Navman GPS Satellite Receiver for all Palm III/V Series

The Navman snaps right into the Palm's serial connector and sits comfortably in your hand, not feeling overly large or bulky. It works with any Palm handheld running OS 3.1 or higher and there's a mounting adaptor for the Palm V. The Navman uses its own batteries to avoid running down the Palm handheld's power and it ships with a regular power adapter. The accompanying software is easy to load and set up. The CD-ROM includes detailed maps of Great Britain; other maps can be purchased after registration on Handmap's Web site. Maps range in size depending on the scale and detail but in testing we found that a dense map of central London downloaded easily on a Palm V with 2 MB memory. The MapToGo software creates maps for the PDA. Choose a map by searching through a list of names or by clicking on the map of Britain, then drag and click to define the map's area and level of detail. Downloading the maps is easy: you simply choose "Export to Handheld" and the map will install on your Palm the next time you Hotsync.

The map takes up about 4/5 of the Palm screen. Under the map is a Current Information panel which displays selected information like coordinates and scaling. A GPS button lets you turn the GPS on and off and adjust the settings. The HandMap operates in several modes; the easiest way to start using it is in Drag mode with the GPS turned on. It's sometimes hard to get a fix on your position near buildings or inside. In our testing, we had to be in a clear area for the fix to take; after that, the unit performed well in a car over city streets. The up/down scroll button on the Palm can be used to dynamically scale up or down. The maps automatically add detail with street names and landmarks as you zoom in closer. The other modes are "Normal" mode, which enables you to select features like streets and train stations as targets; "Calc Dist" mode shows the length of a route as you trace it; and the "Show Coord" mode which shows and saves coordinates of selected locations.

Should you want to use the GPS for automobile navigation, the device ships with a cigarette lighter adapter for powering the receiver in the car and a suction vehicle mount. We found a lag of a few seconds while travelling at 40 mph. If you are going to use the device in the car, bring along a friend to navigate. You should not attempt to use this device when behind the wheel; the display requires too much attention.

The MapToGo software has basic routing tools that allow you to mark positions and then trace your way between them. You can set a feature like a train station or street as your target; a black arrow then points to the target, whether or not it's on screen and as you travel towards the target the black arrow shows you which direction the target is. If you already know what route you want to take, you can create a basic route between two points. As you follow the route, the Current Information panel shows the next instruction (eg: turn right on King Street).

The Navman Palm GPS Satellite Receiver will certainly come in handy for off-road endeavours like hill walking or wandering in the woods. But given its limited battery life, it may be most useful for journeys that begin or end in towns, cities and suburbs. The Palm was designed to help people easily carry and access vital information. With the Navman, not only does the Palm conveniently transport the information you need: it makes sure that the information, and you, are transported to the right place as well. --Tamsin Todd