Using a Bluetooth GPS with Live Search
for Windows Mobile |
| | Live Search for Windows Mobile is a highly useful program that allows you to search, get directions, and check on traffic conditions, movie times, and a whole lot more—all from your Windows Mobile smartphone. What many people don't realize, however, is that Live Search also works with Bluetooth GPS units.
When you use Live Search for Windows Mobile with a Bluetooth GPS, you gain even better search results because the software can direct you to what you're looking for based on where you are right now; and you can get accurate, turn-by-turn driving directions. Without a Bluetooth GPS, Live Search is still tremendously useful, but when you add in the GPS factor, the combination is even better—especially when it comes to finding restaurants and businesses close to where you are. This article is going to cover the basics of buying, configuring, and using a Bluetooth GPS with Live Search for Windows Mobile. |
| Picking the right GPS unit | Sometimes shopping for technology can be difficult because there are so many choices and you want to make sure you pick the right solution. Thankfully, buying a Bluetooth GPS is relatively simple—all modern Bluetooth GPS units have the same basic functionality; and while they will differ slightly based on the exact hardware (which affects battery life, satellite lock-in time, etc.), in the end, any modern Bluetooth GPS will work with Live Search for Windows Mobile. And here's some more good news: Because Live Search has its own maps, you only need to purchase a standalone Bluetooth GPS unit—not one that comes bundled with software and maps.
The Pharos Bluetooth GPS PT120 is a popular unit that works very well: It's small in size, has a rechargeable battery, and at a cost of about US$89.95, it's affordable as well. The same GPS unit from Pharos with software is about US$199, so Live Search is saving you money already! If you'd like to see what other Bluetooth GPS units are out there, a quick Live Search will give you plenty to choose from. Once you've bought your Bluetooth GPS, make sure it's recharged and ready to go. |
| Getting the Bluetooth GPS connected to your Windows Mobile Smartphone | Setting up a Bluetooth GPS to work with your Windows Mobile Professional or Standard smartphone isn't complicated, but it's certainly not intuitive the first time you do it. Follow the steps below to get it configured—for the purpose of this article, I'm using a Pharos Bluetooth GPS PT250. It's similar to many other GPS units on the market; so regardless of which brand of Bluetooth GPS you have, the basic steps will be the same. I've included steps for setting up both Windows Mobile 6 Professional and Standard smartphones. |
| Setup procedure using Windows Mobile 6 Professional | To set up your Windows Mobile Professional smartphone, follow these steps (I'm using an HTC Touch running Windows Mobile 6 for these steps): |
| Tap Start, then Settings, and look in the Connections tab. You should see a Bluetooth icon—tap on it. The Devices tab will show up first, and you'll see Add New Device as an option. Select that option. Ensure your Bluetooth GPS is turned on and within 30 feet of your mobile device. In order to establish a partnership the Bluetooth GPS will ask for a passcode—this will be a number that you'll need to enter in order to create the partnership. In the case of the Pharos GPS, I had to enter "12345678." Many Bluetooth devices use "0000" (four zeros). The number will be in the manual for your Bluetooth GPS. After the partnership is established, you'll be prompted to select which services to use from the Bluetooth GPS. Typically, the only option that will appear is Serial Port. Check the box next to it and click Finish. You'll now see the Bluetooth tab from step two, only this time you should see your Bluetooth GPS listed as a device. If you don't, something went wrong during the setup process and you should start the steps over again. Now that the partnership has been created you'll need to create a COM port for the GPS to use. Click on the COM Ports tab. Select New Outgoing Port. You should see the device name of the GPS you just partnered with—select it and select Next. You'll have a drop-down list of ports to choose from. Select COM7 as the port. If for some reason COM7 isn't available, select any other COM port. Leave the Secure Connection box checked and select Finish. You've now configured the partnership between your Windows Mobile Professional smartphone and the Bluetooth GPS—congratulations! Figures 1 and 2 below show the end result.
