If you are an old time PDA user, you probably have an external GPS receiver (more than likely with BT connectivity). These small and very useful devices allowed our devices to be used as GPS devices (assuming you had either a good data plan that allowed you to use Live, GoogleMaps, or that you had a third party software like TomTom). Then, came the age where devices started coming equipped with GPS internally (Kaiser, Vogue, etc). While it was more convenient to have everything in a single package, the quality of the GPS itself wasn't as good as the small standalone counterparts. This became painfully obvious with the release of the Samsung Galaxy S devices.

In order to solve this problem, XDA member herbert1 decided to create an application that would allow any Android device to connect a GPS receiver via BT. The app allows Android to bypass the internal GPS and use the external one instead. The app was tested in the Galaxy S I9000 and the HTC Sapphire. If you have tested it on other devices or if you have any feedback, please let the dev know.

I have a bluetooth GPS that I used to use some years ago with a GPS navigation application on my windows mobile phone (HTC BlueAngel, then HTC Elf).

When I switched for an Android phone (HTC Magic, then Acer Liquid), I was strangely unable to use it. It wasn't a big issue for me since both phones have an internal GPS. However, recently I bought a Samsung S galaxy, which GPS is barely usable...

I've searched something for using my bluetooth GPS, but I haven't found any open source application.

So I've developed one:

  • it' free,
  • it's open-source (you can verify what it's really doing and you can improve it!), 

You can find more information in the application thread.

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  • it just asks for needed permissions.