GPS Navigation System

A personal navigation system using GPS technology is one of the most significant professional and personal productivity-improving additions you can make to your Pocket PC. It takes over the burden of figuring out your driving directions, so you can free your mind to focus on more important thoughts, such as your meeting or recreational plans and driving more safely. GPS can make such a noticeable difference in your life that using it may become addictive.

CoPilot and Destinator

Pocket CoPilot by TravRoute (www.travroute.com) and Destinator by PowerLOC (www.destinator1.com) are a couple of the best GPS navigation systems available. Both companies have recently introduced new versions that are available for a variety of Pocket PCs (see the compatibility sidebar at the end of this article).

Destinator 2.0 and CoPilot 3.0 each ships with a GPS receiver and a CD that contains a user-installable navigation application for the Pocket PC and a variety of downloadable maps. You install the software and maps on the desktop PC and download them to the Pocket PC using ActiveSync.

TravRoute offers three versions of CoPilot. The Jacket Edition includes a GPS receiver in an Expansion Pack format that slips onto the iPAQ. The jacket also has a CF card slot built into it. The CF GPS Edition comes with a GPS receiver in CompactFlash format and a two-meter external antenna which allows you to extend the satellite signal reception in your windshield area. The Y-Cable Edition includes an external GPS receiver that connects to a variety of Pocket PCs via cable.

The TravRoute CoPilot Jacket Edition comes with an iPAQ Expansion Pack that has the GPS receiver built into it. CompactFlash and cabled versions are also available.

PowerLOC's Destinator package includes an external GPS receiver that connects to the Pocket PC via a cable. It also comes with an automobile power adapter that connects to the GPS receiver to power it and the Pocket PC.

PowerLOC's Destinator hardware has a receiver at the end of a cable which connects to the bottom port of your Pocket PC. Destinator's receiver does not take up a CompactFlash storage card slot, but it is not as portable as the Jacket or CF solutions offered by TravRoute.

Destinator does not come with a vehicle mount. CoPilot comes with a light-duty mount which is a good start, but it may not hold up long if you switch between different vehicles. I strongly suggest getting one of these mounts for ease of use and safety in an automobile. A number of companies offer them, including Revolve Design (www.revolvedesign.com) and Arkon Resources (www.arkon.com).

The first serious test

The first serious test that my CoPilot GPS passed was an eight-hour family trip to Oregon. The GPS was impressively accurate and even the technophobes in my family learned to admire CoPilot. Cousins, grandmothers, and aunts could not believe that short, remote, and mountainous dirt roads were mapped.

GPS proved to be a lifesaver when I was completely disoriented and famished, late at night, after attending the Pocket PC Summit conference in LA. It was close to midnight and nothing appeared to be open. Destinator's Points of Interest (POI) feature immediately located an open restaurant within two minutes of my location! CoPilot has a similar POI database, which has been of repeated value as well.