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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."
from the site:
Features
Wireless networking
400mhz xscale powered computing
Colour screen 320 x 240 hi resolution
Incredible low reflection screen
Location aware technology
Ultra long battery life - up to 6 hours
Rubber easy grip design
Changeable colours - choose from 265
Easy clean screen and casing
Robust durable casing maximising protection
Changeable necklace strap, assists devise care
Auto load software
Hidden restart -button
Water proof casing
Simple charge options either dock or individual charge
Expandable memory option
Advertising and branding space on rear of devise
Light weight casing design
Lockable casing design
Landscape screen
Touch screen
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...
A portable field charger that doesn't require external battery source (solar, hand crank, whatever) would have been nice. That, or some sort of long lasting methanol fuel cell. I mean, if you're really gonna use this thing in the great outdoors doing forestry surveys or something, I would imagine that having an alternative charging source would have been nice to have. '6 hours ain't a whole day of battery life in my book...'
Or do people ususally go the the great outdoors to get away from this kind of stuff.
Schedules, appointments, who cares! My favorite part of backpacking is not knowing or caring what time it is!
Sorry guys, I have to go plug my PDA/GPS into my tent.
A PDA with 8 hours of battery life is useless. A GPS with 8 hours of battery life is dangerous.
Eeew.
-Peter
Yes, but is it bear-proof?
It looks like drinking in the morning might be a bigger problem. :)
... and how readable the screen is in various states of light - especially bright sunlight.
That's a very good point.
I enjoy hiking. A while ago, I was way out in the woods hiking with some friends of mine. A buddy of mine, had his Ericsson R310s phone with him. Now, this phone is ugly as hell. It's also not available here in the US (and seeing that it's a GSM 900/1800 phone, probably wouldn't work here either). But it's rugged. His phone was the only one that survived the trip.
Most of our phones just died for no apparent reason (I assume it was due to the rain -- and it rains a lot in GB, believe me). After performing "cell phone CPR" on them (taking them apart, carefully cleaning them with alcohol, and letting sit in a warm room to dry), most of them eventually worked again though (which of course doesn't help if you're in a tight spot and need your phone to call for help).
The point is, if you're outdoors and choose to rely on any electronic device (1) make sure that it works (test it; bring extra batteries; etc) and (2) always have a backup plan (if you have a GPS device, bring a map & compass anyway).
Technology is very useful if you know what you're doing but you need be able to survive without it.
"A goldfish was his muse, eternally amused"