05-06-2004, 03:00 PM
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Magi
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 2,186
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Garmin to Pocket PC Owners: Sorry About the Palm Thing - Here's Something For You
 Apparently not satisfied to stay in Palm-land, Garmin has expanded their line of PDA solutions to include a Compact Flash GPS unit for the Pocket PC. The unit has a hinge that allows the antenna portion of the card to swivel up and down (just like the Haicom line of receivers), but this card has something no other card does - 64mb of built-in memory.
Brighthand reports that "the module will include the Que software application with points of interest, electronic mapping, automatic route generation, configurable road/area avoidance, and voice-guided directions. Que is also able to navigate to addresses stored in the Pocket PC Contacts application. Mapping details include highways, major streets, lakes, coastal waters, and borders for North and South America, Europe, Africa, and the Pacific Rim. The module also features 64MB of memory, enabling it to store detailed map data from the US and Canada MapSource CD included with the package. Additional MapSource CDs for US fishing lakes, offshore navigation, and others are available for a separate purchase."
While this is pretty nifty, I'd like to see this in a bluetooth format. Compact Flash seems to be fading away, but bluetooth is becoming more common. My guess is that it won't be long before we see one of the current BT GPS manufacturers come out with their own units with built-in storage.
That covers the hardware side of the package. Although I've used several different PPC GPS mapping applications (Routis, Mapopolis), I've never used a Garmin unit. Has anyone here used both? How do the maps compare?
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05-06-2004, 03:32 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Mar 2002
Posts: 481
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Re: Garmin to Pocket PC Owners: Sorry About the Palm Thing - Here's Something For You
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Originally Posted by Pat Logsdon
While this is pretty nifty, I'd like to see this in a bluetooth format. Compact Flash seems to be fading away, but bluetooth is becoming more common.
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When I plug in a compact flash accessory, it "just works"; you could say it's a mature technology. When I and many others try to do bluetooth, there is so much clunky stuff in the way that may or may not work; not mature. So while the promises of bluetooth are intriguing in an application such as this, I'd opt for dependability. I don't want to be stuck out someplace trying to discover my Bluetooth device so I can get home.
Compact Flash is "fading away" because too many of you people said "I don't need that for anything; give me a single SD slot". If buyers had more forsight, the CF-less devices would have never sold well enough for vendors to even offer a second model.
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05-06-2004, 03:43 PM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 541
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Re: Garmin to Pocket PC Owners: Sorry About the Palm Thing - Here's Something For You
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Originally Posted by PPCRules
Compact Flash is "fading away" because too many of you people said "I don't need that for anything; give me a single SD slot". If buyers had more forsight, the CF-less devices would have never sold well enough for vendors to even offer a second model.
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:grouphug: AMEN to that brother!! :way to go:
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05-06-2004, 03:49 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Mar 2003
Posts: 48
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One of the reasons I bought my 2210 was the CF *and* SD slot. I had a CF wi-fi card that I didn't want to just throw away and pay more for built-in wi-fi. I also felt that having two slots would make me more flexible and adaptable.
So I'm interested in this Garmin product. I really like the idea of onboard storage with it. That makes is so much more modular. Everything about the GPS is contained within the GPS. Very nice.
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05-06-2004, 04:11 PM
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Theorist
Join Date: Mar 2003
Posts: 270
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Re: Garmin to Pocket PC Owners: Sorry About the Palm Thing - Here's Something For You
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Originally Posted by PPCRules
So while the promises of Bluetooth are intriguing in an application such as this, I'd opt for dependability. I don't want to be stuck out someplace trying to discover my Bluetooth device so I can get home.
