Emprum's UltiMate GPS

It's been a while since we first started our GPS adventure back in February 2008. Back in the early days, the iGPS360 was the only GPS accessory on the market for the iPhone and the iPod touch. The iPad was not on the market yet back then. There was also no App Store in those early days.

Now, in 2011, we all have seen big changes over those past few years. We have had the App Store for a number of years now, Apple has allowed third party accessories through their Made for iPod program and the iPad is already on its second generation.

Development of GPS accessories has also not come to a standstill. There are various official Apple licensed GPS accessories on the market now.

Features, quality and performance varies among them of course. I have done some extensive research and comparisons between most of them and I am happy to hereby endorse Emprum's UltiMate GPS.

The Emprum UltiMate GPS is a fairly new Apple licensed accessory that has been on the market since August 2011. It is based on the same GPS technology as the iGPS360 is based on: a proven MTK GPS engine that has been on the market for a number of years now and that outperforms most of the newer GPS engines.

From my own testing on various newer generation GPS engines and accessories, I have found that they are supposed to have higher sensitivity and faster update rates, but in reality and practice there are a few catches to that. They actually don't perform as well in the real world as the older workhorses. I will dedicate a future post to explaining this in more detail.

Based on testing and comparing various official Apple GPS accessories on the market, I am hereby endorsing Emprum UltiMate GPS. It is the best unit on the market, not only in terms of GPS performance, it also is an accessory that has many added features, e.g. besides being an accessory for your Apple device, it will also work on a laptop or desktop computer over USB, it comes with a custom USB cable that is rated at 2.1 Amp charging capability required for your iPad, and has easy to read indicator lights that can be customized.


Emprum's UltiMate GPS Product Features:

• Licensed through Apple's Made for iPod program and does not require a jailbreak.


• Only accessory on the market that communicates GPS data to App Store apps at a 5Hz refresh rate! I have looked at other accessories that claim higher update rates, but they only work at 1Hz with App Store Apps. Emprum's UltiMate GPS accessory is the only accessory that I am aware of that truly updates at 5Hz.


• Turns your iPod touch, iPhone, iPad or computer into a state-of-the-art GPS receiver. And this is where one added feature lies: the UltiMate GPS also works with your regular computer: desktop or laptop, Mac, Linux or Windows. They all work with the accessory over USB.


• Use it in your car, on your bike, on your boat or in your plane. Use it for geocaching, hiking, golfing, cycling, running or any other outdoor activity you can think of. Basically any App Store app that has implemented Apple's CoreLocation framework correctly will work with the UltiMate GPS.


• Comes with the free UltiMate GPS App, available on the App Store, giving you full control of your UltiMate GPS accessory. The UltiMate GPS App is a professional designed app that allows you to interact with your UltiMate GPS. It also provides a GPS satellite signal screen to check your satellites in view and their SNR. Very handy.


• Works with all location-based iOS apps available on the App Store.


• Made for iPod touch (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th generation), iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G, iPhone, iPad and iPad 2.


• Does not require an external power supply. The UltiMate GPS is powered directly by your Apple device or over USB and this can be handy compared to some of the bluetooth units out there whose battery you will need to keep charged separately.


• This feature list is not complete, so I recommend that for a full product description, you visit Emprum's UltiMate GPS Product Page.

If you have had your iGPS360 for a while now and are tired of having to keep jailbreaking your device, we recommend upgrading to Emprum's UltiMate GPS. It is the best unit on the market and follows in the footsteps of the iGPS360.

You can place your order for the UltiMate GPS accessory by visiting Emprum's website. Emprum fills and ships orders worldwide, typically same or next day.

If you have questions or need additional information on the UltiMate GPS, feel free to ask in the comments and I will do my best to answer them for you.

I wish you all the best for the upcoming Holiday Season!

GPSSerial 1.4.1 released: allows for multi-tasking

A new version of GPSSerial (version 1.4.1) is available now from the Orange Gadgets website here.

Note: GPSSerial (version 1.4.1) that is currently on Cydia is not working correctly, so please follow the link above instead and install the new version manually. Make sure to first remove the old GPSSerial package completely and reboot your device as outlined in the above link.

