Position? Impossible.

December 19, 2007 4:01 PM

Where to buy a SiRFStar III GPS in NYC, and specifically which one?

So I'm headed to new england by way of NYC, where I will be tomorrow and Friday, and I've lost my Earthmate!

Since I've been fantasizing about a new SiRFStar III based unit for a while now, that's what I want, preferably something that does Bluetooth so I can use it with my phone and my laptop both. The problem is that I have no clue where to begin looking for one. Most of the places I've looked at online only have handheld units like the Garmin GPSMAP and that sort of thing.

What I really want is something like the Holux M1000 or any other comparable high channel count receiver that has good battery life. Preferably something that will automatically turn itself off if I am stupid and forget to do so. Bonus points if it can take AA rechargeables, since I have a bunch of those around in case stupidity strikes, but an internal battery is fine so long as it has a long battery life.

USB is OK, but as I mentioned before, I'd prefer BT.

Suggestions about the particular unit to get are also welcome, since I haven't done a lot of research into the options.

posted by wierdo to Technology (8 answers total)

Best answer: The Garmin Mobile 10 has a SiRFStar III chip (for confirmation, look at the PDF specs). J&R carries it and they say it's available in-store. A bit more expensive than the Holux M1000, but otherwise it's what you're looking for.
posted by zsazsa at 5:11 PM on December 19, 2007

I bought a Holux GPSlim from buygpsnow.com and I couldn't be happier. it works over BT or over USB if you have the right cable. it's a SiRF star III chipset and has about 11 hour battery life. The battery is a pretty standard Nokia size, so you can get spares cheaply too. It also gets a Sat fix pretty quick so you don't have to leave it on very long if you just want to grab a quick location.

it comes with software for windows and windows mobile, and I think mac, but I'm not 100% sure of that. I do know it works in Linux as well.
posted by jrishel at 5:11 PM on December 19, 2007

Response by poster: I wonder if the Garmin software will work on my E62. One would think it should, since it works on the N95, which runs the same version of S60.

Thanks to the both of you. If I had the time, I'd probably buy the Holux since it takes Nokia batteries and can be used with both BT and USB, but such is life.
posted by wierdo at 6:08 PM on December 19, 2007

The Garmin takes Nokia BL-5C batteries, and judging from this review, has USB too. Looks like it gets 28+ hours of battery life, too.
posted by zsazsa at 7:08 PM on December 19, 2007

Ok, it looks like the USB is for charging only. Oh well!
posted by zsazsa at 7:11 PM on December 19, 2007

Response by poster: Wow..I wonder if one could wedge a BL-6C in there. ;)
posted by wierdo at 7:20 PM on December 19, 2007

The Holux M1000 uses an MTK chipset rather than SiRF. MTK chips supposedly have a slightly lower power consumption than SiRF III ones but a longer time till first fix (though when I tested them I found the fix times were within 10 seconds of each other).

Regarding compatibility with S60:
For hardware, Chipset doesn't matter, as long as it's a bluetooth device and uses the NMEA protocol it will work. I've never seen a bluetooth GPS device that doesn't use NMEA so you're pretty safe.
posted by Olli at 3:25 AM on December 20, 2007

Response by poster: zsazsa, thanks again, I bought that Garmin last night, and it's working nicely with my laptop and my phone.
posted by wierdo at 5:31 AM on December 21, 2007