Quickies: $50 GPS, N700C Giveaway, Pocket Printer

Posted By: The People Below Monday, May 14, 2001 6:59:55 AM

The Rand McNally GPS for Palm III series is now available at PDA Controls.com for only $50, while supplies last. Factory sealed. Includes, GPS for Palm III (not for use with IIIc), carry case, CD's for Eastern and Western US, cig lighter adapter, AC adapter, and windshield mount. -Drew Rossman

To celebrate reaching 2 million hits, Brando is giving away one Sony PEG-N700C and more than 50 other items. The only condition is you have to sign up in Chinese.

The Pocket Printer A6 from SiPix is now available through prominent retail, e-commerce, and mail order stores including Comp USA, Staples, Frys Electronics, J&R Music World, Buy.com, PC Mall, and Tiger Direct. SiPix has also aligned with prominent distributors Ingram Micro, Wynit and D&H.

SiPix Pocket Printer A6 Review

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This is not give away. This is cheap labour

I.M. Anonymous @ 5/14/2001 7:39:02 AM #

I feel quite disturbed by the way Brando.com handles the so call give away.

I was told by a Chinese friend that as a condition to enter into the draw, one must have submit Chinese description of at least 10 palm software. It is not difficult to imagine all these 'free work" becomes content of the commmercial site, and yet it is called "Give Away". Isn't it ironic ?

Besides, what is the point of annoucing this "Chinese only" event into an English Palm Portal ? Should we all feel jealous ?

RE: This is not give away. This is cheap labour

SilliconMan @ 5/14/2001 8:21:50 PM #

I agree, thats pretty lame.
Why don't they just create a survey instead?

Palming away.....

GPS is $60

I.M. Anonymous @ 5/14/2001 11:37:45 AM #

FWIW, the GPS is $60 not $50. Still a good deal.

RE: GPS is $60

I.M. Anonymous @ 5/14/2001 11:56:47 AM #

I see a note right there on the PDA Controls site "Get the Palm GPS at the unheard of price of $49.99, until May 28th, 2001 - with FREE registration at Rand McNally."

RE: GPS is $60

Legible @ 5/14/2001 9:36:43 PM #

Wow. This is really good value. I wonder if the GPS works with a more modern palmtop like the Handera 330?

RE: GPS with HandEra

I.M. Anonymous @ 5/14/2001 9:55:36 PM #

The HandEra 330 is supposed to work with all the III series add-ons. I don't see a reason why this GPS wouldn't work with it. I have to admit, I'm kind of tempted to get myself for the same reason..

RE: GPS is $60

I.M. Anonymous @ 5/14/2001 11:38:33 PM #

Would this work with an m105 handheld considering the ports are the same, or is there a plastic problem like other III series accesories. (I have not seen the connector on the GPS unit.)

RE: GPS is $60

I.M. Anonymous @ 5/15/2001 11:54:51 PM #

I've just ordered mine, and by registering with the Rand McNally web-site, you get a $10 discount on your first purchase over $50. So the price is really $50.

Just a shame about the courier cost to Australia. Still works out cheaper than a dedicated unit here.

John.

Looks good, but...

I.M. Anonymous @ 5/15/2001 1:02:54 AM #

I tempted, but call me old-fashioned, I want to see some specs. They're no-where to be found on the Rand McNally site. Anyone any clues, e.g. accuracy, latency, etc?

RE: Looks good, but...

Ed @ 5/15/2001 1:12:48 AM #

You can read our review of the Palm V version:

www.palminfocenter.com/view_Story.asp?ID=1055

---
News Editor
Palm Infocenter

RE: Looks good, but...

I.M. Anonymous @ 5/15/2001 2:51:29 AM #

OK, after a bit of hunting around (Google is my friend), and reading various reviews, here's what I've found out.

1) The Palm III version is based on a Rockwell chip-set, and apparently has some functionality missing, some mention was made of clocks.

2) The Palm V version is based on a Magellan chip, so any reviews of that version are not valid.

3) The software has drawbacks, like huge, out-of-date US-only maps, no lat/long or compass read-out, and apparently no manual way-pointing. If you're off the map, the software is useless.

4) The good news is the unit is NMEA ccompliant, which means you can switch to almost any other software you like, at extra cost, of course. One package I looked at was at www.gpspilot.com. You could get a basic lat/long and compass program for US$20, or a full mapping program for $50, which could convert almost any digital map to be usable. Given teh number of free maping sites on the net, this could be a good. They even claim you can scan in a paper map and it will work.

5) Initial lock-on time is long, 5-15 minutes, but decent software that allows you to enter a rough guess at your position brings the time down to 2-3 minutes.

6) Battery drain on the Palm appears to be bad. One reviem of the V version quoted 2 hours life. People were very annoyed that the V didn't charge off the car charger.

However, no-where have I found hard technical data, such as how many channels does it use, are they simultaneous, which protocol it uses (affects the accuracy, 100m vs 26m), etc.

John.
So, conclusion, as a fun toy, adding on the software for a non-USian like, and comparing the price to a dedicated unit, it could well be worth it.

RE: Looks good, but...

I.M. Anonymous @ 5/15/2001 11:55:06 AM #

You can also get a free program from Magellan called NavCompanion, which gives you course, speed, latitude, longitude, altitude, waypoints, course plotting, etc. It's a free download and works fine with the Rand McNally unit. Also, the next version of Mapopolis will support GPS units and the beta version I have works with the Rand McNally GPS and even in it's beta stage is a huge improvement over Streetfinder. I've had the Rand McNally unit for several weeks now and I'm very happy with it.

RE: Looks good, but...

I.M. Anonymous @ 5/15/2001 10:52:37 PM #

In that case, I'm in!

John.

GPS - Way cool!

Gregg from Austin TX @ 5/15/2001 8:50:40 PM #

I got my GPS from RandMcNally for $60 about a month ago. Coolest thing I've ever seen! Go get the FREE NavCompanion Software from Magellan and you've got a "real" GPS with waypoints & ploting. Most fun I've ever had for $60. Ya' gotta get one!