Garmin Announces New iQue 3000 GPS Handheld
Garmin today announced the iQue 3000, a newly-styled, entry-level Palm OS Powered handheld PDA that offers fully integrated Global Positioning System (GPS) technology. The iQue 3000 expands Garmin's iQue Palm OS PDA product line, which currently includes the iQue 3200 and iQue 3600. More...
"We believe the new iQue 3000 PDA demonstrates Garmin's continued track record of bringing innovative and easy to use Palm Powered PDAs to market," said Kathleen Peters, vice president of licensing, Americas for PalmSource. "Garmin, as illustrated by the iQue 3000 PDA, provides customers with powerful and time saving tools that showcase the ease-of-use, power and flexibility of Palm OS."
Some specifications of the Garmin iQue 3000:
- Operating system: Palm OS 5 (Garnet)
- Processor: Bravo 2.0 200 MHz with built-in GPS correlator
- Unit size (WxHxD)/Weight: 2.8" x 4.7" x 0.7" inches / 5.2 oz
- Display information: 320x320-pixel; 54x54 mm screen size; dedicated Graffiti writing area; and usable screen area of 3.0" (diagonal)
- Internal Memory: 32 MB RAM and 32 MB ROM
- Expandable Memory: microSD card included (128 MB microSD card for North America, or 256 MB preprogrammed microSD card for Europe and Australia)
- Rechargeable 1050 mAh lithium-ion battery
The iQue 3000 welcomes users with Garmin's easy-to-use "where to" or "view maps" interface. After entering a destination, the iQue 3000 will choose the fastest or shortest route to navigate the user from door to door. The unit automatically recalculates a route if the driver misses their turn and notifies drivers of their estimated time of arrival.
The compact iQue 3000 features Garmin's Que technology that offers complete integration between organization and GPS navigation functions. Que technology connects the Palm Address Book and Date Book to the GPS electronic map so that users can navigate directly to a specific address from the user's contact database or date book.
Users may download detailed street information onto their iQue 3000 from the installation DVD, which is a standard accessory. This industry-leading navigation database allows the user to look up nearly six million points of interest such as restaurants, hotels, transportation hubs, and banks. Map data is provided by NAVTEQ -- a world leader in premium-quality mapping.
The iQue 3000 is expected to be available in February 2006 at an estimated retail price of $399. The standard package includes a mini-USB synchronization cable, AC wall charger, suction cup mount auto cradle, microSD Card, 12-volt car charger, companion CD or DVD (US only) with owner's manual, City Navigator North America NT CD, and quick-reference guide.
The new iQue 3000 was introduced at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas (booth #35920).
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RE: Wish it were not an entry level palm
FIRST, there's the little discussed single-radio Bluetooth problem, meaning I can't use my Bluetooth radio for "A" while using it for "B". For example I can't use my Bluetooth mouse, nor my Bluetooth headset, nor my Bluetooth internet etc while I'm using the BT GPS. Furthermore, I have to "disconnect" whatever other device I was using. Too fiddly for me, and I'm a wonk. I can't imagine the rest of the world putting up with this.
SECOND there's the whole Bluetooth pairing thing which is harder and less reliable than simply hooking up a cable or placing the device in a GPS sled/cradle. But Karl you ask; are you forgetting what a pain in the a_s cables are? Nope. Read on.
THIRD Palms acting as GPS's can't run on battery power. Let me repeat that. If using your Palm as a GPS, you need a cord. Period. Sure, you can operate without for a while, but odds are, most of the time your battery isn't 100% fully charged, and the rest of the time you probably want to be navigated more than 30 or so. Don't forget that you might actually want to USE your palm once you get there, and don't forget that you may want to navigate home.
FOURTH BT GPS receivers need power too. Even if you're lucky enough to not run out of palm power, you may run out the batteries on your GPS Receiver. So you have to plug THAT in now too. So now instead of having ONE power cord from your cig lighter to your windshield-mounted GPS enabled palm cradle, you've got TWO power cords and a fiddly wireless connection.
