Palm GPS Navigator Smartphone Edition

location based services

If you're considering purchasing a Palm Treo or already own one, and also are interested in buying a GPS navigation system, you're in luck. Palm's new GPS Navigator Smartphone Edition features the new Navigator 6 software powered by GPS giant TomTom. Designed to work with the Palm Treo 650, Treo 700w, and Treo 700p smart phones, it provides everything you need to turn your Treo into a full-featured GPS navigation system. You'll also be happy to know that Navigator 6 has most of the features and functions available on TomTom's popular GPS products.
Included in the box is a 1-gigabyte SD card preloaded with TeleAtlas maps and POIs (points of interest) for the U.S. and Canada, a Bluetooth GPS receiver, a suction-cup windshield/dashboard mount (with adhesive disc for the dashboard), an automobile power adapter, and the GPS receiver. Also inside are a USB SD card reader and a DVD containing additional software, a user guide, and extra maps. To equip your Treo with GPS capability, there's a small, rechargeable Bluetooth receiver that measures just 0.7 by 2.5 by 1.6 inches and contains the laudable SiRFstarIII GPS receiver chipset. Like other SiRFstarIII-based devices I've tested, this Bluetooth receiver is extremely sensitive, and satellite-acquisition time is swift.

Product Guide: GPS
TomTom ONE
palmOne Treo 650 (Verizon)
Palm Treo 700w
Palm Treo 700p
Setup and installation aren't difficult. After inserting the Navigator 6 Secure Digital card into a free slot on your Palm device, you have to activate the software before you can use it. You can choose either automatic or manual mode. On my Treo 700P evaluation unit, the automatic mode reported that it couldn't connect with TomTom's server, so I chose manual activation. For manual activation, on your computer, you navigate to TomTom's activation Web site and follow on-screen prompts on both handheld and PC. Still, this installation procedure is much more involved than it would be on an ordinary standalone GPS unit.
Once the system was activated, I found the user interface on the TomTom Navigator and the underlying mapping and routing engine, which are very similar to software on other TomTom dedicated GPS devices. When you launch the application, the first thing you see is a default 3D navigation screen. Tapping anywhere on the screen brings up the main menu, which gives you access to the Navigate To menu and TomTom Traffic, helps you find route alternatives, , or lets you change your preferences.
There are several of the Navigator's features that I especially like: the ability to specify which data fields will appear on the displayed status bar and the option of selecting a large or small on-screen keyboard with a choice of alphabetic, QWERTY, or AZERTY layouts. I prefer to see lots of data on my screen, so I set the Navigator to show me all six available data fields: remaining time, remaining distance, arrival time, current time, street name, and speed.
Creating a route on the Navigator software is virtually identical with what it would be on a TomTom system. If you choose to navigate to an address, you're first prompted for a city name. You can input data either by using the Treo's keyboard or by tapping the keyboard icon on the screen. As you type, cities matching your input are displayed. The advantage of using the Treo's physical keyboard is that the screen can display up to seven matches. If you use the on-screen keyboard, the number of matches displayed is limited to just three. Of course, both methods include a scroll bar for viewing all possible cities. After you select the city name, you're prompted for a street name, followed by an address. If you don't know the address, you can just press Done, and a list of cross streets for the selected street will appear.
As on TomTom devices such as the recently reviewed TomTom ONE, once a route has been calculated, you are presented with a 2D route summary view. If you hit the details icon, you gain the option of browsing a "turns" list, "turns as images," or simply a map of the route. In addition, you can watch a demonstration of the route at user-adjustable playback speeds of up to five times as fast as normal speed.
During driving tests using my Treo 700p running Navigator 6 software, I found no difference in the planned routes and those generated by other TomTom GPS products. Sadly, though, like the TomTom ONE, Navigator 6 does not support text-to-speech conversion for commands.
Another area that I found disappointing was the poor integration with the Treo's other capabilities. As noted in the TomTom ONE review, after selecting a POI, the device immediately calculates the route rather than giving you an intermediate screen with the address and phone number. The Garmin nüvis do a better job of letting you dial a POI directly from the POI menu. Navigator 6 addresses this weakness with a "Call Number" feature on the third page of the main menu. When you tap on this icon, you have the option of calling a POI near you or one in a city, near home, along the route, or near your planned destination. Unfortunately, you can't dial a number directly from within the Navigator application. Since the Palm OS only runs one app at a time, you have to exit the Navigator program and dial from the phone dial pad or the contacts list. If you do elect to dial a POI, the Navigator application shuts down and you have to restart it when you terminate the call. Similarly, when you answer an incoming call while navigating, Navigator shuts down and you have to restart it after you finish talking. I found this pretty annoying because after you restart the application it takes about 30 seconds for the Bluetooth connection to the GPS receiver to be reestablished.
Currently, the GPS Navigator Smartphone edition is available exclusively through Palm. TomTom plans to release the product in early October.
Overall, TomTom has done a good job of converting its popular TomTom interface and software to run on the Palm platform. Whether it's the right solution for you depends on how you use navigation software and whether you can live with the display limitations of the Treo. The least expensive TomTom dedicated GPS device is the TomTom ONE, which sells for $499. It has a 3.5-inch display, much easier to read than the 2.5-inch, 240- by 240-pixel screen on the Palm 700P I tested.
If you're a traveler who needs to navigate and talk on the phone simultaneously, the GPS Navigator Smartphone edition is not for you. But if you see yourself as an occasional GPS user and want a full-featured navigation system integrated into your PDA, the GPS Navigator Smartphone could be a good, cost-effective solution.
More GPS device reviews:• Palm GPS Navigator Smartphone Edition• Magellan RoadMate 2000• Garmin nüvi 660• Averatec Voya 350• Pharos Traveler GPS 525• more