Don’t get lost - use your PDA phone
I had a business trip last week to Texas. Two days in Dallas and two days in Houston. This gave me a chance to use my bluetooth GPS (Holux GR 231)
I have to say that I am fairly impressed with this combination. Once or twice I had to reset the phone due to glitches with the mapping software, however, overall the solution was very good. Map4PDA essentially provides a slick PDA interface into Google maps (or a few other mapping sites) and gives you LBS (location based services) in the palm of your hand. What does all that mean? Well, for example, I was able to pull up a map of my area and get directions (standard fare for mapping solutions) - and then perform a google search geographically localized to the vicinity on my PDA screen. Find a hotel, gas station or business address simply by typing it in. That was way cool. I only hope they continue to make improvements to the software (improvements in directions and stability were issues).
Ham radio applications of this solution? Hmmm… I’ll have to think about that. If they were to open the API or source code, I suppose it could be a cool APRS platform… Could even attach it to find-u.com I suppose. Hmmm.