De ARTIKELEN van het uitzicht BOVENKANT 50 De VIDEO'S van het uitzicht SOFT van het uitzicht De HULP van het uitzicht

Hands-on met PK iPAQ GPS van de Metgezel van 312 Reis

Ik zou zeggen ik met kaarten vrij goed ben en om die reden ik nooit een GPS apparaat nodig heb gehad. Hebben gezegdd dat, word ik ook diep geïntrigeerdm door de technologie. Vandaag ontving ik a PK iPAQ de Metgezel van 312 Reis aan overzicht.

Voorafgaand aan dit, had ik geen idee Hewlett-Packard had gemaakt een GPS product. Dit is in feite hun seconde. Nog, was ik een weinig ongerust gemaakt zij in onbekend grondgebied zouden kunnen stappen en de kwaliteit van dit product op hun gebrek aan ervaring in het gebied zou wijzen. Nu hebben gespeeldd met het, heeft het al mijn vrees overwonnen en ik geloof er geen reden is waarom iedereen die een GPS apparaat zoekt dit van hun lijst zou moeten uitsluiten. Hier is mijn wat ik vond.

Bij de eerste indruk, zult u komen bewonderen hoe mooi het gebruikersinterface op het dit schitterende high-resolution scherm (van de 800×480) resolutie is. Elk pictogram is fijn gedetailleerd en er is overvloed van hen. Het koele blauwe thema is het verenigbare zich nog verfrissen.

De interface wordt ook goed geoptimaliseerd voor aanraking, de enige methode van input. In tegenstelling tot capacitieve multi-aanrakingscraze, gebruikt dit apparaat de traditionele weerstand biedende aanrakingstechnologie wat betekent om het even welk voorwerp dat op de vertoning wordt gedwongen zal registreren. Een naald is inbegrepen en zit in een groef bovenop het apparaat, maar omdat de knopen hoe dan ook zo groot zijn er weinig als om het even welke reden zijn om hen te gebruiken.

U zou kunnen worden ertoe gebracht om te geloven dit apparaat een douane werkend systeem - misschien Symbian of Java in werking stelt, maar in feite als de meeste andere apparaten van PK iPAQ stelt het Vensters in werking, Ce 5.0 van vensters om nauwkeurig te zijn. En nr, heeft het niet verpletterd. Dit is een groot voorbeeld van een apparaat van Vensters dat geen Vensters gilt.

Door enkele promotiebeelden van PK van dit apparaat te bekijken, zou u gemakkelijk kunnen worden overtuigd dat dit een groot apparaat is, maar in feite is het zeer compact. In vergelijking, is het kleiner dan mijn muis. Er is minimale schuine rand rond het grootmoedige 4.3 duimscherm. Terwijl de het schermgrootte geen leesbaarheid belemmert, zou het aardig geweest zijn als het enkel een weinig groter was om de kleinere knopen een weinig meer uit uit elkaar te plaatsen.

On the right side is a rotatable and clickable scroll wheel - similar feel to a mouse scroll wheel, this serves as an easy way to zoom in and out of maps as well as changing volume and screen brightness. There is also a rubber flap for antenna, headphone and USB connectors. And at the very bottom, a small reset button.

On the left side is the slot for the Secure Digital card. No SD card is required to operate the device, however you can access the media stored on it.

A big selling feature of this device is the 3D map capability, which is a combination of the software and third-party mapping data. Unfortunately the digital map data in Australia is very primitive and does not show buildings and other structures as it would in US or Europe, but you can still see some of the 3D effects on bridges as above.

Personally, I find myself switching back to 2D view again and again because 3D view is quite processing incentive, and doesn’t give the fluid experience of panning around a map very well.

This device had no problems routing all the routes I threw at it, including those in outer suburbia. All the returned routes were exactly the ones I know are the best from personal experience. Routing journeys of around 40 kilometers (25 miles) took less than 4 seconds. Route recalculations such as those from a wrong turn were under 2 seconds. In the route details screen, it was smart enough to show me how many kilometers were traveled on highways and if there were any tolled highways or roads.

However if you’re a freeloader like myself, you can easily set up to avoid toll roads as well as many others unfavorable road features.

The turning point of this device for me from just a digital map to a useful driving tool is this feature of address filtering. I’m not too familiar with GPS devices so I’m not sure how many of them offer similar functionality like this, but what it does is it prevents you from typing addresses which do not exist such as road names and suburb names.

For example, after you input a suburb, it will only allow you to type the roads that exist in that suburb. This filtering continues to cut down letter-by-letter. When appropriate, it will switch views to present you with a list of options you can select.

The same applies to street numbers too.

The text-to-speech synthesizer is equally impressive as well. Whilst it doesn’t announce street names, but does provide very clear and natural directions via the loudspeaker on the back.

Having walked around on foot with the device, the GPS accuracy has an error margin of around 10 meters which is not that much of a deal in a car. However after turning a corner and changing orientation, it is able to correct itself pretty much instantly. Surprisingly with the internal antenna, I was even able to receive some GPS signal on and off under a tin metal roof.

In addition to the navigation features, this device also includes a range of basic entertainment functions like viewing pictures, videos, music and a range of arcade games. I applaud for HP for trying to extend the device with useful multimedia features, but it really falls short.

The Achilles heel of this device is that it is severely underpowered. For example, when trying to play a standard-definition Windows Media Movie video, it was downright unwatchable almost like a picture slideshow. On top of that, when the announcer informed me the GPS signal had been lost, the video actually froze so the speech synthesizer could do its job. Either the multimedia software is severely unoptimized or the processor is not powerful enough, I hope HP takes this problem seriously for the next version. It could have been a serious PMP-contender, but the software and hardware is just not up to scratch.

Since I don’t have a Bluetooth phone, I wasn’t able to check out the Bluetooth connectivity features but at the least it offers hands-free answering capability to receive and dial calls. Most points of interest on the map also has a telephone number which makes it even easier to book reservations at your destinations without ever touching your phone.

The device comes with a standard set of accessories including USB cable, wall-socket power charger, car charger, car windscreen mount, dashboard mount as well as faux leather pouch.

At a recommended retail price of US$450, this GPS device does slip a little into the pricey side. Having briefly compared it with some competing products, I think the user interface alone might be worth its difference. For its second try, HP has built a very solid device with a great piece of software that really shows they’re committed to the GPS experience as much as any of the other competitors. Can’t wait to see where they’ll go next.

Check out my Flickr gallery for more pictures of this device.