[heysmithy]

If you have a GPS enabled blackberry or smartphone, likely your service provider tells you that you need to pay a monthly fee if you want to use the GPS features. They also tell you that you need to pay $30-50/month for their "data plan". The fact is that my service provider lies to me almost every time I call them. I don't know if they are lying on purpose, or more likely (from my experience working in call centers) they are just poorly trained customer service reps. If you listen to the customer service reps, they will tell you that you need to pay $30-$50/month for a data plan, AND another $10/month for the GPS service.

I'm going to write a short tutorial on how to save money and use GPS on a GPS enabled Blackberry from AT&T. The steps will be similar for Windows mobile phones. These steps will work for pretty much any provider who uses the GSM network (if you had to put a SIM card in your phone to make it work, then your service provider uses the GSM network and this should work for you).


1) The first step involves the phone. Make sure it is a smartphone (Blackberry or Windows Mobile) and make sure it has "GPS" listed as one of the features. Right now I think you can still get the Blackberry Curve 8130 with a new 2-year contract for under $50. In my experience this has been an excellent phone.

2) Next step is to get a data plan, but if you are not going to use "push email", which is a service that causes your emails to be sent directly to your phone, then DON'T pay for the expensive "smartphone" data plan. Instead get the cheaper "Media Net" package. This will enable you to browse the internet, download applications, check your email, etc. Its well worth the $15/month that AT&T charges. But the customer service reps will not give you the Media Net package if you call, instead you need to do it yourself online. Don't even bother calling the customer service people, or else they will put you on a "watch list" and I don't know why they do that or what it's for, but I'm on it. For AT&T, you go to wireless.att.com, create an account for your mobile number, log into your account, and then change your features. You simply check "Media Net Package" on the screen where you change your features online. You may also need to modify the APN settings on your Blackberry to utilize the plan. I did not need to do this with the 8130, but I did with a previous Blackberry I had, which was an unlocked Pearl. If you need to do this step, which is unlikely, then google this: - wap settings (your service provider) (your phone). So for me, I typed into the search bar this (without quotes): "wap settings at&t blackberry" and whalah! I've got this page: Carrier specific APN/TCP settings - BlackBerryFAQ. Now that you've got your nice shiney new (but cheap and generic) data plan lets try it out: Open the browser on your phone and go to any webpage. If it works then you're done with this step.

3) Now you need some free mapping software that works with GPS. Google Maps mobile is by far the best free software out there. In my opinion its the best maps software available period! To download it onto your phone go to m.google.com/maps. Download the software and start it up! This step is just that simple, because Google is awesome. Heil Google! I hope they take over the world someday.


And thats pretty much it. With Google Maps you can utilize the GPS satellites without paying for some made-up "GPS service". Its accurate to about 3-5 meters once it gets dialed in. Not only that, but you can use the Satellite View feature to see an aerial view of your location, much better than the plain white screen that's typical of GPS units. You can also see a Street View, meaning if you are getting turn by turn directions, you can actually see a panoramic picture of what that turn looks like from your car! And if you want to, you and your friends can all sign up for Google Latitude, which allows you to see your location as well as your friends location. I can imagine that this feature will come in very handy for myself, my dad, and my brothers this coming deer season.


Disclaimer: If your service provider decides to change your terms of service contract and rape you with their fees, I'm sorry. Also I'm not responsible for it and this post is for informational purposes only, and you should not take my advice or listen to me at all.

But seriously... it works.