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Figures 1 and 2: This shows that the Pharos Bluetooth GPS has been added as a device, and it's configured to use COM7. |
| Setup procedure using Windows Mobile 6 Standard | To set up your Windows Mobile Standard smartphone, follow these steps (I'm using a T-Mobile Dash™ running Windows Mobile 6 for these steps. If you have a different Windows Mobile Standard smartphone, the setup will be similar): | Select Start, then scroll down to Setting and select it. Once inside Settings, scroll down to Connections. Once inside Connections, select Bluetooth from the list. Once inside the Bluetooth settings, select Bluetooth again. You'll see a menu item called Add Device. Select that. The smartphone will begin to scan for nearby Bluetooth devices. After about 10 to 20 seconds, it should find your Bluetooth GPS device. My Pharos GPS shows up as "Pharos iGPS-BT". Select the Bluetooth GPS you want to partner with and select Next. In order to establish a partnership, the Bluetooth GPS will ask for a passcode—this will be a number that you'll need to enter in order to create the partnership. In the case of the Pharos GPS, I had to enter "12345678." Many Bluetooth devices use "0000" (four zeros). The number will be in the manual for your Bluetooth GPS After it has paired, select Next. You'll be prompted to enter a display name — this is the name your GPS will be known by — but it should have a default name that you can use. Select Next. After the partnership is established, you'll be prompted to select which services to use from the Bluetooth GPS. Typically the only option that will appear is Serial Port. Select the box next to that option using your control pad, then select Done. You'll now see the Bluetooth Devices from step five, only this time you should see your Bluetooth GPS listed as a device. If you don't, something went wrong during the setup process and you should start the steps over again. Now that the partnership has been created you'll need to create a COM port for the GPS to use. Select Menu, then select COM Ports. Select Menu and chose New Outgoing Port. You should see the device name of the GPS you just partnered with—select it and chose the Select soft key. You'll have a drop-down list of ports to choose from. Select COM7 as the port. If for some reason COM7 isn't available, select any other COM port. Leave the Secure Connection box checked and select Done. You've now configured the partnership between your Windows Mobile Standard smartphone and the Bluetooth GPS—congratulations!
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| Once you've connected your Bluetooth GPS to your Windows Mobile smartphone, the next step is to get Live Search for Windows Mobile installed and configured. |
| Installing and configuring Live Search for Windows Mobile | The best way to get Live Search for Windows Mobile installed is to go to http://wls.live.com using the Web browser on your smartphone. You'll be given the option to select the operating system on your smartphone—either Windows Mobile 5 or later. Once the download starts it will take under a minute, and when it's completed the software install will kick off. The only decision you have to make at this point is where to put it: internal memory or on a storage card.
Once you have installed Live Search, follow these steps to get your Bluetooth GPS (which should still be powered on after you created the partnership) working with Live Search: |
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Figures 3 and 4: Configuring Live Search to use your GPS and using it to find your location |
| Once the Live Search software has loaded, select Menu, then Settings You'll see the second option down referencing GPS—it will probably say "No GPS" (Figure 3). Select it and move the control pad on your smartphone to the right or left until you've selected COM7 (or whatever port you selected in the Bluetooth set-up procedures above). This is the COM port that your GPS will use. Once you've picked the right COM port, select Done. To test that everything is working ok, select Choose A New Location from the home screen of Live Search. You'll see several options, one of which is Current GPS Position. Select that and you should see "Waiting For GPS" appear on the screen (Figure 4). If you have configured Live Search and GPS correctly, after a few seconds Live Search will then ask you to name the GPS position. Use something easy to understand such as "Work" or "Home." You can repeat this step as many times as you want from different locations—so you might do it once for work, once for home, and once for a centralized location such as downtown.
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| That's it; you're done—now whenever you use Live Search to find something, you can pick your starting point as one of these GPS locations. Or, if you're someplace new, Current GPS Location will try to find you. Cell carriers do vary in the extent of their coverage area. |
| Using Live Search for Windows Mobile with a GPS | Live Search has many great features that need an article unto themselves to explore. For example, the 2.5 release features speech recognition. So, you can say "gas station" and Live Search will locate all of the nearest gas stations to your GPS location, ranked by distance. Once you've selected the gas station you want to go to, you can save it to your contacts, get driving directions, call their phone number, search near that location for where you want to go next, or send an SMS message with the location to a friend (more useful for restaurants than gas stations). You can also combine speech functions by asking for the name of a business in a certain city: "Best Buy in Las Vegas" and it will find the results after confirming that you said "Best Buy" and "Las Vegas." Amazing!
Other functions of Live Search include looking up movie times and locations, the lowest gas prices, and even traffic information (in supported locations). The combination of a Windows Mobile smartphone and a Bluetooth GPS catapults the usefulness of Live Search from a handy application to a must-have information tool that you'll rely on more and more every day. |
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|  |  | About the author Jason Dunn owns and operates Thoughts Media Inc., a company dedicated to creating the best in online communities. He enjoys mobile devices, digital media content creation/editing, and pretty much all technology. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, with his lovely wife, and his sometimes obedient dog. |
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