GPS navigation systems

I am looking for one of those Palm Pilot type ones that you attach to the dash board and has maps/software for all of Europe...

Where in town can I get one?

Thanks
Vanessa

I would recommend the TOMTOM software, you can get a package with a PDA, software and maps of germany here amazon.com - Hewlett-Packard IPAQ HX2110 Handheld PDA mit TomTom Navigator

you will then also have to buy the extra maps of europe

amazon.com - TomTom Go Europakarte

I received the Garmin Quest as a gift about 4 months ago. It was purchased at Karstadt Sport but not sure the cost. It comes with car mount, and software for most of europe (topo maps also available). I also have the bike mount kit, and it easily snaps from car to bike, no problem. Highly recommended. I believe Karstadt Sport has a wide selection.

I agree with Eric about TomTom. They are one of the best, if not THE best, for PDA navigation software.

Also consider looking at the TomTom Go, which is an all in one unit with a hard drive big enought to conatin detailed maps of the whole of europe (PDAs tend to have Germany plus major transit routes thru europe). The top of the range Go also intergrates a Bluetooth hands free set-up for your mobile phone.

I saw the Garmin in action a month ago and I think the Tom Tom has similar performance. Very impressive, less money than an in-car system and portable to boot.

The new Tom Toms will be blue tooth compatible and will act as a handsfree/display for your handy.

TomTom 300 isn't a palm pilot application, rather a dedicated portable GPS Receiver - we bought one for Foxy to use and it's feckin' great BUT be warned, if your car has a heat resistant windscreen the signal will be terrible so check what kind of windscreen you've got - (also the Ford type heated windscreen will block the signal) - to get around this you can buy an external antenna, but I can't find those for sale anywhere - Amazon never seems to have them in.

Jimbo, TomTom offer PDA Solutions AND the TomTom Go all-in-one unit (700, 500 and 300). The all-in-one is offered in three different specs.

http://www.gps24.de/

There are also some more options for you here depending on what you want to pay.
http://www.avalingo.de/catalog/index.php/c...4dc2de1bee304aa

If you do decide to opt for tomtom, please be aware that there is a new version of the navigator software now available (Navigator 5) with new maps and many nice features.

If you can get a copy of the old version (and serial number), Tomtom are offering an upgrade to version 5 for about 50 euros. Even if you do not have all the maps of europe in the old version, the upgrade will give you these at no extra charge.

I evaluated the tom tom pda version for a weekend with a view to purchasing and in a nutshell found it crap. The software was good but the performance dreadful. And that was one of kits where all was sold together. I would recommend the tom tom go, reviews are good and you are getting dedicated hardware. (is €469 in mediamarkt).

MM performance varies depending on which PDA you have. If you have a PDA with a slow processor it will not be that good. The TomTom Go units vary from 200Mhz for the 300 to 400Mhz for the 700. The 700 obviously has more features and needs the extra processing speed. A PDA with a ca. 400Mhz processor should be fine with the TomTom PDA software.

Don't forget you have to register it with GEZ.

OG: I don't remember which PDA was included, but it was one of the prepackaged kits. By performance I don't really mean CPU performance (although that could be the cause) I mean, performance of the thing as a whole: i.e I went on a skiing trip to St. Johann, input the goal and slapped it on the windscreen. it piped up with directions only on some occasions, other times when I checked it had no idea where we were. One trip in the city where I really needed it, it let me down totally: even after pulling in and giving it a chance to catch up. Overall pretty patchy. The new 'go' ones look better, may give it a try.

ok, see what you mean. Firstly, the packs that include PDA + Nav software often bundle an aging or run-out PDA, so not always the best solution. The prozessor speed will have an effect on the nav software knowing where you are because it has to "keep up" with you. Another to check is the map material. Many PDA solutions only have Germany and major european transit routes installed on the card. If you go off the major roads, it won't know where you are. This is where the Go has its advatage: the hard drive. You can install more map material and other information (restaurants, hotels, petrol stations, points of interest etc) than you could ever use on the hard drive, so no chances of going off the covered map area. And the 700 has a very good processor as well, so speed isn't an issue.

thanks for the suggestions- since my german is bad- I am going to go to the Karstadt option suggested, but am currently trying to find out if the Stachus location would sell something like that [as it has a sports section]

For Current PDA's check out Saturn/Media Markt, it doesn't matter if the OS is in German, as it can be changed with a little knowhow (I can do it).
This way you have an upto date PDA. From here you can get a GPS reciever and TOMTOM from Ebay. Tomtom installs in 10+ languages.

If you want to say some $ on the PDA you can also look on ebay.

The prepackaged deals usually use old outdated or are from "Little known firms", as the others have mentioned.

