gps for pdas

Wish there had been some mention of this before I got it. The antenna on the 5400 and 5500 series of iPaqs makes it physically impossible to plug this in using a standard CF sleeve. Supposedly it can work if you use a dual CF sleeve.

Bottom line: Huge improvements needed but gets a 4 because it's the most comprehensive of what's available for PDAs.

I am a financial consultant and am on the road everyday to new residences and businesses, giving me in-depth knowledge about this particular product. Because many good reviews are listed, I will focus more the drawbacks. Read on for the nitty-gritty details.

The Maps:
The maps can be huge, ranging from a couple megabytes to 15 megabytes. You'll need plenty of memory and a fast PDA. What a map covers depends on how dense the city is. Los Angeles requires about 4 maps while Riverside county is covered in two maps. You can only load 3 maps at a time, so if you're travelling long distances, your destination may have to be somewhere along the highway. Once you get there, load a different set of maps. Loading more maps, though, will reset your start/end points as well as your route. So you'll need to renter the information. Also, the more maps are open, the slower it is to pan across the map.

Finding yourself:
Unlike a static map, the GPS can track your location or you can search by contacts, address, intersection, or major points of interest. Unfortunately, it only lists major venues (e.g. stadiums, major shopping centers) and not places like gas stations (a major drawback). Searching for an intersection without knowing the city can be quite tedious. You first enter a street name, then the city, then the next street name. So if the city is unknown and the first street appears in several cities, you have to try each city until you find the second street.

The GPS:
If you use the system in your car, as I do, the GPS is a mixed blessing. When first starting the system, it may take a LONG time before getting a fix - if you're stopped. If you try to get a fix while moving, that drastically reduces your chances of getting a fix at all. After that, however, it is quick at requisition after going under tunnels and such. Because being in a car weakens the signal, it has a hard time following you after making turns. You may have made a left, but it still shows you as going straight. This is especially frustrating when you cannot stop and wait for it to tell you which way to turn, as in a highway exit with a green light. If you know this will happen, you best look at the directions and memorize the turns. Also, because of the weakened signal, the voice might keep saying, "you are off-route," either because it hasn't yet taken into account that you made a turn or simply because it can't quite pin-point where you are and has you located as driving off-road through blocks of houses. Expect this to happen frequently in mountainous areas or in downtown areas with tall buildings.

Routing:
Routing is a mixed blessing as well. You can route by fastest, shortest, or no highway, and you have a voice telling you where to go. It is fairly quick at routing when you only have one map open. If you're travelling across three maps, it might take a while. Also, it is supposed to reroute you when you have gone off-course, but it rarely ever does that, meaning you have to take your eyes off the road and manually tell it to find a new route. Perhaps the biggest drawback is the amount of time it gives itself before telling you that a turn is coming up. On streets, it makes announcements 0.1 miles before street turns and 0.5 miles before highway exits, meaning you better keep an eye on how far away you are from your next turn. Also, the maps do not use highway-exit names. For example, the Santa Monica exit off the 405 North in California puts you on a street called Cotner Ave, which in actuality is just an off-ramp with a street name. The directions will tell you to exit onto Cotner Ave, meaning you will miss it because you will never see a Cotner Ave. exit on the highway signs. And if the off-ramp does not have a name or does not immediately exit onto a street, it will simply say to exit onto the off-ramp. Along those lines, you better remember your destination address because it doesn't show it to you in the text directions. I always have to switch back to my Outlook Contacts to look at the address because the map will get you to the block, not the specific address (probably to save memory). By the way, the voice simply tells you a turn is coming up - it doesn't actually say the name. But that is forgivable in order to save memory. The map always displays in large font what is coming up and the distance left to make the next turn as well as the distance remaining to your destination.

Battery Life and Memory:
This product drains your batteries and the maps take up a lot of memory, so it would be prudent to get a car adapter and at least a 256MB flash memory module. Do NOT get compactflash because that slot will be taken by the GPS unit.

Bottom Line:
Obvously, there is MUCH room for improvement. I tried many competing products and this one was, by far, the most comprehensive. There are products that list restaurants and gas stations, but use TINY maps of which you can only load one at a time and have limited search, routing, and GPS features. Others have better GPS sensitivity but are much more expensive. Others can show a cross-country route from start to finish on a single map but again, lack in other features.

I use the Pharos module for the Siemens (ATT) PocketPC phone. For the most part this device is limited because it uses a handheld to display the information. (limited by resolution and screen size, beyond the scope of this review) It will never approach a printed map for clarity, readability or comprehensive data. I have used this device quite a bit.

That said this device does things that a printed map could never do. It will show you exactly where you are, and give you directions to where you want to go - quite accurately. I think the software for the PDA is quite straight forward and intuitive, but the PC side is clunky - and needs further refinement.

The maps are regional only - for example if you are driving in the San Francisco Bay area - you will need to load three separate maps on to your PDA. (I have a 256MB SD/MMC card that has allows me to load the entire state of CA on the PDA).

Don't expect to have the entire US at your fingertips - unless you plan on bringing a laptop with you to synch and load new maps as you travel. I recently drove from San Francisco to Ft Lauderdale - I didn't use the device. It would be good though if you were going to fly somewhere and loaded maps of that area before you left.

My chief complaint is that it will not load neighboring regional maps as you move into new territory - even if they exist on your memory card.

Bottom line: (1) Not a replacement for you atlas or map(s), but a useful aid/enhancement to both. (2) Not a device for non-technophiles. (3) Well-designed software (at least the PDA side). (4) Very accurate.