Bluetooth GPS receiver that works with a variety of devices

The i.trek M5 is a gps receiver that will work with any device that is bluetooth enabled. You could pair this with a laptop or a smart phone or a pda.

The i.trek M5 is unusual because it is a 32 channel gps. Most receivers have less channels and are thus a bit less sensitive.

What's in the box:
GPS
AC adapter
12V adapter
disk with manual and a utility for talking to the gps.

Setup:
Not a lot of setup. Charge the battery. Pair it with the bluetooth device, setup the com port. When the receiver is first turned on you may want to let it sit where it can see the sky for about 15 minutes so it can download updated satellite data. Most of the time it won't be necessary to do this, only if the unit sits for months without use. A full almanac download can take ten minutes plus but that doesn't happen every time the gps is used.

Operation:
There is an on/off switch on the side and three indicator lights on the top. Bluetooth is pretty short range, you get a max of about 20 feet with most devices like this. The manual tells you the meaning of the lights on top, the blue is bluetooth connection and the orange one indicates that it's communicating with the gps satellites in orbit. There is a third light that apparently only comes on to indicate low battery.

Battery life:
Due to power saving functions a battery charge should last a long time (30 hours according to the manual, a lot more in standby time).

Using this unit:
It's so tiny and light you could wear this clipped to your hat if you wanted to. To use this your pda or smart phone must have bluetooth. If using the unit in a car be careful of locating it around devices such as the AC blower motor. Another hazard in a car is window tinting, many types of tinting will block gps signals for some reason. Some cars use a sort of insulated glass that may also block the gps signal. This unit doesn't "appear" to have a plug for an extended antenna. As far as I can tell it doesn't have a magnetic base or anything like that either. My car doesn't have insulated glass or any tinting on the front window, I just put it in the channel above the dash board, only problem is it will slide around but so far that doesn't seem to be affecting operation. You don't even have to start the gps in the software I have, it starts working as soon as the gps starts communicating with the device it's paired to.

What I'm using it for:
I bought this unit for in car navigation mostly, the rechargeable battery means it can be used for handheld operation too if you wanted to. My earlier gps setup runs on a dell axim x5 using mapopolis and a compact flash based gps. That's a great setup but these days the program is no longer sold and my maps are getting long in the tooth.

When I bought my tmobile MDA, I looked around at the packages that will run on a smart phone. I've dealt a lot with Semsons.com, the store has been around a long time and I've been very happy with everything I've bought from them. Semsons recommended this gps paired with iguidance four software (see my review on the iguidance), for $129.00 they were running a special that included this gps and that package so I decided to try that. Primarily I wanted this for use in the car where 12V power is available but supposedly the rechargeable battery in this unit will last 30 hours of use due to power saving features (300 hours standby) so conceivably you can easily use this as a handheld gps. I.trek could make the unit better by supplying a little plastic clip so you could hang it on your hat or off the back of your backpack where it can see the sky. Only thing about using this unit handheld is that it uses bluetooth for communication and bluetooth, depending upon the smartphone (or any other device for that matter), can really suck down the battery faster if used; so if you're goin to use this handheld you probably want the extended super duper battery for your smartphone or other device.

What I think about it:
I bought this as a package with iguidance 4 from semsons.com. I've been dealing with this company for years and they recommended this unit with that software. Right now you can get the software and this gps for 129.00 which is about a hundred dollars cheaper than what these are normally sold for. Once I got the software to see this gps for the first time I've had no problems at all with it.

If you're just driving down the street it accurately tracks you and this unit seems to be a touch more accurate than my older tech cf gps units. This unit has 32 channels which should mean it would be more successful in getting a lock than units with less channels in a difficult reception situation. Difficult reception areas are usually big cities with skyscrapers and mountainous areas, unfortunatly I don't really have a place with lots of either to test how well this does in difficult reception circumstances. My old unit sometimes lost lock when I crossed the bay, this one didn't at all. Keep in mind that bluetooth will suck the battery down faster on your pda or smartphone so you may want to be sure that you've got extra batteries or external power available. In the car you can use 12V adapters (buy yourself one of those three taps they sell at radio shack so you can power the phone and the gps if you're going on a long trip) to run your devices.

This is a tiny, light gps with an onboard rechargeable battery, so far I have no complaints about it other than they could have put some kind of hanger on it so it can be clipped to clothing or a visor in the car.