Piggybacking here. Any good source for a downloadable road atlas? With notebook PC prices falling, I was thinking that one would make a good multipurpose tool if I could download the equivalent of a Rand Mcnally road atlas of Great Britain. So far I have had no luck.

http://www.microsoft.com/streets/en-...AutoRoute.aspx

Thanks Robes. I missed that somehow.

Ok then, so everybody can understand what we are talking about here - what is the most compact pocket PC I could purchase instead of taking a Garmin or TomTom ? Can I walk around the streets with it in my hand, find out where I am and go from there to a target destination ? How large is the GPS sensor that connects to the pocket PC ? Are there pocket PC's that have an inbuilt GPS receiver ? Thanks again.

Do they still make PocketPCs?

The action is all in smartphones and netbooks.

Microsoft is in a holding pattern until Windows Mobile 6.5 and 7.0 comes out to try to catch up to iPhone.

But iPhone requires a data connection and thus Telco costs while roaming overseas for navigation as does Blackberry. That is unless you have a whole pile of fixed maps downloaded to memory for the areas that you wish to visit like that achieveable (but complicated and inconvenient) with Trekbuddy. Are you saying that the Microsoft product simply does the same as Trekbuddy.

I have a Garmin Nuvi and I'm quite happy with it.

I bought it in Nov. 2007 and so far it's still working really well. I like the screen size and the touch screen feature.

It's also got add-on applications like an audio mp3 player and audio dictionary (multilingual). The only complaint that I do have is that it takes a long time for the GPS to "find" me.

For example, if I turn it off and then drive somewhere else, the GPS takes a long time to find my new location. The software itself is ok -- it did freeze up on me one time but that was only because I was in the snow and it was 0 degrees F.

To use the GPS in Europe, you'd have to buy and download the European map. The maps are quite expensive in my opinion, and I don't like the fact that every year the GPS will "remind" me to buy a new map.

I have a Garmin Nuvi and I'm quite happy with it.

I bought it in Nov. 2007 and so far it's still working really well. I like the screen size and the touch screen feature.

It's also got add-on applications like an audio mp3 player and audio dictionary (multilingual). The only complaint that I do have is that it takes a long time for the GPS to "find" me.

For example, if I turn it off and then drive somewhere else, the GPS takes a long time to find my new location. The software itself is ok -- it did freeze up on me one time but that was only because I was in the snow and it was 0 degrees F.

To use the GPS in Europe, you'd have to buy and download the European map. The maps are quite expensive in my opinion, and I don't like the fact that every year the GPS will "remind" me to buy a new map.

Well with iPhone OS 3.0, turn-by-turn may be supported and someone like TomTom may make an app. along with downloadable maps, which make it self-contained so you don't need a data connection.

I turned off data roaming when I went to Italy last month so there weren't too many apps. I could use, such as the various translation apps.

But there's also talk that the EU is going to clamp down on exorbitant data roaming fees so maybe it will get affordable eventually.

I have a small and inexpensive TomTom One. I bought it for $130 last year as a refurb on eBay complete with North American and European maps.

I went the cheap route because I wasn't really convinced about the need for a GPS. After 2 weeks of use in France I wouldn't be without it. It let me drive and not have to worry about navigating as well as my wife is just not a map person. In over 2,000 km of driving and I don't know how may hundreds of roundabouts we never missed a roundabout exit... not once! The TomTom was always right on which turn to take.

There are also all kinds of extras you can download as points of interest... branches of banks, hotels in chains you might like, every location of every Auchan store, Aires on both autoroutes and secondary roads and the list goes on...

On more expensive models you can also get alerts for speed cameras, traffic slowdowns etc.

Have a look at some review sites and see what you think will work for you. The only thing I'd do differently is to go a bit up the range and get a model that tells you the street name to turn on. Mine will tell me the number of meters to turn in but sometimes it can be hard to tell exactly which street... especially some of the small ones you find in Europe.

Rob

Well after much research I am going to pick the Garmin 765 over the TomTom 930. Both are excellent but my reasons are brightness, map colours and contrast seem much better on the Garmin. To me the TomTom looks to have a duller screen. As to ease of use, both have their features, advantages and disadvantages. Both have almost identical mapping standards according to the retailer who sells all varieties of product. The Garmin shape is also more compact and the mounting device is better engineered in my view. Whereas TomTom 930 has European and US mapping loaded to the Australian delivered model, I will have to buy Garmin mapping as SD cards or DVDs and load to the Garmin. In the end the total cost of the two units is similar. The retailer I am purchasing from in Australia known as Johnny Appleseed seems to have a lot of information online and is very helpful. They load their own proprietary additional POIs and radar camera/school zone locations as a benefit. Additionally with the Garmin there appear to be a variety of add on programs available such as map contouring, all wilderness tracks, marine maps etc etc.