Newbie to PDA/GPS - wanting Traffic Info

[chrisnel]

Have just begin to do some research into all this and am getting somewhat confused and would welcome some advice or pointers.

For the last 4 years I have been using a very simple TrafficMaster Freeway (audible) system to warn me of impending delays on the motorway and trunk road network. Whilst this has served its purpose to date it has been no use whatsoever in helping me to find alternative routes. The device has now keeled over and uttered its last so time for a replacement - but what to go for without spending a fortune?

The basic requirements are portability (I change cars regularly and use hire cars). Thinking about getting a PDA anyway. Don't want wires everywhere - so am assuming need to understand bluetooth. Want ability to route plan. Essential to be able to get live traffic information and preferably ability to do dynamic route re-calculation - but could live without this last bit. The live traffic info bit is essential though.

On this point I understand I need GPRS? My Nokia phone (with bluetooth) can provide this. Orange tell me I will pay per 1Mb of data transferred. This doesn't help me much as I don't know how to transfer the data or how much of it I will need. Can other users give me any clues as to running costs? I spend between 10 and 15 hours per week on the motorways.

My current leaning is towards an Ipaq and TomTom software. Iam sure there are places on the website where I can find all the info I need to make a decision. BUt if anyone wishes to warn me of pitfalls or encourage me down a specific route (no pun intended) then I would be most grateful.

Oh, I suppose I ought to add that desktop mapping, PCs and laptops etc are very familiar to me. The area where technology advances are leaving me behind is mobile communications and satnav etc.

Many thanks in advance for your help.

Chris

[DavidW]

As you can see from my signature, I'm using a TomTom Traffic setup with a Bluetooth GPS - the T in my Navigator version number means Traffic.


Let's try to cover a few general issues. GPRS is usually the only way that makes sense for a mobile Internet connection; you need something that's charged by data transferred rather than time connected. Bluetooth is the standard way to get GPRS to your Pocket PC, unless you happen to have one of those Pocket PCs with built in phone hardware (some people love them - I'm not so sure, not least as my next phone will likely be a 3G one and there's no 3G Pocket PCs at the moment).

The snag with using Bluetooth is that most phones can only talk to one device at once over Bluetooth. This isn't a problem for me because I use a wired car kit with my Nokia 6310i (this has the advantage of charging the phone and connecting the phone to an external antenna), but if you use a Bluetooth car kit, you tend to find you can't use your phone for GPRS on the move.


GPRS usage - each TomTom Traffic download is not very large. The size depends on the number of incidents, and you get to choose how frequently you download the data. Spb GPRS Monitor can be useful for keeping an eye on your usage. I tend to use around 1MByte per month on Traffic.

TomTom Traffic allows dynamic recalculation, though it's fairly easy to recalculate manually.


My setup is to the more expensive end, but I'm happy with it all. I'm currently using an iPAQ hx4700, WriteSHIELD AG screen protector (highly recommended - you can get them from Expansys), Brodit active mount and ProClip, Fortuna Clip On GPS (which has a hard wired car charger and the supplied magnetic mount stuck to the top of my ProClip), Nokia 6310i in a Nokia CARK-91, and TomTom Navigator 3 software with TomTom Traffic. If you're not wanting to use your PDA for other things, you could go for a cheaper iPAQ.



David

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