Palm Palm GPS Navigator (3207NA)

• Reviewed by: pche1

  Strengths: Map is colorful and easy to read, I especially like its 3-D display. Route and turn instruction is clear and right on the spot. It is nice to have diff. ways for destination input & route planning.

  Weaknesses: Installation software is far from perfect; it cannot find some palm files (those files are there). If it occurs, the support will keep asking you to remove/re-install palm software. Yes, believe it.

  Overall: I have got it for a month, it took me more than two frustration weeks back and forth with TomTom (DumbDumb) support to try to solve the installation problems. AT the end they told me to delete some palm applications in order to run Navigator. I have almost 10 MB in my palm so I don't think they know what they're talking about, I tried a soft restart on my palm that clear the cache memory and everything run beautifully since then. Other than the installation, I think it is nice product, it gives you friendly options in route planning, the GPS reception in good, the map is easy to read and follow, and it is less expensive than other stand alone GPS.

• Reviewed by: Metropolis

  Strengths: easy setup. can charge the palm and bluetooth reciever at the same time. TomTom software is very easy to use.

  Weaknesses: not able to use a bluetooth headset while using the GPS system. TomTom software keeps asking you to turn bluetooth on if it is not enabled on your palm device.

  Overall: connection was a snap. it took a minute to get the tomtom software installed and working. once it is setup it works like a charm. when you shut down tomtom, it remembers the last navigation you gave it so you don't have to input it all again. so if you get a call, you can switch back to the program and it will pick up where you left off. I love the fact that the software keeps the phone numbers of points of interest! no longer do I have to reley on an Internet connection or google sms to get an addresss and phone numbers of the places i am visiting or along the way for that matter. i can basically tell the program i want to get to the nearest taco bell and it will get me there. that is pretty slick! This is well worth the investment and the mount for the windshield actually holds you device and does not fall off. this is my first GPS device, so i have nothing to compare it to, but i am blown out of the water with this thing! The reason i don't give this 5 stars because if you turn the bluetooth reciever on after TomTom is lauched...it never seems to find a GPS signal. I have to exit TomTom and open it backup before it catchs the signal.

• Reviewed by: collinong

  Strengths: Pocket size GPS; ability to navigate to contact addresses in your Palm address book; 3D map view

  Weaknesses: GPS sometimes slow to acquire position; Install procedure on Mac is unnecessarily convoluted

  Overall: This bundle includes the Tom Tom Navigator 5 software for Palm OS, a bluetooth GPS unit, charging cables, and a windshield mount.The packing is very complete and quite well thought out. For example the charging cable has a cigarette lighter plug on one end, and two outputs on the other end: a PDA charging plug compatible with the Treo 650 and a USB male mini plug for plugging into the GPS unit. There is an additional USB full size USB type A to USB male mini plug that you can use to charge the GPS from the USB ports on your computer. I like this because you don't have to carry around another AC adapter for this thing and can just charge if from my laptop. The windshield mount has a suction cup on one end of the flexible stalk and a grip cradle on the other end to hold your PDA. I wish they included a vent mount instead or in addition, since I don't prefer the windshield mount style.I use a Treo 650 and after some install difficulties, got the Tom Tom Navigator 5 software running on my PDA phone. The software on your PDA includes two applications the main "Navigator" app and another "Contacts" app that lists all the names in your Palm contact database and then lets you select a name from that list and send their address to the Navigator app to display a map of the surrounding area or navigate from your current position to that address.The Navigator application is really cool in its map display because instead of showing a normal 2d overhead map, it shows the view in 3D, sort of like the view from a bird flying up above your current position, You can use the Treo's 5-way controller to adjust the view height from lower to high enough to see the entire region. The current route is shown in red with the turns marked in green. Your current position is shown with a big arrow and the whole view scrolls as you drive.The bottom of the screen shows the next navigation direction and distance to it (Turn left in 500 yards, etc). You can also have a voice reading off the upcoming directions using the speakerphone on the back of the Treo and is surprisingly loud even when the volume is only halfway up. A number of different voices, male and female in numerous languages are supplied on the CD and you can also purchase more, including novelty celebrity voices on the Tom Tom site. Maps for numerous areas around the world are also included on the CD, although I have only used the Western US area so far. Although I have found the maps around my area in Sacramento, CA to be quite accurate, others have reported numerous inaccuracies especially in new areas and even some older ones. The user interface of the Tom Tom Navigator is also quite good, with large on screen buttons to make it easy to see/press while driving and it makes good user of the 5-way directional controller as well. It lets you program in your home address so its easy to find your way home and the process for selecting a destination address is very nice, like some installed GPS units I've seen in luxury cars. You type in the city name (the field narrows as you type) and then the street name and then the address number. You can options to select how the route is calculated: fastest, shortest, etc. You can also set the unit for car, bicycle or walking mode, which alters how the route is calculated, since, for example, you can cross certain areas on foot that you can't in a car.Some other features of the software let you see the GPS channels, satellites the GPS is tracking and your Latitude/Longitude and your current speed.I did not try installing the software using Windows, only using Mac OS X. The first part of the process works ok to load Navigator onto your Palm, but for some reason the installer did not show the option to load maps like the instructions said it should. I finally solved it by downloading an updated installer file.I recommend using a USB 2.0 card reader to install the maps, because it will take hours if you do it via hotsync. The maps must be installed onto a SD card because of their large size.Tom Tom also offers some additional features that work with your PDA's internet connection. These are things like downloading local weather and traffic reports. However, I have not found the traffic reports in my area to be useful yet. Once I was sitting in a traffic jam and did an update on the traffic data and it showed no delays for my position. Your experience may vary depending on your area.The GPS unit is a small, fitting in the palm of your hand. It has an on/off switch, a charging/USB port, and an external antenna port. It's a bit slow to acquire position being a SIRF II unit, not the latest SIRF III, but once it starts tracking it works well. Overall, the Palm GPS Navigator bundle is well thought out and functions very well. It includes everything you need to get started and the total price is less than if you tried to assemble all the pieces yourself.

• Reviewed by: saechaka

  Strengths: Easy to use. fast re routing.

  Weaknesses: slow gps signal pickup at times. i need more poi.

  Overall: I've had it for a day and install was easy w/treo 650. went house shopping and it took me to all the residents w/o any problem. i'm really excited about how easy it is to use and esp. for the price.

• Reviewed by: jshoda

  Strengths: I suppose once you get it to work...it really works

  Weaknesses: Getting the unit operational on the smartphone

  Overall: Well, I have heard from the sales rep that EVERYONE loves this product. I'm still on the fence. Perhaps, I am a little "slow" at this but I have been using palms for years though I confess...not a GPS unit expect. I spend 3 hours trying to get this thing to work, I found it tricky and needless to mention time consuming to get everything loaded correctly. In addition the phone car holder arrived broken! I have some real reservations about this product. Palm One is ok but please be aware that the program is not that easy to load and the hardware is not the best. However, you might actually like the product once it is functioning. The jury is still out for me.