Yep Another Newb looking for Advise.

mur · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 17, 2005 Posts: 19

Just Saw GPS working on a PDA the Other Day, within an hour I found my way here and a new hobby, Yeah.

I'm new to the whole PDA/GPS thing, Never owned either. However I'm
very comfortable around computers, electronics and such.

I'm wanting a setup Basicly for the Car or lets say 90 percent Car/10 walking around. Mainly for Navigation

I was Looking into the Mio 168 (intergrated gps), Garmin 3600 and a few Diferent HP Ipaq's. (2410,4700,3715)

The GPS Software part should not be to hard to pick since there are only a few choices. My problem is what Unit should I get. There are a thousand different Ipaq's, Dell x50 etc.....

I know I need 128mb memory 256 perferred and a Faster Processor would obviously be better, BlueTooth, WM 2003, But What Other Features do I look for.

I probally Don''t Need the top of the Line, However I don't want a Dog. If a Few extra dollars would get a way nicer unit, I'd spend more.
I'd also Like the Wireless Features

I would Assume 400mhz at Least, is this wrong?
Is Intergrated GPS or Seperate GPS unit advised?

I did take a Look at the Navman 510, However how is the 3-d Mapping Like. looks kinda Weird, I'd probably perfer the 2d Setup.

Obviously you can see

mur · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 17, 2005 Posts: 19

Also I am in the US, West Coast

DavidW · Posted: Sun Feb 20, 2005 8:50 pm Post subject:

To my knowledge, there isn't a 256MB RAM unit.

The idea is that you put what you have to into RAM (and the Pocket PC OS uses RAM for various purposes). The RAM on a Pocket PC requires battery power - if the battery runs flat, the RAM is wiped and the machine "hard resets".

You keep what doesn't have to be in main memory (for performance or compatibility reasons) in non-volatile storage - either a memory card or a built in non-volatile store (such as the iPAQ File Store on most iPAQs).

It seems that most manufacturers are backing away from 128MB RAM units to units with a largish (80-90MB) built in non-volatile store. I have my suspicions that the forthcoming Windows Mobile 2005 Operating System (due to release to the device manufacturers in April 2005) will take Pocket PC towards the situation on SmartPhone, with more use being made of non-volatile storage.

Maps for navigation and the like almost invariably go on a storage card.

For usage outside the car, you almost certainly want Bluetooth, as well as a reasonable battery life. The Dell X50v has drawn comments from several reviewers about its relatively short battery life. The HP iPAQ hx2110, unlike the more expensive units in the hx2000 range, has a pretty small main battery too.

Wi-Fi - up to you - I wouldn't want a Pocket PC without it, but I make heavy usage of it.

VGA is nice; again, I use my Pocket PC for a lot of textual work, which is why I have a VGA device and wouldn't want to go back to a lower screen resolution. It's also good for detailed mapping; I've seen Memory Map running on a VGA device, and was very impressed.

WM2003 is ubiquitous now - you're not going to find a new device running an older Microsoft Operating System for sale unless it's been on the shelf for some time. WM2003SE adds a few fairly minor tweaks - landscape support, support for screen sizes other than 200 by 320 and WPA support for Wi-Fi are the main changes.

Dual slots can be nice - that's both a SD and a CompactFlash slot. It increases the flexibility, and you can get more 'gadgets' for a CompactFlash slot than you can for an SD slot.

Set a budget, see what you can get for your money, compare the specifications. The likes of Brighthand review Pocket PCs.

David

mur · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 17, 2005 Posts: 19

Thanks DavidW

Since this is my first unit, I set a low budget and I mainly wanted the GPS features, So I went the Mio 168 with Copilot Bundle w/512mb card.
I'm pretty happy with the unit. I have a few issues with Copilot(which I expressed in the software forum) but overall very good.
I was hoping to try TTN 5 on the Unit but it's not supported......yet

I found myself not using the other pda functions so much, Just the GPS
so I think going with the MIO was correct.

Thanks again

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