GPS specs

[sm1thson]

has anybody got any specs for the GPS unit in the n95?

ttff etc would be usefull, my friend had an A1000 with inbuilt gps and it took an appaling amount of time to get a fix, if it ever got one! (even though it was had agps which should speed it up). it was said that this was because the processing power was shared with the rest of the (smart)phone. he bought a bluetooth receiver to get full functionality, hopefully the N95's gps will be good out of the box.

[bavlondon]

Nokia are keeping tight lipped on exactly what GPS chip will used in the N95.

This is of course important to those of us wishing to use GPS especially for people in dense urban areas with highrise buildings.

There are 2 types which they could use. I hope they use the 1st one.

SiRF star III - Best choice i think

http://gpstracklog.typepad.com/gps_tracklog/2006/03/sirfstariii_why.html

A-GPS

http://www.u-blox.com/catalog/catalog_en.pdf

As you said sm1thson its no use having GPS if it takes a few minutes to get a lock. I dont have any personal experience using any SIRF3 gps module but I have heard only good things about it. Mainly that it only takes less than 3 seconds to get a lock.

Id rather pay the extra £50 and have this baby on board instead of standing around outside waiting to get a lock on my phone.

Lets see though, the review should start coming in at the middle or end of this month so expect your questions to be answered soon.

[sm1thson]

there are loads of different chipsets it could use. SIRF III is very good, gets a much stronger signal than the previous generation. AGPS means assisted, that is it is a system that uses the assistance of the mobile network to figure out approximately where it is before trying to work out exactly where it is, this cuts down on proccesing power and time so isnt a bad thing either (if actually implimented, i dont know if it was on the A1000 etc).

[evil Homer]

I know this isn't completely related, but I was reading on T3 that the maps and routes are going to be stored on a central server, and that the n95 caches them when in use, and that you'll have to pay to get voice directions and auto-reroutes.

What I'd like to know is if 3rd party apps such as Tom Tom Navigator will be able to access the GPS hardware so you can use that instead.

[bjh_101]

Yes, I know that you have to pay for voice-directions.

And I don't see why TomTom shouldn't be able to access the GPS device. That would be very annoying if Nokia disabled that - I guess we have to wait until it's released to find out though.

[sm1thson]

it apears that the gps sensitivity is better than old receivers but not as good as sirf III ones. details here (http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/features/item/N95-Your_questions_answered.php).

nokia say the bluetooth can be accesed, but i would expect programs like tom tom will need the relevent part putting in the menu, allthough if tt works on pdas with built in gps then it might just work.

the built in gps maps are stored on a central server (so data charges apply) but are locally cached, a video on youtube said they are doing a pc application o you can download via pc (although it has wifi so you can cache when in a hotspot).