AviationMaps and Naviator demos on the Kindle Fire

[lionclaw]

I took a short flight today to test AviationMaps and Naviator on my Kindle Fire. The tablet does not have a GPS unit, so geolocation is being provided through TetherGPS (an app a friend and I wrote) over WiFi running on my HTC Evo.

AviationMaps - http://youtu.be/xFXCMyl8yew

Naviator - http://youtu.be/vRPloMRsepU

Both seem to be very capable mapping and navigation applications, although this is not intended to be a full review of their capabilities.

I put together a writeup on the xda-developers forum with instructions on how to prepare the Kindle Fire to use TetherGPS. For those willing to do a minor amount of tinkering, a $200 tablet can take the place of far more expensive options, in a friendlier form-factor that I personally prefer over the larger 10" tablets.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1362472

And before anyone says anything... the wife was on board helping to watch for traffic

 

[CMTowner]

Looks pretty nice there. Nice to see other devices available.

 

[MSPAviator]

Does your phone have to be rooted to use TetherGPS over WiFi? I have the Evo 3D and while I know it has the capability of being a WiFi router, that is blocked by my telco's ROM.

 

[lionclaw]

Root isn't required for TetherGPS, but it may be the only way to get android-wifi-tether (or other tethering app) onto your phone.

There are other options - You might be able to put android-wifi-tether on the kindle, and connect the phone to the kindle. Another option is to buy a cheap pay-as-you-go android phone and use it as a GPS puck. Target had the Optimus V for $50 the last two days.

Does your phone have to be rooted to use TetherGPS over WiFi? I have the Evo 3D and while I know it has the capability of being a WiFi router, that is blocked by my telco's ROM.

 

[h2oskiphil]

I might have missed this in a different thread, but did you have to root your Kindle Fire to get access to Google Play to download Naviator? I tried 3 or 4 different avenues to try to get at the Naviator download page with my Fire HD 8.9, and I couldn't ever get to it.

Is there a way to get it onto a Fire without rooting? It's my wife's tablet, and I'm pretty sure she'd prefer that I not start messing with the OS.

 

[LDJones]

Note this tread predates the Google Nexus 7, which obviated the need to try and adapt a nonGPS tablet.

 

[h2oskiphil]

I was specifically interested in trying Naviator with the Fire HD, since we've got one already.

If I can avoid having to buy a different tablet to utilize the software, I'd prefer to.

Didn't mean to resurrect an old thread...it came up when I did a Google search for Naviator Kindle Fire, and I never even looked at the date of the last post.