Replacement for the Venerable TH-55 ???

[tonyreynolds]

Could this be what I've been looking for?

http://www.brighthand.com/default.asp?newsID=14768

http://www.pharosgps.com/products/proddetail.asp?prod=001_PTL137_7.90&cat=136

Be still my beating heart...

HOWEVER, it has the screen resolution I've been waiting for and is full WM 6.1, so it has CUT AND PASTE (do you hear that Steve Jobs?) and two cameras. Unlike the other cell/GPS solutions, the Pharos doesn't require a cellulr service connection to work: it's a true GPS unit. The two big draw-backs for me are that it's not motorcycle friendly and lack of USGS TOPO capability. $49 per year for map downloads doesn't sound bad to me at all. Garmin CDs are very expensive, so this doesn't seem bad.

This one kind of caught me by surprise. I'd seen the Garmin Pocket PC's a few years ago, but they were expensive and had poor battery time. I was frankly underwhelmed. The Traveler 137 is UNLOCKED and all I'd have to do is swap-out my T-Mobile SIM card and go.

I've been using an iPod Touch as a PDA for the last three months since my HP HX4700 died, but even though the Touch is a nice unit and does many things very well, it's a lousy note-taking device.

I'll have to stay on top of this and see what develops.

:confused:

[dmitrygr]

**drool**
**drool**

where do I sign my soul away for this?
Perfect hardware, arm cpu, gps, nice screen
and WM6.1 is so so easy to evict from RAM :-)

[philpalm]

Sounds better than a Nokia that emulates a Palm:

"The Traveler 137 will have a tablet shape and feature a 3.5-inch WVGA (800 x 480 pixel) touchscreen.
It will run Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, and therefor be bundled with a suite of productivity and entertainment applications for handling such tasks as email and web browsing."

Looks like our TX like phone prayers are answered....Though it will cost at least twice the price of a TX, having a GPS and multitasking will raise the bar for any Nova product.....

[tonyreynolds]

...Though it will cost at least twice the price of a TX, having a GPS and multitasking will raise the bar for any Nova product.....


I look at it this way:

I spent $250 to buy a "pristine" HX4700 that went belly-up to replace my TH-55 that had done the same. It would cost me at least that much to get another one, and up to this point there's no way I'd buy any WM device that wasn't at east VGA.

I could use a new phone. My Razor is getting long in the tooth. It works well, but it's on it's third battery and I'm ready to move on. Most decent smartphones will set one back $150-250.

I wouldn't mind having a GPS, especially one with a wide, high-res screen. One of those will set me back $250.

You add all of this up and you're at the price of the Traveler 137. A quick search shows a $70 price-tag for a 16GB Micro-SD card. That's a massive amount of memory for what I need.

I'm not going to be stupid and be one of the first to buy one. It'll be interesting to see what the real reviews look like, but I have to say that it looks a WHOLE lot more like a PDA to this weary PDA aficionado than the Nokia N series, and I was WAY jazzed about those devices, until I learned that one had to be nearly a Linux programmer to really do anything with them.

I'm especially intrigued when Dmitry's comment is :drool:

That seems like we're headed in the right direction folks...

[jj2me]

http://www.brighthand.com/default.asp?newsID=14768

Unlike the other cell/GPS solutions, the Pharos doesn't require a cellulr service connection to work: it's a true GPS unit.

Though per your Brighthand link, it's some sort of "hybrid", and it appears there will be a per-use (per-minute?) charge:
"We've equipped the Traveler 137 with our hybrid navigation system that follows you wherever you want to go and charges you only when you actually use it."

[tonyreynolds]

Though per your Brighthand link, it's some sort of "hybrid", and it appears there will be a per-use (per-minute?) charge:
"We've equipped the Traveler 137 with our hybrid navigation system that follows you wherever you want to go and charges you only when you actually use it."


"Pharos Science & Applications offers a different type of pay-as-you-go service on its unlocked GPS-enabled Windows Mobile smart phones: Initially, U.S. maps and service are free, but you must pay for access to maps of Canada, Western Europe, or Eastern Europe at the rate of $2 per day, $5 per week, $7 per month, or $50 per year. (Pharos says that it will soon offer maps of China, Russia, Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil on the same terms.)

Once you obtain the maps you need (a step that does require a network connection), nothing more is tied to network coverage. Instead, the maps and location-based services are available only for the period of access you pay for. During that period, however, the unit is fully functional as a GPS navigation device, capable of generating routes and identifying your location, regardless of whether you have got a cell phone signal. And because Pharos's phones are sold unlocked, you can use them on any GSM-based network."

[Pgr]

How much of those $600 is the Microsoft license? It would be great to avoid that cost and just get some decent system instead. Nova, perhaps. Or something that Dmitry comes up with, if he can keep his drool from short-circuiting the device...

But of course paying for WM will be the only option available... :(

[tonyreynolds]

How much of those $600 is the Microsoft license? It would be great to avoid that cost and just get some decent system instead. Nova, perhaps. Or something that Dmitry comes up with, if he can keep his drool from short-circuiting the device...

But of course paying for WM will be the only option available... :(

I don't see a problem with Microsoft charging for their OS. I have no idea what they charge, perhaps others do, but I appreciate the fact that the OS allows me the ability to run a wide range of apps. Not sure that's going to happen with the device you're describing...

Tony

[Pgr]

I don't see a problem with Microsoft charging for their OS. I have no idea what they charge, perhaps others do, but I appreciate the fact that the OS allows me the ability to run a wide range of apps. Not sure that's going to happen with the device you're describing...

Tony
You got me wrong - I don't see a problem with MS charging for their OS either. (I actually buy my Windows licenses, btw).

I just meant that I really dislike Windows Mobile so I would appreciate the option to buy the hardware without the OS, that could take a few dollars off the price - but as far as I could find in Google, it seems it's only from $8 to $15, I thought it was more expensive...

You're also right about using the OS shipped with the product being the safest option, but I'd be much happier crashing DGOS because it's still in Beta testing than getting annoyed with WM6 because that's just the way it's designed... :)