Version 1.4.1 of GPSSerial has quite a few bug fixes and upgrades to it:

• The new version allows multiple CoreLocationManagers to access the external GPS module. GPSSerial will route GPS data to each of them. Certain AppStore apps instance multiple CoreLocationManagers which sometimes caused problems with the older GPSSerial (version 1.3.x). This has been resolved now so a lot more AppStore apps will work correctly with GPSSerial.


• The new version allows multiple applications to run simultaneously and GPSSerial will route GPS data to each of them from the external GPS module.


• On iOS4, you can have multiple apps running without having to fully close them before switching to the next location aware app.


• On firmware 3.x, you can install Backgrounder through Cydia and also run multiple location aware apps at the same time.


• Apple's built-in Maps.app functions correctly on both firmware 3.x and iOS4.


• If you switch the settings in the GPSSerial user interface from e.g. iGPS360 to iPhone GPS, GPSSerial will switch from the external GPS module (in this case the iGPS360) to your iPhone's built-in GPS or if you don't have a built-in GPS (e.g. if you are on an iPod touch or an iPad WiFi only), it will use WiFi triangulation and forward that to the running application.

The above upgrades and bug fixes have taken up a great many hours and they would not have been possible without the feedback of all of you.

Try out the new version and post your feedback in the comments or visit the xGPS forum here.

Tips for iOS4 and the iGPS360

A few people have reported having difficulty to get the iGPS360 to work on the newer devices that can run iOS4 with multi-tasking.

Here are a few tips and things that you should keep in mind when running iOS4 that is capable of multi-tasking:

• If you have a device that can do multi-tasking, keep in mind then when you hit the home button when you are in an application, that appplication doesn't fully close. It keeps running in the background.
  
  
• In order to completely close an application, do the following:
  
  1. Hit the home button twice (double-press) and a bar will show up at the bottom of the screeen that shows all your apps that are currently running.
     
     
  2. Find the application that you wish to fully close, press and hold its icon until a red minus-sign shows up.
     
     
  3. Tap on the minus sign and the app will be full closed.
     
  
  
• Even if you reboot, apps keep running in this way, that is, the applications that are visible in the bottom bar after you hit the home button twice, will stay there, even after a reboot.
  
• Press the home button to exit the multi-tasking bar and return to the home screen.
  

So how does this relate to the iGPS360?

In order to use the iGPS360 with AppStore apps, a piece of software called GPSSerial needs to be installed and is available through Cydia. The current version of GPSSerial (version 1.3.4) was designed for firmware 2.x/3.x and is as such not capable yet of the multi-tasking environment of iOS4. GPSSerial does work however on iOS4 in the normal non-multi-tasking way as it did on firmware 2.x/3.x.

Here are some tips when your are using the iGPS360 on a multi-tasking iOS4 device:

1. Before using the iGPS360 module, make sure that no apps are running in the background that could potentially access the iGPS360. By that I mean, apps that use the CoreLocation framework and ask for a GPS position. If an app that is using the iGPS360 would already be running, a second app that you want to start up will not be able to connect to the iGPS360 at the same time (at least not in version 1.3.4 of GPSSerial). GPSSerial will report that the serial port is already being used and that it can't open it.
   
   
2. In order to smoothly use different apps with the iGPS360 module, make sure to always fully close an app through the double-home button procedure mentioned above, before starting up a new app that wants to use the iGPS360.
   
   
3. If you wish to start from a completely clean slate, close all apps that are running in the background through the double-home procedure and directly after that reboot your device. Then after the reboot, you can be sure that no application is using the serial port.
   

The above "shortcomings" with respect to the multi-tasking environment of iOS4 will be addressed in the next scheduled update of GPSSerial which should be coming out very soon (that is within a week or maybe two weeks).

If you have trouble getting your iGPS360 module to work on iOS4, please post a comment or ask for help in the comments.

And stay tuned for the next major overhaul of GPSSerial!

JailbreakMe.com and the iGPS360

With the new jailbreak from comex, all devices that are running firmware up to and including iOS 4.0.1 can now be jailbroken.

For more details, visit www.jailbreakme.com with your desktop webbrowser first and when you are ready to jailbreak your device, open up Safari on your device , then visit the www.jailbreakme.com site and follow instructions. Your device will be jailbroken in a few minutes!

