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Technical Details
- Just plug it into your iPod touch, iPhone, or iPad to add a high-performance, 66-channel MTK GPS Receiver.
- "Made for iPod" certified, compatible with ALL location-based iOS applications. No need to "jailbreak" your iOS device!
- Micro-USB port and included USB cable allow charging or iTunes synchronization during use. You can use your existing USB chargers.
- Perfect for aviation, hiking, running, star-gazing, geocaching, and many more location-based activities. Works great with popular apps like MotionX GPS, RunKeeper, Geocaching, Fore Flight, Zagat TO GO, Star Walk, and many, many more.
- Small, portable, and rugged. Compatible with most protective cases, vehicle mounts, and arm bands - plugs securely into 30-pin dock connector. Detachable lanyard included for safe-keeping.
Product Details
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Product Description
The Bad Elf GPS receiver plugs into the 30-pin dock connector on the iPod touch, iPhone, iPad and iPad2, providing high performance GPS data to ALL location-based iOS applications in the App Store. This Apple-approved accessory allows owners of iOS devices without an integrated GPS receiver (original iPhone, all iPod touch devices, the iPad Wi-Fi) to use mapping, navigation, geocaching, golf range-finding, boating, flying, driving and many other location-based apps.
This is the best-selling Apple-authorized GPS accessories on the market that works with the iPad Wi-Fi today!
Unlike most GPS cradles and car kits, this accessory is compatible with the form-factor of all past/current/future iOS devices, and allows you to continue using your favorite case as long as it does not block the 30-pin dock connector.
See the Bad Elf website for a list of apps that have good "offline" support and do not require a continuous Internet connection to work.
This accessory can use the Assisted GPS data provided by iOS when a network connection is available - but does not require it. The MTK chipset is known for its fast GPS lock times with or without this data.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
89 of 90 people found the following review helpful
Amazon Verified Purchase
I purchased this unit to add GPS to my iPad, and also to be able to use GPS when my iPhone 4 is in airplane mode.
This product works great, exactly as described. You simply plug the unit into the iPad/iPhone/iTouch and it adds native GPS support to every app. I can't emphasize that enough, the apps you already own work great with it, they don't need to be updated at all to work.
The bad elf gps collects and keeps an atlas of the GPS satellites on board the unit, so even from a cold start it finds it's position very quickly. This is a high performance GPS too, it works at altitude in a jet aircraft just fine, even at 35,000' at 500 mph, when the native iPhone 4 GPS couldn't even find it's position. (Refer to any airline's policies on portable electronic equipment before operating any iDevice inflight, but I'm sure you knew that.)
Of course this GPS draws it's power from the iPad/iPhone/iTouch, so it does drain the battery some. My experience using an iPhone 4, using a program called Skycharts Pro, with a constant screen full bright updates (worse case) was that it drained 15% of the battery life an hour. Since the iPad has a much bigger battery, I expect excellent battery life using this unit with the iPad's glorious 10" screen.
If you have access to a power source, you don't even need to be concerned about battery life, it has a USB type plug and cord included that you can use to power/charge/sync the iDevice while using the GPS. The only small downside is that my car charger uses a docking plug, I have to buy a new car charger that I can plug a USB cable into instead, an input 30 pin connector would have been better in my opinion.
I am recommending this product to anyone who wants to add GPS to their apple devices, or those who change devices every year, as this device can transfer as newer iPads & iPod touches enter the market.
This product works great, exactly as described. You simply plug the unit into the iPad/iPhone/iTouch and it adds native GPS support to every app. I can't emphasize that enough, the apps you already own work great with it, they don't need to be updated at all to work.
The bad elf gps collects and keeps an atlas of the GPS satellites on board the unit, so even from a cold start it finds it's position very quickly. This is a high performance GPS too, it works at altitude in a jet aircraft just fine, even at 35,000' at 500 mph, when the native iPhone 4 GPS couldn't even find it's position. (Refer to any airline's policies on portable electronic equipment before operating any iDevice inflight, but I'm sure you knew that.)
Of course this GPS draws it's power from the iPad/iPhone/iTouch, so it does drain the battery some. My experience using an iPhone 4, using a program called Skycharts Pro, with a constant screen full bright updates (worse case) was that it drained 15% of the battery life an hour. Since the iPad has a much bigger battery, I expect excellent battery life using this unit with the iPad's glorious 10" screen.
If you have access to a power source, you don't even need to be concerned about battery life, it has a USB type plug and cord included that you can use to power/charge/sync the iDevice while using the GPS. The only small downside is that my car charger uses a docking plug, I have to buy a new car charger that I can plug a USB cable into instead, an input 30 pin connector would have been better in my opinion.
I am recommending this product to anyone who wants to add GPS to their apple devices, or those who change devices every year, as this device can transfer as newer iPads & iPod touches enter the market.
38 of 38 people found the following review helpful
Amazon Verified Purchase
I recently got a Bad Elf GPS for my iPad 3G and use it with ForeFlight, WingX and other aviation Apps. Fantastic! Finally, I can maintain lock while I am flying and it outperforms the built-in GPS in the iPad 3G model. Initial lock takes about 30 seconds and is accomplished while I am doing my run-up and pre-takoff checklist. It maintains lock and this morning I tested it to 12,000 feet where the iPad 3G built-in GPS would often lose lock. I use my iPad with a kneeboard made for it and the Bad Elf does not get in the way. No problems with having the Bad Elf maintain lock with it being located on the iPad kneeboard (flying a high wing aircraft). Terrific device and a great addition to the iPad for aviation purposes.
