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PDA Designed for the Great Outdoors
Paul Bawon writes "A company in UK called Node has developed the world's first consumer PDA designed for use specifically in outdoor environments. The device is fully waterproof to 3 meters, has a 8 hour battery life, built in DGPS receiver and 1 Gig of storage. Bluetooth and WiFi come as standard as does a touch screen and either a PocketPC or Linux operating system. I bumped into them at a tourism conference in Edinburgh where they were demo'ing the unit and I was impressed. It's smaller than a standard postcard."
It's a nice concept. It looks like it can handle being shaken up a bit on the trails and dropped without hurting much. Only things I wonder about are how sturdy it is internally and how scratch-resistant the screen is. By the way... first post.
A very nice product, although 8 hour battery life is somewhat lacking for a GPS. Garmin has a similar product: http://www.garmin.com/products/iQue3200/ but it's not as beefy. I still don't understand why you need to check your email and appointments out on the trail...
I wonder if it would be possible to cluster 3 units together using the bluetooth or WiFi, then using the GPS on each one to use the differential algorithms to triangulate the position like more expensive professional GPS products do.
The item's site seems to state that it is designed as an aid for visitors. ie. it seems to me it is designed as a kind of electronic, position aware, guidebook for tourist sites. Not a device geared towards hiking, etc. The 6 hour battery life would therefore seem quite adequate.
Sounds like its perfect for using full Windows XP.
:) time saving measure.
Wireless networking - someone across the street 0wnz you.
400mhz xscale powered computing - I'm sure I bought a 3.20ghz machine?
Incredible low reflection screen - playing doom 3, 16.7million shades of black.
Ultra long battery life - up to 6 hours - flat battery = reboot automatically
Rubber easy grip design - for smashing it against a wall when it crashes - AGAIN!
Changeable colours - choose from 265 - see, told you Windows gives you more.
Easy clean screen and casing - after pr0n browsing.
Robust durable casing maximising protection - see Rubber Grip above.
Changeable necklace strap, assists devise care - so the linux/mac owners can avoid you.
Auto load software - for an example, just take a look at this picture.
Hidden restart -button - Windows will reboot itself for you - again, time saving.
Water proof casing - see the pr0n browsing.
Simple charge options either dock or individual charge - weekly or monthyl automatic withdrawals, dollars only.
Expandable memory option - will remember the exact expletive used last time it crashed.
Advertising and branding space on rear of deviseLight weight casing design - Where do you want it to land today?
Lockable casing design - to match your padded cell.
Landscape screen - look, more pretty pictures.
Touch screen - interactive pr0n!!!
liqbase
I modified a motorola freeplay cellphone charger to charge my Sharp Zaurus while in the Wild. it works great, and coupled with a roll-up solar panel I have on the top of my pack I can charge it or the AA batteries I have for my GPS and LED flashlights.
I find that if I disable the backlight and do all my journal entries and photographs in the daytime the zaurus can easily go 2 days without needing a battery top-off. My magellan Gold gps on the other hand eat's batteries like there is no tommorow.
A backpacker that is clever enough can make what he/she needs for computing in the wild easily. and certianly light enough.
as for durability, the zaurus is quite durable if you are sane with it. I do not need to have it out in my hand while mountian climbing or most situations. Ususally it only comes out of the pack when we set up camp or if I really need to write something or empty a CF card from the camera (I have a pair of 1gig SD cards for holding photos from a week vacation.) at a lunch break or stop.
and at the price diference I can keep a case of new SL-5600's to replace broken ones for the price of one of these.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.