While originally developed by the US Department of Defense, the global positioning system (GPS) has become increasingly popular as the price of the technology has dropped significantly in recent years. As the price has dropped, the functionality has grown. Personal GPS is a practical and to many, an indispensable technology. Stereotypically, when people think of GPS, they think of portable standalone personal navigation systems like TomTom, Garmin, Magellan at al.. However, depending on your budget and intended use, a standalone unit may not be the most ideal solution for your navigational needs.

In this article we will be looking at what is needed to outfit your everyday laptop to enable fully-featured GPS functionality. Using your laptop as the backbone to your GPS has many tangible benefits. Arguably the most significant of which is the relatively low cost. Where most standalone units range from $350-$450, equally capable -- and in some ways improved -- functionality on your existing laptop can be had for around $150.

What You Need

Like any GPS solution, there are two main components – the GPS receiver itself that uses satellite telemetry to pinpoint your latitudinal and longitudinal position and the unit that interprets the received signal and displays it. In this case, the unit interpreting and displaying the information is your laptop, but the level of detail displayed is based on what GPS-capable mapping software you choose. As for the GPS receiver, most of the big-name GPS manufacturers – Garmin, GlobalSat, Deluo among them – have wired USB and more expensive Bluetooth GPS dongles to choose from.

The Hardware

When choosing a USB GPS receiver, the most important specification is that the unit is NMEA compliant (specifically, the more widely available and adopted NMEA 0183.) NMEA is the standard communication protocol that all major mapping software uses to recognize third party GPS devices (think of it as the TCP/IP of the GPS world.) Aside from that, most of a receiver’s characteristics are straightforward -- accuracy, update rate, etc. Generally speaking the more expensive the GPS receiver the newer the chipset. Like all technology, the latest chipsets are faster, use less power, and are more accurate than older designs.

Performance notwithstanding, other aspects to consider are most likely going to come down to your personal inclination. One of the coolest USB GPS receivers I have seen is Deluo’s MouseGPS, which, as the name suggests, is a GPS receiver that doubles as a portable optical mouse. It can’t function as both a GPS receiver and mouse at the same time, but changing between the two modes is as easy as flipping a switch. Naturally, the doubling up of functionality in one device means there will be one less thing to carry when you’re on the road. Another neat receiver is GlobalSat’s BU-353. Its claim to fame is that it’s waterproof, making it perfectly suited for boats and marine navigation.

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