T&T: New STORM

[Jeffrey Siegel]

> Do all the cell phone companies charge a fee for GPS?
> 

The GPS is hardware on the phone.  Once you have the phone, you already have
the GPS.  The monthly fee is a charge for a subscription to their bundled
street navigation software.  It is most probably a re-branded version of
Telenav.  The issue is that there aren't many other software packages for
Blackberry, especially the Storm right now so there's not other programs
that can use the built-in GPS.

On other phones, you could purchase stand-alone street navigation software
for $99 - $149.  The maps would be local on the memory card on the phone
instead of being streamed over the internet.  Frankly, other street
navigation software products are much better than Telenav also.  I would
much prefer locally stored maps instead of losing all navigation when the
internet connection goes away too (a la Telenav).

All of these issues and many others are covered in our 17 part series about
using mobile phones on boats:
http://www.activecaptain.com/GM/MobilePhones/Intro.php


I would be very careful in selecting a Storm right now.  It is a whole new
thing for Blackberry and there are bound to be a host of problems with it.
If you really need to have Blackberry, a Bold looks to me to be a better
product, at least from a stability standpoint.  If you don't need a
Blackberry and want navigation/GPS software, most other phone platforms are
better.


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Jeffrey Siegel
M/V aCappella
DeFever 53PH
W1ACA/WDB4350
Castine, Maine

www.activecaptain.com
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