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Palm Add-On Gets GPS Right, MostlyBluetooth-connected navigation kit stacks up well against expensive in-dash guidance systems.Yardena Arar, PC World
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As someone fortunate enough to have a two-block commute to work, I'm not in my car very frequently, let alone lost and in need of direction. But when I do drive, it's occasionally to a place I've never visited before--and then you'll see me clutching detailed Mapquest printouts, with most of the little optional turn maps. I just hate not knowing precisely where I'm going, and maps provide a measure of security you don't get from a friend's well-meant but usually imprecise verbal instructions. ("Turn right at the second Burger King--or is it a KFC now?")
Of course, an in-dash GPS navigation system would be even better: no more worrying about whether you're properly matching up the real- world streets to those printouts. My friend got one of these systems when he bought a new car a while back, and now whenever he gives me a lift to someplace new, I am green with envy over its large color LCD display, the comforting, authoritative manufactured speech with which it dispenses real-time guidance ("In. 100. Feet. Turn. Left."), and the menus that make it easy to identify a location, be it a street address, an attraction, or a business. But the cost of installing an after-market system in my going-on-13-year-old Honda would probably exceed the worth of the car itself--and as I said, I don't drive around enough to justify the expense.
Still, I was intrigued when a Palm representative called to ask if I was interested in reviewing the Palm Bluetooth GPS Navigator, a new Global Positioning System kit intended for in-car use with Bluetooth-enabled Palm devices. I was even more intrigued when I heard the cost: $249, which includes maps of the United States. The price seemed right, but would the thing actually be usable, in the real world, with my Palm Treo 650? What about battery life? And would the maps be readable on a fairly small screen?
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