34 of 35 people found the following review helpful
Amazon Verified Purchase
I live in a rural area where AT&T doesn't bother to have coverage so I have an iPod Touch and an iPad WiFi. I'm fine only having data access through WiFi, but I really wanted to have GPS to use location aware apps. I was happy to find out about the Dual GPS and the new Bad Elf GPS add-ons for an iPod Touch. I decided to go with the Bad Elf since it would also work with the iPad.
So far, I'm pretty happy. I was worried about battery life on the iPod Touch since mine is an old 1G and the battery is getting on in years. I haven't had a chance to run it down entirely yet, but I'm not noticing any drastic impact on battery life. (The iPad has *plenty* of battery so that is not an issue). I did get a New Trent IMP500 external battery with the Bad Elf which seems to work well with the Touch+Bad Elf. So, if I need really long battery life I'll have that as an option as well.
I tested the Bad Elf vs. a couple Garmins that I have. The Bad Elf has a new MTK chipset, one of my Garmins has a slightly older MTK chipset, and the other Garmin has a SirfStar chipset. Both the MTKs outperform the SirfStar. I did find that the older MTK Garmin slightly outperforms the Bad Elf in both satellite acquisition time and accuracy (I'm theorizing that the Garmin MTK has a larger antenna than the very compact Bad Elf??). Still, I'm pretty happy with the performance of the Bad Elf.
One benefit to the Garmin over the Bad Elf + Touch is that the Garmin's screen is much easier to see in sunlight than the Touch. The screen on the iPod is just too reflective in sunlight to be pleasant to use.
The Bad Elf itself seems to work quite well, but the real benefit over a dedicated GPS like a Garmin is having access to a wide variety of location aware apps. The interface on these apps is often many times better than the Garmin interface...although not always as there is a lot of variation in the App Store. So far I've found MotionX and Gaia to work well.
So far, I'm pretty happy. I was worried about battery life on the iPod Touch since mine is an old 1G and the battery is getting on in years. I haven't had a chance to run it down entirely yet, but I'm not noticing any drastic impact on battery life. (The iPad has *plenty* of battery so that is not an issue). I did get a New Trent IMP500 external battery with the Bad Elf which seems to work well with the Touch+Bad Elf. So, if I need really long battery life I'll have that as an option as well.
I tested the Bad Elf vs. a couple Garmins that I have. The Bad Elf has a new MTK chipset, one of my Garmins has a slightly older MTK chipset, and the other Garmin has a SirfStar chipset. Both the MTKs outperform the SirfStar. I did find that the older MTK Garmin slightly outperforms the Bad Elf in both satellite acquisition time and accuracy (I'm theorizing that the Garmin MTK has a larger antenna than the very compact Bad Elf??). Still, I'm pretty happy with the performance of the Bad Elf.
One benefit to the Garmin over the Bad Elf + Touch is that the Garmin's screen is much easier to see in sunlight than the Touch. The screen on the iPod is just too reflective in sunlight to be pleasant to use.
The Bad Elf itself seems to work quite well, but the real benefit over a dedicated GPS like a Garmin is having access to a wide variety of location aware apps. The interface on these apps is often many times better than the Garmin interface...although not always as there is a lot of variation in the App Store. So far I've found MotionX and Gaia to work well.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Bad Elf GPS receiver for iPad
This unit was all that was advertised. It was basically plug and play and worked great from the get go. Read more
Published 4 days ago by pkmusicman
Great GPS
Simply 4 stars only because it's not blue tooth. I run this in a small airplane and it works flawlessly. Read more
Published 13 days ago by Mark
Spot on!
Once the antenna got the signal, it worked great! Hubby says that it matched right along with the aircraft GPS.
Published 1 month ago by Jennifer Mitchell
GPS great, BUT connector is weak AND charging problems.
I purchased this unit and received it just before a driving trip from Chicago to Florida. First off, let me say that the GPS electronics of this unit worked great for entire trip. Read more
Published 1 month ago by jp
Bad Elf GPS
The Bad Elf GPS has worked great so far with the iPod Touch, so much so that I bought another for my wife's iPod.
Published 1 month ago by D. McGown
if it works...
This is a cool little device that lets your iPad or iPod be a gps like it should have been. When this thing works, it works fairly well. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Sean D. Adriano
pretty cool
I like how you can access the gps even without wifi or internet access. if you know how to utilize your current gps program, you'll be sure not to be lost with this little cool... Read more
Published 2 months ago by mitchell
can It works any place in the world?
I am thinking get one of this for my ipod Touch but actually i dont know if its possible that works in my country Colombia, anyone knows if works fine in any place in the... Read more
Published 2 months ago by J. SALDARRIAGA
Bad Elf
The Bad Elf works fine if you are in a car. Would not work in my cessna unless it was up in the window. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Lawrence A. Babb
Mony waste
I wasted my mony, the product did not help me with my iPad2, I used it with Jeppesen FD during flight did not help to get the signal.
Published 2 months ago by Suhail
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