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If you have a Nokia Symbian device, then you can get Ovi Maps installed on it. Ovi Maps allows you to download map files for as many countries as you want and store in on your memory card. Once that's done, you can set Ovi Maps to offline mode and still be able to use it to get directions. If you get a local SIM, then it will be able to show you rough ...

Unfortunately the plane body does an excellent job of blocking GPS signal. In general if you're in a window seat you will be able to get a signal by holding the GPS near the window (or, for example, on a tray table) - but if you're elsewhere on the plane it's very unlikely you'll get a signal. The exception to this may be the new Boeing 787, which is made ...

There are different handheld GPS units. My favourite is the Garmin eTrex. Garmin's own MapSource maps are usually quite expensive and require annual updates. OpenStreetMap is a nice alternative; you should check the site if the coverage in the required area fits your needs. The quality of data is quite okay too. The map data can be stored offline in a ...

The difference sounds like a warm start vs a cold start. With a warm start, the GPS already knows Ephemeris data for at least 3 of the satellites above it. It can therefore kick straight off with solving the time signal equations, and can get a fix quickly. (That Ephemeris data could either come from having recently used the GPS, eg previous 4-6 hours, or ...

GPS devices do not have an active transmitter (for devices that don't go online to fetch map data, that is); they work by calculating time signals broadcast at low power by a constellation of satellites. Since there's no active transmitter and GPS signals are broadcast anyway (modern aircraft navigation systems do use GPS onboard), a watch or a camera ...

FIrstly, even if you COULD get offline Google Maps, it's not that useful in non western countries. Murmansk - the largest city in the arctic circle, is shown as just two streets in Google Maps. Most of their coverage of Central Asia is next to useless as well. In addition, you need some serious storage for offline google maps. What I eventually settled ...

I've got a smartphone which can cache maps locally (it's a Nokia N900, but lots of other ones do that too, with a few notable exceptions). Before I go somewhere, on Wi-Fi I browse around the area I'll be visiting, so the phone downloads all the maps. When I'm there, I can then navigate around without needing to download anything, just using the cached maps ...

Yes; i did have GPS reception on my cellphone during a flight; however it took quite a long time to get the initial coordinates, and i could not get updates on my location very often (coords changed maybe once every 3-5 mins). So i would say you have bad reception in the best case. Maybe dedicated GPS devices would have a better antenna & reception than ...

TomTom use "TeleAtlas" maps, and in fact they actually bought TeleAtlas several years ago. As with most mapping companies, TeleAtlas has varying levels of coverage for different countries. For countries like the US, TeleAtlas has near 100% coverage, which is to say that they have not just major highways, but all the way down to minor streets and even (in ...

Yes, but the signal can be a bit weak. It's best to hold it to the window to get a lock. Depending on the GPS device, some are able to "hold onto the lock" even if they are not facing the window, so you only need to have it by the window for the initial lock. You may or may not be allowed to have it in the GPS. Here's my GPS while I was travelling near the ...

I don't know why there are no road maps of Iceland - but to answer the implied question of other ways of getting Iceland maps the following may be helpful. When I've needed navigation data for Iceland I've used Open Street Map, on a Garmin device. It looks like it should be possible to get them to work on a TomTom for more details see the TomTom page on ...

I tested this once on a flight which claimed it was fine, once you'd taken off, and not during landing - to use devices like this. I have an app on my phone (MyTracks) which is meant to track you when running, for example, but I just turned it on and left the phone running in my pocket. Not ideal for GPS, but I was in a window seat, giving it a slight ...

A cheap unlocked Android phone with GPS (they start at $120 or so) plus a free offline maps app like RMaps. You don't need a data connection, but have the option of popping in a cheap local prepaid SIM card for calls and net access. Then you can use Mobile Atlas Creator 1.8 to download relevant maps from different sources before you go (or using a laptop ...

WGS84 isn't a "format" at such, it's a "projection". Sometimes it's called a "Datum". Sometimes even a "coordinate system". All of those terms are pretty much correct. As it turns out, the world isn't flat. What's more, it's not even round, but instead some weird elliptical-like shape. Maps, on the other hand, are flat (unless you include those weird ...

Firstly, WGS84 is a considerably different format to regular Lat/Long coordinates. Indeed, from a question on Stackoverflow, looking at the code to convert (if you were a programmer), it's quite a complex operation: $lon = ($lon / 20037508.34) * 180; $lat = ($lat / 20037508.34) * 180; $lat = 180/M_PI * (2 * atan(exp($lat * M_PI / 180)) - M_PI / 2); ...

I have used my GPS receiver frequently on flights (also to/within the US) and the only problem I had was getting it to acquire the satellites :) Some airlines explicitly allow them, e.g. Continental/United list them in the onboard magazine as allowed. That said, I do switch it off during takeoff and landing.

There's a geek answer to this, and a practical answer to this. The geek answer is that there are all sorts of electronics that can have no conceivable effect upon a plane in flight. The practical answer is that even if you're completely certain that your gizmo can't affect a plane, it's going to be up to the cabin crew to decide whether you are breaking ...

It's pretty ridiculous that I've seen airlines ask for these to be turned off at times. By definition, GPS is receive-only - it sends out NOTHING, so really the watch part of your watch probably emits more EM (note to science geeks, I can't back that statement up with fact). Anyway, they certainly won't ask you to turn off your watch, or remove the battery. ...

In addition to Gagravarr's answer, some phones will use A-GPS, where they use surrounding cell-towers or wifi to give themselves a headstart in locating their position. Certainly the position of satellites, mountains, cloud cover, nearby interference from powerlines, solar flares - there are a variety of different conditions that may affect it. In ...

I would not rely on speed data in any GPS unit as a means of ensuring you are travelling the correct speed. Often-times I have experienced that they are not correct, especially with my Garmin unit. You will find that roads are well marked with speed limit signs. General speed limits can be looked up a head of time, so you can get a general idea based on ...

When I went to Israel I jailbroke my iPhone and installed xGPS, which worked great. xGPS basically downloads and caches Google Maps so you can use them even if you don't have an Internet connection. It didn't give me turn-by-turn directions, however, it was great for navigating by foot in the cities.

For the iPhone, there's an app called Galileo that you can use. It uses Openstreetmaps data. You turn the caching feature on in the app, then when you're in the hotel, you navigate to the place you want to go, and grab all the data. When you leave that place, you can purge the cache to free up space for the next city. I found this to be really useful, ...