As such, all devices will now work with the Orange Gadgets iGPS360 module and this includes the latest third generation iPod touch models (MC models) as well as the iPad running firmware 3.2.1 (both WiFi and WiFi+3G) and the iPhone 4, running iOS 4.x.

And make sure not to forget to back up your SHSH blobs so you will always be able to revert back to an older firmware if you accidentally upgrade. If you wish to know how to do this, visit the Firmware Umbrella.

Enjoy!

iGPS360 module running on Wi-Fi only iPad

It was a long wait, but the Spirit jailbreak finally came out.

I have used Spirit to jailbreak my newly acquired Wi-Fi only iPad. Amazingly it took only 10-20 seconds or so. Really the fastest jailbreak I have ever seen.

I did a few things that everyone should consider when jailbreaking their iDevice:

1. For all new Apple devices it is crucial you save your SHSH blobs so that you can always revert back to an older firmware version in case Apple stops signing that older firmware version and will only allow you to restore/upgrade to the latest firmware version with iTunes.

You will need to do two things in order to save your SHSH blobs to your local computer (note that this is only required for newer iDevices like the iPhone 3Gs, the iPod touch 2G and the iPad):


• Get the ECID for your iDevice. You can find instructions for how to do this here. I used USBView (see the instructions in the link) to find the iPad ECID. Write it down and save it in a text file on your computer.


• Get the Firmware Umbrella and save your SHSH blobs to your local computer. You will need the ECID for this. I used Firmware Umbrella version 2.2.2. Instructions can be found in the link above.
I saved a version of the file using both Apple's server and Cydia's server. Using Cydia's server will make sure a copy of your blobs is saved on its servers as well for double safety.


2. Make sure you back up your iDevice before doing the jailbreak. Just open iTunes and right click on your iDevice and hit Backup.


3. If you wish to stay jailbroken for future firmware release, never just upgrade your firmware through iTunes without checking with the jailbreak Dev Teams whether the new firmware can still be jailbroken or not. Also, never arbitrarily upgrade iTunes; stay on the iTunes version that you currently have until the Dev Teams say it is OK to upgrade. I am currently using iTunes 9.1.0.79, but it seems 9.1.1 is working fine too.
   

That's it with respect to the jailbreak and then now the real news:

The iGPS360 module works flawlessly with the (Wi-Fi only) iPad.

As you can see from the picture above, I have installed all the major navigation apps on the iPad (they run in 2x screen mode) as well as xGPS and GPSSerial and things work as expected!

The Orange Gadgets store will be updated shortly so that you can select the iPad as well as ordering option when you add the iGPS360 to your shopping cart :-)

Due to the high charging voltage/current requirements of the iPad (yes, this thing eats current, hence Apple's new 2.1A/5.25V/10.5W iPad wall charger), the iGPS360 module requires a special USB cable when used with the iPad. These new USB cables are already in stock and will be available through the Orange Gadgets website as well.

Now let's wait for a nice dash-board mount for the iPad ;-)

GPSSerial version 1.3.3 update

A new post today with an update on the new GPSSerial v1.3.3. The last beta version of GPSSerial v1.3.2 fixed a lot of problems but there were still a few things left to be debugged.

In particular, the following specific fixes were made:

• The TomTom application would show a grey screen once in a while when not moving. This bug is now fixed and TomTom should work flawlessly. Most major AppStore navigation applications now work with the iGPS360 module. Customers have confirmed operation with Navigon, TomTom, Sygic, Magellan, NDrive and iGo and many more.


• GPSSerial is now also compatible with the built-in Google Maps application, just start it up and wait until you have a satellite lock and the Google Maps application will point to your current position. This can be useful for people who are connected to the internet while on the road (assuming you have an iPhone) and who don't want to spend any money on a paid navigation application from the AppStore.

The new version can be found in the regular place right here and until it becomes available on Cydia (not sure when) it will need to be installed manually as explained in the link above.

Feel free to leave any feedback on the new version either in the comments for this post or visit the GPSSerial forum with feedback or if you require help.

Enjoy!

