TZ has GPS!

I was presently surprised that it has GPS on it. Now, does anybody know any good software besides Microsoft Streets (awful) or Iguidance (isn't working with this)?

 

..... it does?

 

are you sure????

 

Perhaps he bought the "10th anniversary edition" of the TZ (which included the Sony GPS accessory VGP-BGU1).

 

Please enlighten us as how you discover your TZ has built in GPS. I find it extremely difficult to believe that it does have it and no one has discovered or that Sony left it out in its marketing campaign.

Also, please state where you obtained your TZ from.

 

I have one purchased from the Sony Store in NY, and it too has a GPS, which is activated when you turn the Sprint connection on....

 

Maybe the ones from Sony U.S. have built in GPS just like its built in WWAN. Thats great news, but bad news for those that have non U.S. models.

Curious why Sony US didn't include that in its specs.

 

Can you elaborate on how the GPS works? You say you need to have Sprint in order to use it?

 

Are you sure you aren't confusing GPS with the Microsoft MapPoint 'Locate Me' function that uses Microsoft Location Finder and WiFi to try and determine your location?

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...66-3697-4906-a239-f4222c91e324&DisplayLang=en

 

it's in the smartwi app, you turn it on, (only works when sprint is on), and the streets and trips (bundled) can track the laptop on gps..... it's very neat!

and it's not on wifi.

 

when you say sprint is on, do you mean after you sign a contract w/ spring and you are using its EVDO service to go online? only then the gps works?

 

Does it track your location to an exact street address or a general area? If you get in your car and drive, does it change in real time?

Microsoft Location Finder works from geolocation of IP addresses, so it would work with Sprint, but it's not accurate beyond a couple of blocks.

 

tracks it to a street address....

and it's if sprint is connected and on. i have a sprint contract, so i'm not sure what happens without it....

 

It's probably related to the GPS in current cell phones.

 

Michael5... I have a TX29 and use the sprint card. I've heard that GPS is activated on the card & sprint network. Any way you could tell me the following?
* what version of the SmartWi utility you have
* is the card the Novatel EXPD-ES720
* if so, what verison is the sprint card driver

I got my TX in May and it does have the evdo rev A driver, but I don't see the GPS option in the SmartWi screens. I also don't see any software updates on the sony site. Another board (evdoforums.com) has a thread on the embedded sprint wwan card and gps being enabled.
Thx for any info you can share.

 

That doesnt sound like an onboard GPS system. Im in Ireland and one of the networks (O2) rolled out a system whereby you could see where your friends are at any given time. This system was withdrawn after the stalkers cottoned on that they could use it for their dodgy means.

Its a network tri-angulation system. Thats why its not as accurate as a stand-alone GPS. The network calculates your rough position on the network using GSM or CDMA then attaches the data to your assisned ip address. What Sprint would appear to be doing is using that data to tie in with a server which has GPS on their side and then sending that to your laptop which has mapping software on it. Viola, network based GPS look-a-like. Its great on an unlimited data plan but anyone in Europe who has tried it on pay per kb GPRS ends up with a phone bill that has as many digits as their number, like my idiot mate.

I'm a law student and we have been researching/and using these systems for murder cases and suspects alibies for a while now. Sprints idea is less creepy and more fun.

 

Juris, you live in Dublin ? Im from NZ, I will be going to Dublin for one of IEEE conference in October . I heard that it is not allowed to smoke inside any buildings or cars, etc. Is that true? And do they all speak english? Cheers.

 

Everybody speaks English, kinda on account that the English occupied us for 700 years and banned our native Gaelic. English would be considered the native language now. Now we're free but the language stuck.

It is illegal to smoke inside any public building in the Republic of Ireland. No taxis, business premises etc. Private dwellings are fine. Hotels usually allow smoking in their rooms as its a legal grey area whether they are public or private. A private car is fine as are streets. Its a ban but dont worry its not a blanket ban like in some American states. My people are an ingenious bunch so we have found ways around it especially in the most important place for the Irish, the pub. Now we have more beer gardens and outside coffee shops and if the club is a good one and ya are forced to go outside for a smoke its more like a 2nd party outside to go with the one inside. And many indoor pubs and clubs have opened the roof to make it legal for everyone to smoke in comfort. If you want some pointers on the best places to go pm me anytime.

BTW, after I finish the degree, the masters in criminology, the New York Bar and become a Barrister at Law i'm hopefully gonna emigrate to NZ to practice. I hear its absolutely beautiful. 2010 here I come.

 

Oh yeah, sorry, forgot to answer the 1st question. Yep, I live in Dublin, born, raised, got drunk. Still doin it.

 

NZ natives have weird accents. Us Aussies love to hear them say "six".

 

For what it's worth my Sprint connection manager has a GPS receiver which lists
lattitude, longitude, HEPE, speed, Satellites, Altitude, Last Fix, GPS Port, Heading. As of yet I have not gotten it to work. It's message reads " No GPS satellites are currently available. Please move outdoors to a different location"
Maybe I'll visit EVDO forums to see if anyone's gotten it to work, but it definitely has to do with actual satellite tracking from what I see. I have an EX720 Expresscard plugged into my 2.4 Ghz Macbook Pro. Marvelous machine by the way...If anyone can tell me how to do a screen grab of my desktop in Windows XP I will post what the connection manager GPS thingy looks like here. I am using boot camp tho.

 

I just signed up to www.evdoforums.com as you were saying and found the answers to alot of questions I, and hopefully some others were looking for. By the looks of the following thread the Sprint EVDO Rev A card does have some form of GPS capability but if your not on sprint it does not work. Again it looks like a carrier based GPS proxy service. It also appears I will be able to add this functionality to my Japanese TZ when I get it as the WWAN module can simply be stripped out of a Sprint U720 usb card. Thats asuming the TZ uses a mini-pci connector for the WWAN module. Can any of our US comrades please please please confirm that it uses mini-pci to connect. If so it would also mean that you would not be forced to use Sprint, just replace the card to replace the carrier.

http://www.evdoforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=5808&highlight=vaio+tz

 

After reading a lot of threads it now looks like the TZ has it all. But thats as long as its uncrippled by Sprint.

Again this is based on the assumption the TZ is using a Novatel U720 based mini-pci WWAN. If anyone can confirm that would be great.

It uses aGPS (assisted GPS) provided over the Sprint data network as I mentioned above.
However it can also function as a standard GPS unit as confirmed by Novatel using its own built-in antenna.

The best way for people to discover is to go to the www.evdoforums.com to see the detailed discussions on how to activate and control the available services.

 

Yes its mini-pci (mini-PCIe)

http://www.gottabemobile.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3347&PID=22009#22009

search google image for novatel disassemble

 

So does this mean that we could swap the WWAN mini-pci found in Japanese models (W-CDMA/GSM) for the Sprint replacement one in the U.S.? If so, I would get a Japanese 10th Anniversary one and do the change out, although I might be begging for trouble doing that.

 

i want gps software for tz

 

You forgot to use the magic word