I had a windshield mounted GPS cradle with a single power cord to the cig lighter. It held my palm where it could see the satellites, could be seen by me. Bonus was it charged my palm while I was using it! When I got out of the car, I took the palm with me, left the cradle behind. Like a detachable-face radio, Nobody would ever steal it. It was made by NavMan but I had to modify to use it with my T3. Now I'm on a T|X and can't use it anymore because some bonehead at Palm keeps on changing the pinout on the connectors.
They call this Progress?
-K
RE: Wish it were not an entry level palm
Granted, there's precious little new tech presented here from Garmin but it's still an attractive package that brings the iQue 3200 in again at a lower price point & much smaller & more stylish package. And it adds a "real" d-pad navigator!
I have said this before and I'll restate it here on the tails of the Garmin announcement:
It's time for Palm (and Garmin etc) to start paying more attention to quality & hardware features not constrained by FrankenGarnet (metal casing, voice recorders, charge LEDs, hard buttons).
Example: We haven't had a slim & solidly build metal-clad Palm since,what, the T|T series or even the m500 series? Why not shoehorn the TX specs into a nice slim metal body, charge $350 for it and make sure it's STABLE. Or redo the Zire 72 with a 320*320 screen with no fixed Graffiti area and a very small formfactor with an emphasis on media playback?
Garmin actually seems on the right track here, respinning last year's tech into a smaller, cheaper, more stylish package. Does anyone here really think that the Palm OS, at least in his millennium, has been able to be anything BUT appealing to 'more basic' needs than the Microsoft-powered competition?
Finally, I *DO* worry that Garmin & the cellphone companies are moving towards TransFlash/MicroSD as the "new" format. SD is the perfect physical size and price/capacity ratios are very good by this point. I'd hate to see Palm move towards a lineup of TF-powered handhelds at the urging of Sandisk. My cell phone uses TF and it's too small & fragile to be inserted & removed on a frequent basis. It's also easily lost and much more costly than an equivalent capacity SD. TF is to SD what the MS Duo was to the original MS.
Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX
RE: Wish it were not an entry level palm
Pat Horne; www.churchoflivingfaith.com
RE: Wish it were not an entry level palm
It's interesting to note that Garmin runs Garnet on their own proprietary kernel, not the one that Palm uses.
David Beers
Pikesoft Mobile Computing
Software Everywhere blog
www.pikesoft.com/blog
RE: Wish it were not an entry level palm
>>Expandable Memory: microSD card included (128 MB microSD card for North America, or 256 MB preprogrammed microSD card for Europe and Australia)
...so what does the '256 MB preprogrammed microSD card for Europe and Australia' mean vs the NA 128MB one (that presumably is just an empty 'non-preprogrammed' card)?
Oh yeah - and where are the usual trolls who claimed Garmin was on the list of manaufacturers that were no longer / would be no longer doing Palm OS? Well? Come on u whinny pseudo-prophets - usually we can't get u losers to shut up.
RE: Wish it were not an entry level palm
Raise my hand
I for one am surprised. To complete my humiliation show me products from the other 10 new licensees and the first LG POS phone.
Surur
They said I only argued for the sake of arguing, but after an hour I convinced them they were wrong...
RE: Wish it were not an entry level palm
Any particular (in layman's terms, please!) differences between Garmin's implementation of Garnet vs. Palm's FrankenGarnet? I know they handle 320*480 & the status bar a bit differently but I assumed they were essentially identical. Do they use the standard Palm audio API, btw?
A shame they didn't include a removable battery in this one!
rsc1000;
Yes, it's the first Palm device AFAIK to use MicroSD (not Mini!). Again, I DO NOT see this as a good sign. Garmin has, in all fairness, taken to using TF/Micro SD in some of their other consumer-level GPS devices (I saw a $300 one with a tiny color screen at Target last week) so I guess it kinda/sorta makes sense. I assume they will be selling ROM TF cards pre-loaded with maps at their hideously overpriced accessory MSRP (have you ever seen anyone charge as much as Garmin for things like PC serial cables, cig lighter adapters etc?)
Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX
RE: Wish it were not an entry level palm
I agree with most of your comments regarding BlueTooth. However, I've not found pairing to be an issue with my combination of equipment (Palm T3 / GlobalSat 638 Bluetooth GPS Receiver / Nokia 6310i / TomTom Bluetooth Receiver / Dell D600 Notebook ).