Limited number of iGPS360 modules left

With the upcoming Holiday Season, the year 2009 is coming to an end.

Orange Gadgets will be closed between Christmas and New Year's Day and the last day for shipping packages this year will be on Wednesday December 23, 2009.

I will be taking a break from December 24, 2009 through January 1, 2009. During that period, you will still be able to place an order online, but packages won't be shipped till the new year. Although I will be around, email will most likely not be answered during that period either, unless I have time to spare ;-)

If you are still looking for a present for friends or family, the iGPS360 makes a great gift. Of the second production run that is coming to an end now, there are less than 75 units left as of today. If you are planning on getting a unit before the end of the year, you will have to be quick...

I would like to thank the community and all Orange Gadgets customers for all their support during the past year+ since the establishment of Orange Gadgets. Thank you for all your business, support and feedback.

It has been a great and fulfilling experience for myself and I am looking forward to what the New Year will bring for all of us!

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

PmgR

Navigon, TomTom, the iGPS360 and... debugging GPSSerial

Link for iPhone and iPod Touch users here

This is a post that describes how GPSSerial was debugged to fix the heading bug that appeared in Navigon and TomTom.

As you can imagine, it is very time-consuming to get on the road and do real-life GPS testing every time the code for GPSSerial is updated. As such I decided to record the output of the iGPS360 module to a file while driving my car on a route that was known to have heading problems in Navigon.

What you see in the above video is an in-door setup where the iPod Touch is connected through an interface board to my desktop computer. The desktop computer in turn plays back the on-the-road recorded GPS trace through the interface board. This setup is a huge time-saver when it comes to testing bug-fixes in the GPSSerial source code.

In the course of the debugging process, I also updated the iPhone Toolchain on the desktop PC (running cygwin) to firmware version 3.1.x as I first thought that the bug was related to the Toolchain version. This was quite an experience in itself: not without problem; although the instructions at Saurik's page are very good, they are not complete, and neither up-to-date (yet) for the 3.1.x firmware.

After having spent a lot of time on testing and debugging the code, all the work has finally paid off: the latest GPSSerial version is finally working correctly with Navigon. The incorrect-heading bug is now fixed and the red GPS bar does no longer appear when you are not moving.

You can download and install the latest GPSSerial version by following the instructions on the Orange Gadgets site here.

The new version should hopefully be available through Cydia soon as well.

Try it out and feel free to leave your feedback in the comments.

Enjoy! PmgR

Officially confirmed: iGPS360 works with firmware 3.1.2

This is a brief post to update everyone on the iGPS360 module and firmware 3.1.2.

As had already been reported by quite a few users, the iGPS360 works fine with the new 3.1.2 Apple firmware (thank you everyone, for bringing this confirming news early for everyone).

I have finally had some time myself to play around with an an iPhone 3G running firmware 3.1.2 (jailbroken by blackra1n and unlocked by blacksn0w) and I can confirm that the iGPS360 module works fine on the new firmware.

Maybe someone can also confirm that the module works on an iPod Touch 3G (I don't have one of those).

The FAQ and product description on the Orange Gadgets website has now also been updated with this information.

If you feel anything else needs to be updated or added to the website, please let me know.

iGPS360 Tip and Trick

If your iPhone or iPod Touch is no longer new and fresh out of the box, you might have noticed that the fit for accessories that you plug into dock connector becomes a bit loose over time (this is also the case for the iGPS360 module).

Today's post is a tip and trick to tighten up your iGPS360 module (and whatever other accessories or 30-pin USB cables you have). This seems to work very well.

Get a razor blade edge/corner or any other pointed thin and sharp blade edge, like one of those small utility knives or a Stanley blade.

On the dock connector on the module (or any other accessory), you can see a metal cover (see the photo above). The cover has eight slits in it (four on the top and four on bottom; not counting the two outer ones on the bottom). These eight slits create four metal tabs in the metal.

Over time when you plug the iGPS360 module (or any other accessory accessory) a lot in and out of your iPhone or iPod Touch, these tabs get pushed in and the female dock connector on your iPhone/iPod Touch also becomes a bit looser. As such the press fit of the module into the iPhone/iPod becomes looser.

