which palm pda to buy to replace my m500?

[+crunchiespg]

i had a palm m500 which was good cos it had a serial input on the bottom so i could connect it directly to my gpsmap 60c, and also had usb so would work with my laptop, and it had a SD card. however it has now finally died. and it was mega slow for searching through the caches using cachemate.

 

which is a good palm that will still connect to my GPS? but more importantly has a SD card slot and will run cachemate?

 

i dont really want another m500. too slow.

thanks

[+crunchiespg]

hmm, looking i dont think any of the new ones will connect to my gps, is this correct?

so maybe one that i can fit a little gps reciever to. cos its nice to tell cachemate "show me the nearest caches" and not have to manually enter your location. however this is not essential, just need a good paperless caching tool.

[+The Bouncy Boys]

I too have a Palm PDA and I really like the Palm OS so this troubles me to say this.

 

You should buy a Windows Mobile PDA. You can get them with built in GPS receivers or you can use a Bluetooth GPS which will cost about £40 extra. Cachemate is available for the Windows Mobile OS as well.

 

I've now got a Windows Mobile PDA based mobile phone which is my primary geocache device. I got this as an upgrade on my mobile phone contract because it was a lot cheaper to do this than buy a normal PDA.

 

I run Memory Map and Cachemate it seek caches. I can even post my finds on this site from it. What's more because I use a Sirf star 3 bluetooth GPS it's more accurate than my Garmin!

Edited August 14, 2007 by The Bouncy Boys

[+crunchiespg]

I too have a Palm PDA and I really like the Palm OS so this troubles me to say this.

 

You should buy a Windows Mobile PDA. You can get them with built in GPS receivers or you can use a Bluetooth GPS which will cost about £40 extra. Cachemate is available for the Windows Mobile OS as well.

 

I've now got a Windows Mobile PDA based mobile phone which is my primary geocache device. I run Memory Map and Cachemate it seek caches. I can even post my finds on this site from it. What's more because I use a Sirf star 3 bluetooth GPS it's more accurate than my Garmin!

 

not happening, i use apple mac computers. so windows based pda's wont be any good to me.

 

i know a lot of palm pda's have bluetooth, so can do the same with a bluetooth receiver.

 

built in gps would be nice, but not nice enough for me to change to windows based items again!!!

 

the gps side of things i can live without, cos i can live with manually telling cachemate where i am, it was jsut nice to do it automatically and to send the waypoints to my garmin.

[NeilFord]

 

not happening, i use apple mac computers. so windows based pda's wont be any good to me.

 

i know a lot of palm pda's have bluetooth, so can do the same with a bluetooth receiver.

 

built in gps would be nice, but not nice enough for me to change to windows based items again!!!

 

the gps side of things i can live without, cos i can live with manually telling cachemate where i am, it was jsut nice to do it automatically and to send the waypoints to my garmin.

 

Missing Sync for Windows Mobile will allow you to sync a Windows Mobile device with a Mac running OS X.

 

It should be noted that the latest Palm devices don't sync particularly well with the Mac either, you may need to get Missing Sync for Palm.

 

I know this as I have fought with both on behalf of a client.

 

Unfortunately I have no experience with the new palms and bluetooth. I'd definitely try and find someone who's already done it before parting with the readies.

 

- Neil.

[fraggle69]

No idea about your mac setup but I believe palm have some patches available. I suggest you take a look at a palm tungstenE2. Stay away from the power hungry zire 72 and lifedrives. I managed to get an e2 from a reputable high street store for about £70 a couple of years ago.

[+crunchiespg]

No idea about your mac setup but I believe palm have some patches available. I suggest you take a look at a palm tungstenE2. Stay away from the power hungry zire 72 and lifedrives. I managed to get an e2 from a reputable high street store for about £70 a couple of years ago.

yeh the father in law has an E2 and the bluetooth works well with tomtom sat nav and a bluetooth gps so i guess would be ok with cachemate too. i would just miss the ability to send the waypoints to the gps.

 

its not a case of compatability thats the main issue with windows based devices. more the fact that i refuse to put another penny in microsofts pocket. im happy to say there is nothing microsoft in my house!

all the new palms say they are definately mac compatable on the website.

cheers for the pointers so far.

[+The Bouncy Boys]

i would just miss the ability to send the waypoints to the gps.

 

I'm slightly confused. You can upload the waypoints to either Palm or Windows versions of Cachemate.

 

I haven't got my Palm device handy at the moment, does cachemate for Palm point to the actual waypoint/cache?

 

Cachemate for windows OS includes plug-in module that shows the direction and distance to the waypoint (cache) if you have a gps connected to the device.

 

In other words using Cachemate you can read all the details about the cache AND find the cache without using a separate handheld GPS, and as I've said, this may be more accurate than your handheld GPS, especially under tree cover.

[+crunchiespg]

i would just miss the ability to send the waypoints to the gps.

 

I'm slightly confused. You can upload the waypoints to either Palm or Windows versions of Cachemate.

 

I haven't got my Palm device handy at the moment, does cachemate for Palm point to the actual waypoint/cache?

