Hacking GPS (ExtremeTech) [Paperback]

Kathie Kingsley-Hughes (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0764584243 | ISBN-13: 978-0764584244 | Publication Date: March 25, 2005 | Edition: 1

* This is the "user manual" that didn't come with any of the 30 million GPS receivers currently in use, showing readers how to modify, tweak, and hack their GPS to take it to new levels!
* Crazy-cool modifications include exploiting secret keycodes, revealing hidden features, building power cords and cables, hacking the battery and antenna, protecting a GPS from impact and falls, making a screen protector, and solar-powering a GPS
* Potential power users will take the function and performance of their GPS to a whole new level by hacking into the firmware and hacking into a PC connection with a GPS
* Fear not! Any potentially dangerous mod (to the device) is clearly labeled, with precautions listed that should be taken
* Game time! Readers can check out GPS games, check into hacking geocaching, and even use a GPS as a metal detector

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

You'll get lost in this book, but nowhere else

Your GPS is a really cool toy, but what if you could make it even cooler? What if you could build and hook up data cables, modify your iPAQ cradle to take a GPS connection, tweak the firmware, hook up to your PC without expensive software, use GPS data in a hundred creative ways, even solar-power your GPS? Suppose you could beef up your "first to find" quotient when geocaching, or use your GPS as a super-accurate clock. Well, you can. Read on—your adventure is just beginning!

Here's how to soup up your GPS

Covers both Garmin and Magellan models

1. Crack the secret codes
2. Build auxiliary battery packs
3. Navigate with your GPS
4. Make power and data cables
5. Sharpen your signal
6. Keep firmware update
7. Hack out a PC connectio
8. Create and load dat
9. Grab screenshots on the move
10. Set up an atomic clock
11. Customize GPS games
12. Discover paper-free geocaching

About the Author

Kathie Kingsley-Hughes has authored several technical/programming books and contributes regularly to a variety of forums on GPS and other high-tech outdoor devices. A zealous hiker, backpacker, and geocacher, she is rarely seen without her GPS (and usually a digital camera, spare batteries, sleeping bag, and similar survival gear!)

Product Details

• Paperback: 358 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (March 25, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764584243
• ISBN-13: 978-0764584244
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,286,497 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

My name is Adrian W Kingsley-Hughes. I am a technical consultant and author based in the UK. I have been around (and inside, on top of and beneath) computers for coming on two decades.
I live in the UK with my wife Kathie (who is also an author) and my fantastic children.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Useful Info, Dreadful Editing, June 28, 2005

By 

Kelly Runyon "MisterGadget" (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hacking GPS (ExtremeTech) (Paperback)

There are nuggets of useful information in this book, but they are somewhat thinly scattered among a lot of very clumsy sentences, some of which don't parse at all. Whoever edited this (or didn't) did a real disservice to the author. If the subject is of value to you, get a used version soon (before the info goes out of date), and don't pay a lot for it, or you'll regret the expense.

Also, I found it helpful to have some small Post-Its, to put tabs on the 30 or so pages with really useful information.

48 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Lots of VERY basic information, April 2, 2005

By 

William C. Ruff "billruff" (Plymouth, Mn United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hacking GPS (ExtremeTech) (Paperback)

If you have spent any time with your GPS unit you will find little if any new information in here. A lot of the book covers the basics that you will already know... and there is a whole chapter devoted to how to take a screenshoot of your GPS screens. The chapter is just a lot of pictures of screens.
There are snippets of useful information but they are far and few between. It is only because of these few snippets that I give it a two.
Save your money, spend an hour online at a good GPS site and you will be further ahead.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Complete waste of money., January 24, 2007

By 

K. Kransler (NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hacking GPS (ExtremeTech) (Paperback)

This book offers nothing more than little tidbits of information. Even to that end, all of this information is available online at various sites. This is a complete waste of money. You won't "hack" anything, but you will waste your money. A big disappointment!!!