In order to tighten the connection up again, stick the knife edge/point carefully a little bit under each of those four tabs and lift them up a tiny bit, see the above photo. Don't do it to much otherwise it is going to be really hard to get the module/acessory back into your iPhone/iPod. And just as a general warning, be careful no to break those tabs.

This trick will make the connection (very) tight again. Just make sure not to over-do it or break those tabs. You only need to move them back up a tiny bit. Don't make it too tight either. If it seems too tight, very carefully slide the accessory back into your iPhone/iPod very slowly, wiggling it slowly left and right until it is fully seated.

I have performed this trick on one of my older iGPS360 modules and my oldest 2G iPhone (which was a bit loose) and I have a nice and tight fit again now.

If this works for you, post your results :-)

GPS navigation for your iPhone/iPod Touch: Sygic and the iGPS360

Link for iPhone and iPod Touch users here

Link for iPhone and iPod Touch users here

This is the first in a series of upcoming videos that will demonstrate some of the GPS navigation applications that are available on Apple's AppStore.

The first software that is put to the test is the Sygic navigation software. Sygic supports different countries and regions. Click here to see their AppStore listings.

Countries supported are: North America (includes the US, Mexico and Canada), United States (only), Europe, Australia & New Zealand, Russia, South-East Asia, Brazil, and United Kingdom & Ireland.

The equipment used in the video is a first generation 16GB iPhone with an iGPS360 module from Orange Gadgets using GPSSerial 1.1 and running Sygic NAM version 7.71.2 Build 5961 D Map version 7.80.

I purchased their North America version last week for $79.99. Currently they have a sale going on at the AppStore and the North America version is $69.99. If you are in the U.S., you can purchase the United States (only) version at the sale price of $49.99 (assuming you won't be traveling to Canada or Mexico).

Here is the review:

• Start-up time: about 14 seconds.
  
  
• User Interface: Sygic's user interface is mainly made up of icons. After you have used it for a bit, things are fairly easy to find, with the exception of how to change/edit the list of favorites(I had to do a Google search for that to find out how to do it; turns out you need to use the "Manage POI" icon). An awkward thing about the user interface is that it does not respond to the typical iPhone/iPod Touch swipe gestures, that is, instead of swiping the screen, you have to press on an arrow. Take your time to read the guides included in the application and find all of the "hidden" features. As the user interface consists of icons, you can't really tell how deep a certain menu option goes; a typical iPhone table view would have been better for the UI to make things more concise and easier and quicker to find.
  
  
• Routing/re-routing: Sygic automatically re-routes when you go off-route. Recalculation of your route is pretty quick, usually a 3-5 seconds or so. As I was using GPSSerial 1.1 for the video, the video doesn't show this when I decided to take the 405 Freeway instead of the 5 Freeway. But with the upcoming update of GPSSerial (yes, Mathieu from Xwaves has done it again!) you will get a working auto-re-routing feature and also the heading and speed issue has been fixed :-)
  
  
• Route planning: Sygic's route planning menu is quite sophisticated: you can view route instructions (text) or show the route as turn-by-turn images as well as get a route demo. In addition you can enter an itinerary, which means you can add multiple via points into your route before getting to the end destination. Quite neat.
  
  
• Settings: Sygic has quite an extended list of settings that you can change to your likings: from regional/language/voice settings, 2D/2D North up/3D View, daytime/night colors, auto-zoom to screen indicator settings (like speed, time, distance) and quite a few more.
  
  
• List of favorites: you can maintain your own list of favorite destinations and this list is fully manageable/editable through the "Manage POI" icon.
  

Hope the review is useful for you and stay tuned for the next video which will cover Navigon North America...

Some more AppStore apps for the iGPS360

Today a post with a variety of things: an update on three AppStore applications that quite a few people have asked about.

1. The first application is the marine navigation software from Navionics. Navionics currently has a free application on the AppStore called Navionics Viewer.
   
   
   
   I can confirm that this application works with the iGPS360 module and GPSSerial 1.1 installed on an iPhone 2G (first generation) running 3.0 firmware as well as on an iPod Touch 1G (first generation) running 2.2.1 firmware.
   