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It is true that some people have had problems pairing a Bluetooth device with their PDA. These problems will be less common over time. Once a Bluetooth is paired it will pair in the future with very few hassles and the connection is often less then 1 second. A larger problem is how long the GPS�s Time to First Fix (TFF) is. Assuming your GPS has good view of the sky most cards take minutes to lock. I have read a lot of post here were people say there GPS CF card takes 20 second for TFF. The chips sets used to build a GPS do not claim those kinds of TFF times. A serial GPS that is given constant power will start working within 1 second of plugging it in the PDA. A Bluetooth GPS with constant power will take 1 second to pair 1 second for the signal. A CF GPS takes minutes from the time the PDA is powered up because its powered from the PDA. The other huge advantage a serial or a Bluetooth GPS unit has is it can be mounted on the dash and the PDA can stay closer to the user. This makes it easy to read. A CF GPS requires an external antenna or the PDA and CF card have to be mount on the dash.
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Originally Posted by PPCRules
Compact Flash is "fading away" because too many of you people said "I don't need that for anything; give me a single SD slot". If buyers had more forsight, the CF-less devices would have never sold well enough for vendors to even offer a second model.
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CF device sold so well because they used very common interface on both the PDA and the peripheral. PCMCIA is a compact version of a PC ISA slot. CF is a compact version of a PCMCIA card. This made it very easy for vendors to move there products from ISA to PCMCIA to CF. With PDA and laptops intergrading WiFi and Bluetooth on the main board there is no need for PCMCIA, Cardbus or CF cards. On a PDA you can use SDIO for storage, built in WiFi for networking and Bluetooth for all accessories.
Sean
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05-06-2004, 04:13 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 134
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Memory in a BT device? Boy would that be slow!!!
BT is great, and much more mobile between OS's. Many CF cards from previous CE incarnations are now useless with PPC2003/SE. Being a serial cord replacement my guess is that current BT devices will be able to be used with BT hosts for years to come and across varied platforms.
Dell Truemobile CF Bluetooth card, no longer works with Dell X5 2003.
WiFi card from Belkin no known SE drivers.
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05-06-2004, 04:55 PM
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Theorist
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 302
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What would be just a little better is if the memory was removable - maybe a SD card or something. What happens when 64 MB isn't enough anymore?
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05-06-2004, 05:09 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Sep 2004
Posts: 454
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SeanH, thanks for that information about start-up time and signal acquisition.
God, the people on here know a lot of stuff! I really appreciate what an incredible resource this community is.
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05-06-2004, 05:14 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 41
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You got that right. Everyone here has saved me a lot of time and effort with their input. Its always better to have multiple opinions to get the total scoop.
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05-06-2004, 05:45 PM
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Magi
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 2,186
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Re: Garmin to Pocket PC Owners: Sorry About the Palm Thing - Here's Something For You
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Originally Posted by PPCRules
When I plug in a compact flash accessory, it "just works"; you could say it's a mature technology. When I and many others try to do bluetooth, there is so much clunky stuff in the way that may or may not work; not mature. So while the promises of bluetooth are intriguing in an application such as this, I'd opt for dependability. I don't want to be stuck out someplace trying to discover my Bluetooth device so I can get home.
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You make some good points, but I have to disagree with them. :wink: My last PPC was a Dell Axim X5, and I had a Haicom folding CF GPS for it. It was a great unit, but the Fortuna Clip-On BT unit I have now is far superior. As SeanH mentioned, I would have to wait for at least a minute and frequently more before I'd get a lock and I could start driving. With the Fortuna, I just open the map application, the BT Manager launches, I double tap the BT GPS icon to connect, and I'm done. It takes maybe 15 seconds from turning on the GPS to having a signal, being connected, and ready to go. It's been extremely dependable for me. :mrgreen:
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Originally Posted by PPCRules
Compact Flash is "fading away" because too many of you people said "I don't need that for anything; give me a single SD slot". If buyers had more forsight, the CF-less devices would have never sold well enough for vendors to even offer a second model.
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I never said that - I think it's more of a cost/space issue. Devices are getting smaller, and SD is smaller than CF. It's also cheaper to put one slot in a device than it is to put two in. I just see it as one of those inevitable technological shifts - floppies die and get replaced by keychain drives, ISA dies and is replaced by PCI, etc. It's not anyone's fault, it's just a natural evolution.
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