For Symbian exists EXTGPS, and works with GMPC

I wasn't aware that Franson had a GPSGate client for the mobile devices. That's cool!

In either case, if you can get the signal to the PC, Mobile PC will use it. The only issue on the PC is that you need to get it to a virtual COM port. With Bluetooth that will be taken care of by the Microsoft Bluetooth feature. Once you have the Bluetooth connection and data flowing on it, Mobile PC will find the virtual COM port and use the data.

If you decide to use a USB connection, Mobile PC probably won't find the USB data stream directly. So you need to use a USB-to-serial driver to get the data onto a virtual COM port. I'm not sure if GPSGate will do that for anything other than a Garmin USB device.

So, if you have Bluetooth on your laptop I would say that's the simplest approach rather than USB. That saves having a cable connection between the two.

If you want to play with it before you plunk your money down, download Microsoft Streets & Trips. It's free to try for 60 days and it's fully functional. Get the Bluetooth stuff going and find out which COM port the data is coming into your laptop Bluetooth on. Point Streets&Trips at that COM port and see if you can get it working. If you can, it will be dead simple with Mobile PC.

The whole thing will be even easier if you use GPSGate on both devices with the Bluetooth connection. That will give you excellent control of both ends of the connection. GPSGate also has a free trial period (14 days). If you can get it working you could then use what you learn to see if you can make it work with just GPS2Blue on the WM device.

...ken...

Hello everyone so new to this looking for help. I have been looking at the Garmin Mobile PC for my lap top is it mostly like the hand held type? I like to have it at home mostly to check the locations of resorts /Motels to rent to see if there near the beaches we want to go too. (USA mostly) But it would be nice when we go to big city to get directions to homes and other places. To have my wife look at it while travel. One other product caught my eye was Archos 5 Internet tablet with the new android operating system. Any thoughts? It has GPS add on. Thanks Jerry

Hello Jerry,

If you have ever tried out a Garmin Nuvi, that's pretty much what Mobile PC looks like on a PC. Of course the screen is way bigger so you can see lots more of the map on the PC.

As far as I know, all of the navigation programs we have reviewed on here only work on Windows. I'm certain that none of them have a version that will work on the Android operating system. My guess is that the only thing you could use with the internal GPS on the Archos will be some version of Google Earth. I expect they have a version that runs on Android by now.

My experience so far is that Google Earth is great for planning trips and other things you do with paper maps but it's not so great for realtime navigation. The last time I tried it (on a Windows laptop) the realtime navigation part of it was pretty flakey and it doesn't have many of the important features of a proper navigation program, like guidance (either onscreen or spoken).

...ken...

We returned home on Friday from 2 months touring New Zealand.

We used Garmin nRoute with the Free Open GPS NZ Autorouting map.

We also used OziExplorer with the Hema New Zealand maps as a sanity check on the FOGNA map. FOGNA has a tendency to think that beaches are roads, which they legally are in NZ, and also that walking tracks are roads. We used the Hema map, which is an electronic version of their paper map, to cross check FOGNA before we comitted to heading 20 or 30 km down a road which may or may not be "No Exit" to use the NZ terminology.

We also had TomTom NZ with us running on a PocketPC but I only used that in Auckland to get to the motel.

I need the flexibility of PC-based mapping to prepare a route with 20 or more "via points". TomTom with only one "route by" point just isn't up to the task of preparing a complex route.

It was my first exposure to Garmin nRoute. There was a very steep learning curve with it, especially working out how to drag a route (right click on route, Active route, save active route, single click twice to get drag lines) and how to persuade it to skip "via points" that you have decided to bypass. Sometimes it automatically skips them. Sometimes it just won't let go even after you have deleted the via point. I still haven't worked out how to solve that problem except by giving up in disgust and deleting the whole route and starting again.

One thing we had a lot of fun with with nRoute was it's use of the expression "drive x km and then make *the* U turn" rather than "make a U turn".

We will be going to USA and Canada for 3 months in Aug 2010 so I would really like to win Garmin Mobile PC to see how it works compared to nRoute.

Andrew Watson

Mobile PC is far more sophisticated than nRoute but does not provide as much on screen information. It has the feature set of a Nuvi PND (or Garmin XT on the PPC) only on a larger screen. It will do multi point routing.

I suspect the maps you have for nRoute would work with Mobile PC however Garmin does not seem to have an Australian version.

Terry