dramsey
03-15-2003, 01:09 PM
http://www.cliesource.com/images/emtac.jpgI've spent the last few days playing with the Emtac Bluetooth GPS receiver with my NZ-90. This receiver was part of a bundle that included Mapopolis Platinum Plus GPS software.
Hardware
The Emtac receiver is very small and light-- but you'll need to carry a separate AC adapter to charge it. Battery life is about 6 hours.
Using the receiver is simple: enable Bluetooth on your NZ; search for new devices, and, when the receiver is found, enter the passkey "0183" (apparently the same for all Emtac receivers). Now that the receiver is on your Trusted Device list, your map software can use it.
The Bluetooth communications makes the system especially convenient in a car. Handheld GPS systems often don't work well in a car since the metal roof blocks the satellite signals. The Emtac can be placed on the dashboard underneath the windshield and I had no reception problems when I used it this way. Casual tests showed line-of-sight communications range to be about 20 feet.
Software
Mapopolis is OS5-savvy and uses (almost) the full display capability of the NZ. I say "almost" because there's a strange blank strip perhaps 15 pixels high at the bottom of the screen, above the controls, when the Grafitti area is removed. Still, you get a lot more screen area for your maps, and they scroll smoothly and quickly, with the street names following so they're always visible.
When you enable GPS in Mapopolis, the map adjusts so that your current location is the center of the screen, and the map scrolls as you move. You can choose to have the map auto-rotate so that your travel direction tends towards the top of the screen. The map does not rotate smoothly; it can only rotate in 90 degree increments (keeping a cardinal direction) so that N, W, E, or S is the top of the screen.
While Mapopolis can generate turn-by-turn directions for you to follow, this capability CANNOT be used with the GPS! Mapopolis refers to this as "Navigator" and right now it's only available in the Pocket PC version. However, you can specify start and end addresses and have Mapopolis highlight the route between them on the display, and then follow this highlight as you move. In a car, though, this would require someone to use the system and direct you since it would be far too dangerous to peer at the detailed map screen and try to read street names as you drove around. Hopefully the Navigator GPS-enabled turn-by-turn system will appear in a future version of the system.
Hikers and campers will appeciate the "raw" data display that replaces the map screen with a simple readout of latitude, longitude, altitude, heading, and speed.
Acquisition of GPS satellites was always very quick-- I never saw this take more than 5-10 seconds. However, other reports I've read say that initial acquisition can sometimes take more than a minute, so YMMV.
Memory
Ah, the bane of our Sony OS 5 systems! Mapopolis is only 283K, but the maps can be much larger. San Francisco and Santa Cruz maps are only about 500K. but Santa Clara County is a staggering 2M! Mapopolis can stitch together adjacent maps to provide seamless access and scrolling on a larger virtual map, but all the maps used must fit into RAM. Mapopolis will load maps from a memory stick and can automatically remove them from RAM when you quit the application. Another handy feature is the option to keep the Clié on for up to an hour with no user input, which prevents the map display from blinking out (and dropping your GPS connection) when the auto-power off interval elapses.
Conclusion
This is a well-done and useful, if expensive, package. Mapopolis offers a cabled GPS receiver for $199; this is much cheaper than the Emtac (about $375) and would be an alternative worth considering (if the cable will fit into the NZ-90's connector, which it might not!) The elegance and "wow" factor of the Bluetooth receiver are compelling, though...
Hardware
The Emtac receiver is very small and light-- but you'll need to carry a separate AC adapter to charge it. Battery life is about 6 hours.
Using the receiver is simple: enable Bluetooth on your NZ; search for new devices, and, when the receiver is found, enter the passkey "0183" (apparently the same for all Emtac receivers). Now that the receiver is on your Trusted Device list, your map software can use it.
The Bluetooth communications makes the system especially convenient in a car. Handheld GPS systems often don't work well in a car since the metal roof blocks the satellite signals. The Emtac can be placed on the dashboard underneath the windshield and I had no reception problems when I used it this way. Casual tests showed line-of-sight communications range to be about 20 feet.
Software
Mapopolis is OS5-savvy and uses (almost) the full display capability of the NZ. I say "almost" because there's a strange blank strip perhaps 15 pixels high at the bottom of the screen, above the controls, when the Grafitti area is removed. Still, you get a lot more screen area for your maps, and they scroll smoothly and quickly, with the street names following so they're always visible.
When you enable GPS in Mapopolis, the map adjusts so that your current location is the center of the screen, and the map scrolls as you move. You can choose to have the map auto-rotate so that your travel direction tends towards the top of the screen. The map does not rotate smoothly; it can only rotate in 90 degree increments (keeping a cardinal direction) so that N, W, E, or S is the top of the screen.
While Mapopolis can generate turn-by-turn directions for you to follow, this capability CANNOT be used with the GPS! Mapopolis refers to this as "Navigator" and right now it's only available in the Pocket PC version. However, you can specify start and end addresses and have Mapopolis highlight the route between them on the display, and then follow this highlight as you move. In a car, though, this would require someone to use the system and direct you since it would be far too dangerous to peer at the detailed map screen and try to read street names as you drove around. Hopefully the Navigator GPS-enabled turn-by-turn system will appear in a future version of the system.
Hikers and campers will appeciate the "raw" data display that replaces the map screen with a simple readout of latitude, longitude, altitude, heading, and speed.
Acquisition of GPS satellites was always very quick-- I never saw this take more than 5-10 seconds. However, other reports I've read say that initial acquisition can sometimes take more than a minute, so YMMV.
Memory
Ah, the bane of our Sony OS 5 systems! Mapopolis is only 283K, but the maps can be much larger. San Francisco and Santa Cruz maps are only about 500K. but Santa Clara County is a staggering 2M! Mapopolis can stitch together adjacent maps to provide seamless access and scrolling on a larger virtual map, but all the maps used must fit into RAM. Mapopolis will load maps from a memory stick and can automatically remove them from RAM when you quit the application. Another handy feature is the option to keep the Clié on for up to an hour with no user input, which prevents the map display from blinking out (and dropping your GPS connection) when the auto-power off interval elapses.
Conclusion
This is a well-done and useful, if expensive, package. Mapopolis offers a cabled GPS receiver for $199; this is much cheaper than the Emtac (about $375) and would be an alternative worth considering (if the cable will fit into the NZ-90's connector, which it might not!) The elegance and "wow" factor of the Bluetooth receiver are compelling, though...