   Navionics currently has various maps for a good price on the AppStore:
   
   • Navionics Viewer (free)
     
   • Navionics Marine: US East ($6.99)
     
   • Navionics Marine: US West ($6.99)
     
   • Navionics Marine: US Central ($6.99)
     
   • Navionics Lakes: US South ($4.99)
     
   
   Hopefully this will make a lot of the nautical GPS users very happy!
   
   
2. Then the second application that has been confirmed to work with the iGPS360 module and GPSSerial 1.1 installed is Geocaching.
   
   Credit goes to Katie who has an iPod Touch 2G (second generation) and she says:
   
   "I saw one your website that you didn't know if your GPS unit worked with geocaching. I tried it out yesterday and it does work! The only reason I got the GPS was for geocaching so I was very happy to see that it works great! I just wanted to let you know so you can advertise that it does work! The app is called Geocaching. It's the official Geocaching app that sells for $9.99. I had to download GPSSerial for it to work, but once I did that it works great! I am so happy with the GPS unit!"
   
   Groundspeak Inc.'s Geocaching app can be downloaded from iTunes here.
   
   Have fun Geocachers!
   
   
3. Then lastly, let's talk a bit about Navigon. The results seem to be mixed among people. Some people can get it to work with the iGPS360 module and GPSSerial 1.1, while others can't. Even from the reviews on the AppStore, it seems that this is the same for people with a 3G iPhone with built-in GPS: some get it to work, others can't.
   
   Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get Navigon North America to work on my iPhone 2G (first generation) running 3.0 firmware with the iGPS360 and GPSSerial 1.1 installed. I get this picture...
   
   
   
   Feel free to leave your own findings as feedback in the comments. Make sure you mention what edition of Navigon (Europe or North America) you are using, as well as the version and what country you are in.
   
   There could be a few possible reasons:
   
   
   1. It could be a serious bug on Navigon's part, not polling the CoreLocation framework correctly.
      
   2. Or it could be a GPSSerial bug (the software is still in beta)
      
   3. A bug in Apple's 3.0 firmware.
      
   
   Hopefully Mathieu from Xwaves will be able to take a look at it soon and make the final verdict. I wouldn't be surprised if it is a bug on Navigon's part. But either way, maybe Mathieu can make a workaround for it in the next version of GPSSerial!
   
   

Confirmed: iGPS360 works with firmware 3.0

This is a brief post to update everyone on the iGPS360 module and 3.0 firmware.

As had already been posted on the previous post by quite a few users, the iGPS360 works with the new 3.0 Apple firmware (thank you community, for bringing this confirming news early for everyone).

I have finally had some time myself to upgrade a 2G iPhone to the 3.0 firmware and I can confirm that the iGPS360 module works fine on the new firmware.

The FAQ and product description on the Orange Gadgets website has now also been updated with this information. An updated section about shipping has also been added to the FAQ.

If you feel anything else needs to be updated or added to the website, please let me know.

I would also like to be able to confirm if any of the AppStore navigation apps works with the iGPS360 module; in particular people have been inquiring regarding G-Map, iDA, Navigon and Navionics.

If you have purchased any of these apps, consider getting in touch with me by email at pmgriphone@gmail.com so that we can officially confirm whether an application works or not.

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!

Don't be tempted...

That time has come again..... if Apple's 3.0 firmware upgrade will come out on Monday, June 8 (or any time there-after), I would like to issue a warning....

To make it clear to everyone, if you intend (to keep) on using the GPS module on your iPhone or iPod Touch, make sure NOT TO UPGRADE your iPhone and iPod Touch firmware yet, until we can confirm that the module works on the new firmware.

The same goes for iTunes. Leave it alone till it is confirmed that it is safe to upgrade. The iPhone Dev Team has already posted a warning on their site last week regarding iTunes 8.2, see here

In order to communicate with the GPS module, a jailbroken iPhone or iPod Touch is required. Upgrading to Apple's official 3.0 firmware will put your iPhone/iPod Touch (temporarily) back into Apple's jail until the iPhone Dev Team has released the new tools to jailbreak the 3.0 firmware.

So if you would like to keep your options open, play it safe. Leave your current firmware and iTunes alone for now and wait till the light turns green.

New modules are in stock

As of this week, we have new batch of iGPS360 modules from the second production run in stock.

