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Wednesday, June 10, 2009

The iGPS360 and AppStore applications


Long awaited, there now is a first beta version available of GPSSerial which enables the iGPS360 module to work with AppStore apps.

All credit for this works goes to Mathieu from xWaves.

Mathieu has worked tirelessly over the last few weeks and finally managed to get AppStore applications to work with an external GPS module (and this includes the iGPS360 module from Orange Gadgets).

I also shouldn't forget to mention Rodrigo from Portugal, who got the whole MobileSubstrate project started back in January. Neither Rodrigo nor I had sufficient objective-C experience to take it a step further and make it happen, but that is where Mathieu stepped in and brought the project to completion with a first beta version release of GPSSerial today.

For more details and installation instructions on the new GPSSerial software, please check out the GPSSerial post on Mathieu's blog.

In order to get the GPSSerial icon on your SpringBoard, remove the SpringBoard cached installation plist com.apple.mobile.installation.plist in /var/mobile/Library/Caches and respin the SpringBoard with the command killall SpringBoard.

If you have the iGPS360 module, make sure to select that in the GPSSerial software.

If the solution works for you, consider showing your support to Mathieu and possibly donate a few dollars to him for all his hard work. You can click here to get to his xGPS blog and then on his blog click on the donate button in the top right.

As with all beta releases, the current release is most likely not bug-free. You can report problems that you encounter in on new section of the xGPS forum. Needless to say, it is a work in progress. If you need help, consult the community on the forum.

I have installed the software on my 2.2.1 iPod (first generation) and 2.2 iPhone (first generation) and can confirm it works for the following free apps that I tried (make sure you have a satellite lock when you try it out):

  • xGPS (with the iPhone 3G GPS as the selected GPS to use)
  • Google Earth
  • Trailguru
  • GPS Tracker
  • GPS Ally
  • GPS Log
  • Zillow
I don't have US maps for iDA, so I can't tell you if it works with iDA, nor have I tried any of the GeoCaching apps. Maybe some other people (in Europe) can give feedback...

Enjoy!

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

this is awesome!

nic said...

my ipod wont turn on after deleting the springboard thing
it sticks on the apple logo

nic said...

its ok it works now
it just took about half an hour

CanarinoInferocito said...

It's a grat work!!!!
I try iDA a little now, and it work!
Only a little problem... the "Apple Component AV Cable" don't work after installed the GPSSerial. I think it's a port conflict...

Plak said...

works like a charm!!!

Christos said...

I have a question to all the beta testers,

It seems to work on some appstore apps,
but it does not show speed in none of the app store apps. Correct me if I am wrong.

Also the iDA software does not show speed, and it is dead slow. I am way passed a crossroad, when the voice says turn......

I am using iphone 2G, with igpsd module from xwaves store.

Cheers

Anonymous said...

The Geocaching App takes a first reeding on opening and then refuses to refresh. It's on the right track and will eventually give us great functionality. My hat's off to the devs. Thanks

Hans said...

Is there a way to change the DeviceID of the ipod touch? Some interesting Apps are only available for the iPhone. You can buy them with iTunes, but you can not install them on an iPod. In App Store on the iPod these Apps are filtered out.

GPS said...

@Alessio: that is because your iPod/iPhone is trying to authenticate the AV cable through the serial port, which is used by GPSSerial.

@Christos: there are still a few bugs that need to be worked out. One is the delay and the other the zero speed on the speedometer and lock-up after a while.

@Hans: search some of the forums. I have seen posts about this before that tell you how to install iPhone apps on the iPod. I just don't recall the links right now. I will looks as well for them. I think it was on the ModMyI forum. When you find them, please post them back here.

Hans said...

@GPS
All pages i have found said how to install to old iPhone Apps (Mail &Co.) on FW1.x

Varman Jeyaseelan said...

@ Hans. Try getting one of the paid apps off of Installous and see if it works

Hans said...

First short report:

working:
iGeocacher
OffMaps
GeopherLIte
Geocaching
xGPS (with iPhone 3G setting)
WiFiFoFum
GPS Data

not working:
iHUDisplay (crashes on startup)
MotionX GPS (worked 1 time, now it shows weak signal)

Installation through Installous works.

Whereas i have a problem cracking 79-cent-apps. People buy an expensive mobile phone, but don't want to spend money for those cheap but (most) worthy apps.

Varman Jeyaseelan said...

Remember piracy and all. Only crack an app if you absolutely have to and pay the 99 cents as a donation to the developer.

Antoine said...

Allright I just bought mine and I'm already excited about receiving it ! I had a question about the maps in the xGps software. Is it pre loaded in the software or do we need to download it ?

Plak said...

Has anyone tested if with OS 3.0 the serial port is accessible for iGPS360, now that it's officially out by apple?

Varman Jeyaseelan said...

@ Antoine

They aren't preloaded in the xGPS software. You need to find your area and then drag a big red box around the part you want to download

Antoine said...

Yes I figured that out but I read somewhere that you can't have turn by turn instructions and you can't calculate a path without being connected to the net. My Iphone being 2G that's not good news:/

GPS said...

@Plak: the jailbreak for 3.0 firmware is not yet out.

@Antoine: you can calculate directions in advance and store them on the iPhone. With the current version of xGPS you can't re-calculate routes on-the-go as it needs to access Google's servers for that, but this will change in version 2.x which will be using vector-maps instead of maptiles.

Antoine said...

Ok thank you GPS, that sounds great. So even now you are able to use this software remotely.

Anonymous said...

3.0 quickpwn JUST came out for mac OS X! Someone needs to test it out and see if it still works

nico said...

good news!
xgps and gpsSerial work for me on iphone 2G and firmware 3.0

Hans said...

Also on iPod touch 1G. This time with iGPSd Setting.

Hans said...

Just a little mistake. GPS Serial didn't install correct, after reinstall it works with xGPS with iPhone GPS selected. All other apps seem to work.

Unknown said...

Hi,

I am really interessted in buying a modul, too.
Can somebody tell me, if I could use the App-Store Application MobileNavigator (NAVIGON) with this modul?

Here is the iTunes-Link:
http://tinyurl.com/l2cfkk

I have the first generation iPhone and OS 3.0 incl. Jailbreak.
Many thanks for your helps

GPS said...

@grace: Yes, the iGPS360 module now works with Navigon as well. You will need to use GPSSerial for it. There is still a small bug in GPSSerial which doesn't properly display the speed though, but hopefully that will be fixed soon.