[HunterRose1971]

Hi:

I have recently been looking at buying a garmin handheld gps unit for hiking, camping and 4x4ing (don't worry, I stay on premarked trails). Then it occured to me that I was also getting ready to purchase my first blackberry, and I wondered if I might kill two birds with one stone.

I understand from perusing the forums that I will either need a BB model with an internal GPS or purchase a separate bluetooth GPS unit to go with my BB. And it appears that with the internal units, I need to make sure that my service provider supports it.

My question is this:

With either the internal or external gps systems, do I need a cell signal to have the gps function work. I live in Colorado and there is no cell signal where I go hiking/camping/4x4ing. I know that the Garmin handheld units will just locate a satelite and start dl'ing information, but do the internal/external gps receivers on BB do the same? Or will I only be able to get gps information if I am in an area that has a cell signal?

I hope this makes sense, thanks for your time folks:

Hunter

[Stinsonddog]

Yes you need the cell to work, to load the maps as you go. Problem is that there is no good program to do what you want on the BB yet. Spot comes closest, but you will need cell to pull the maps. That is the only one that I have seen that has geo maps. See my tips site for a full review.

[funkym]

Originally Posted by Stinsonddog

Yes you need the cell to work, to load the maps as you go. Problem is that there is no good program to do what you want on the BB yet. Spot comes closest, but you will need cell to pull the maps. That is the only one that I have seen that has geo maps. See my tips site for a full review.

Stinsonddog, if you have a Pearl, you might be able to get maps without cell coverage Take a look to the thread I have just created: GPS Tool supporting the Map Image and Waypoint files