Garmin plus PDA?

[Harleyquin]

Hi

Currently, when touring, I tend to use my SPIII in "Route To" mode. It strikes me that, sometimes, it might be nice to be able to use the routing facilities that the Garmin software offers to be more specific about a particular route and so some of the planning the night before.

I could do this by carting round a laptop with the Garmin software installed and the USB programmer but I wondered whether it would be possible to achieve the same result using a PDA?

Clearly the PDA would have to be able to take a (fairly large) storage card holding the maps, etc. has anyone any idea (a) whether this is possible or not, and (b) if yes, which PDA(s) would be most suitable?

(By the way, I'm not really interested in buying a completely new PDA-based GPS unit.)

Many thanks

Pete

 

[jimbo]

Not an expert on this, but I recall that there is a small minority of people quite anti the Garmin brand, because of its proprietary nature. Whilst the mapsource has basic import/export capbility, other than that its doesn't really interface to anything else.

Obvious possiblities are interfaces to PDA, and such things as Microsoft road map (routemap?).
A garmin V's limited memory problem would be sorted if you could download maps from a PDA....

As the market matures I suspect that Gamin will be force to Up their game sigficantly. TomTom are showing the way by integration with Traffic updates, speed cameras and bluetooth for a hands free phone feature. This must be the way forward.
I hesitiated on buying a 2610 for just this reason, I think Garmin are fast becoming over-due a new model.
The idea of a bluetooth connection to a phone to receive travel/congestion info that then the auto-route directs you around is both highly desirable and technically feasible.

I suspect being being US based, they will make slower progress. Most US companies focus first on their home market. Road charging and speed cameras not therefore not a priority. I looked at a Roadangel camera detector a little whilst ago. Seems silly that to spot speed cameras, I need to buy a completely independent GPS unit on my handle bars next to the other GPS unit