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Garmin iQue 3600
W33dz writes "Several sources are talking today about Garmin's new iQue 3600. This lovely new gadget runs on Palm's OS 5.2 and features an onboard GPS system. Garmin has a long history of being a top GPS manufacturer and has created a neat little device that you can see reviewed here (MSNBC) and here (InfoSync)."
The iQue does not come with any built in wireless networking. That seriously limits its ability to be used as a transponder.
Dang...my color StreetPilot seems to be obsolete now. The only thing it has left going in its favor is its shape, which sits well on a dashboard. I paid $530 for it back in 2000, and it serves me well. I knew a guy who had a lay-flat GPS, and it was a pain for him to drive and watch it at the same time.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
The audio system on the new Palm devices sounds remarkably good, all things considered. I own a Tungsten|T, and MP3 plays sounds OK on it. It's no expensive stereo with surround sound, but from a mobile device it is more than acceptable.
The cheese voice is going to result from a limited vocabulary size, due to the limited memory on a Palm. As noted in one article, the device does not say street names. If some decent sounding voice systhesis engine could be put on Palm OS, that would make voice commands much, much more practicle.
-- Fighting mediocrity one bad post at a time.
With a color screen, this is pretty good. It was mentioned it would drop to a few hours with constant use [GPS feature]. On a suckage note the baterry is not user replacable and the car adapter tops $70.
-- Some days you're the dog; some days you're the hydrant.
and attach a gps sleeve to it? You could get more processing power and the gps, for much much more less than the 538 by garmin.
I read the Forbes Garmin iQue 3600 overview last week, but it didn't seem quite so exceptional. The Garmin iQue debuted at CES this year. It looks pretty bulky due to the integrated GPS hardware but I can see its usefulness as someone who travels. At $589 for a Palm plus GPS though, the price seems truly exceptional.
I find this offering by Garmin to be superior to other combination PDA and fill-in-the-blank-with-MP3-Player-or-cell-phone-or -digital-camera.
It is particularly applicable for mobile professionals who often find themselves in unfamiliar cities. The high level sales executives where I work immediately come to mind. No they aren't stupid, they just often find themselves having to get to a certain downtown meeting in a city they have been to many times visiting different clients and I am sure it would be nice to have a mobile GPS integrated with the PDA they already carry anyway. Plus it is sleek and stylish enough that even the women in the power suits would pull it out of their purse at a meeting.
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
I've been working on a hiking website that uses GPS data to allow users to create and share maps. You can download trails from the website to the palm, and after hiking a never-before-mapped trail, you can donate the GPS track log and my website will add the trail to its network of trails.
I've currently got a whole bunch of trails from the new york/ new england area.
Check it out:
http://www.trailregistry.com
-Geoff
Check out TrailRegistry.com, my hiking site, Maps, altitude pr
Battery life in GPSs has never been all that great, but it's gotten a lot better. I have a Rockwell-Collins Trooper GPS (manuf. circa 1992), and it will drain 8 fresh AAs in 20 minutes. If it's staring up cold, it will often not be able to get a position before the batteries die. Fortunately, it keeps almanac, ephemeris and last position in NVRAM, so it's good to go on the second set of batteries.