Affordable GPS

Ever since I sat at sister Lynda Wee's BMW and let her demonstrate her GPS system, I knew that the system has at last come down to earth, as far as affordablity goes. Deacon Paul Lim was the second guy that gave me a test drive to demostrate the GPS system using his PPC phone. I did some research on my own (http://www.ppcsg.com/ is a good local site to visit), visited stalls at the recent computer show and dropped in at retailers like Eastgear (second storey, Penisular Plaza) and AAA Computer (Funan and Sim Lim).

Below is the benefit of my findings for those of you who are interested. For the rest of us, wait around a year or so, and all cars will come with GPS fitted.

GPS is a system that tracks your vehicle and with the appropiate software/maps, will guide you to your destintation. It does not cost you any money to log on (unlike the internet) and because of its novety, is a lot of fun (for me at least). Also, as one who is prone to get lost, this can be a life saver.

To secure a GPS system, you need 3 things:
1. A GPS Receiver (less than $200)

2. A PDA/Smart Phone with bluetooth capablity

3. Appropiate software/map

My first attempt was to use my trusty Palm Zodiac PDA, since it is not used much and does sport a great screen. However, there are currently only 2 GPS software for Palm that sort of works. Tom Tom is a runaway favorite, but without Singapore maps or maps for Asia, it is out of the question. The other has a map of Singapore, but Kingmap is no longer updated and kind of, gave up the ghost. So Palm owners, right now... no go.

Next, I thought of my Sony Ericsson P910i - bluetooth and big screen. Alas, the only software with the map of Singapore supports only smartphones running Windows Mobile ie deacon Swee Aun's Xphone. So all others, no go for now.

This narrowed my choice to PPC PDAs as I wasn't going out to buy a phone just to run GPS. I had an old Ipaq that was Ipaq before it became HP Ipaq. I took it to AAA computer and was told that Mapking (my preferred GPS software; the other that has a map of Singapore is Agis) does not support my model of PPC. My only option is to get new stuff and none of my ancient devices are compatible.

Now, instead of looking for bits and pieces (ie GPS receiver, bluetooth PDA etc), I made a beeline for a PPC with built-in GPS. There are several new PPCs that now has GPS built-in. From Mio, Acer... to the high end HP Ipaq. At the recent computer show, AAA Computer was offering the Acer n35 for S$599 with free Mapking plus PDA holder. I dropped by to make some enqueries and ended up purchasing the whole deal for S$550, with a screen protector thrown in. The most helpful sales clerk, Branden installed all the stuff, and even registered online for me.

By the evening, I was able to activate it as I took it on a test run around my neighbourhood. It is really a blast. It works well; and it is light, small and bright. Since I was pretty much a PPC-addict in the past, I got hold of the backups of my large library of registered PPC software and enjoyed running Bibles, photo albums and lots of fun games on it as well. It has been a while since I used them, so there may be a slight learning curve here. Also, I did not keep all the passwords, but at least some will run. All in all, a pretty good deal. This week, I'm having lunch with Peter Soh and giving him a demo. Already, he called me yesterday for the address of Eastgear. Great stuff, this. Highly recommended. All for S$550 - such a deal.