Handheld GPS unit for all purposes ?

[Blackbird]

Mission Impossible : Find a "handheld" unit with appropriate software able to perform all tasks:
1. Marine Use for Europe (water protected)
2. Car Use (turn by turn + voice guidance) in Europe + US + Canada
3. Topographic Maps and Selfscanned maps

I'm waiting already for months to find the ultimate solution, but I'm affraid it never will appear on the market. (We can fly to the moon and send probes to any planet we want, but we cannot bring together in one single unit what already exists in separate solutions )

The closest I can get is a Garmin 76C. However Garmin has problems on following issues :

1. No International Warranty. If your Garmin is originating from either "wrong" side of the Atlantic, it is likely you will not find service.

2. Garmin units become almost worthless to use on either "wrong" side of the Atlantic. European units have no routing function on American roads and vice versa, because the "basemap" is tied to the unit and swapping between Europe/America seems to be impossible.

The conclusion is that at this time, there is no universal handheld unit, performing it all. If I want marine functions and universal routing functions, I'm affraid I will have to buy 2 units :

1. Garmin 76C (in my region) for marine + European routing functions

2. A nice PDA + appropriate software for routing on the other side of the atlantic. (Plug the GPS-unit to the PDA) There is plenty of software for PPC's, but what would be the best routing software for use for US and Canada ?

Any other suggestions ? Thank you

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