 

Cachemate for windows OS includes plug-in module that shows the direction and distance to the waypoint (cache) if you have a gps connected to the device.

 

In other words using Cachemate you can read all the details about the cache AND find the cache without using a separate handheld GPS, and as I've said, this may be more accurate than your handheld GPS, especially under tree cover.

 

no you mis understand me, on my old m500 i could connect my garmin gpsmap 60c to the palm, and then it would send the caches from the palm to the garmin. this was handy as i could have the whole uk data base of caches on my palm, then send them to the gps only when i wanted to search for them as it takes a while to enter them manually each time. this was good as i could have every uk cache with me but my garmin can only hold 500. so id simply load the nearby ones from my palm to my garmin.

 

also my gps would tell cachemate the current location so it could search for the nearest caches. rather than me having to tell cachemate where i was.

Edited August 15, 2007 by crunchiespg

[+The Bouncy Boys]

no you mis understand me, on my old m500 i could connect my garmin gpsmap 60c to the palm, and then it would send the caches from the palm to the garmin. this was handy as i could have the whole uk data base of caches on my palm, then send them to the gps only when i wanted to search for them as it takes a while to enter them manually each time. this was good as i could have every uk cache with me but my garmin can only hold 500. so id simply load the nearby ones from my palm to my garmin.

 

also my gps would tell cachemate the current location so it could search for the nearest caches. rather than me having to tell cachemate where i was.

 

By using the setup I've described you wouldn't need your Garmin at all to find every cache on your database. You'd be able to find it directly from Cachemate. What's more you can run memory map on a Windows PDA as well as Cachemate so not only would you be able to find a cache using the pointer type display that you get with cachemate but you'd be able to see where you are on a moving map display too. If you ever find yourself on an open moor trying to decide if you are following a sheep trail or a footpath you'll regret not having memory map.

 

By rigidly avoiding Microsoft you are cutting off your nose to spite your face in my opinion. As has been said above, you can use a windows pda with an MAC if you want.

[+keehotee]

more the fact that i refuse to put another penny in microsofts pocket.

But you're quite happy to fill Steve Job's pockets??? I'm sure he'll be eternally grateful....

[+crunchiespg]

no you mis understand me, on my old m500 i could connect my garmin gpsmap 60c to the palm, and then it would send the caches from the palm to the garmin. this was handy as i could have the whole uk data base of caches on my palm, then send them to the gps only when i wanted to search for them as it takes a while to enter them manually each time. this was good as i could have every uk cache with me but my garmin can only hold 500. so id simply load the nearby ones from my palm to my garmin.

 

also my gps would tell cachemate the current location so it could search for the nearest caches. rather than me having to tell cachemate where i was.

 

By using the setup I've described you wouldn't need your Garmin at all to find every cache on your database. You'd be able to find it directly from Cachemate. What's more you can run memory map on a Windows PDA as well as Cachemate so not only would you be able to find a cache using the pointer type display that you get with cachemate but you'd be able to see where you are on a moving map display too. If you ever find yourself on an open moor trying to decide if you are following a sheep trail or a footpath you'll regret not having memory map.

 

By rigidly avoiding Microsoft you are cutting off your nose to spite your face in my opinion. As has been said above, you can use a windows pda with an MAC if you want.

 

no my point is my old palm i could directly connect to my garmin, then it would search for caches near to my current location, especially useful if i was in a different part of the country and didnt know any caches, i could interrogate the database to show me the closest, without having to manually tell cachemate my lat lon position. i could then send the nearest 10 or 20 caches to my garmin as geocache waypoints and then navigate to them. because obviously i cant store many caches on my garmin, but can store them all on my palm. and manually entering them into the garmin takes a long time, but sending them direct from the palm takes seconds.

i can see what you mean i could do it all on the palm if it had built in gps. but im not a fan of memory map, i always carry paper os maps anyway(im a hardcore believer of the gps is nice to back up traditional navigation), and i would sooner use my garmin on the trail and keep the pda safely tucked away in my rucksack as the are not exactly the most weather proof things.

 

im moving to canada next month anyway, so memory map wouldnt be of use to me then, but is my motivation to have a pda again as there are so many caches in dense areas there.

[+crunchiespg]

more the fact that i refuse to put another penny in microsofts pocket.

But you're quite happy to fill Steve Job's pockets??? I'm sure he'll be eternally grateful....

yes because at least when i put money his way i get a product that actually works. and i dont have to spend half my time trying to sort out problems.

i was a windows user for the last 15 years, and since ive changed to mac last year ive not had a single crash, freeze or programme error. my laptop takes 15 seconds from completely off to be onto my internet browser.

i no longer have to think about drivers, viruses, spyware or anything else. in fact my mobile phone crashes and goes wrong more than my computers now!

 

my old windows laptop used to take 5 minutes to load up all the crap and virus protection etc each time, then went wrong on a regular basis. and no it wasnt a cheap laptop, was very high specced. just windows systems are flawed.

Edited August 16, 2007 by crunchiespg