GPS Tuner 5.0 Released

[Darius Wey]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.gpstuner.com/' target='_blank'>http://www.gpstuner.com/</a><br /><br /></div><i>"GPS Tuner is an off-road navigation software for Pocket PC devices. While most car navigation software gives you the possibility of planning your route based on a road network, GPS Tuner gives you the ability of navigation where the roads end. GPS Tuner is an excellent tool for hiking, geocaching, boating, flying, driving and many other sporting activities. GPS Tuner is an excellent tool for hiking, geocaching, boating, flying, driving and many other sporting activities, where the monitoring of duration, distance and speed can be important."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/wey-20060926-gpstuner.gif" /><br /><br />I fell in love with <a href="http://www.gpstuner.com/overview.htm">GPS Tuner</a> at the start of this year. It's a king in the geocaching field, offering more features than one can poke a stick at. Version 5.0 was just launched recently (alongside a <a href="http://www.gpstuner.com/">new-look web site</a>), boasting a new interface, optimised performance, a trip computer, support for large JPG files, and support for landscape and square-screen displays. You can create a fantastic set of maps using <a href="http://www.gpstuner.com/googleearth.htm">Google Earth and Map Calibrator</a>. Interested in a trial version or purchasing the full version? Head over to our <a href="http://www.handango.com/ampp/store/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&productType=2&productId=90887">affiliate software store</a>. If you own a previous version of GPS Tuner, you can learn more about special pricing <a href="http://www.gpstuner.com/buy/index.html">here</a>.

[Brad Adrian]

I really started to like this application a lot, too, especially since I'm relatively new to the whole GPS scene. One thing that's always confused me, though, is the different formats the various sources use for GPS coordinates on their maps. If you need a GREAT tool for converting between them, take a look at TranCreative's MXConverter:

http://www.trancreative.com/mxconv.aspx

[Brad Adrian]

Oh, and one other bit of advice:

If you create your own maps from sites like Google Earth and use Map Calibrator to calibrate them, when you copy the JPG file to your Pocket PC, make sure that your ActiveSync settings don't automatically change the image, like resize it, rotate it or anything else. That will keep it from working correctly in GPSTuner. Either make sure that no transformation is made, or copy the files to your Storage Card using a card reader or similar method.

If you follow the instructions provided with GPSTuner, though, you should be able to create very reliable maps very quickly and easily (even I could!). I was able to capture a Google Earth map and calibrate it and copy it into GPSTuner in about ten minutes.