Laptop GPS World

I was reading up after hours about the possibilty of certain Wireless Aircards that have a built-in GPS reciever. I was curious if anyone here has one ?

I have an S720 aircard from Sprint. It has built-in GPS, and it does work with S&T. As you might expect, the card stuck in my PC isn't nearly as sensitive as my GlobalSat puck stuck to the roof, and it takes a long time to find satellites after startup.

It outputs standard NEMA data on a COM port. It does NOT output speed data, however, so S&T always shows a speed of zero. The setup program has settings for 'basic' and 'enhanced' GPS data. I suspect you have to pay extra to enable the enhanced data mode, which probably includes anything other than basic location fixes.

The Sprint software has some GPS functionality built in, mostly for things like finding the closest gas station.

Rick

Do you have the ability to browse the web and use the GPS at the same time? I've been reading some conflicting reports. Always better to get first hand experience. Thanks!

Yes, they both work at the same time.

Do you use it as a GPS reciever? and if so would you say that you are happy with it's performance?

Thanks!

I don't use it as a GPS. My external GPS receiver is MUCH faster and more reliable.

I was curious about your data service. I've been spending time researching different carriers and options. I see some methods to altering settings on one's notebook to increase download speeds, have you looked into this or done this yourself?

Sprint PCS

2562 kb/s

http://www.evdoforums.com/thread504-0-asc-105.html

My business depends on my laptop, so I don't spend a lot of time tweaking the last drop of performance out of it. Reliability and dependability are much more important than a couple of extra KB per second.

If the tweaks work for you, go for it. The download speed of wireless broadband varies so much from minute to minute, I'm not sure how you would know if a particular tweak really does anything or not. I can sit at my kitchen table and get 2000KB one minute, and 300KB the next. It depends on how many other people are connected to a particular cell tower. Every tower has a finite amount of bandwidth, and it is shared by every user connected to that tower.

On the rare occasion I need to download a large driver or diagnostic when I'm on the road, I head for the nearest motel or apartment complex parking lot and turn on my WiFi. I've always been able to find a high-speed connection within a couple of minutes. Yes, I know it it's in bad taste and legally questionable, but I don't make a habit of it.