Activating GPS in Sprint Mobile Broadband Card | Andrew Powell's Flex, Java, ColdFusion, and AJAX Blog

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Aug 30Activating GPS in Sprint Mobile Broadband Card

I have had a Sprint Mobile Broadband card for a long time. I love it. It gets me online wherever I am and whenever I need it. One thing i noticed about it when I bought it was that it has a GPS receiver in it. Up until now, Sprint has not been very forthcoming in how to get to the GPS to use it. Well, it turns out you need to use their Activation & Location Tool. This app must be running if you want access to the serial port that provides the GPS data (as NMEA sentences). While in this mode, you can also use the device as a GPS inside of Google Earth. Sounds like this little piece of hardware would be a good candidate for Merapi......

Posted by: Andrew Powell

Categories: Merapi , Flex , General , Google , Adobe , Universal Mind , AIR

Comments

I know what you mean. I've got a Sprint Aircard as well and the GPS feature has been pretty handy. I wrote a bit on how it saved me when I blew a tire on the I-10 (http://www.mobile-broadband-reviews.com/sprint-coverage-area.html).

One thing I would love to see is turn by turn directions though. If they did that, they might put Garmin and all those guys out of business. I know the capability is there but for some reason (read:$$$) they haven't

Marc
09/03/08 5:56 PM

@Marc - We can do this with Flex and AIR. It means carrying your laptop in your car for directions. At the end of the day, a GPS unit like a Tom Tom seems more fit for this task.