Set the 4-digit passkey once for each bit of kit, job done forever (unless your Palm needs a hard reset, which touch-wood, my T3 never has in all its days).
Also, the GlobalSat 638 GPS receiver is good for 16-18 hours of real world use, so I tend to charge mine up once every few days, depending on how much mileage my work demands. The 638 even auto powers-down after 10 minutes of Bluetooth inactivity, saving precious charge if you forget to switch it off on leaving the car (it happens!). With it also using the latest SiRF 3 chipset, you can usually obtain a fix in under 5 seconds and it maintains good signal strength even in sky-scraper laden city centers! Infinitely better than the more common TomTom bluetooth receiver and cheaper too here in the UK.
RE: Wish it were not an entry level palm
the GlobalSat 638 GPS receiver is good for 16-18 hours of real world use, so I tend to charge mine up once every few days, depending on how much mileage my work demands. The 638 even auto powers-down after 10 minutes of Bluetooth inactivity, saving precious charge if you forget to switch it off on leaving the car (it happens!). With it also using the latest SiRF 3 chipset, you can usually obtain a fix in under 5 seconds and it maintains good signal strength even in sky-scraper laden city centers! Infinitely better than the more common TomTom bluetooth receiver and cheaper too here in the UK.
Nice mini-review, there, KV. Thanks. Are these new chipsets doing anything noticeable with regard to power consumption in your experience with the GlobalSat 638? And is that the right model number? I can't find anything in Google for it.
David Beers
Pikesoft Mobile Computing
Software Everywhere blog
www.pikesoft.com/blog
RE: Wish it were not an entry level palm
Any particular (in layman's terms, please!) differences between Garmin's implementation of Garnet vs. Palm's FrankenGarnet? I know they handle 320*480 & the status bar a bit differently but I assumed they were essentially identical. Do they use the standard Palm audio API, btw?
I wrote some software a while back for doing geofence-enabled audio tours using the iQue 3600 (when you come into range of a point of interest it fires up some audio and textual content to tell you about it). I didn't notice anything that was different in the Palm APIs, just the addition of a very nice API for handling the position data. The main reason they needed to use the different kernel I think was that the GPS requires a level of real-time capability that isn't normally required for a PDA.
Based on that experience I'm pretty impressed with Garmin's hardware *and* software from a developer standpoint, although as a user I didn't much care for the clunky plastic case. This one looks a lot better, even if it's still plastic.
David Beers
Pikesoft Mobile Computing
Software Everywhere blog
www.pikesoft.com/blog
RE: Wish it were not an entry level palm
I for one, just bought my family a Casio digicam because it uses SD cards, and a I can swap it with my Treo and use my exisiting SD cards! I specifically rejected Sony (stick) and Fuji proprietary mem card) for this reason.
Plus the Sd cards are finally moving into reasonably priced territory.
All together now, can you say "planned obsolescence"?
RE: Wish it were not an entry level palm
Everything was (mostly) universally until the 512mb cards arrived on the scene. Then a few of the older peripherals and cameras/mp3 players wouldn't see anything larger than 256bm SD cards. Then more problems arose with 1gb cards but a fair number of products DID receive firmware updates to handle the 1gb cards. Now I'm encountering TONS of problems & incompatabilities of 2gb SD cards.
I have my Palm TX, a Gateway notebook, two home-built desktop PCs, a Casio EX-Z750, and a Canon Optura 85 DV camcorder. All of them have SD slots/readers onboard.
The Gateway needed an unsupported card reader driver update from TOSHIBA (same chipset & make/model of SD reader on the PCMCIA bus), one of the two desktop PC's internal multi-card readers (a Mitsumi floppy/card drive combo) doesn't support 2gb SD cards and doesn't have a firmware update. Fortunately the Casio & the TX (my two most often used devices) handle 2 of the 3 2gb SD cards I've tried with aplomb. (tip: Avoid ADATA 2gb cards-they do not adhere to the SD consortium standard and are physically thicker than the standard SD card spec).
