FREE GPS Tracking & Mapping applications

After a pretty long period I thought of exploring for interesting GPS applications on the net. Finally after visiting few Blogs & Forums on the net I got some free GPS apps which I though of sharing with you people in this GPS-enabled era.

Buddyway
Its FREE, easy to use GPS Tracking Mobile app. It has a client component which to be installed on the cell. The cell phone app is quite easy to configure. One of the main requirements of any GPS Tracking app is Internet connectivity. So before you install this app on the phone, do ensure that you have Advanced GPRS, EDGE or 3G services activated for complete Internet to work.

To use the app you first need to register for a FREE Buddyway account. Once that is done, you have to install the Cell phone app & configure it to send regular GPS updates to your Buddyway account via GPRS/EDGE/3G. You can then create your own Trips on the Buddyway app on your Cell & continue travelling. Any user with whom you plan to share your trips, or any trusted person who has access to your Buddyway credentials can logon from the Buddyway Portal & track your current position.

Each trip you create gets saved on your web account & has a direct link to a web-based map. Inside your account you also get lots of other useful information about your trip. Yesterday after installing this app I just strolled a few 100 meters outside my Building. The Trip screen shot is shown below.

Sea Clear

It is a FREE GPS mapping application which would be of great help for people working in GIS domain. Here you can create Routes with the help of an External GPS Receiver.

Since I have mentioned about External GPS Receivers, I thought I should also talk about another interesting Mobile App called Symarctic ExtGPS. This application literally converts your GPS-enabled Cell Phone into an External Bluetooth-enabled GPS Receiver.

It provides GPS output in NMEA-0183 standard. Your Cell can thus be used as an External GPS Receiver by pairing it with any device which supports an External Bluetooth GPS with NMEA-0183 standards. For eg, Nokia N81 has support for an External GPS Receiver via Bluetooth. You can thus turn on this app on your Cell after switching on Bluetooth & then pair it with N81.

Similarly, you can start the Symartic ExtGPS app on your Cell & access all the GPS data on SeaClear through a Bluetooth Dongle on your PC, as shown below.

So don't waste your time. Make full utilization of the GPS capabilities of your Cell Phone.

(Note: All the Cell Phone screenshots in this post are taken using the DEMO version of Remote S60 Professional. It is an excellent app to access your Cell Phones UI from the PC via USB or Blueooth.)