For everyone who had a pending order, your module was shipped on Tuesday, May 19, 2009 :-)

Also, if you are interested in selling the iGPS360 module in and around your own country or continent, send an email to distributors@orangegadgets.com

Looking for distributors

All the preparations for the second production run are in full swing. Purchase orders have been placed and the new production run is scheduled to start in the week of April 20.

There are currently only 85 iGPS360 modules left for sale and if you wish to get yours without having to wait for the new run, you have to be quick. Once these 85 modules have sold, there could be some time that no modules are available till the modules from the second production run come in (most likely in the week of May 11).

In order to take of some of the work of my shoulders that comes with all of the order processing, I am looking for distributors all around the world who would like to resell the iGPS360 in their respective countries/areas.

There will be some requirements if you wish to become a distributor, but overall it should be a pretty straight forward job.

Most importantly, your relationship as a distributor with Orange Gadgets will need to be based upon mutual trust and truthfulness. I still believe in the honor system where people will actually do what they say they will do :-). I put a high value on ethics and morality in general and especially when I conduct business and I expect the same from a distributor.

In addition, customer service is very important and if your customers contact you for questions regarding their orders, you should respond to them promptly. The distributor-customer relationship should likewise be based on trust and honesty. This is how you make, keep, and bring in new customers for your business.

If you are interested in becoming a distributor, send a brief email to distributors@orangegadgets.com with some background information about yourself, any previous experience in distributing (not required), experience in setting up an online shopping cart (or any other way you wish to sell the module) and of course your full contact information.

The minimum order quantity for a distributor will be 10 modules and you should at least have an iGPS360 module yourself so you know its features and how it works.

Please only inquire if you are seriously interested in becoming a distributor. Processing, handling and shipping orders in a timely manner will require effort and dedication from your side.

Exactly 200 GPS modules left!

It's been a little while since the last post. Things have been very busy for a number of reasons.

As the title of this post already announces, at the time of writing this post, there are only 200 GPS modules left for sale.

I expect these remaining modules to be sold out within the next 5 weeks, so if you are considering buying a GPS module, you have to be quick!

Back when the first production run was initiated in September last year, I wanted to make 1000 modules available to you all. As a matter of fact, at that time, it was unclear what the yield of the module in production would be and as such I decided at that time to make 1100 modules instead of 1000. As nothing yields perfectly (100%) in production, I decided to put a safety margin of about 10% to cover for any yield loss.

Interestingly enough, the yield has been a lot better than that! To give you some statistics about the 1100 modules that have been produced so far:

1. Assembled PCB boards
   
   • One board had a short in a copper trace. This short was removed.
     
   • One board had a defective blue LED. The LED was replaced.
     
   • One board had an open contact on the USB connector. The connector was resoldered.
     
   • Three boards had a non-communicating GPS engine, rendering the boards in-operable (real yield loss).
     
   
   
2. Injection molded housings and lenses
   Considering the issues that had come up during the housing development, I had 1200 housings with lenses made instead of 1100.
   
   • Housing top: about 90 pieces were screened out because of imperfections.
     
   • Housing bottom: about 55 pieces were screened out because imperfections.
     
   • Lenses: about 65 pieces were screened out because of imperfections.
     
   
   
3. GPS performance (open and clear sky)
   
   • All tested modules passed (1097 pieces)!
     

So when it comes to the PCB, the yield has been extremely good (>99%). Only the housing has a relatively large yield loss (5%-10% overall) and I have already talked with the housing supplier to get this improved for the next run. The housings will no longer be bulk-packed and shipped by a courier (which I think has been the main factor of the imperfections). Instead each housing top and bottom will be layer packed with foam for the next run and I will go and pick up the housings myself to avoid possible damage during shipment.

Looking back over the last six months, sales have been a slower than expected, especially January was a slow month. Sales have picked back up in February, and especially March has been very busy.

As the remaining units are expected to be sold in about 5 weeks from now, I have had to put myself into high gear the last two weeks getting everything ready for the next production run. Typically, it will take another 4-6 weeks before we can expect new modules ready to ship from this second production run.

Since this is a second production run, hopefully things will go a lot smoother than was the case for the first run and hopefully no unexpected problem will show up.