Then Santa brought me an Epson PhotoMate Viewer 4x6 printer for Christmas. I found out that this HIGHLY rated model doesn't support SD cards over 512mb in size and Epson has *no* plans for a firmware update. And yet those crooks tout in large box print something to the effect of "Reads any card from any manufacturer". It's going back this week despite being a phenomenal printer for the $.
Are these issues present with CF? Could I pop an 8gb CF card into a Handera 330? How do the older CF devices handle FAT32 formatting? I've been with SD since '01 and had Memory Stick & SmartMedia stuff before that so I am well aware of the issues with MS/MS Pro/ MS Duo/ MS Duo Pro/Magic Gate as well as 3.3v & 5v Smartmedia cards and many devices not recognizing the "larger" 64mb & 128mb SM cards.
Again, from a semi-prosumer/enthusiast consumer perspective (me) I stick with ONE format to prevent headaches. This kind of thing in this day & age is complete unforgivable. And people wonder why non-expandable flash MP3 players & HD-based iPods are stealing the thunder from SD-based media devices!
Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX
RE: Wish it were not an entry level palm
Change is fine... *When* it's time, not before. Palm, and now Garmin have a habit of jumping in with both feet too early (which is about the only thing these two seem to do 'early'). The likes of Apple can afford to do that, not so much Palm and the coat-tail riders.
The MS camp got the timing better SD. The only clever people on our side was HandEra putting in both. There are *STILL* more card devices I can put in my HandEra 330 (after lo these many discontinued years), than I can in my Tungsten C.
RE: Wish it were not an entry level palm
Pardon? GPS is pretty generous. There's nothing a Garmin with internal GPS can do (that we'd want it to do), than anyone can with a 2400bps serial connection to their GPS of choice and their own software on the PDA (as one whose written some).
A low bitrate serial NMEA sentence feed which repeats and hardly matters to it's intended use if the occasional line/sentence is missed/skipped/dropped, requires a greater real-time capability?
How many position/speed updates per second are we looking for?
RE: Wish it were not an entry level palm
> Nice mini-review, there, KV. Thanks.
> Are these new chipsets doing anything noticeable
> with regard to power consumption in your experience
> with the GlobalSat 638? And is that the right model
> number? I can't find anything in Google for it.
Ooops - you spotted my mistake... the model details are in fact GlobalSat BT338. That's what happens when you write most of your posts immediately before sleeping!
All I can say about power consumption is that my 338 unit contains a 1700 mah Lithuium Ion cell and I tend to run it from that all the time whilst 'out and about' (Can't be doing with the wires in my car). The new SiRF III chipset is meant to be far more power-efficient than the older chipsets, whilst also being able to track weaker/reflected/refracted GPS signals rather than just strong ones. In short, it is a pleasure to use and was an inexpensive + simple upgrade for my GPS rig.
I haven't tried running it with my T3 on battery power only, as I rely on it being fully charged when I get to customer sites.Instead, I keep my Palm charged up in the TomTom supplied T3 powered cradle which mounts to my windshield and connects to the front 12v socket in my dashboard. I then keep the GlobatSat supplied 12v adaptor in the car's rear-seat 12v socket to recharge the BT338 if caught short - but haven't needed it yet.
You can see a detailed review of this receiver at the following URL where it scores 98% (and that was with the early 2005 firmware)...
http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/bt338.php
Hope this helps,
KultiVator
p.s. Have any of you guys checked out the new Gravitar/Thrust influenced game 'MoonFighter' on www.Astraware.com yet? IMHO it's one of the best old-school arcade games on the Palm and actually pushes the hardware quite hard, with large multi-layered Parallax scrolling playfields (on the T3 at least) - but its the free-roaming retro gameplay that's the star and is something of beauty to run on any decent OS5 Palm. It's also on offer for just 10 USD (50% off), making it my easiest software purchase of the past couple of years!
