Category: Gadgets

Sure you can use google maps on your mobile phone, but then you’re paying the potentially large data charges (especially if you live in Canada).  If you’ve got an all you can use data plan, you’re probably holding a G1 or an iPhone and MIDP isn’t interesting (or possible for that matter).  However, if you happen to be like me – you’ve got a highly capable MIDP enabled phone, and no data plan.

Inspired by my pending road trip to Kingston to see Tool, I figured I’d see what it would take to put offline maps on my phone.  It turns out to be pretty easy thanks to OpenStreetMap, JOSM, and Osm2GpsMid.

OpenStreetMap is sort of wikipedia for mapping data, if you haven’t taken a look at it – I’d encourage you to do so.  Some areas haven’t been filled in yet, and that’s an opportunity for you to pitch in an help out.  It is pretty impressive how complete the mapping data is.  I see that there is an oMaps application for the iPhone/iTouch.  I may have to get that the next time I’m travelling.  For the Tool concert, I’m leaving the iTouch at home.

The first step is to get some map data, and the easiest way to do that is to use JOSM – the Java based OpenStreetMap editor.  Locate the area you want to download it will only let you grab a (small) city sized area to edit at a time.  Since I was doing Kingston it fit nicely in the limitations of the editor.  Then simply save the OSM to a file on disk.

Now its time to convert that map data into a MIDP Midlet.  This is done using Osm2GpsMid, excuse the somewhat funky pathing in the command it isn’t necessary if you simply put all the files in the same directory (I didn’t).


java -Xmx1024M -jar ../Osm2GpsMid/Osm2GpsMid-0.5.00.jar ../Maps/kingston.osm


The result will be GpsMid-GpsMid-0.5.00.jad and GpsMid-GpsMid-0.5.00.jar.  Install these on your MIDP enabled phone.

Unfortunately my phone doesn’t have GPS/location services – but the search function works well.  The controls are well done: 1/3 are zoom in/out.  Keys 4/6/8/2 pan the map.  Normal cursor key does fine scrolling.   Search is predictive text style, just start typing away and it will ‘guess’ the street you’re looking for (smart).  More details on the GpsMid site.

Certainly not as cool as the iPhone app(s) – but this is pretty slick for my current cell phone.  Nice to know I’ll have a map in my pocket.

Apple provides the 3.0 upgrade “free” for iPhone owners, but those folk have either paid a premium for their devices or are locked into multi-year service agreements.  If you have an iTouch, the upgrade is basically $10.  While I would prefer that it was a free upgrade, I feel  obligated as a software professional to pay for the software I use (I like it when people who use my software pay for it).

The 3.0 upgrade adds a bunch of features.  In the brief time I’ve had the update, I haven’t used many of the new features but cut & paste is a welcome addition.  Push notifications look like they will possibly fix the ‘no background apps’ issue, I’m looking forward to trying out some apps that make use of the feature.  I didn’t notice that the web browser was slow, but I’m all about faster browsing.

I wish they had gone further with the bluetooth enhancement – ideally if they had managed to allow me to use my existing bluetooth enabled phone via an iTouch based interface I would have had a budget iPhone.  Imagine being able to dial your current non-Apple phone via the touch and then have it route the headset audio through the touch.  I suspect you’d soon get sick of carrying two devices and would drop the money on a real iPhone.  Oh well, today all that is offered is stereo headset support.

Read on for details on my upgrade difficulties, and how I resolved them.

Continue reading “iPod Touch 3.0 Upgrade”

The gadget lust was finally too much and I’ve purchased an iPod Touch.  Way back I was a fairly early adopter of the Palm Pilot 1000, however its been years since I’ve bothered to carry a PDA with me.  Cell phones have mostly closed that gap and the internet is more ubiquitous than it was back in 1996, these two technologies which have radically changed the information landscape around us.  While I do tease some of my friends with the iPhone (I charge my Nokia 5310 once a week), I’d have an iPhone if I could justify the cost of the monthly plans.

I’m a big fan of the Apple store online, specifically the refurbished section.  They offer “as new” products for a significant discount.  The refurbished iPod Touch has a new battery and outer shell, new earbuds, USB cable and it comes with the same 1-year warranty that a new unit would.  The only real difference is price (8Gb iTouch $199 vs. $239) and a plain white box.  If you can stand to wait until the latest model starts to be available refurbished, why pay full price?

I ordered monday, it arrived thursday.  Shipping was free.  Surprisingly it came from Shenzen, home of Foxconn (I found Bunnie’s description of Shenzen facinating, worth a read).  To give you a sense of the scale of the voyage that this lowly iPod Touch made over the past week – here is a map showing the voyage:

As I already have a video iPod, getting setup was very simple.  Using the latest version of iTunes, I just plugged in the new iTouch to let it charge and sync.  The initial sync was very slow, apparently this is somewhat expected.

As to exactly why I went out and bought an iTouch?  Well, it was a Fathers Day gift (Thanks Jenn!) – but I’ve been oogling at them for a while.  This LifeHacker article could serve as a good set of reasons to pick one up instead of holding out for an iPhone.  The 2nd generation iTouch is more compelling than the 1st – it has a faster processor (faster than the iPhone 3G, but not the 3G S), the headphone jack supports microphone input, there is also an external speaker.  In comparison to the iPhone – the 2nd generation  iTouch is missing: a camera, GPS, and of course cell phone functionality.  It does have almost every other ability.

So far its been very cool.  With only 8Gb of storage, I can’t get all my music on it – but iTunes seems to have done a fairly sane job of putting the right selection on without any interaction from me.  The App Store is really cool (but there are far too many apps out there).  If you need more convincing to jump on the Apple train, Jeff Atwood wrote an interesting commentary on the significance of the iPhone.