GPS with English maps

Issue: My new coworker needs either a stand-alone (type Garmin etc) or mobile phone with integrated GPS .
I looked on previous posts,but all are pretty old, so need some update.

  1. Are there stand-alone systems available for Tawain including English software AND English maps?

  2. The PDA and Smartphones here only seem to have a Chinese layout. Correct or not?

Some tips?

Garmin has decent maps for selected handhelds, but only in Chinese, and they only run on Chinese language units. Only a few models are available with a Chinese OS. The English basemaps are utterly useless, showing very little detail. There are no Mapsource products covering Taiwan either.

I have myself Mapking English maps and interface build to work on a PDA or smarphone, but I was told that the manufacturers are not paying for licenses here for English based Windows mobile… (that s why I bought my dopod in Hong Kong)

If you get a GPS-PDA (I had a Mio 168RS?) and install PaPaGo… you can set up the menus in English, but street names and voice navigation still have to be in Chinese.

Only problem I had with it was the crappy battery life (3 hours and it’s DEAD). So make sure you have a car-charger if you’re using it in the car.

Who’s going to invest the time and money to do the maps in English when the stupid government keeps changing the bloody spelling?

Mapking did… and I was the one who bought the map last month :smiley: (for my PDA mobile)

I just bought a Garmin nuvi 200 for 4800nt. It has English menus and English speaking. Chinese characters on the map though.

I phoned Garmin and they said if I swung by there main office they’d put a full English map into my GPS…BUT they said it would overwrite the Chinese map. Which would make it useless for my wife who can’t read English.

So for now I’m just using it as is.

One thing you can do if you have a Chinese map. Is manually click on the different cities and put them under “favorites” and give them their English name. That way when you do a search for “Hsinchu” it finds it under your favorites.

MapKing is not compatible with Symbian S60, so i can’t run it on my E71. Nokia maps’ English version of Taiwan is very limited.

I did some searching and found a product made by Route 66 ( route66.nl/route66/index.php … rodid=5475 ).

I have emailed them for more details.

Has anyone used this product?

Route 66 is ok afaik, but not tried the local version. TomTom 6 can be set to do English here, but the problem is that you can’t type in street names etc. as they’re not in English.

I read that about TomTom, that’s why I’m looking for alternatives, I need the English.

Got an answer from Route 66, does not work on the Nokia E71.

“1. I kindly inform you that on each map you can use every language which is available. So you can also use English
2. ‘A romanization system’ is being used.
3. We don’t know if it is PinYin or Wade-Giles
4. The latest map material is Q3-2008.
5. The cities Taipei, Kaohsiung are part of the map together with other cities.
6. The main streets are covered along Taiwan, and also some small streets in some of the cities.
7. Unfortunatelly your device (Nokia E71) is not compatible with the our software Mobile 8 S60.”

Downloaded and installed Nav4All on my E71. It is free, and therefore utter garbage. They plan on charging for it, at some stage, but it will need a lot of improvements.

Taiwan maps are from Q3 2007, so slightly outdated, the usual lack of minor street names (like Nokia maps), a very slow GPS lock (I set for for 3G a-GPS, but I am sure that it is still using the internal GPS). A cumbersome menu and search setup, hardly any POI ( even less than Nokia MAPS), and maps are hosted on a server, so need to be downloaded each time your position changes or if you zoom in/out.

This has now been uninstalled.

Garmon told me (after my multiple faxes and phone calls) that Garmin Mobile XT is NOT available in Taiwan, and Garmin USA told me (via phone) that the TaiwanMobile XT maps are not available in the USA?

So, I really do not have a clue how to actually get a legitimate copy of this?

MapKing advised me via email that they are not planning on releasing an English version of their Taiwan map for S60, because there is not enough demand.

I do hope that in time Route 66 will add an update for E71 compatibility, at this stage their product looks like the best alternative for GPS on Symbian devices.

If you’ve got a data plan, Windows Live Search has English street names