RE: Wish it were not an entry level palm
David - are you sure this uses a different kernal??? That would surprise the heck out of me. I wrote a keyboard driver for Palm OS 5 (well - works on OS 5 models that don't have bugs in the serial drivers! F*%$ing T|T!) and it had to guarantee recieving, processing of data and return of a checksum back to the keyboard within 20ms (this was actually easier to do in 0S 4 than in OS 5 because OS 5 mucks up serial callbacks - thanks PS!). So does GPS really require a level of real-time capability that is beyond that?
Scott
RE: Wish it were not an entry level palm
David - are you sure this uses a different kernal???
I think it was Ben Combee who mentioned this.
So does GPS really require a level of real-time capability that is beyond that?
GPS receivers do, I'm sure. I don't know if the receiver runs in a process in the same kernel or has it's own embedded system and processor, but calculating position is a matter of comparing differentials in the time required for radio signals to reach the receiver from different satellites--certainly very small fractions of a microsecond, right?
David Beers
Pikesoft Mobile Computing
Software Everywhere blog
www.pikesoft.com/blog
RE: Wish it were not an entry level palm
Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX
RE: Wish it were not an entry level palm
Visit www.AstraWare.com and check it out!
KultiVator
p.s. I am in no way linked to Astraware - I just like to promote innovation when I see it!
RE: Wish it were not an entry level palm
Mass market devices are not "niche". Duh. :)
> "...I am a die-hard power user..."
Then *you* are the niche market. Duh. :)
------
"People who like M$ products tend to be insecure crowd-following newbies lacking in experience and imagination."
Attractive Styling
This is a very clean and attractive looking design. Nice work Garmin.
Pat Horne; www.churchoflivingfaith.com
RE: Attractive Styling
I concur. Nice styling! Looks like the old Acer Palm pdas meeting the m500 head-on (sorta).
I love those buttons! Nice'n big! IS that a real 5-way navigator d-pad or just a stylized up/down rocker like the older Garmins?
Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX
RE: Attractive Styling
> This is a very clean and attractive looking design.
> Nice work Garmin.
What a good start to 2006. Nothing to WOW about on the tech specs, but a really slick looking device, that builds something useful on top of the (formerly) Palm platform.
I'd have liked to see TomTom bring out something more like this, rather than their new 'One' unit. This Garmin unit has a nicer look for consumers and better screen resolution (TomTom units are only 320x240 pixels, which makes roads look blocky compared to the same software running on my Palm T3), even if their software tends to follow a little in TomTom's wake.
I think there's more surprises to come this year - I can feel it in my bones!
RE: Attractive Styling
> I think there's more surprises to come this year - I can feel it in my bones!
No doubt about it. I think there's one last time zone out in the Pacific where it's still 2005. Just before midnight, several companies are going to announce 11 Cobalt smartfones. :-O
Pat Horne; www.churchoflivingfaith.com
RE: Attractive Styling
Good observation. Yup, now that I think about it, no one but Handspring & Palm & Tapwave (and they had their own API) have released OS5 units supporting multi-directional directional controllers. All of the OS5 Sonys had the up/down buttons combined with the jog wheel. All of the Garmins are up/down only. So much for a few relaxing rounds of gaming when you've navigated yourself to a hotel room for the night with your iQue! ;-)
P.S. I detest the Treo-style navigation. The T|T was superb in regards to data input and functionality. Great OS5 "classic" one-handed navigation *AND* Graffiti 1. PERFECT!
Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX
RE: Attractive Styling
Dude. It's one of the best UI features for a handheld, ever. It's simple, it works perfectly on all the built-in apps, and it means you can operate it while inside a case. What's not to like?
Tim Carroll
Your friendly customer service robot
(and big Treo fan)
RE: Attractive Styling
It's just yet another thing that Palm has changed without any:
1. Warning
2. Prefs menu option to revert/change between "methods"
3. Tangible evidence that it's "better" other than the fact that it's what their cashcow uses. I have been fiddling with the Treo-style navigation since the T5 and I STILL get turned around in many apps with it (especially VersaMail).
Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX
RE: Attractive Styling
RE: Attractive Styling
If Garmin includes a jack to plug in an external antenna it would be really functional.
It does.
David Beers
Pikesoft Mobile Computing
Software Everywhere blog
www.pikesoft.com/blog
RE: Attractive Styling
Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX
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Wish it were not an entry level palm