Unlock your Samsung BlackJack II's integrated GPS receiver to work outside of TeleNav

The good news is that the new Samsung BlackJack II rocks a full-fledged SiRF III GPS receiver - none of that cell-tower signal triangulation stuff here. The bad news, unfortunately, is that the GPS hardware in the BlackJack II is locked-down to only work with the bundled TeleNav software (AT&T’s way of getting more TeleNav revenue).
You see, there’s this driver, called GPS Intermediary Driver (GPSID), that Microsoft uses to serve as the communications middle-man between the GPS hardware and applications that need to access the hardware. While the GPSID driver seems to be configured to work with the TeleNav software and Windows Live Search, there’s no provision for any other application to make use of the SiRF III GPS module.

Well, BlackJack 2 hopefuls will be glad to hear that the MoDaCo Smartphone GPS Activator will open up the GPS hardware on your Samsung BlackJack II (and probably the Motorola Q9h) to a host of GPS-enabled applications. The MoDaCo hack will open up the COM4 port for GPS access, allowing you to use associate your favorite apps like Virtual Mobile Earth or Google Maps with the GPS unit.

Turns out, the MoDaCo Smartphone GPS Activator also Application Unlocks your Windows Mobile 6.0 Standard handset. That means you can re-order the applications on your Start Menu - bonus!

Oh, and if any Motorola Q9h owners out there want to give this utility a go, please drop us a line and let us know how it works.

Over-The-Air install:
Point your mobile browser to: http://modaco.com/gpsactivatorbj2

On-device CAB install:
Run this CAB file from your handset: http://content.modaco.net/MoDaCo.SmartphoneGPSActivator.COM4.CAB

Computer installation:
Run this executable from your PC: http://content.modaco.net/Setup.MoDaCo.SmartphoneGPSActivator.COM4.EXE

Props to Paul for this awesome hack!

[Via: MoDaCo]

Telenav replies to Ask Mobile GPS with new features

This week TeleNav has unveiled new features to its off-board navigation solution GPS Navigator available notably on the US wireless operator Sprint. These new features can be understood as a direct reply to the launch of Ask Mobile GPS by InterActiveCorp (IAC) on the same wireless network one month ago (see our article here). While Telenav remains « the » de facto key navigation partner for Sprint, powering its Sprint Navigation solution, IAC includes much more than navigation to its solution (friend finder, Evite mobile, Citysearch) for the same US$9.99 .

With this new version of Telenav subscribers can now send their current location to any other mobile phone that can receive text messages, creating a quick and easy way to meet with friends or co-workers while on-the-go.

The biz Finder option offers more than 10 million Points of Interest and now users can also share addresses of favorite businesses. Before they head to a restaurant or make a reservation at a hotel, users can see how it was rated and reviewed by other people and sort by highest to lowest rating to help them make a decision, or view all of the search results on a map. TeleNav GPS Navigator also allows customers to rate restaurants themselves - directly from a mobile phone.

These new features are definitely a good move for Telenav, that was obviously working on it before the IAC launch (read our interview with TeleNav's CEO H.P. Jin here). Nevertheless TeleNav will have to find web content partners soon if it want to sustain the competition against IAC which web properties include Ask.com, Ticketmaster, Evite, Match.com, RealEstate.com - to name the most well-known - and attract 73 million unique monthly visitors in the US.