Has Loadstone GPS helped you gain independence? Please consider making a donation so it can continue to make a difference.
If you would like to purchase any items or technology to improve your Loadstone GPS experience, the following retailers may be able to help.
In addition, a handy search box is available at the bottom of every page where you may directly search for suitable products or content from the Loadstone GPS web site.
Here you will find answers to frequently asked questions. If you do not find an answer to a question you may have, please subscribe to the Loadstone GPS mailing list and ask your question there. Members of the Loadstone GPS community will be happy to help! Please visit the Support page for information regarding the mailing list.
What is Loadstone GPS?
Loadstone GPS is an application written for Symbian/Series60 mobile phones that works in conjunction with a Bluetooth GPS receiver to guide a user to various geographical locations. The program was primarily developed to be a navigational assistant for the blind but can be used by everyone regardless of level of sight.
Back to list of questions...Why is Loadstone GPS free when other well-known companies sell their GPS navigation products for a considerable sum of money?
We believe that everyone has a right to independent mobility regardless of how much money someone may or may not have. Bluetooth GPS receivers, appropriate mobile phones, and screen readers are costly already and we do not wish to exasperate things by adding an additional financial burden.
Back to list of questions...If Loadstone GPS is free who pays for the development costs?
To keep the project on-track and progressive, we solely depend on donations from users and other interested parties. We made a substantial financial investment initially (out of our own pockets) to purchase test equipment to help things get started. Unfortunately it just isn't possible for us to self-fund every new mobile Smart phone or Bluetooth GPS receiver that comes on to the market. In addition the developers volunteer countless numbers of hours to the project in the form of: designing, programming, debugging and testing the program as well as the web site, mailing list and points repository. (unfortunately bandwidth is not free!)
We hope that people will give Loadstone GPS a try and if they find it useful and are in a position to make a contribution, that they will consider making a donation. This way, everybody wins!
Back to list of questions...I have noticed that the Loadstone GPS project team really promotes the idea of having members of the Loadstone GPS community help each other with support and technical issues rather than offering an official support channel direct to the developers. Why?
We simply do not have the resources (financial or man--power) to offer such a service at this time. We would be willing to consider offering formalised support, training, or specific development for a fee.
Also, we know some members of the Loadstone GPS project community are very passionate about technology and are quite often willing to assist others who may need help. To learn more, please visit our Mailing List page.
Back to list of questions...I have a question about Loadstone GPS. Who do I ask?
Questions, comments, suggestions, bugs are all dealt with openly by the Loadstone GPS community on the mailing list. The development team regularly monitors and contributes to the mailing list and you are likely to receive timely feedback on your query.
Back to list of questions...In addition to a mobile phone that uses the Symbian/Series60 platform and a Bluetooth GPS receiver, is there anything else I need to have before I can use Loadstone GPS?
These two components are all you need to make Loadstone GPS work; however, the program is not self-voicing so you may need to use a mobile phone screen reader such as Talks or Mobile Speak if you are unable to see the screen.
Back to list of questions...I just downloaded and installed Loadstone GPS and there does not appear to be any map data?
Loadstone GPS does not come by default with any mapping data. This is because most map-data suppliers charge exorbitant licensing fees to use their information. Instead we prefer to combine freely available mapping data with points that Loadstone GPS users have created themselves and are willing to share amongst the community. Our points database currently has street-map information for most of North America and we would definitely make more data available as other country's begin to release geographical data into the public domain. After all, it is usually money from public taxpayers that fund government Geographical information collection projects anyway!
We also very much hope that users of Loadstone GPS will share the points they have created with other members of the community. Imagine if one thousand Loadstone GPS users each had one thousand unique points that they shared with each other? All of the sudden Loadstone GPS users would have one million points that they could include in their database! To facilitate this, we have developed a points repository where users can exchange point information.
As an example, what countries are already represented in the Points Repository?
As of summer 2006 we have points from the following countries:
It is hoped that many more countries will be represented once the Loadstone GPS user-base increases.
Back to list of questions...What Bluetooth GPS receivers work best with Loadstone GPS?
We have tested Bluetooth GPS receivers using both the SiRf Star II and SiRf Star III chipsets. Bluetooth GPS receivers using the SiRf Star II chip tend to be slightly more accurate while receivers using the SiRf Star III chip tend to be quite a bit more sensitive allowing users to gain stronger signals indoors or moving vehicles. Models from Royaltek, Globalsat, and Holux have all proved to work well. In particular the following receivers have been tested by the development team:
Royaltek 2110 (SiRf Star III)
Globalsat BT-338 (SiRf Star III)
Holux GR-236 (SiRf Star III)
Holux GR-230 (SiRf Star II)
Which mobile (cellular) phones work best with Loadstone GPS?
The mobile phone must use the Symbian/Series60 platform. Most Symbian/Series60 phones are manufactured by Nokia; however, other manufacturers such as Siemens, Samsung and Sony Eriksson have models which use the Symbian platform. Thus far, we have only had successful reports from Nokia mobile users.
Particular phones that have been tested with Loadstone GPS include:
Although we have only been able to officially test Loadstone GPS with the above models, we can not see any reason why it wouldn't work on other Symbian/Series60 1st, 2nd and 3rd Edition phones. The best way to know for sure is to try it and see!
Loadstone will not work with Nokia Symbian/Series80 devices.
Back to list of questions...
Can Loadstone GPS display messages in languages other than English?
Yes it is possible; however, the developer's linguistical skills are heavily biased towards the English language. If you would like to translate the messages into other languages, please get in touch. We would be happy to include them into future releases.
Back to list of questions...Is Loadstone GPS any use if I do not own a GPS receiver?
Yes, without a Bluetooth GPS receiver you can still monitor Cellular phone sites (Mobile masts). Quite a useful feature for knowing where you roughly are on bus/train/plane journeys You can often find a stop based on this information!.
Back to list of questions...Other than the PointShare exchange, is there another way of obtaining point coordinates for a previously unvisited location?
There are several ways of doing this. If you visit:www.maporama.com (external site)
You can enter a postal code and get the longitude/latitude accurate to within 100 metres. Not perfect but good enough to get you to the nearest bus stop. You can then update the point with the exact location once you've found the place. Other sites that are useful for this kind of info are: www.streetmap.co.uk (external site)
www.multimap.com (external site)
www.mapquest.com - must view the source code (external site)
Back to list of questions...
Although Loadstone-GPS is free to use, it has used up thousands of development and testing hours since February 2004. In order for us to continue funding this project, adding features, improving functionality, and strengthening the support and documentation we need your help.
Please consider making a donation (Large or small - any amount is gratefully received) and will ensure development of this project continues well into the future.
Select this link to donate to the Loadstone-GPS project