I has been change my 3,5 year old Nokia Phone to the BlackBerry Curve 8310. So far I am pretty happy with it. I spend about an hour to customize it to my needs.
Like my old nokia phone feature, BlackBerry Curve 8310 is the integrated GPS. Tracking your exact location using “Blackberry Maps” or a free program like Google Maps is not difficult and only takes a bit of preparation and patience. Follow these steps to make maps work on a Blackberry Curve. Free Google Maps works great with the integrated GPS and here is how I got it to work:
  • Make sure that the GPS is working and has connection to satellites. Go to Options -> Advanced Options -> GPS -> select the menu and choose “Refresh GPS”. The display will tell you the number of satellites it can reach and your location. I noticed it does not work in my office in San Jose or in close range to high rise buildings.
  • Download Google Maps from google.com/gmm (using the Blackberry browser) and follow the instructions to install it on your Blackberry (I have Google Maps version 2.0.1). Do not use the Google Suite installer for Blackberry (which includes additional Google apps), since according to some reports has a different Google Maps version which does not work with the internal GPS.
  • Go to Options -> Applications -> Google Maps -> select the menu and choose “Edit Permissions”; Select connections and select the menu to expand it. Make sure you allow “Location (GPS)” and “Carrier Internet” connections for the app.
  • Save the changes. Go back the applications menu and start Google Maps. Hit “0“ ? and it should now show a blinking point which indicates your current location.

As I started test to drive, the “dot” started following along the route

Note#1 :
Very soon, on the road, I was at the 2nd step, but the map was still showing the first step and the dot was beyond the range of the current map/screen [ reason : I didn't manually press "3" to move to the next step ]. So, you have to manually keep pressing “3″ to get the next step direction [ It is your job to keep the moving dot/map within the scope of the screen ]
Note#2 :
The map doesn’t rotate to keep your heading … in other words, you will need to rotate your 8310, so that you know whether to turn right or left, as you navigate the various steps.
Note#3 :
It doesn’t re-calculate if you take a wrong turn.
Another thing I noticed is that when you zoom in, beyond a point, your “blinking blue dot” will be off road, going parallel to your route.
On the whole, IMHO, this is not a good “real-time” navigation aid. If you want a real time navigation tool, then this is not the one.
After going thru the TeleNav website, it looks a pretty robust application with tons of features [my ford's navigation system doesn't seem to have that many features]. Looks like there is a 30 day free trial for TeleNav.