Comments on “Dell's Mini 10 to become location aware” • Register Hardware

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The chip is already there #

By Ian Ferguson Posted Thursday 2nd July 2009 10:07 GMT

The Broadcom Assisted GPS chip is part of the Broadcom 3G chipset already in the Dell Mini series (at least, the ones with built in 3G like the now-extinct Mini 9 from Vodafone).

I have a Mini 9 and have enabled the GPS timing receiving with some hacked drivers. It works, but not very well - it is slow to get a fix and needs a very clear view to the sky, as there is no antenna plugged in to the chip. I presume this is why Dell didn't make this a feature earlier.

My guess is the new Mini 10 will have a GPS antenna built into the body (alongside the existing 3G and Bluetooh antennae). There's probably more room for this in the Mini 10 than the Mini 9.

Still, a nice easy feature win for Dell without having to pay for any extra hardware.