[8125, K-JAM, P4300, MDA Vario General] zowwie:
GoldLantern bluetooth GPS

I bought a GoldLantern bluetooth GPS receiver, it came with a download of "free" Mapopolis software - but thats where they get ya - the software is free but the maps definitely are not. However for a hundred bucks the maps seem to be pretty detailed. I have been using the demo version of the maps that expire after some number of days because my travel habits simply aren't that repetitive but I may eventually buy the subscription to all the North American maps.

Costs? Well, the MDA naturally which was about $370 with AZ taxes. $149 for the GPS receiver at Fry's Electronics (i paid too much but had to have it "now"). about $70 for a mini-SD 1GB card (also too much but had to have it "now") to store the maps. I haven't bought the maps yet and the GPS receiver is not "tied" to the application you use to navigate, I still might do TomTom but actually sorta like Mapopolis...

Performance is reasonably good provided Mapopolis is the only thing running. It takes the GPS receiver a minute or two to get a fix on your position.

I've used it in Phoenix, San Diego/Orange/LA counties in CA, and Seattle. In Phoenix its more of a convenience than anything else since I live here and don't necessarily need a GPS to navigate all the time, but it made business travel an absolute joy. No more trying to decipher the under-detailed rent-a-car map they give you along with the blank look when you ask if they know where your nationally known name brand hotel is.

In Seattle it was an absolute joy to use, I went on citysearch and figured out what kind of food I was going to eat that evening without any regard to navigational concerns. I had the mapping layers for King and Pierce counties loaded and Mapopolis even "knew" the names of some non-chain locally owned places that I'd been to in the past but hadn't a clue how to get to. The directions were accurate although the machine pronunciation of some of the street names was a little hilarious and it told me about turns in a timely fashion.

In Southern California I bumped into some limitations, probably becaue my usage pattern was a little different on those trips. I had LA/OC/SD counties loaded in memory the whole time so that could also have impacted performance and I was doing enough driving that I was also using my XM Roady2 for music and traffic updates. The XM (or Sirius) might be a relevant factor because the frequency band used by XM/Sirius is fairly close to Bluetooth, or 802.11b for that matter. All I can say is this: listening to XM and occasionally talking on my bluetooth headset at the same time, Mapopolis occasionally did NOT keep up with turns. At one point along I-5 south of San Diego it got confused and thought I was on surface streets which made for some interesting, if rapid, verbal directions from it. I think the factor was more the use of the bluetooth headset at the same time because once i ended the phone conversation mapopolis perked right back up performance-wise.

The battery life running mapopolis and bluetooth constantly - as well as the constant fascination with wanting to see my speed and direction causing the screen backlight to be on, caused the battery to drain very quickly - like 3 hours of usage had the battery almost 75 percent drained.

It's a good combination, but for the less technically inclined (and god help someone non-techie who buys a t-mobile mda...) the $500 garmin dashboard wart will do the GPS bit equally well without a steep learning curve. The learning curve to get this set up was near vertical but well worth it if you have the patience to fiddle with it. I.E. if you struggle a bit with your MDA, bluetooth GPS is not for you! Its also not something to learn how to use ON a trip, you definitely want to get the hang of it in your own local area before you put your complete trust in it in an unfamiliar place.