Cheap Palm 3207NA GPS Adapter Kit for Select Palm PDAs (Electronics) Price

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Customer Reviews of Palm 3207NA GPS Adapter Kit for Select Palm PDAs

Cool toy, but not a useful tool
I have been using the Palmone Navigator with my TX for about eight weeks. Most of my comments are based on a comparison with the built-in navigation system in my Lexus. <
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>Software installation is fairly easy. However, you need at least a 256 MB SD card to load more than a couple of states; I recommend a 1 or 2 GB card. <
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>While the concept of a TX doubling as a navigation device is intriguing, the realty of it is rather sobering. It is a cool toy, but if you have to plan routes for your job or any other meaningful purpose, this is NOT the right product. <
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>The pros are:<
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> - Inexpensive in comparison to built-ins und stand-alone products<
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> - Unit can be used in different locations and cars and even while walking<
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> - One device serves multiple purposes<
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>The cons are:<
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> - It can take up to several minutes after starting the unit to acquire a satellite signal. This is not the case with my car's OEM navigation system.<
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> - The maps are outdated and not as precise as the OEM nav system: I live in Phoenix, AZ and my neighborhood (built seven years ago) as well as most of the freeways I take to work and back don't exist on the software. More recent updates are not available (I checked the Tomtom website).<
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> - Navigation is often not precise enough (e.g. it tells me to make a left in 50 yards, when I have already passed the intersection where it wants me to make a left). I never have this problem with the built-in navigation.<
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> - Look-up function for addresses and phone numbers is clumsy and doesn't display actual address until you map it.<
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> - It tends to freeze at least a couple times a day, requiring a soft reset. <
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> - Lost connections to the satellite receiver or lost satellite signals also tend to disrupt the navigation on longer trips with stops.<
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>Overall, the unit is too unreliable to be used as your only navigational aid. If you need navigation to get to your travel destination, you are better off with a stand-alone unit. I truly wish I had better things to say about this device since I really like the concept, but the reality just doesn't match the marketing.<
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North American maps are crippled; not ready for prime time; deficient for cross-country navigation
The following design limitation needs a spotlight: <
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>The maps are cut into sections, and users cannot navigate from one section to another. So for example, if you want to travel from Ohio to New York, navigation is not possible using both the eastern (New England) map and the midwest map because the software cannot cross the boundary of a map. TomTom has provided a haphazard band-aid solution- they include a U.S. map containing only major roads. So even if you have the space to store full maps, you're simultaneously stuck with redundancy, and loss of resolution if you want to navigate across a boundary. Some folks who live on one of their boundary lines will want to avoid this product for local navigation.<
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>Other issues:<
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>* Nags. Everytime TomTom boots, Americans must click through a legal notice. North American maps do not record the fact that you already agreed previously, and there is no way to disable it (it's intentional). The European maps work as you might expect. That is, the legal notice nag screen is disabled after seeing it for the first time on each European map. <
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>The nuisance of this nag screen is amplified by other anomalies - the TomTom software is slow to boot and shutdown (since it executes directly off the MMC card). Moving the app to the internal memory doesn't improve the speed enough to make reboots acceptible. Speed is hindered further by the softwares failure to find the GPS device if the software executes before the device is powered on with 3 satellite signals detected. It also takes the device quite some time to find the satellites because of its low senstivity. When it does find the satellites, the user must exit the app and reload it, acknowledge the legal notice again, in order for the app to query the GPS on its status again.<
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>* The software is substantially locked down, and they put the user through several hoops to get the software activated. The user ends up entering a product code and a device code (on their website) to get an activation key, which then must be entered on the device. The user is then expected to keep track of three different registration numbers if they want to be able to reinstall later. The installation software is installed on the desktop in single user mode, so if you're logged into your machine under another account, you cannot change maps or maintain the software in any way.<
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>* If the sky is overcast with dense cumulus clouds, the device won't find any satellites because it has a SiRF II chipset (thus a sensitivity of -152dbm). <
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>* Users must exit the application to get an address from the address book that they want to navigate to.<
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>* The database of casinos is under populated.<
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>* Speedcam (aka safety camera) databases are not provided. European users must subscribe to a TomTom "Plus" service to get photocop alerts. North American users must subscribe through a third party. (BTW, there is BT GPS receiver that has speed cam proximity alerts built-in, which will execute independant of the s/w).<
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>* There is a spontaneous termination bug. I was on a course and TomTom died out of the blue. I had to rerun the app and agree to the legal notice to continue navigation. (UPDATE: It's evident from the binaries that the code was written in C)<
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>* There is a spontaneous return to initial point bug when viewing a demo of a route.<
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>* Given the reception insensitivity, nags, and crashes, this device is worthless as a backup GPS for aeronautical navigation. I initially thought it could be useful in a pinch in the case of an electrical failure enroute, but I would not even bother bringing it into the cockpit. A handheld with a SiRF III chipset or MK3 chipset would be more suitable as a backup.<
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>* Software and maps are distributed on nine CDs (NA version), when they could have just delivered it on a single DVD. <
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>* The most current maps are over two years old at the time of this review. <
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>* Package is only bundled with maps for one continent.<
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>STILL WANT TO USE THIS PRODUCT?<
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>* Those who still choose to buy this product should find out when TomTom will have updated maps and buy shortly after (that is, after the old map CDs have been sold), because TomTom does not offer free map upgrades, not even one, because they want to sell maps to you seperately as a "plus" service. (UPDATE: sometimes they offer one free upgrade)<
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>There are copious hacks for Garmin software - nothing for TomTom at this point.<
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>What's good about it?<
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>* It mounts to a motorcycle windscreen with the suction cradle, and the GPS box can be conveniently velcroed to the master cylinder. There's no need to wire power for trips under a few hrs. <
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>* You can get Master Yoda's voice for it.

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Buggy... Terrible Tech Support
My advice is that you need to find a better gps program (other then TomTom) rather then spend your money on this one. <
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>I recently installed this program on my E2. The first attempt failed and I had to eventually do a hard reset on my palm and reload the program (even after deleting it, the program left something on the Palm that made it not want to load).<
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>If your going to load a lot of the maps you better have a lot of time or get a card reader/writer. I would guess that to load the Western US you will need at least a 512MB card and you will spend the better part of the evening doing it.<
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>After loading it I took it out on the road to try. The screen is okay, but some of the small data print items are almost impossible to read while you're driving. <
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>The maps are very good, but when I deviated from my the planned route it wanted me to take a road that I know to be a deadend to get back on track. Not good if you where towing a 32' trailer, which I do on many trips. Not good for your confidence in taking a route that it suggests.<
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>I next took it out on a 300+ mile trip. I set up waypoints so it would go on the route I wanted. This seemed to work on the way out, but on the planned trip back it kept wanted me to take a main road that I had intentially tried to avoid. At almost every corner it wanted me to turn back to the other route even though it was displaying my current route correctly.<
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>Finally there is the subject of customer support. You better hope this program loads right and you don't have problems because their (TomTom) customer support is terrrible. You can't get to a human. You must use email. They will send you an automated response with automated solutions and then ask if that helped. It took a fully 7 days to get this automated response back from them. This is unacceptable.<
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>Overall I would not recommend this program. I absolutely would not buy the TomTom stand alone units. At least I have my Palm E2 to use for other things and not a piece of junk that I can't trust to use...