Advice on hand held PC – what to buy?
Discussion
I was thinking about buying a Tom Tom Go sat nav for the car as I do quite a few trips out and about… that got me thinking… why don’t I buy a small PC instead? So, any disadvantages to this idea?
What I would really like is a small hand held PC, with GPS capability, that can run autoroute 2006
Has wireless connectivity
Blue tooth so I can access my home PC and works laptop
Runs Outlook
Do any have a small key board?
Do any combine a phone?
Any recommendations?
As you will see from thee question, new area for me, any help/suggestions would be very much appreciated
The question is can you cope with a separate GPS unit? They are about the size of a matchbox, and run on their own battery, but are another bit of kit to carry about...
If the answer is yes, then any WiFi pocket PC will do the job.
If no, then you are very limited to ones that have WiFi & GPS built in....
Hope that helps.
Chris
(BTW, I use an ACER that I got in a GPS bundle (separate GPS) that was so cheap I had to have it...)
If the answer is yes, then any WiFi pocket PC will do the job.
If no, then you are very limited to ones that have WiFi & GPS built in....
Hope that helps.
Chris
(BTW, I use an ACER that I got in a GPS bundle (separate GPS) that was so cheap I had to have it...)
cuneus said:
I have got TomTom on an Orange SPV C600 and it great, a much better proposition than a pda imho.
The screen is now big enough, Windows mobile seems to have matured and it has been very reliable
Only this I'd wish is for the battery life to be a bit longer
Does Tom Tom run well on the C600? Just bought one and am considering going down this route. What do you use for GPS?
Buzzer said:
I was thinking about buying a Tom Tom Go sat nav for the car as I do quite a few trips out and about… that got me thinking… why don’t I buy a small PC instead? So, any disadvantages to this idea?
What I would really like is a small hand held PC, with GPS capability, that can run autoroute 2006
Is this non negotiable? If so you need windows so one of these...
www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=OQO_PLUS_XP
Are pretty much the closest you're gonna get, as Toshiba have ceased the Libretto line
Buzzer said:
Has wireless connectivity
Blue tooth so I can access my home PC and works laptop
Runs Outlook
Do any have a small key board?
Do any combine a phone?
Any recommendations?
I'm waiting for one of these,
www.sonyericsson.com/spg.jsp?cc=gb&lc=en&ver=4000&template=pp1_loader&php=php1_10336&zone=pp&lm=pp1&pid=10336
and I'll use whichever GPS add on ports first.
egomeister said:
I have got TomTom on an Orange SPV C600 and it great, a much better proposition than a pda imho.
The screen is now big enough, Windows mobile seems to have matured and it has been very reliable
Only this I'd wish is for the battery life to be a bit longer
Does Tom Tom run well on the C600? Just bought one and am considering going down this route. What do you use for GPS?
It does indeed, route calculation is very quick (did Ipswich - Exeter not on the M25 at the weekend), the voice is speed sensitive and the screen bright and clear
I use a Houlx 236 Slim (which has the same connector as the phone for charging
catretriever said:
Has anyone had any stability issues running the TOM TOM software on a PocketPC?
One of the things that I liked about the TT GO is that it runs Linux (I think).
None at all. I run TT5 on an IPAQ and Er In Doors runs it on her Axim. Nothing to moan about, as stable as a lighthouse
Buzzer said:
Just got the Missus a HP6515 - its the dogs danglies. Pricey though. Has all the comms you could ever want built in AND GPS built in.
Should keep her quiet for a while...
this looks to be just what i need, will this run autoroute software or will i have to buy Tom Tom?
She's charging it up today...so I'll tell you tonight. As I understood it it *comes* with Tom Tom....but I'll check and get back to you...
XDA Exec
Also known as the orange MPV 5000 and a tmobile something or other.
Has bluetooth, WIFI, IR and is a 3G phone.
Runs Windows Mobile 2005 and will run TT 5.2 but will need a separate GPS. I got a bluetooth one off ebay for 45 quid delivered, (the GPS bit not the phone)
Will do email, mp3s, films, word, excel and a whole host of other stuff. It's fab
Also known as the orange MPV 5000 and a tmobile something or other.