Yeah I know - I rushed the post as I had a client waiting. The 500 and 700 aren't out in the UK and don't offer (IMHO) that many functions worth having - Bluetooth handsfree compatibility for your handy is about the most important, but we've got headsets for that, and the new car will have it in any case so no issue there, thus we decided not to wait and went for the 300, which in a car without a heat resistant windscreen, works like a charm - hasn't dropped signal once. In a car with a heat resistant screen it's pretty terrible, and with tall buildings about worse than terrible. The beauty of the TomTom is that you can download TomTom Plus to it, and it'll update itself with locations of all sorts of things - including speed cameras. It also has a built in speaker so you can hear the directions quite easily without hooking up to the car stereo.

I've no experience of the PDA ones, but frankly I doubt they'll be as good as the dedicated package - the TomTom Go 300 is damn near as good as the SatNav fitted to the X5 I used to get driven around in whilst I was in MUC.

Hi Jimbo, the main difference between the 300 and the 500 is the map material pre-installed. The 300 only has regional mapping (ie Britain or Germany). This is ok if you are not driving internationally. The 500 has regional plus major european roues, the Bluetooth handsfree capability and a faster processor (400Mhz, compared to 200 for the 300). The 700 has full European-wide maps and a remote control as well. Tehy all have voice commands.

There are some cracking offers at Medion at the moment with PDA based systems as €379 complete (which I think are better because they have more flexibility as a PDA), and dedicated car systems under €400

YL6

Arn't these tomtom all in one units like over 650 Eur? and for very limited flexibility compaired to a PDA..

I rate my Garmin IQUE 3600. Its a Palm PDA but built firstly as a GPS so not a bodge job. I use it on motorbike and in the car but in central Munich it can lose the signal, so better to get the additional arial link for car use in busy areas.

ye, you are right about the flexibilty. A PDA gives you all the features that PDAs offer, whereas the all-one-unit is just a nav-system. Depends what you want. If you need occasional use of a nav system, already have a decent PDA, then go for the PDA-software. If you are just looking at a decent nav-system, the Go can not be beaten for the price.

From me...I have one for sale. Interested? PM for more details.

€450 in media markt. Yeah they are not PDAs and thus you are losing out on flexibility but like I said the all in one units (probably) function better. BTW this is the set I tested:

I-PAQ hx 2110+Tom Tom Bluetooth+256 SD-Card
Prozessor Intel® PXA270 Prozeessor 312 MHz
Speicher 64 MB ROM und 64 MB SDRAM (bis zu 88 MB verfügbarer Speicher)

Hello Owain. Indeed true - though you can buy the SD cards with Europe wide maps if you want 'em - not an issue to us as Debbie needs it for work which is London only. I don't see the need for the faster processor - it calculates the average route in twenty seconds or so anyway. As for the remote - what's the point? You must have a fecking big car if you can't reach your GPS system from behind the wheel. The only debate was the handsfree stuff, but since Debbie's new car will have a car kit of some kind installed, we opted against it. £370 in the UK and I couldn't find it cheaper when I bought it.

Post your kit...

Fujitsu-Siemend Loox 720
Royaltek sapphire GPS (Small bubble thing)
TomTom 5.0

If you have the time to invest it may be worth loking here:

http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/modules.php?...rums&file=index

I am interested in the Garmin Quest as a dedicated unit but would like to confirm performance inside the car, heated front screen, before I bought. Anybody like to lend one to me?

BB

I have an Ipaq 2110 mated to a Tom-Tom... been pretty happy with it, although it sometimes has reception probs in the city, and crashs and needs to be reset occasionally. However, a bonus of having it in the PDA is that it doubles as a map of the city/area even when you are not in the car. the level of detail in the maps is pretty amazing. I like to impress people by asking them where they are from in butt-f**k Deutschland, then finding not only their town, but also their street!

Dunno about the bluetooth... I heard that the signal is often lost, and the guy that had one in a taxi I took was resetting it every 2 min or so...

my two bits...

I just bought a cell phone from T-mobile. It is a MDA compact that comes with windows mobile 2003. T-mobile offers software navigation that you can install in the MDA model phone, also offers the accesories that will make this PDA/cell easy to attach into your dashboard for the GPS functionality.

http://www.t-mobile.de/shop/handy/1,4855,2...7-0-1-0,00.html

There's a shop selling tramping/camping gears in Schwabing, can't remember what it's called though (something with 'D'), but I'm pretty sure they've got GPS navigation gears. Take the tram 27 to 'Pinakotheken' and walk down Theresienstrasse in the direction going away from the Museums (just start down on from the corner where Tresznjewki's is) and the shop should come into view...I'm not sure whether it's something you're looking for or not, since it sounds more like you wanted to have one for your car.

Another option is to buy a Pocket PC phone (MDA, XDA, VDA) with a contract then you get the phone cheaper (I have seen sometimes in eBay for EUR 99,- with 2 year contract). You can then buy a GPS Mouse which will connect your phone to GPS via a cable or Bluetooth (with Bluetooth you could use it when walking down the street and leave the "mouse" in your pocket

Not sure what software options are available... maybe someone here could post suggestions...?

just gave back our company car with NAV and new car dosen't have it yet so I'm lost, I mean I actually have to read a map, stop and ask for directions, god lord what this world coming to

The Nokia Series 60 route: have a 6600 type phone?