In any case, I want to thank everyone for their support over the last year (yes, it's been already more than a year; the first post on this blog dates back to February 2008).

It's amazing to see that when one person in a certain country orders a module, shortly afterward a couple of more orders from the same area in that country come in! So keep on spreading the word about the module!

GPS voice navigation for the iPod and iPhone

Link for iPhone and iTouch users here

Link for iPhone and iTouch users here

I have been playing around with software related things the last couple of days.

I decided to upgrade the iPod Touch 1G to firmware 2.2.1 (the video above was taken at firmware 2.2) and I also upgraded the iPhone 2G to 2.2.1.

Unfortunately, I had some problems with both the iPhone and iPod getting stuck at the Apple logo screen after having re-installed/synced AppStore apps on them with iTunes.

So that's why I ended up upgrading the iPod to 2.2.1 (after it got stuck at 2.2) and downgrading the iPhone again from 2.2.1 to 2.2 (after it got stuck at 2.2.1). I think the Apple firmware has a fundamental flaw in the way it boots, trying to rebuild the SpringBoard application list which takes a long time and eventually times out, freezing the iPod/iPhone at the Apple logo screen. I searched online to see if there were any fixes, but none of them worked, so I ended up restoring both the iPod and iPhone.

It looks like things are working again now as I haven't gotten stuck at the Apple logo (I have removed most of the AppStore apps that I had downloaded though and did a reboot after every single package I installed with Cydia).

I also installed the latest beta version of Xwaves' xGPS software to see what had changed in the period I was gone.

There have been quite a lot of bug fixes and additions to xGPS. You can track the development roadmap here. The major new additions for version 1.2 are:

• A first beta version of voice navigation in English is now implemented and the speech engine does a pretty good job of pronouncing the directions (see the first video above). It will need some future tweaks to correctly pronounce abbreviations (like Rd, Blvd, Pkwy, N, E, S W, slashes, etc), but other than that it does a very good job. It would also be nice if the user could set the distance(s) at which voice directions are given; they are currently set at about 400m and 20m before the next turn.


• GPS coordinates are now accessible under the GPS settings menu. It would be nice if they could also be displayed in the bottom menu bar of the map view, similarly to the Google Earth application.


• A Night Mode view is now available under the User Interface settings menu. Night Mode can either be manually enabled or automatically through a timer from 8pm through 7am. The timer is currently fixed, but will be fully customizable in a future release.


• You can also have your iPhone/iPod play music at the same time when using the xGPS application. The voice directions will be played through the music (see the second video above). It would be nice to have the music fade in/out when there is a voice direction.

According to the roadmap, the next official release is scheduled for February 20, 2009. I am sure you are all looking forward to it.

GPS module working with iPod Touch 2G

With this post I am planning on regularly making posts on the blog again :-)

After a rough start of the year, today it is time for some great news!

Just last Saturday, January 31st, I got an email from Matt, an Australian customer who ordered the iGPS360 module a little before Christmas.

Matt has an iPod Touch 2G and ordered the iGPS360 module in anticipation of a jailbreak for the iPod Touch 2G, which was not available at the time he ordered.

Matt send me the above picture, showing the xGPS software running on his iPod Touch 2G. You can see the iGPS360 module in the upper right corner.

Matt used Redsn0w from the iPhone Dev Team to jailbreak his iPod Touch 2G. It is certainly not as easy a jailbreak as for the old iPod Touch and iPhone, but it certainly works as Matt's photo shows. For more information on how to jailbreak your iPod Touch 2G, please visit www.redsn0w.com.

The jailbreak is a tethered jailbreak, which means that you will need the assistance of a computer if you want/need to reboot your iPod Touch 2G for some reason.

Matt had upgraded the firmware on his iPod Touch 2G to firmware 2.2.1 before using the jailbreak. This thus also confirms that the iGPS360 module works on the new 2.2.1 firmware.

Matt has also posted his success of the jailbreak on iPodTouchFans, so if you are interested in seeing how many people are jailbreaking their iPod Touch 2G with Redsn0w and their success rate, take a look at that forum.

Matt, thanks for your feedback and great photo contribution!