Has bluetooth, WIFI, IR and is a 3G phone.
Runs Windows Mobile 2005 and will run TT 5.2 but will need a separate GPS. I got a bluetooth one off ebay for 45 quid delivered, (the GPS bit not the phone)
Will do email, mp3s, films, word, excel and a whole host of other stuff. It's fab
Buzzer said:
Just got the Missus a HP6515 - its the dogs danglies. Pricey though. Has all the comms you could ever want built in AND GPS built in.
Should keep her quiet for a while...
this looks to be just what i need, will this run autoroute software or will i have to buy Tom Tom?
Hi Buzzer
The HP iPAQ hw6510 and hw6515 (the latter incorporating a digital camera too) are good devices. However, and this is a big one, they run a legacy Operating System (OS) in the form of Microsoft Windows 2003 Second Edition. Microsoft released Windows Mobile 5.0, the successor to Windows 2003 SE in May 2005. I would not but any device running on Windows 2003 SE now - they are already out-of-date. Of particular interest should be that HP are releasing the hw6910 and hw6915@ in the next 6-8 weeks. They are the replacements for the hw65xx series and have the new OS plus some other significant improvements.
In terms of availability right now, you have the E-TEN G500 which has built-in SiRFStarIII (the chipset of choice) GPS and Windows Mobile 5.0. Althought the UK price has yet to be announced I have seen E-TEN's official price list and it should be around £400. My company has an E-TEN M600 in for evaluation at the moment and it is an excellent little unit.
The GPS software of choice is generally considered to be TomTom Navigator 5, though there are other quality alternatives out there.
The device Liszt references is actually a rebranded HTC Universal. HTC are one of the world's leading manufacturers of PDAs and the Universal is an excellent product. The incorporation of 3G is very nice and the keyboard is just about big enough to be useful. The rotating screen is a little bit delicate and it is quite a big and heavy device, but there's no denying it's specification. The price is relatively high compared to the G500 and M600, but in the same ballpark as the hw6515. Having said all of that, it doesn't incorporate GPS so you will need either a separate, probably Bluetooth-based, GPS receiver, or an in-car cradle with GPS built-in. Holux and Arkon are major players in this area.
Finally, MIO will be announcing 5 new GPS-enabled devices at the CeBIT technology show of which the P550 might be of greatest interest.
I hope this helps. If you need any more information please don't hesitate to email me - mobile devices are a key part of my business so I have plenty of information on most models' pros and cons.
Cheers.
roadie.
mattley said:
I'm waiting for one of these,
www.sonyericsson.com/spg.jsp?cc=gb&lc=en&ver=4000&template=pp1_loader&php=php1_10336&zone=pp&lm=pp1&pid=10336
and I'll use whichever GPS add on ports first.
Great little device. I've had a SonyEricsson P900 since they were first released and it has been excellent. However, it is clearly out-of-date now.
For me, the P990 would be perfect if it ran Windows Mobile 5.0. Symbian is a great OS but there's just so much out there for the MS OS (and it's great for development, but that's not really relevant here!)
ed on your chips a little as regards the hw6515. I felt I had to point out to Buzzer that it was going out of production shortly. 
406tm said:
Has anyone had any stability issues running the TOM TOM software on a PocketPC?
One of the things that I liked about the TT GO is that it runs Linux (I think).
None at all. I run TT5 on an IPAQ and Er In Doors runs it on her Axim. Nothing to moan about, as stable as a lighthouse
TT3 used to struggle on my iPAQ 3360 (lack of memory) but TT5 runs fine on my iPAQ 5550 (Volume is very quiet though)
pmanson said:
Has anyone had any stability issues running the TOM TOM software on a PocketPC?
One of the things that I liked about the TT GO is that it runs Linux (I think).
None at all. I run TT5 on an IPAQ and Er In Doors runs it on her Axim. Nothing to moan about, as stable as a lighthouse
TT3 used to struggle on my iPAQ 3360 (lack of memory) but TT5 runs fine on my iPAQ 5550 (Volume is very quiet though)
Really? I have TT navigator 5 running fine on my 3360.
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