How to Do Everything with Your GPS [Paperback]

Rick Broida (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0072231718 | ISBN-13: 978-0072231717 | Publication Date: November 28, 2003 | Edition: 1

Locate this perfect teaching guide to GPS, and master GPS receivers and software. Technology guru Rick Broida, who has written many best-selling books in the How to Do Everything series, maps out the guts of GPS in a friendly, helpful way that shows you how to get the most from this new technology. Master GPS receivers and software, use GPS in cars, PDAs, and laptops, and even go GPS golfing or try geocaching, the new game featuring GPS.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Map your way around an unfamiliar city, improve your golf game, and avoid getting lost while hiking, camping, or boating. Use GPS receivers in your PDA, automobile, or cell phone for help with road navigation, outdoor adventures, games, and more. You'll even learn how to use GPS for business applications. Author Rick Broida provides insight, information, and examples on all the essentials, including real-world GPS case studies in each chapter. How to Do Everything with Your GPS will help you learn more about this remarkable technology with an increasing diversity of applications.

• Navigate from Point A to Point B, anywhere on Earth
• Mount and configure your GPS correctly
• Improve your golf game
• Find your favorite fishing spots
• Monitor employee whereabouts and billable time
• Learn the amazing things you can do with your Garmin iQue 3600
• Select the right in-car system and PDA GPS for your needs
• Track your children with the GPS-enabled Wherify watch

About the author: Rick Broida is the founder and editor of Handheld Computing, the number-one guide to handheld devices. He is the best-selling author of the first three editions of How to Do Everything with Your Palm Handheld as well as How to Do Everything with Your Sony CLIE.

About the Author

Rick Broida is the founder and editor of Handheld Computing, the first and only print magazine designed expressly for Palm OS users. He is the bestselling author of the first three editions of How to Do Everything with Your Palm Handheld as well as How to Do Everything with Your Sony Clie.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media; 1 edition (November 28, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0072231718
• ISBN-13: 978-0072231717
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,754,518 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Just a writer trying to make a living like everyone else. :)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

69 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars How to do everything..... BUT NAVIGATE, January 28, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: How to Do Everything with Your GPS (Paperback)

How to Do Everything with Your GPS leaves out the most critical thing that you might want to do with your GPS - navigate. I admire someone who can explain complicated technical things in laymen's terms, but Broida's idea of simplification is to just skip the fundamental information.

With regard to aviation and marine navigation in Chapter 7: "By far the most valuable (and obvious) advantage to having GPS in the cockpit is its ability to provide course and heading information." Actually, the GPS has no idea what direction the airplane or boat is pointed (heading information), it only knows the direction of travel information (track, never mentioned). This is not a semantic issue, but a fundamental usage issue.

Broida misses some of the better aircraft navigation software for PDA's. The programs that he mentions are not even worth considering in my opinion. He also mentions that the GPS can be used for altitude and this is important because "according to the USA Today, accidentally striking the ground is the most common killer in aviation in aviation" - DUH! What he doesn't mention is how to use GPS to avoid this common killer or how GPS used unwisely can increase this risk.

How do you actually navigate an airplane or a boat using GPS? This information is conspicuously absent. Since I have your attention, my advice is to set the data fields on the map page so that you have TRACK and BEARING or TURN (which is the difference between the two). Steer so that the TRACK matches the BEARING. The same thing can be accomplished with making TURN equal to zero. There is quite a bit more to nautical and aircraft navigation, but even this basic level of technique is not addressed. I was not able to find where any of these navigation terms were even mentioned.

He mentions that GPS can be used for hiking. But he doesn't mention that the GPS direction reference is lost when standing still. This is why many GPS receivers have built in electronic compasses. He neither mentions the availability of this feature or how to use a GPS without this feature while hiking. By the way, you can use an inexpensive compass in conjunction with the GPS generated bearing to get directional information while stopped. The electronic compass feature is nice, but not necessary. None of this information is in the book.

"If you own any GPS that can store external map data, be sure to check out DeLorme Topo USA 4.0. It's extremely versitle and feature-rich program, and at $99 it costs less than the Garmin and Magellan CDs." - p 104. Delorme makes a great product, but it will not and is not designed to load into any of the Garmin, Magellan, or any other brand receivers.

More information that is not in the book- where to get coordinates for waypoints, how to work with coordinates.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't bother !, September 12, 2005

By 

Rick Schmidt (San Diego) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How to Do Everything with Your GPS (Paperback)

A very disappointing book.
very little useful information about using GPS for geocaching.
most of what IS here can be gotten for free on the many web sites dedicated to GPS, and on the excellent forums some of these web sites have.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good info but very general, February 14, 2006

By 

William C. Waggoner "ctgreybeard" (Bethel, CT United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How to Do Everything with Your GPS (Paperback)

I think the title of this book is a little aggressive. It really doesn't tell you much about HOW to do anything unless you own an iQue 3600. It does, however, cover the many things you might want to do with your GPS so if you are just interested in what a GPS could do for you then this is a good place to start.

About one third of the book covers the iQue 3600 in good detail. I don't have one of those so I can't tell you how accurate it is.