Cell Phone, Pda, Gps - What To Buy?

[+Scott Johnson]

I have seen some Cell Phones and PDA's with GPSr in them. What is a good one to buy at the moment?

[Dukie 'n' Dad]

For rugged backcountry travel, don't.

 

Cell phones do NOT function quite the same as regular GPS receivers do. Many require cell service to receive signals from various towers to augment the position and I do not know of any that actually have the navigational computer in them to work well enough for use as a Nav aid.

 

As for PDAs, I no longer use one as I've managed to break just about every one I've owned. Of all the electronics I have used, the PDA is the only device that I can not seem to make last. I have laptops and Notebooks that are going on 10 years old and still run great (althogh slow by today's standards) I still have my original walkman tape player from High School. Even my original GPS from the early 90's is still running. PDAs, however, don't seem to make it. My early Palms had proken cases where the stylus went. The later palms had issues with the buttons. Two pocket PCs now had something internal happen which caused erratic operation. One of them I dropped, but the others I thought I was treating well.

 

My Garmins have been dropped, bashed against rocks, used in the rain, dropped in puddles, slid across a dashboard and onto the floor, carried off by the dog, and shoved into a backpack. Never had an issue with them. I'd hate to see what a PDA would do with that kind of abuse.

 

As always, it is your money and your decision, but I'll always take a device designed for the use than one that tries to do too much. Just like a good folding knife tends to be better at cutting than a swiss army knife, so does a stand alone GPS tend to do the job better than one that is a part of something else.

[+Stunod]

Some cell phones DO have "real" GPS functions. My Nextel does, but it is not easy to use for navigation. And as Dukie 'n' Dad said, neither a cell phone or a PDA is rugged enough to survice a quick dip in the water or a drop on the rocks.

[+LSUFan]

I personally use a Dell Axim PDA with a compact flash GPS card along with Mapopolis mapping software. Mapopolis has a conversion utility where you can run pocket queries from Geocaching.com (a premium member service) and it will put the caches as waypoints on the map screen. Mapopolis then will give you voice prompts on how to drive to the cache. You can also download the same pocket queries to another program on the PDA called GPXSonar, where you can view the cache webpages(along with the hidden spoilers if needed). It's truly paperless caching and extremely easy. All of this works great IN THE VEHICLE.

 

HOWEVER----I totally agree with Dukie'n'Dad and Stunod that you DON'T want this when out in the woods. A PDA is not built for harsh environments. I use my ole trusty Garmin when I have to go in the woods. These are the types of GPS's you want to use if you're out in the elements. This advice comes from lots of personal experience with both a PDA and a handheld Garmin.

 

Just trying to help

 

LSUFan

[+Scott Johnson]

This is why I love this site...thanks for the great information!

 

I would be mainly using the PDA/GPS in my car or airplane. Not in the woods. Yes, I have dropped my Magellan Meridian Platinum so many times it is a wonder it still works.

 

The cell phone idea was a bonus. If able...

[Blue Contrails]

You CAN use a cellphone. It depends on how much you're willing to spend.

 

There are cellphones out there that can perform just as well as a GPSr would for daily urban mapping.

 

For this set up you'll need three things:

 

1. The motorola Mpx220 is a windows based Motorola Smartphone available at Best Buy. It's a GSM phone and you'll need to activate it with either Cingular or AT&T. It has roughly the same screen size as the etrex vista color.

 

2. The phone will need some kind of GPS mapping software available here here here and here.

 

3. The Mpx220 (or any other windows based smartphone you decide to get should have) has Bluetooth. This way you can wirelessly connect the phone to a bluetooth capable GPS receiver. The smallest one I've found is this. For more info you can go here.

Edited October 22, 2004 by Blue Contrails

[+LSUFan]

Scott, if you do decide to go the PDA route, then you probably need to get this accessory. My caching partner and I both have these and they do help tremendously. It keeps your PDA dry and the dirt out. It also floats if necessary. Like I said earlier, it's best to have a handheld gps if you do go out in the elements, but if not, this can save your PDA from getting messed up. There are several different sizes available. This is just the one that happened to fit my PDA with the GPS card in it. I still get all of the gps satellite signals while the PDA is in the case also.

 

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp...duct_id=2553355

 

LSUFan

[nobby.nobbs]

get them all, he who dies with the most toys wins!

 

if not then you need to figure out what you're going to use each for.

 

if you need mobile phone then how many functions do you really need?

pda what you going to use it for?

gps, just caching?

 

then how much cash you got? and go for the best in each field that you can afford.

 

i've got a garmin 60c. worth the extra.

nokia 3510 without all bells and whistles

sony clie tg50 pda in sale.

 

happy with all of them

[+Kaslo]

My two cents: I've had my Garmin IQue 3600 since may, and love the thing. I bought it before I knew what geocaching was, so I was looking mostly for the PDA and GPS functions, mostly for use while travelling in my truck. I am now Hooked On Caching, and the unit does well at that job too. The main limitations are battery life and a total lack of ruggedness. I address the battery issue by shutting it off when not required (ie between stages of a multi-cache). As for the ruggedness, a $20 waterproof/shatterproof case from Pelican has fixed that problem. There's still the off chance of a careless drop into a stream, but hey, that's life. I also use Cachemate for paperless caching, it's the only way to go.

Just my humble opinion...

 

Hey, this link from a few messages up actually shows my unit...

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp...duct_id=2553355

 

Kaslo

Edited October 26, 2004 by Kaslo

[+TresOkies]

I'm seriously considering getting the new palmOne Treo 650 which was announced yesterday. It's a top-notch PDA with a GSM cell phone. It has gpsOne support. Once the GPS SDIO cards are available, that will replace three things I always carry with one. When I'm out geocaching, I would still carry a dedicated handheld GPSR.