PDA With Inbuilt GPS

Since we take our mobiles, PDAs or smartphones pretty much everywhere, the idea of having a GPS receiver inbuilt into one is a clever idea. HP has cottoned on to the idea with its new iPAQ rx5965 PDA.

Unfortunately, the new Travel Companion series (rx5000) does not have phone functionality included. But this series of PDAs does feature an integrated GPS antenna, SiRF Star II GPS receiver, inbuilt GPS navigation software and carries pre-installed Tom Tom Navigator 6.0 maps in the flash memory, thus requiring no SD cards or Internet activation.

The Tom Tom Navigator can provide the usual voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation instructions. HP says the GPS application is easy to launch via the ‘Quick Launch’ buttons and 3.5-inch antiglare touch screen.

Other travel tools include real-time travel information with WorldMate Standard Edition, world clocks, a packing list organiser, weather forecasts worldwide and a currency conversion application with an online exchange rate service.

Connectivity options include integrated 802.11b/g wireless LAN in the rx5965, Bluetooth 2.0 and mini-USB synchronization. The rx5000 series is powered by a Samsung 400 MHz processor and built on Microsoft Windows Mobile! 5.0, so Microsoft Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Media Player 10 Mobile and Open Windows Mobile platform is all available to via your PDA.

The Travel Companion series supports up to 2GB flash ROM memory, allowing you to store and play music, photos, videos and games. The series also supports SD or MMC memory cards.

The rx5000 series comes complete with a Car kit which includes windshield mount, iPAQ holder, car charger and cable, and an alternative dashboard mount. The rx5765 and rx5965 will be available on November 15.

RRP:
HP iPAQ rx5765: $799
HP iPAQ rx5965: $899

See: www.hp.com.au