hi all, i have a question please

[ivan-r-don]

hi im new to the android/smartphone scene and was wondering if i could use sat nav on my htc hd desire without my contract sim card in it to use the gps as i live in uk and will be driving to germany iv'e got all maps for this but wouldnt like to drive for 12hours getting charged.any info would be great thanks again

 

[NightAngel79]

Hello and Welcome!!

 

[Martimus]

Welcome to the Android Forums!

I would think that you could operate the GPS on the phone without the SIM card being installed. That said it's not something that I've ever tried doing...

 

[sonesh]

You can use GPS without a SIM, but Google Maps downloads the map as you travel, so although the phone will plot your location, it wont show you any roads on the map.

You need a pre-loaded (cached) map solution, such as HTC's Locations app, for one of the many Third Party apps (that I'm sure other members will be able to tell you of shortly), but all of them do have a cost.

If you are happy with a bit of risk, you can type in the route you want to travel while connected to Wifi, and hope that it downloads the whole route and caches it, but if you take a wrong turn or need to travel an unplanned route, it wont be able to help you at all until it gets an internet connection again

 

[Harry2]

On my old phone (HTC Desire) I have intalled ALK CoPilot with its maps on the SD card.
Works fine without a SIM card

Harry

 

[john_g]

I've just checked and think this might be a solution for you... just put your phone in Airplane mode so that it won't be able to connect to any network. In this mode the GPS still seems to work.

 

[dijon]

I've just checked and think this might be a solution for you... just put your phone in Airplane mode so that it won't be able to connect to any network. In this mode the GPS still seems to work.

Great suggestion, that should work well.