Palm Zire 31 GPS solution bundle - is it any good ??

jblackmore

I am looking to get a bundled GPS/PDA/Navigation setup, and see that morecomputers.co.uk are advertising a Palm Zire 31 setup as follows.

PALM Zire 31 GPS Solution - Incl. Zire 31 and Voice guided GPS
Part Code: P80708ML1-GPS-UK
Price £225.81 inc vat

I understand this comes with a GPS receiver, but cannot find any mention of this bundle on these forums, or reviewed on pocketgpsworld, or any details of what model of receiver this is.

Does anyone know what the GPS receiver and satnav software in this bundle are, or have any experience of using this.

I am mainly interested in using this for car journeys, so would like to know it has postcode lookup, and decent mapping and routeplanning.

Thanks.

James.

jblackmore · Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2004 3:55 pm Post subject:

Sorry to reply to my own post :-)

Found some more info on palm UK site (was looking at Palm US site before which had nothing)

http://www-5.palmone.com/uk/en/products/gpspackz31/index.html

Quote "[bundle] combines an affordable colour Zire 31 handheld with a complete ViaMichelin GPS Navigation Pack (GPS receiver, car accessories, MapSonic Voice Navigation Software, complete country map)."

For £230 all in, this looks like a great deal, and I would prefer Palm to the similarly priced Aldi/Medon bundle, anyone have any experience of whether this would be a good satnav bundle ??

jblackmore · Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2004 12:50 pm Post subject:

Does anyone have any feedback on this ??

I ordered this yesterday from ebuyer for £231, as I figured if I waited to see some feedback, they would sell out (if its good !).

Anyway, if anyone has any feedback on this, especially whether the STN 160x160 display is adequate for in-car routing, and if the software is usable (ie postcode input, decent routing, and re-routing quickly) I would love to hear about it.

Found some more info on another site:

-------------------------------------

The navigation interface and spoken instructions will transform your Palm into a real on-board navigation system! The cigar lighter charger provided will ensure that your Palm never runs out of juice!

Discover MapSonic Europe from ViaMichelin, the new navigation software for PDAs, available for the first time for Palm OS (Palm™, Sony). MapSonic is the only software product which can also be used on your PC.

Covering all of Europe (over 100,000 towns), MapSonic is a mapping software coupled with an advanced route calculation function and voice guidance. Used with a GPS receiver, your PDA is transformed into a genuine on-board navigation system.

With detailed maps, route plans and voice guidance displayed on your PDA screen, all in real-time, PDA users can travel throughout Europe without ever getting lost again. All you have to do is download the maps you need onto your PDA, connect to a GPS receiver, and then simply enter in your departure and arrival points...

From http://www.expansys-usa.com/product.asp?code=116698

en1gma · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 10, 2004 Posts: 7

check the actual Mapsonic maps you receive - I saw a similar offer in John Lewis the other day, and the box stated that it only came with UK mapping, not europe-wide. Mind you, the JL sales rep said it only came with maps for "Manchester-southwards"!!! Laughing

This will be a wired solution, with a seperate GPS receiver - in this respect, the Aldi/Medion solution is neater (and I actually do get a decent signal within my BMW 5-series - result!).

Have a look at other threads to get a view on the mapping s/w - I suggest you go into your local PCWorld/Dixons etc, to determine if you think the screen will be bigh enough. Mind you, looks like you'll get it any day now!

jblackmore · Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2004 10:29 am Post subject:

Thanks for the info - I am sure the maps are UK only, and this is clear in the description on PalmOnes UK site, and I am not bothered by this.

I would have preferred the Aldi/Medion solution, as I have borrowed one from a colleague and was very impressed by the whole bundle, but they are sold out, and nearest Aldi is 40 minutes from me, so the logistics of queueing every Thursday morning to get one (when they are back in stock) are just not do-able.

Also, I have used a Palm PDA for years, so would prefer a Palm solution as I can use it as a chance to upate my ancient PDA as well (I still have an original Palm Pro from 1998 still going strong), the Medion would have been for SatNav only - and maybe some games.

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