You can buy a GPS dongle from ebay for 100euros approx.

You can then bittorrent buy the maps from TomTom and stick'em on a nice large memory card (50 euros)..

Depending on where you get the maps.. you have a nice cheap system. Of course, TomTom on your phone might not be the most optimal system for display etc...

Aldi have a special offer, dedicated GPS system from Monday. See here - €299

I went to Aldi on Monday, but never saw it. Could it have sold out the first day? I don't find the offer that attractive, but wanted to look at it nonetheless.

yes, it could well have sold out, or that particular store had not recieved their delivery yet. Also some stores (Unterföhring for example) keep expensive items like PDAs, Navis and computers in the store room and hand them over when the customers ask for them, maybe to prevent thieving.

If you really want to buy it, you can also purchase the same Navi system and slightly better ones from directly from the Medion Online Store

My local Aldi opened at 8:30 and sold out of these by 10:00 on the same day - 300 units, I understand.
That's often the way with better Aldi offers...

YL6

The same unit is €50 more there...

Then check Ebay...

Can someone explain how these navigation systems attach to the car? Looks like a suction thingy to the windscreen in the photo (Aldi), but doesn't that block vision? And how does the PDA type work? Surely the screen is too small to see whilst driving? Two questions from an idiot, I know, but would appreciate if someone can explain to me. Thanks. I also want to buy one, cos I'm sick of getting lost in one-way street systems. But don't know what's best - the one for around 900 Euros from my car-dealer which is beyond my means - or these cheap ones I can afford.

These devices have an audio too..

@Nicky

The Built-In Dealer provided ones are about the same as the systems that you can buy seperatly, although the seperately bought ones are usually more upgradable for a cheaper price.

The dealer supplied systems also cost way more $$$ than needed.
I have used the suction cup type system before many times, and it doesn't get in the way at all. It connects to the power (lighter) socket for power (most units also have a battery) and either has it's own speakers and/or can be plugged into the stero system with one of those cassette adapters.

The PDA ones are best as they are relatively cheap and double up as a pocket organiser. You can mount them via a window sucker, dashboard mount, or simply lay them on the passenger seat. They get their power from the cigarette lighter, and you either lay the antenne on the dash or (with the newer systems) hope the attached antenne gets enough signal. If mounted low on the windscreen they don't obscure view.

You get audible directions from the built-in speaker (or can get clever and pipe it into the car stereo) and a visual guide on the screen. If you mount the system on the windscreen it can be pretty poor to see in bright sunlight. In most cases the audible directions are the most important, with the visual guide being useful if there are multiple turns, or a confusing road system.

The navigation software with the cheaper PDA packages is often primitive, but nonetheless adequate. You can upgrade to a decent package such as TomTom which has very uptodate maps, flexible routing options and many other features such as local highlights (filling stations, parking, bars, etc) and can even accomodate overlays such as MacDonalds locations or radar traps (with acoustic warnings).

Most portable systems have weaknesses, e.g. losing their way in tunnels, or problems in dense cities, but overall they are remarkably useful and accurate, and compared to a bult-in system costing 3 or more times as much are good value for money.

YL6

Many thanks Darkknight and Yorkshire Lad. That was really helpful.

I did allot of looking and going with a Tomtom 700 quite expensive but it includes bluetooth phone options.

The dealer quoted me 2500 for a built in one, with Tomtom you can take it car to car.

Of course so can a thief

that is the only negative i can see.

I have to wait till after holidays till I can afford it

2500 Eur.. .Ouch thats way too much for way to little. The TomTom Go is cool looking but thats about it. It's over priced and so far lack and updates. Look on Ebay, get yourself a Used (Slightly used) IPAQ 2xxx/37xxx series or a Fujitsu-Siemens pocket Loox 720. If you play your cards right you can get one for under 500 Eur, sometimes even includes the GPS and software + It's a REAL PDA for normal use.

(And If it's in another Lang. Other than English, it can be changed to English rather easily)

@Darknight...I've got the dedicated Medion device that was referenced above, on sale at Aldi recently.

It's all in German which isn't a huge problem but how to change over to the English version? I assume I need the English ROM or something?

@Kat

Unfortunatly This isn't possible with Medion devices. (Unless you can find me and english one from the UK or something). Yet another reason
not to get the cheap stuff purpose built stuff...

That's "Kit"...Kat, KitKat, and Kitty are other people on this board...and they're all chicks too...hmmmmm

Anyhoo, I disagree with your statement...the Medion device that I have is a rock-solid product that has never led me astray. The company making the navigation software, Navigon, owns most of the market in Germany.

I've had experience with other GPS systems on my IPAQ and they're for shit. I've also used on-board nav systems in my rental cars that performed at about the same level as my Medion device...

Still won't be possible to get it in english, unless they make a model for the UK

Have you tried TomTom 5.0?