For a long time the Mac has been the poor relation of the Windows PC in terms of GPS managment software, the type of software that allows users to create and downlaod waypoints, display base mapping and user defined routes. RouteBuddy is a universal binary application that now fills this gap supporting Garmin and most other consumer GPS recievers which use the NMEA standard. It also works with bluetooth and allows Tele Atlas mapping to be downloaded.
Now if only we could convince ESRI or MapInfo to get back into the Mac software market.. but then again maybe we are all waiting on the expected windows virtualisation solution in OS X v10.5 Leopard ?
Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network.
6 replies on “GPS management on the Mac”
I think you’ll find that Phil Schiller, Apple’s marketing veep, has said that the “virtualisation” in Leopard isn’t going to go further than Boot Camp already does. (Probably Boot Camp capability will just be built into 10.5, rather than being a separate download.)
So probably better to stump up for that copy of Parallels. People rave about it.
Re Parallels. I have it and it works fine, as long as you don’t need to use DirectX. That means, for example, that you can’t run NASA World Wind on it, nor some of the other 3D authoring tools for Windows. Google Earth for Windows does run in Parallels, using OpenGL, but then there already is a Mac version so that’sa bit moot.
BootCamp does run DirectX, but you have to reboot the Mac, which is turning out to be more of a pain than I imagined.
Parallels hints that a future release will support DirectX, but doesn’t say how high that is on their list of priorities. In the meantime, World Wind is slated to come out in a crossplatform Java-based version.
To complement Charles’ comment, with virtualization (Parallels or any other solution, see ArcGIS on MacOS X post http://spanring.eu/blog/2006/07/02/arcgis-on-mac-os-x-2/ ), do we really need ESRI to go back to the MacOS? I’d like ESRI to commit to other platforms, but the realist in me tells me we won’t see that anytime soon.
Yes I very much like the Black MacBook, but I’m going to wait for the second generation to iron out all the bugs
Thanks! Didn’t know RouteBuddy so far. If you just want to up/download tracks, waypoints, etc. to/from your device, have a look at LoadMyTracks (http://www.cluetrust.com/LoadMyTracks.html) too. A small app which works very well.
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