Comments on: Palm Store Offers $50 Rebate on GPS Navigator Kit 2

This might be a more-persistent link to that Cingular news:

-- http://cingular.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=press_releases&item=1772

Of course the E62 GPS solution is a subscription service (~$10/month), while Palm's bundle is a one-time fee. Then again, avoiding all the geeky cables and equipment will favor the E62, as will the E62's price. It's looking more and more that in order to compete, Palm will have to drop the Treo's price so much that they will be unable to actually make a profit.

Going from a big fish in a small pond (PDAs) to a guppy in a BIG pond (cellphones) was expecting a bit too much from a company as poorly managed as Palm. Of course, had PalmSource not bungled Cobalt or had Palm been able to regain control of PalmOS, they actually might have had a (slim) chance...

TVoR

I believe current maps are an extra-cost item.

(for aviation GPS one really should subscribe to a 56 (?) day renew of map data, for example).

Get serious, hengeem. Do you think anyone in the target market for either of these GPS bundles will be using them for aviation? For MOST users, as long as the bundled maps are reasonably up-to-date they'll be happy. Of course, the potential for having more up-to-date maps MIGHT tip the balance toward the E62 for a few users.

TVoR

Nah - unfortunately we cannot edit posts after posting and I didn't consider a noticed-a-slight-need-postposting clarification worth an extra post (...).

The "aviation" words were an aside about a GPS environment (that I am familiar with) where one has to subscribe to map updates. I posted that aside to note that a "monthly subscription" or its equivalent undoubtedly was a requirement here as well.

The Telenav service that Cingular is pushing also requires that you buy a seperate Bluetooth GPS if you don't already have one. Plus you can't use it without a data plan. Probably not an issue for most people here, but for somebody else...

Cingular are apparently going to be promoting Telenav for the 680 as well.

While over-the-air map data is great - especially if you're short on storage capacity - one of the advantages of GPS is that it works everywhere on the planet, including those places with patchy or nonexistent cellular coverage. This advantage is negated by not having your own copy of the maps.

Telenav will be cool, but since it still requires a Bluetooth GPS receiver (which normally come bundled with some kind of mapping software) I don't think it's going to be a huge hit.

Plus if Google ever add GPS functionality to their excellent Maps app, boom. That's the sound of Telenav's business model exploding into flames...

Tim
I apologise for any and all emoticons that appear in my posts. You may shoot them on sight.
Treo 270 ---> Treo 650

> ...if Google ever add GPS functionality to their excellent
> Maps app...

From an admittedly VERY GPS-device-software-availability POV...

Uh...Google Maps...GPS...software...uh...pardon the naive question but...uh...Google Maps allows one to input a LAT/LONG and get a map page...uh...why can't a VERY simple piece of software be written that takes the GPS LAT/LONG coordinates and...you know...invokes a Google Maps URL?

Like...you know...this:

-- http://maps.google.com/?z=16&ll=38.919236,-77.22496&spn=0.015176,0.02238&t=h

Yep, it's not rocket surgery, which is why I think it's more likely than not we'll see it added in future editions. After all, it just has to read standard NMEA data.