Jared Evans Global Microbrand

 
One of my favorite electronic devices is my Garmin GPSMAP 60cs  (now  discontinued and replaced with the Garmin GPSMAP 60csx).  I know very well what GPS units are capable of and what their limitations are.

To put it mildly, the GPS on the Blackberry 8800 is utter crap!

Why?  One of the major reasons for having a GPS unit is to be able to navigate the streets of a strange city.  The Blackberry 8800 GPS is simply not up to the task.  It isn’t fast enough or reliable enough. 

When I took it out on a trial run in San Diego, it would work well for a few minutes and track my movement closely then it just simply stops updating the location on the map for several minutes at a time.

Since I am driving around in a fast-moving vehicle, I would travel a good distance in a few minutes.  Because the Blackberry 8800 GPS lags too far behind, I would potentially pass through the intersection where I should make a turn.

It’s possible that the GPS on my Blackberry 8800 is defective.  I will be bringing in my Blackberry 8800 to be replaced and see if the GPS lag is corrected.

*** update 6/13/07 ***
Today, I drove the same route with
the GPS on the Blackberry 8800.  It performed much better this time
around.  Maybe yesterday during my first trial run, there weren’t
enough GPS satellites in the sky for the Blackberry to get a secure
lock on.  Today, it kept a lock on 7-9 satellites and was able to
continually update my location on the moving map.  I’ll need more time
before I can reach at a definite conclusion regarding the GPS
capabilities of the Blackberry.
*** end update ***

*** update 6/15/07 ***
It’s now a given- the Blackberry GPS is extremely fickle. Don’t count on it to get you out of potentially sticky situations while you’re driving around in an unknown area. 
*** end update ***

*** update 6/17/07 ***
The GPS routing problems that I have been experiencing seem limited to the Google Maps for Blackberry app. I have another GPS routing app called TeleNav and so far every time that it was used for navigating, it has performed flawlessly.  It appears that the Google Maps app itself may be the problem, not the built-in GPS.
*** end update ***