Product Description

Everything you need for real time mobile GPS, direction and mapping capabilities. Just load the navigational software onto your PC, download the maps and pints of interest to your Palm, clip on the GPS receiver and Go.

Product Details

• Brand: Navman
• Model: AA005060

Features

• Complete GPS solution with mounting hardware and vehicle power adapter
• Rand McNally StreetFinder Deluxe mapping software
• Turn-by-turn directions with audible prompts
• Over 1 million points of interest and business locations
• Compatible with Palm m125, m130, m500, m505 and m515 series handhelds

Customer Reviews

hardware is fine, software [is bad]
To start with the positive: The unit actually does a good job getting a gps position and displaying it on the map. I use it with the Palm m515 and it was a very tempting combination given the low cost of the unit (100 USD, now it's even cheaper). It came with a device for mounting it on the windshield of the car and a recharger that fits in the cigarette lighter and that all works fine.
It seems an obvious thing to combine a gps receiver with a color screen palm pilot that has both memory and processing power to do a decent job as a navigation device. However, the software is terrible. As noted by others, the Rand McNally software can only find directions if you are online, and it often picks strange routes. It will only do directions to and from a given address, not just a waypoint on the map.

But the worst part is actually the part of the software that is installed on the Palm Pilot. It does not display simple (and useful) pieces of information such as instantaneous speed and direction (other simple gps units do without a problem). It frequently tells you you are off route even if you are not, and every single time I have arrived at my destination, the software has frozen up and crashed the Palm so I had to reset it through the pinhole in the back. I don't know of a single other Palm application that is this poorly written.

I should say that if you just ignore the false 'off route' warnings (this requires you to have studied the directions in some detail before you go), it will guide you reasonably well to your destination (you'll know you have arrived when your Palm crashes). I have not had it give directions that were flat out impossible, just ones I wouldn't have picked myself. So it is reasonably useful. The mapping features are not bad, either. You can zoom in or out and recenter the map relatively quickly, and that is useful if you get lost. Which you probably will if you decide to go someplace new guided only by this unit...

Addendum: inspired by another reviewer (thanks!), I bought the Delorme StreetAtlas USA Handheld 2004 software, and things work much much better.

No replacement for an in-car navigation system
2 stars for the hardware side, a generous 1 star for the software.
Hardware: Good=fairly compact, includes holder and car power cord which also acts as a charger for your rechargeable Palm.
Bad=slow to acquire satellite signals, sometimes 2-3 mins. despite a good view of the sky(moonroof); doesn't receive signals well from anywhere else in the car; if you don't use the car cord, will run the Palm's battery down quickly.
Software: Good=I'm still thinking... Can look up street names if you've downloaded the appropriate area to your Palm.
Bad=I'm not going to complain about the need to do trip planning on a PC(not a Mac) but it would be nice if it would let you plan your own route in addition to the take-it-or-leave-it Internet-sourced directions. The PC software has a kludgy pseudo-Windows interface that has crashed my Win98 system more than once. The Palm software also crashed my Palm m130 and forced a reset. The Palm software is slow on my Palm m130. In map view, the screen blanks out so much when redrawing (especially with large maps) that the utility of the device is limited (but this refers to maps stored on an SD card, if you can fit the map in internal memory, it's noticeably faster). This forces one to use the directions view which I could not feel in sync with. Indications for turns were not consistent enough to be trustworthy. When you go off course, you'll need map view to get back on course, the directions view is useless. Sometimes the map doesn't match the actual road, causing an "off route" message despite really being on the right road.
If you don't need a car, the unit works fine outside (until the battery runs down) with a full view of the sky.
If may be better than nothing, but reviewing a printed road atlas works faster and if you don't have a competent copilot, is less distracting.

Don't know what these other users are complaining about!
I think this is fantastic! The only down side that I can think of is having to upload your trips beforehand. But that is a limitation of the handheld, not this device. I took a trip from Upstate NY through Philly to the Jerey shore. And back. Another trip to Washington DC. This performed flawlessly for what it was designed to be. Beeped a little before my turns or exchanges. Tracked pretty well and only lost signal a couple times, ony to regain it moments later. I bought this along with a rebate and the deal was great. I recently bought the laptop version as well. That is how much I like this item. Unless you are nitpicky or expecting something this is not, you'll be pleased.