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For my first post here at Mobilitysite, I want to mention something new about something old.

First, the old news.
Many of you may have heard of the software and service out there called Trapster. I think I first installed it on my Blackjack II back in March. In case you are not familiar, Trapster is a free Windows Mobile app/service that uses GPS and/or cell tower triangulation to let you know when you are approaching a  speed trap, traffic light camera or other fuzz-worthy areas. Since my phone has a GPS antenna,  I tried it and it works pretty well (incidentally, there is a reported traffic light camera .01 miles from my office – *note to self).

What is most interesting to me is how it works. It’s a social app really, that lets the committed speed demons of the US and Europe report speed/camera traps that they see. The app lets you report a speed trap, a camera trap… even live police sightings, and then captures your GPS or cell tower location when you make the report. The reports are collected at the main hub site and  software analyzes how many subsequent times that trap is also reported. Over time, the traps are confirmed or invalidated, based on the number of reports. Ah, the sheer power of  Darwinian methods. Also, it looks like it uses Google Maps API, which is cool and familiar.

So that’s the old news.

What’s new about Trapster, at least for me, is that it is doing a great job of kick-starting the GPS antenna in my phone.

Lemme ’splain.

When I purchased my Blackjack II, the default GPS service on the phone was tied to a pre-installed application called TeleNav and was not configurable to use other services. Because I am stubborn, I refused to pay the monthly for TeleNav, yet I still wanted to mess around with the GPS functionality. (It seems I am sometimes committed to doing things “the hard way” and instead of being a reasonable person and just biting the bullet and paying for the service , I decided it would be a better idea, to be cheap and try a variety of hacks and tricks to unlock the GPS functionality – ultimately leading to a couple of lockups and hard resets.) Not recommended. Repeat, not recommended.

Undaunted, I persevered until I finally came across a great little app written by Paul at modaco that appropriately configures Smartphone GPSID settings for the Blackjack II in order to let the phone use other GPS apps, namely  the free services provided by Google and Windows Live Search.

Paul’s little app is well written and works great for me and I now have the power of GPS in the palm of my hand and can use it with any app I choose (Disclaimer – use at your own discretion. Don’t blame me if you install it and it locks up your phone. I am just saying that it worked for me). Like I said, other GPS apps work on my phone now but it can often take A LONG time to lock onto the satellites… sometimes as long as 5 minutes. I am not sure why, but it seems unrelated to my location or weather or anything like that. Definitely some kind of software issue. But hey, its all free, so I guess there’s a price you still pay. Here is where Trapster comes back into the mix. After I installed it, I started to notice that Trapster locks onto GPS signals faster than any other apps I have, sometimes in just a few seconds. What’s more,  if I start it first, it effectively works as a “jump start” for all other GPS apps I use. What a pleasant side-effect.

So there you have it, Trapster will not only keep you safe from cops, it might also help your GPS antenna work faster too, if you happen to be stubborn and unreasonable like me.

Jay Donovan (50 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook