HP iPAQ 310
HP (NYSE:HPQ) isn’t totally new to the GPS market, but in the past they have approached GPS from more of a PDA perspective. That has changed with the introduction of the HP iPAQ 310 which is built more like a traditional PND. This GPS is packed full of features and is currently selling for good prices at those features. But how does it stack up against the bigger names in GPS? We’ve spent about 700 miles with our iPAQ 310 and here is what we were able to find.
Before we get into the thick of things, it is important to note who this GPS is not for. If you were to create a list of adjectives and phrases to describe your ideal GPS and that list contains simple, straight forward, out of the box, or drop dead easy…. This GPS isn’t for you. If on the other hand your list contains customizable, full featured, does it all, or you are an advanced GPS user, keep on reading.
Physical Design
HP obviously put a good deal of thought into this GPS. The color is a bit difficult to describe. I could only describe it as a dark maroon, anodized/brushed metal finish. On the front above the display is the power button, below the display is a power/charge indicator as well as the microphone port for hands free calling. Along the left side is an SD card slot which most people won’t need. No SD card is included, but instead a plastic “blank” fills the slot. The speaker is located on the back. Out of the top comes a stylus… I always cringe when I see a stylus on a GPS because you shouldn’t need one… and thankfully I never did need to use it.
On the right side is a dial/jog button. This button serves several purposes and could be easily missed causing many people to think the IPAQ 310 doesn’t offer a few features that are actually there. Make the manual your friend while learning the operating of this device. “Click” the dial once and the volume menu will appear. You can then rotate the dial to the appropriate volume level. Click the dial twice and you get access to the screen brightness setting; again turn the dial to make the brightness go up and down. Finally if you click and hold the dial you get quick access to several commonly accessed features such as route avoidances, canceling routes, recalculating routes, switching between 2D and 3D map modes, going into night mode, editing a route, viewing a route overview, a ‘Go to’ menu, and going into full screen mode. We will cover many of those features in the review, but it is worth pointing out that somewhat secret menu because I’ve seen people who claim certain features don’t exist because they never found that menu.
A reset button is found along the right side which thankfully I never needed to use. Finally on the right is a set of ports protected by a rubber cover. Under the cover you will find the USB/power port, a headphone jack, as well as an external antenna port. As we’ve seen so many times in the past, you can’t judge the reception quality of a device just based on the chipset used. The HP iPAQ 310 uses the SiRFtitan chipset and gets very fast and very accurate reception. You won’t likely need an external antenna as the 310 seems to get better reception than many other GPS devices with a similar chipset inside.
The screen is one of the most attractive parts of this GPS. It is very bright, doesn’t wash out at wide and high viewing angles, and the on screen graphics are very attractive. While most other GPS devices with the same size screen size have a resolution of 480×272 pixels, the IPAQ packs in 800×480 pixels. This makes the graphics incredibly vivid and perfect for viewing videos and photographs with the included video player and picture viewer. Perhaps even more amazing is that they crammed all of that into a space that is also narrower than most other GPS devices with the same screen size and it is one of the lightest GPS devices in this class.
Mount
The mount is fairly well designed and didn’t have trouble firmly holding onto the iPAQ. It is a little bit longer than I personally like, but that is just my own preference. The ball and socket joint allows for rapid adjustment on the fly and it didn’t vibrate excessively, even on dirt roads.
In the Box
Most everything you need is included in the box. Obviously the GPS and the mount. The car charger also doubles as the USB cable. The USB cable connects to the GPS. Left bare, the other end will connect to your computer. Or you can connect it to the DC (car charger) adapter or to an AC adapter to power it via your home power outlet. Also smartly included is an alcohol wipe to help getting the suction cup to stick. Smart!
Finding Addresses
Routing to an address is fairly simple. From the Main menu click Navigation -> Go to -> Address. The list will typically be pre-filled in with the last state, city, street you selected. You can simply “jump” in to whichever part of the process you need to change. For example if you are going to a different street but the same city/state as your previous entry, simply click on the street field to start there. This is a nice feature since other devices might prompt you with the location you last used, but you still need to go through that part of the process, the HP solution is more elegant.
Something else we noticed about locating addresses is that it will sometimes show streets that have similar spellings but in a different (and nearby) city from what you selected. This could be helpful if the street isn’t actually in the town you selected, but also could slow you down a tiny bit if you did correctly select the city/street.
Just to be picky, I do wish the on-screen keyboard was a little bit bigger. When typing in a city name or street name I don’t really care what the battery level is nor the current date or a few other icons they stick on the screen in this location. I would rather have seen the extra space used to squeeze a few more pixels into the keys. However there are devices on the market with even smaller on-screen keyboards so I can’t complain too much. Similar to a few other devices on the market the GPS will disable letters from the keyboard that are no longer possible based on other letters you have typed in. For example in my home state there are no cities or towns with the letters “z” or “x” in them so those two keys are automatically disabled when you enter a city or town. You can also select locations by zipcode.
Seeking a POI… ANY POI
While there are still a few relatively new GPS devices out there that ship with only 750,000 POIs, the HP iPAQ didn’t skimp here, adding in 12,000,000 POIs. You won’t find too many “missing” POIs in this device. In fact, there are so many POIs installed that it (ironically) made searching for specific POIs a little difficult in a few instances. Get to know where the “search by name” icon is near the bottom right of the screen because wading through the millions of POIs can be a bit daunting… I good problem to have I suppose. 
The search results can be sorted by name or by straight line distance. A few categories like restaurants are broken down into subcategories. The POI name, physical address, and phone number are displayed on-screen if you want to see that information before confirming the location as your destination.
Pro Routing Features
There are a ton of routing features that advanced GPS users will look for. You can pick vehicle types for car, taxi, bus, truck, or bicycle. There are also route types for fastest, shortest, and (my favorite) economical. The economical route method will take a look at a few of the “fastest” routes. If a route can be found that will only add a small bit of time to your route, but is a bit shorter (thus on slower roads) it will prefer that route type. This type of routing produced more similar routes to what I would have picked on my own.
Like other devices on the market, you can also specify things you want to avoid such as unpaved roads, highways, ferries, border crossings, toll roads, and roads where permits are needed. While very few people disable automatic route recalculation if you go off route, the setting is there should you desire.
You can setup custom distances to avoid along the route. Should you come upon a roadblock you can choose to avoid a custom distance ahead of you… 1km, 2km, 5km, 10km, and 30km. Yes, I am in the USA and I do have the units set to display in feet and miles so I have no idea why they display these settings in kilometers, but it does. Oh well, perhaps this will get addressed in a future firmware update.
Something we would like to see (or perhaps we just didn’t find yet!) is the ability to exclude a specific street or maneuver from the calculated route. You can preview the route detail, but not do something such as clicking on a street and tell the GPS you don’t want to travel over that point. You can work around the issue by building up an itinerary and using a via point, but that sometimes doesn’t accomplish exactly what you are looking for.
We were very glad to see the ability to create an offset starting location. When I’m traveling I often want to preview a route from the destination airport to the hotel. Many GPS devices don’t allow you to set a starting location of anything except your current location… the HP iQAP 310 does offer these offset starting locations. Simply find a location as if you were going to navigate there and select ‘Set as Start’ instead of ‘Set as destination’. Then continue to set the destination to build a preview of the route.
With a device of this many features it is no suprise to see that the IPAQ offers multi destination routing and route optimization. You can build up routes, and save them for recall at a later time. Throw a bunch of destinations into your route and manually sort the order of the destinations, or use the Optimization feature to automatically sort each of the points between you and the final destination.
Plan from your Computer
Who wants to be limited to creating routes on your computer? Further, who actually plans routes when you are in the car? Most people would rather do their planning away from the GPS device itself, and HP has an answer for that. You can plan trips on ipaq.com and then sync those routes into your GPS. You can also use that website for map updates, firmware updates, etc. The one bummer is that many of the syncing features are PC only… no Mac use supported.
People often wonder why they cannot automatically transfer contacts from their computer’s address book to set them up as favorites or POIs. I suspect the reason this hasn’t been done more often in the past is because people don’t tend to keep their addresses as “neat” as they need to be for navigation. While a GPS guides you through picking cities, streets, and addresses, “parsing” that information from an address book is more difficult than it might sound. Two line addresses, spelling errors, weird punctuation, etc can all cause issues when trying to decipher the location. HP has tried to build in a way to sync contacts from Outlook into the GPS. In my limited testing it only got perhaps a dozen out of a few hundred contacts properly mapped. Hopefully HP can work on this feature for a future update and build better intelligence into the matching. But it won’t correct how we write many addresses into our contact lists.
Navigation
Taking a trip with the IPAQ 310 is simply fun… just don’t stare too much at that beautiful screen. The screen refresh rate is very fast thanks in part to the powerful chipset and plentiful amounts of RAM. The text on the map for road names is extremely legible and stunning to look at. You can pick which POI categories you want to show on the map… while some screens tend to get a bit cluttered with too many POI icons, HP has addressed the issue with transparency. The icons are very “light” and transparent so they don’t interfere with or overwhelm the map.
I also appreciate the really big “next turn” indicator. Going beyond a simple “left/right” it displays the type of intersection in a nice graphic as well as the distance to that intersection. The menu at the top and bottom of the screen gets a bit busy, and I think there is just too much data they are trying to display there. Along the top is the phone dialer, route progress list, next turn indicator (again), the name of the next street/turn, distance to the next turn (again), shortcut to the music application, volume menu, current time, cursor menu, satellite reception icon, time to destination, ETA, current speed, and a home icon. Some of that information is redundant, and much of it is unnecessary to have in the main navigation/map view. To make matters worse, there was such little space left for the name of the next street that only about 10 characters are displayed and the rest will scroll.
Thankfully there is a “full screen” mode which will get rid of most of the mess. In fact, this is how I ended up preferring to use the iPAQ. When you go into the full screen mode all you are shown is the map, the next intersection icon, and the distance to the next turn. This was a dream and for me provided the best navigation experience. I wish HP had taken the fantastic transparency features used elsewhere and applied it to the map view… make a few of the text fields transparently hovering over the map, or be able to further customize what fields are displayed in the non-full screen map view.
Text to Speech
Perhaps the biggest disappointment with the iPAQ 310 is the navigation voice. The voices sound poor making it difficult to understand what the instructions are. While playing MP3 music or using the included games the speaker doesn’t sound too bad, so we can only hope that HP will supply some new voice recordings or otherwise address the issue. It is too bad that such an otherwise competent navigation device speaks to you like she has marbles in her mouth.
Life in 3D
One of the coolest features HP put in was 3D buildings for major cities. They are simply a thing of beauty when driving around (for the passenger of course). You can pick to display 3D buildings, elevated roads where applicable, as well as setting how far away you want to be able to see the buildings and the quality of the 3D terrain. Yes indeed, HP realized that our planet Earth is not flat. As you are climbing hills you can see it in the map view. Going downhill around a corner? No problem you can see that too on the display. Headed up a steep mountain valley? Sure, they’ve got that covered too and you can see the road wind up through the canyon. So this GPS offers both 3D buildings and 3D terrain. The terrain covers the entire map database while the buildings are available in just major cities.
When navigating in 3D mode the dial on the right side of the device can also adjust the “angle” you are looking down on the map. Most GPS devices keep a fixed view, however the IPAP 310 allows you to adjust that angle. Want a view closer to a 2D overview? Rotate the dial down. Want a view that is closer to ground level to really see those mountains you are approaching or to get a more “canyon” view in big cities? Rotate the dial up.
Bonus Round: Check out the photo on the right. See if you can identify the building and the significance of that building to this GPS. 
That building really does look like it does in the GPS! See if the building has been identified or add your guess in the comments below. (Street, house number, city, and most likely reason I picked that building.)
Overview Mode
My first experience with an “overview mode” came from the Harman Kardon GPS devices. Basically what this feature does is recognize when you have entered a road where you won’t be making a turn for a good distance. Then instead of just showing you the next half mile of road while you are cruising along at 65 mph, the GPS will switch to a 2D overhead view showing you anywhere from 1,000 feet to 20 miles at a time. I’ve become really fond of this feature. When you take those long trips it is nice to get more of a “big picture” view when you know you won’t be turning off the current road anytime soon.
You can turn this mode on and off, as well as specifying how far the stretch must be before going into overview mode as well as what the zoom setting of the overview mode will be.
Extras
We’ve already mentioned a few of the extras available to this GPS such as the ability to plan trips from your computer as well as Outlook contact syncing. We’ve also mentioned the video player, music player, and Picture viewer. Ala Nuvi, you also get a calculator and world clock. Being a “travel companion” the HP 310 GPS also includes a couple of games and the ability to load more. Two games are included.
The Bottom Line
It is easy to see why some people have become frustrated with this GPS. HP really went outside of the box and a few of the settings and controls can appear hidden away if you don’t know where to look for them. If you are an experienced GPS user you might become frustrated because HP approached the settings and controls from a different perspective than many other mainstream GPS devices.
If you are thinking of going to the electronics store, buying the GPS, taking it out of the box, turning it on, and driving away…. you might want to consider something more straight forward.
If on the other hand you are an experienced GPS user and don’t mind spending some quality time with the manual, this GPS could be one step closer to the perfect GPS. Through the tons of advanced features and an amazing set of customization options you might just get closer to having a GPS that is tailored to exactly how you want your GPS to behave.
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Excellent review. I have owned a 310 for a bit over three months and I am very pleased with it. Admittedly, it is not an easy device to master - a lot of options, a lot of functionality = a lot of complexities. But I was relatively new to GPSing when I got it and with the help of the manual (happy face), I was able to get through the initial shock, and now I’m happy. Good review, excellent web site, always sound and unbiase advice… Good job, Tim.
Tim, Hi, I am warming towards the iPAQ ( it would be 314, I am in the UK). Just one question: can one use the device as an atlas ie view maps (with scrolling)of different locatios in Europe whilst in the UK? If so how, in case I find it difficult!!!
Yes, you can put the map into 2D mode and then pan/scroll it. The default setting will scroll the map back to your position after about 10 seconds, however you can change that to up to 5 minutes, or you can turn that feature off entirely.
Hey Tim….great review and well worth waiting for. This website rocks and your unbiased review are the best! Every GPS has a learning curve and it looks like this one may be more of a challenge but the benefits could outweigh the learning curve. I am sure that there will soon be a fix for the TTS as there have been enough negative comments on this topic and HP I am sure is listening.
Once again great job on the review. Sounds like you had fun with this one!
at long last but alas! i just bought a nuvi 660 but my first choice was the ipaq 310, for the very reasons that tim pointed out in his review. i am completely happy with my nuvi but i do like the challenge of a more complicated ipaq 310. if i can find a good deal for my 660, i might consider swapping it with 310. thanks tim!
juvethski, I bought the HP 310 but found it too complicated after my initial euphoria died with the first (and only) use. Would you consider swapping your Nuvi 660 for my HP 310? It is almost brand new in box with all parts and accessories.
rook, email me at juvethski@yahoo.com
Tim,
Great review. Two questions:
1) What is your take on the routing engine on this device. Any “crazy” routes in your testing?
2) When you touch a POI icon on the map, does it bring the info for that POI (a la Magellan) or does it take you to the main menu (a la TomTom)?
Very helpful review Tim!
Is that an HP building in Boston?
I know HP has operations there in the past.
@John 1) I didn’t experience anything alarming. Sure there are routes where I might have picked a different way, but that happens with any GPS. Nothing ridiculous. 2) Nothing really happens when you click the icon itself. However it does bring up a “cursor” on that location and one of the things you can do from the cursor position is “find nearby POIs”.
@Infama No, but nice try. That would have been too easy.
Hi Tim,
Did you experience any freezing? I read some reviews that its one of the complaints.
Thanks.
No, see the 5th paragraph about the reset switch.
Hi Tim,
I own a 310, but am not sure how to do the route optimization. Could you list the steps?
Thanks,
Page 50 in the manual.
Thanks, Tim. I was testing that feature between a single via potint and the destination, and the manual says optimization is for via points only.
Correct, you set the starting location and the final destination, then add via points between. It will optimize the order of the points in between. So if you have only three points there is nothing to optimize. If you have four points it will optimize the order of the middle two.
Thanks Tim. I am in Melbourne Australia and have been considering the 312 (Australian version). I will be spending 6 months in the US later this year, so need to be able to install US maps. Do you think I have had any sensible response from HP about this? They referred me to the company who provides the mapping software (TeleAtlas), whom I wrote to and they promptly replied that they do not deal with end-users, expressing surprise that HP would suggest contacting them. On further contact with HP they stuck to their story despite my relaying them TeleAtlas’s advice!! I am about ready to buy a TomTom or Navman, but would really like to consider the HP if they could get their act together on this issue. Any suggestions?
George, I’d say Tele Atlas is correct in that case… you don’t purchase maps directly from them but through the GPS manufacturer since each manufacturer uses their own format/file structure. HP might just not offer additional mapping at this time. Ironically, you might try contacting Nav N Go (navngo.com) since they are the ones who make the navigation software on your device and deal with the map format. There is a small chance they might be able to help out.
George,
Another possibility is that you get a US unit, either online now (Amazon) or when you get here, since you’ll be in the US for 6 months. Some very good gps units can be had for under US$150.
Tim, that was a fantastic review and sure made me want one, especially with 12 million POIs! I really do not understand why the other units out there have to stop at 5 or 6 million POIs or less.
The only thing that bothers me a little is their customer service. I read some posts where people were looking for maps for other countries and the HP people sent them to the map company who, of course, couldn’t help them. So what sort of service can people expect from HP? Do they have a good web site?
OK Tim,
What do I win????
Here is the answer to the bonus round:
Tele Atlas Global Crossroads
100 Cambridge Street, Suite 1302
Boston, MA 02114
HP runs on iGo8 software/maps based on TeleAtlas map data!
JeepLover - There are two reasons many manufacturers don’t include more POIs. (1) Additional memory space required. (2) Additional cost to them.
Infama - Well done, mate! How did you come up with the answer? We’ll find something for you.
Part dumb luck and part general awareness. I kept in mind the cross streets and meant to hunt down the address later on by checking out HP, NavnGo, Teleatlas, Sirf and Centrality.
As luck would have it, TT came out with the new NAmerican 715 map yesterday and I wanted to know what changed. I was directed to mail TeleAtlas for the MultiNet info sheet for 10/2007 and so went to their website, contact section and …VOILA…their US address popped up!
Elementary Watson!
LoL
Tim,
In your bonus photo, the triangle icon seems to be pointing toward the highrise, not along the axis of the street. Does it mean the gps knows the direction you’re facing?
Just an illusion, it is actually pointing towards the bottom right corner of the GPS.
Speaking of gps direction, I’ll go a little OT here to ask you this: Let’s say you’re standing at a street corner when a north-south street meets an east-west street. If you get a signal lock, how would a gps pick which direction to point its icon?
A GPS can’t determine direction without movement. If you are standing still it can’t determine your direction. As the GPS acquires a signal it will think you might have moved slightly as it gets a better signal and will use that as your guessed direction. But basically in your scenario it won’t know, and will just guess.
But I’ve noticed that when stationary and after a power recycle my TT1 LE and the 310 point their icons along the nearby street axis, usually in the northly or easterly direction. Do you think that’s how they default to?
Probably, I’m sure they each have their own way of picking something when the direction can not be determined by movement. They probably pick a road axis.
Thank you very much for publishing this post.That was a great review. Can i use this device globally,i mean that this gps device can be used anywhere in the world,cause i’m living in india.Will the gps device works in india??
It doesn’t look like it is available in India. The device would work, but there wouldn’t be any maps. (link)
Tim I read that if you delete music folders and files that they remain on the unit and be called back. Eventually you would use up the 2GB!
My question is really 2 fold:
A) can you play music directly from the SD card?
B) Is there a way to retrieve the 2GB memory after folder/file deletes?
I do have one more question for anyone and everyone - can anyone tell me how good the maps are for Canadian Provinces and do the POI’s have Tim Hortons listed for all provinces?
Great review Tim - very helpful.
Is a map of Europe available for the 310?
Mark, there is a European version of the same model with a different model number. However at this time it doesn’t look like you can add European maps to the North American version of this product.
Which one did you like better, the GPS-810 or this unit ?. It seems they both have the same features.
Mark: If you connect your iPAQ to your computer, two new drives will appear in Explorer - one for the main memory and one for the SD card. All you multi-media folders can be added/deleted/ populated from there, like you would do on any other drive.
On the iPAQ, when you start a multi-media session, you have to tell the iPAQ which multi-media folder or specific files to consider for playing/viewing … whatever. And you do that via a functionality called Media Directories that you will find under Settings.
So as you move forward with your multi-media session, you can add or delete folders or specific files for viewing. By deleteing files or folders, they’re not deleted from your main memory or SD card, but simply deleted from the current play list. If you want to permanently delete a multi-media folder or specific files, you have to connect your 310 to your PC and delete files you no longer want on your 310 from there.
Multi-media files can be played from the main memory and/or the SD card - when the 310 scans for multi-media files, it scans both and finds them all, if you selected both the main memory and SD card as your search directories in Media Directories.
The maps are fine and yes, Tim Horton’s are there - I can’t guarantee that they’re all there, but they’re there!
Hope this helps!
I was told by an HP Insider that Euro maps on SD card will be availaible in the coming weeks. Also, TMC will be available in the same timeframe for Europe. No timeframe given for the US TMC.
does the 310 accept HCSD (high capacity)SD card, (more than 2GO)?
Mark: My understanding of the various models available and map coverage is as follows:
310=US & Canada
312=Australia, Asia
314=Western Europe
316=Eastern Europe
318=Brazil
Big Al: Yes, the 310 accepts SDHC cards, I’m using two 4GB SanDisk SDHC cards with mine.
Hi Everybody, what countries of Western Europe are included in iPAQ 314 please ? and can it take SD 8 gig ? I am unable to contact Technical Support to get such info !! and finally gas HP issued any updates to rectify contact synchronisation and feeble sound from the device!!
What is the precision (diameters) in meters of the HP iPaq 310? I know that Garmin as a DGPS (WAAP) system that as 3 meters precision.
Don’t hold me to this, but I believe the following countries are included in HP’s Western Europe maps: UK, Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Sweden. Regarding the SD card, I was told by HP Tech Support that the maximum size supported was 4GB, but then I subsequently saw posts in various forums that some folks were using 8GB cards without any problems.
Hey there Big Al - you’re getting a bit technical. May be Tim knows the answer to this one, I sure don’t. Perhaps your best bet would be to take a look at the specs for the Titan chipset on the SiRF website:
http://www.sirf.com/products/multifunction.html
Big Al - They are virtually the same.
Does anyone know if this can be used as a GPS receiver for a laptop, either over bluetooth or usb?
I guess that the Trip Planner can also be created in Google Earth (in KML format) and synced to iPAQ device as routes or waypoints. Anyone confirms this?
Robbo, like most auto GPS devices it can’t be tethered to another device like that.
Survsin - I haven’t tried it.
Hi everybody, i just purchased the IPAQ 310(still havent recieved it)and im a little disapointed to hear that the Text to Speech on this devices is no good. FROM A SCALE FROM 1 TO 10, how would you guys rate the Text to Speech on the IPAQ 310?
Quick question - Is there any type of FM modulator in this unit? that is - Can I put by radio on 87.9 and listen to the music on the SD card?
Kelvin,
There is a software hack to improve the sound. Check out the forum at gpspassion.com.
Mark,
No there is no FM transmitter. FM transmitters for all GPS units are bad from what I have read.
Robbo,
According to this review the GPS output can be accessed directly as COM7 at 9600 baud, perfect for use with an aux tracking program. This site also shows how to install a shell so this can be done (also get access to the underlying CE OS).
http://www.pocketgpsworld. com/ipaq310.php
I would guess that you could use the headphones out connector to plug into a standalone FM transmitter. Any thoughts?
I have had my 310 for about three weeks now. First GPS I have owned ,but have used others. All I can say is, it is GREAT! Discovering new features all the time. If you are the type of person who doesn’t mind a slight learning curve with new “toys” this is perfect for you. I have experienced no freezing, lock-ups, and the only time I have had a signal loss is will driving through a tunnel, but came right back afterwards. I think most of the negative reviews written on this GPS are probably by users that just have not figured out how to use certain features or are looking for a pull out of the box and just “use it” GPS. The viewer alone is amazing. And with a little research you can get one for the price of a cheap starter, with FAR fewer features! Bought it because of this review Tim and have not regretted it for one second! Thanks
Can this also be used to save tracks recorded by GPS travel. I would like to be able to take this on our snowmobile and keep track of trails and stops or POI such as waterfalls, etc. I then keep these files for furture reference.
I would also like to map out prev to travel but then change route as we tend to not follow exactly our preplanned route. We also take side trips that are not planned and take us where the road may, but would also like to save these side trips for future reference, with stops and again our own POI. Is any or all of this possible with the 310
Yes Terri,
It can do all that!
Does anybody know if HP will issue a new version of iPAQ 310/314? From what I have read on these posts and others, it would be advisable to wait a little till the problems have been sorted out. Furthermore there is no certainty that HP will continue in the Satnav field.
HP has a web site that is just for this device. It has trip planning software,updates and support.
ipaq.com
Hello all,
I was wondering if anyone has used the 310 on any dirt/4×4 backroads and how complete the maps were. I just purchased one mainly based upon this excellent review but it has not arrived in the mail yet. I plan on heading to the Death Valley area in late June to do some four wheeling and I really hope the maps are complete.
Thanks!
Sean, it isn’t really designed for that so I wouldn’t set your expectations too high. If you use Google Earth and look at the road layer, that should give you a fairly good approximation of the roads you might see.
HP should be issuing firmware updates by the end of the month. Got this from a good source!
Thanks Tim,
Actually Google Maps/Google Earth both have very good representations of the "off road" roads in Death Valley. If the 310 has those on it, I should be good to go.
It looks like I’m going to be pretty happy with the unit. Now if I could get an aviation database made for it I’d be set!
It shouldn’t be too difficult to add a database of VORs, NDBs, airports, etc.
Hmm… that sounds interesting. I’m going to have to do some research and see if I can whip something up. I’ll let you know if I can come up with anything.
I’ve done it before on a few other auto GPS devices. Kind of fun to fly around with an auto GPS and set your destination as an airport with a “via” point as a VOR.
I’m planning to purchase the IPAQ 312 but wishes to know if it has added features similar to a PDA eg. activesync, calender, contacts, words, excel etc.
You can sync contacts, although that feature doesn’t work very well, but there is no calendar, no Word, Excel, etc. That’s no to say that the 310 cannot be hacked to handle some of these applications, with all the risks and caveats that this entails. The iPAQ 300 series is not meant to be a PPC/PDA but rather a stand-alone GPS device.
Hi Tim, My 310 arrived today and I really like it. I’m having one problem that I can’t seem to find in the manual… if I have a route active, how do I cancel it?
Sean - press in on the dial on the right. It will open a menu (see the second picture in the review) where you can do a few things including canceling the route.
Yet again Tim, thanks a million. I think HP should give you a paycheck
Oh and just a heads up for your off-road oriented readers… all of the backroads in the Death Valley/Yosemite area are covered in the database. Basically, if it’s in Google Earth, it’s in the 310.
I have almost every detail figured out to use the 310 as an aviation GPS. I’ll have a link in a few days to a database of nav radios I’m compiling. The only problem is… when you tell the 310 to “go to” and then pick a nav radio, it plots a ground course to the radio. There has to be a way to disable that so it will do straight-line plotting. Will keep you posted.
Hi
I really, really like the 314 (which is the model in Denmark) and I really, really need a PDA with a syncronizeable calendar. Does anyone know how to install this or a link to an address with instructions?
Hi again Tim,
I have had an odd recurring problem and I have a feeling it’s a mode issue or something minor I’m doing wrong. Both yesterday morning and this morning when I turned the GPS on in my car to go to work, I’m finding that it’s not connecting to the GPS system. When I go to the GPS status page, it’s not showing any satellites… not even the red “no signal” ones. The location grid is blank. I tried waiting awhile, then exiting back to the nav screen and going back in… still nothing. I hit the reset button and it reboots and everything is fine. Any ideas?
I’ve experienced the same thing once, maybe twice.
Sean, Tim - I eventually bought one of these units, 312, at a price of 170$AU I couldnt pass it up. I’ve had the same problem - wake from sleep and it’s blind to any satellites, wait 10 minutes or more, nothing - reset and it all comes back ok.
Also noticed it loves alternative routing here in Melbourne AU, closed roads, routes that simply dont make sense (longer) and dirt roads when they are disabled - I like dirt roads, I live on one, but when coming home from work isnt always the time for exploring ! :-).
Nice unit overall though, just dont trust it completely yet. Surprised theres no updates just yet too …
Hi Robbo…
The only common denominator I can see is that it happens in the morning. Maybe after I did a sync the night before? Tonight if I have time I’m going to sync it and then take it outside and see if the same problem exists.
I’ve not really had any routing problems. I know having it set to “shortest” sometimes gives you some odd results taking obscure back roads. I take an odd back way to and from work that it would never resolve on its own so I added a couple of waypoints to force it to.
Anyway, next time you sync check and see if your satellites are there and let me know.
Is there a backtrack feature on this device? If I outline a route with 10 points to visit, and want to go back exactly the way I came, can I do that? If not, do any GPS have this feature? T.U.
After thinking for some time that this device had no updates I finally tried it on a system that didnt need a proxy - has anyone come across this issue before? I cant see anywhere that you can configure a proxy into the content manager! Anyway, now with 800MB of updates lets see if it still gets confuzzled on occasions
(it would be soooo ironic if I told you the company corporate network I’ve been trying to update it on, that only allows access by proxy, very common I know, but … 
)
To anyone- I’ve read the entire review and comments posted at the bottom, and I haven’t seen any mention of traffic capabilities. I’m new to GPS and am very interested in the ipaq 310, but if it doesn’t have traffic capabilities, I may have to look elsewhere. Does this unit have traffic alerts or routing capabilities? If not, any idea when this may be available in the form of a firmware update or a future model?
Ben - The 310 lacks traffic capability. It has a menu function for traffic but that feature is currently only available in Europe. It might become available in N.A. at a later date, but for the time being, it isn’t.
hi robbo,
any update on the 800mb? how’s your ipaq after you installed the updates? thanks.
Hi juvethski: I haven’t had much of a chance to test it out since the upgrade was done. One thing I did note was that I can now get directions in about 50 more languages than I speak (which is one) so that accounted for a large portion of the update. I guess it will help if I ever go deaf and am traveling with a Swedish tourist who doesn’t speak English :-\ …
There was one significant update to the Australian software, but not sure what that entailed - just maps or gps software update as well. I did note the other day when I installed a 4GB SDHC card that I couldnt delete some media files - permission denied. Yet to resolve that one.
I’m back at work today after an illness so hopefully over the next few days I’ll get a chance to give it some more testing.
Is this unit ok to use for geocaching? I am new to gps…and it seems as though it will do all the other fun stuff I am looking for, but I’d like to try geocaching…Any info would be great
Is it possible to add European maps at a later date? Thanks.
@Doren - No, unless you have an inside track to HP. That being said, my understanding is that maps, as a stand-alonde product offering, will be available for NA, Western/Eastern Europe, etc. in the near future. I presume that you already know that the 314 comes with Western Europe maps pre-loaded. So it’s not that the W. European maps aren’t available, they’re there, pre-installed on the 314 - but not available, just yet, as a stand-alone product.
Maps on SD cards should be coming soon. They have been shown on-line at HP European sites for at least 2 months now and the costs are about $175. Maps fo West Europe, Eastern Europe, North America and Russia are shown.
The HP should be great for Geocaching, as you can disable the snap to road feature and the maps have contour features built in. Additionally, you can take a spare battery along with you for extended life.
Robbo, I think you downloaded a lot of useless languages that needlessly take up space. You should delete then on the next update to free up space.
infama: yeah, no kidding
I just wish the female swedish voice spoke english, I might get lost just to hear her speak to me all the time!!! OK, I’m not being particular, I like many of the European accents!
Yes, I will probably delete them. I have noticed that since confusing my 312 with all the updates, it seems intent on taking me the long way on some occasions, but I’m not yet going to discount my own user error, as I haven’t had a chance to properly play with it. Lets say though that now a couple of my routes are longer according to the box on the dash …
Has the iPAQ 310 received the long awaited firmware for the sound and bluetooth synching etc? I cannot get into the european website to find out unless I an a member. I am waiting for the update before I take the plunge!otherwise I shall have to buy tomtom 920.
@Sam - no update yet, should be coming soon.
Time to jump on the $200 ipaq offers! I cant imagine that these prices wont be discontinued shortly given the news below:
Ipaq 310/314/316 firmware update for North America will be on the server to download this week, the versions for Europe early next week. Both via content manager tool that you download from http://www.ipaq.com.
Not sure about 312.
BTW, Unc/Tim…how many games came installed on your unit?
I have 2, but read a review which siad 5 came on that machine.
Infama:
Gabebox Classics – pdamill Game Studios with 5 different games as follows:
• Snake
• Fireball
• Jewel Master
• Cannons
Flux Challenge – pdamill Game Studios, which offers 4 variations of the same game:
• Serpent
• Worm
• Mobius
• Bumble
Thank UB,
I guess the answer is really either 6 or 9 then, depending on how you count them.
6 or 9 … what did I miss? How did you count them Infama? And I though you only had 2!
I have the same as you.
One in Flux with different flavours and 5 in the Gamebox classic.
“… 5 in the Gamebox classi.” Well Infama, you can’t be the same as me is you have 5 in the Gamebox Classics … because I only have 4! So which one am I missing?
My bad,
i counted wrong.
The long awaited firmware update has arrived!!!!!!
Infama: Unless I am wrong, I beleive you have both,HP iPAQ 310 and TT 920.May I ask you which one I should choose bearing in mind the following:
1- price is not an issue.
2- I want to use the unit as an atlas, browsing maps of different countries whilist at home( UK therefore it would be ver 314 if I choose iPAQ).
3- Good screen and reasonable battery life.
4-Western Europe and central Europe is a must,but USA maps are not essential.
5-The extra facilities eg mp3, picture viewer etc are welcomed but not vital.
I appreciate your response.
Given that HP has not yet released optional maps, there is no question that the TT is the better option. Right off the bat you get North America and all Europe (except Greece), all included for the price. You also have an option for Traffic available now, for HP it is still to come.
However, the HP maps in cities is far better for viewing purposes and is the better pedestrian option.
HP has the better screen and battery life is about the same, though the HP gives the option of swapping batteries.
In summary, TT is better working option at the moment. HP has better potential.
Infama, Hi,your response is much appreciated.However,cities maps and pedestrian option are high on my list.The availability of maps for the rest of Europe is bound to be provided in the future by HP ( at the moment western Europe is a must).So I am going to give HP one more chance, if the forthcoming updates do not solve the outstanding problems then I shall go for the TT.Many thanks.
Hi Sam,
Given your needs, you may want to try to get the 310 (cheap from Amazon US) and then buy the full Europe SD card when it comes out in 2-3 weeks, according to my HP source. The 314 only has Western Europe.
Alternatively, you can get the 314 and buy Eastern Europe maps, but that costs 3/4ths the price of full Europe.
The iPaq is a great Ped device, as it has a screen lock, disable snap to road feature, great 3D maps of city centers (big cities) and swappable batteries.
Anyone using an external antenna? is the connector mcx or mmcx, all other ipaqs are mmcx but the only reference I could find for the 312 was mcx?
Havent seen any further firmware updates for here, mine has some weird ideas on how to get places after the first one, but not discounting user error at this stage …
mmcx … found it. Same as all other ipaq’s with gps and external antenna.
Firmware update for US and Europe available now, but DLing slowly! I imagine everyone jumped on at the same time. You are forced to DL the new Content Manager version first.
Not sure about Asia! Give it a try.
Has anyone installed an Enhanced POI set, such as Starbucks Coffee chain for USA and Canada. Also does the HP Ipaq 310 display the altitude on the navigation screen?
Elevation is shown only on the satellite screen. Some people claim that elevation is always overestimated by +48 meters on the HP.
What is an enhanced POI set?
The HP has 12m POIs installed, so not sure if you need any more.
Got the new content manager, and a couple of voice updates, but thats it, no new firmware.
One good thing is the content manager now has a proxy option (web proxies being such a new innovation and that, good to see the developers are right on the bleeding edge with this innovation!!! ) though sadly its a manual configuration (it doesn’t derive its proxy config from internet exploder, I guess this could be good or bad)
Thanks for the ‘elevation’ clarification infama. I haven’t purchased an HP Ipaq 310 yet but am in the market for a GPS. On the Magellan and Garmin you can download POI files from various web sites, then transfer them to your GPS. I used the example of Starbucks, but there are many others. The installed POI’s on GPSs are usually two or three years old, as are the maps. The POI files you download are current.
Ted,
A reviewer at Amazon claimed his 9 month old business was in the HP POI list.
The maps are dated July 2007, TeleAtlas.
Tim,
How do you turn on the full screen mode on the ipaq 310
Tap the nav screen anywhere but on the arrow. This will cause semi-transparent icons to appear on the left and right.
The one you want is the 2nd from top on the left (indicative of expanding the screen outwards). Tap that an get to full screen. Yu do the same to get back to the reduced screen, only this time the icon indicates a screen shrinking.
I just got a 310 a little over a week ago. The maps for Canada are quite lacking; although they did have one new road that the Garmin didn’t have. …as compared the thousands of back roads that the Garmin (Navteq) has which Teleatlas maps don’t. The only reason I’m holding onto the 310 is because of the strong feature set and amazing display. I’m crossing my fingers and hoping that Teleatlas will at some point take Canada seriously; by there maps it appears that we rank somewhere between the Sahara and the moon. …as was reinforced by a tech. chat with HP staff. (By the way it was very easy to get a hold of HP online support.)
The latest firmware update “bricked” my 310.
I just exchanged it today for a new one, updated the firmware and Canada content and it would no longer boot. Luckily the unit would still connect to the content manager. So I’ll try a full update and see if that fixes the problem, hopefully it was an old content/new firmware incompatibility. The reason I tried to shortcut the update with just the firmware and content of interest was due to the ridiculous update time. The content manager itself appears to hang for a half a minute every, oh, say, half a minute! The content comes of the internet at rates no better than dial up with a fast modem. By selecting only 200 or so megs of the update it only took it 3 hours, rather than an extrapolated 21 hours on the full 1.4Gigs, but now I guess I have no choice.
I hope this works, I only have a 15 day return period. If I have to do a recovery and then re-update that 15 days might not be enough time!
…I guess on that note, I should ask if anybody knows how to launch the content manager without the iPAQ plugged in, so that I can download the content in the back ground without having to tie up my laptop for a full day.
Mike, tap the left side of the screen. A box should appear with 4 arrows pointing to the corners. That’s the full screen button.
ps. doing a full update in the back ground right now, drum role please … 45min = 3% …woohooo, only another 25 hours to go at this rate.
I am a ACO and I need a gps that can handle multiple stops and be able to add a stop anytime. Would this be a good system for me or could you recommend a better one??
Firmware Update Progress Report:
It’s now 6 hours since initiating the firmware update. It appears that the download rate has picked up the pace from when I started. It has now completed 390 megs of 1160 to place me at 33% and a blistering 65MB/hr = 1.08MB/min = 18kB/s!
At this rate the update will only have taken a total of 18 hours. In that time I could have watched 12 feature length movies, or driven from Calgary to Las Vegas, or read a large novel. … on that note, it’s frightening to think that an audio book of about 18 hour length is about 400MB, at that rate 3 people could dictate the update to the device faster than HP’s download center. (okay, I know that’s not a valid comparison, but it is a funny thought.)
@Tony - The firmware upgrade bricked by 310 too - it’s back with HP and hopefully they’ll send be back either the same unit or a swap already updated
As for your comments regarding the amount of time required to do the upgrade, ridiculous, isn’t it. I’ve always been a fervent supporter of the 310, and I guess I still am … but I have to admit that my enthusiasm has taken a beating over the last month or so. While I was first out the gate to recommend this unit in the past, I am much more reserved in my comments now. This is not about bashing HP, this is just about stating the facts. Ten, twelve and fifteen hours to do a firmware upgrade, if you’re lucky enough to survive it, is utterly ridiculous; and HP should have thought of a better way to implement this.
Still haven’t seen the upgrade for the 312 here! hopefully they’ll pull the update and actually test it first. As for bagging HP, well it seems people could hardly be blamed …
Well some kind of update has arrived - 30 minutes ago I commenced the download and its achieved a whopping 6MB so far - only 661MB to go. (47 of 706 files). Glad I have an 8Mb connection! I guess HP are using a dial-up modem at their end …
Given up for the time being, its too slow and the content manager has crashed 3 times now.
Did some digging, seems the first thing the content manager does is check in with register.navngo.com and does some kind of exchange to validate. register.navngo.com then responds with the specific URL for the update which in the cases I observed was http://www.ipaq.com/updates/15/080328 - the content manager then retrieves ‘contents.bin’ from this URL which probably contains the list of updates and a corresponding list of files to retrieve for each update. In my case this host was 134.44.176.75 which PTR’d back to idamobsrv12.fra.omc.hp.com - a whopping 24 hops and over 1000ms RTT from me! (somewhere in France it would seem - http://www.ipaq.com always seems to resolve by CNAME to that, so nothing smart happening with their DNS). Once you have the list, if you select something for update it then retrieves it from the same update URL as another .bin file (8 digit number dot bin).
Whether this is a single server or a group of servers sitting behind some kind of load balancer is hard to say, but something in the last hop or two costs the connection between an extra 700-1200ms in round trip time, so theres an issue there to start. Then theres the fact that France isn’t the smartest place to host what appears to be the only site on the planet that serves this content, though possibly still better than Budapest where Nav-N-Go seem to be based.
Maybe I should have researched this better before I bought
MPH Display?
Is there any sort of large MPH/Trip data display like the Garmin Nuvi has, other than the small one that is at the bottom right hand corner of the screen?
A larger digital speedometer would be nice to have, if I am just driving around not needing the GPS routing function.
Thanks!
Just bought the IPAQ 312 from a reseller in Melbourne. First thing I did was to go and find any updates. As reported by others, it is a long process. So I have only updated some voices for now. Will see how it goes.
and had hope that they would put that in as well. Bugger.
One disappointment is that there is no New Zealand maps. I thought New Zealand is a small part of Australia
Correct Robbo,
I heard that the servers were in Europe. There were problems that delays the deployment a week or so.
Now that you have explained the complicated path, I see where the issue lies. It seems that NavNgo introduced the complexity with the on-line authentication process and the need to be hopping back and forth. Combined with all that, there seems to be technical networking issues that make the process inefficient as implemented.
HP would have been better off sending out DVDs with authenication codes. In the end it would appear to be cheaper and simpler to do that than this frustrating online exercise!
I am impressed with your cyber sleuthing skills!
Typo: were problems that delayed the deployment a week or so.
There will be another release for Europe soon with the 2007.10 maps and HP is working on a different update method than content manager so you can download it without device connected.
Well, left the download running overnight, it reported all completed successfully this morning - now the unit is toast - application fails to start, offers me the option of reset to factory defaults but that doesn’t help - just get the white ‘hp screen’ then the blue screen briefly then bang - repeatedly. Tried reset, tried removing battery - no luck.
After various attemts, over the course of days, and an online tech chat with HP it is confirmed, my second unit is toast also.
Funny thing is I haven’t heard of anybody having success with the update and I’ve had 2 of 2 fail on me, yet HP tech support is still toeing the company line saying that they haven’t heard of any problems with the update. It would be nice if they would yank the update until it’s properly tested, or at least fess up and issue a warning saving their customers from ruining there units.
BTW, the full system back up won’t save your unit either.
I’m returning mine tonight. The HP’s feature set has spoiled the Garmin for me, and I don’t really need a GPS. So I will probably check back here once in a while and see if HP has got their $hit together, I would still consider getting another 310 if they can sort things out. On the other hand SiRF’s new prima chip should make devices like this more plentiful and give consumers a selection of multimedia capable gps’s. Hopefully the shopping will be better in a half a year or so.
Good luck to all of you who don’t have the option of returning your 310’s and have to deal with HP to de-brick your units.
Tony:
Sorry to hear that - theres only one service agent in our country, a short 900km drive from me, so plenty of expense ahead mailing the unit back and forth.
If you can answer a couple of questions, might help save some more trouble here:
- were the symptoms you saw as I described above?
- did the content manager and removable drive support still work (they do for me, unit still goes into the sync screen when I attach it to USB and content manager still seems to ‘work’
- sounds like you tried the backup and restore, that was my plan when the unit gets back (I havent sent it yet)
- I get the impression if they fix the firmware that I could just ‘wait’ and do the next update to fix it.
- I tried the factory settings reset also, but that didnt work (didnt make it worse either). NOTE TO ANYONE READING: ENGINEERING MODE IS DANGEROUS!!!!!
- what happened when you tried the backup and restore? I just did a backup and it saved over 800MB of stuff to my laptop, of course my ipaq is already broken so not much use.
NOTE FOR ENGINEERING MODE: ENGINEERING MODE IS DANGEROUS, MISUSE WILL BRICK/TOAST/DESTROY YOUR IPAQ! To enter engineering mode, press and hold the scroll wheel and then press reset, keep holding the scroll wheel while the RUU rom download screen displays and a few seconds later the engineering mode menu displays with 13 options numbered 1-12 then 0
I tried option 10 “Restore registry to default value” but this made no difference. NOTE THE SCROLL WHEEL IS USED TO NAVIGATE AND IT ISN’T THAT EXACT - DON’T SELECT OPTION 11! 
IF UNSURE - SIMPLY POWER OFF
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED
I am seeing the same white HP screen with occasional blue IPAQ screen after the update.
HP is sending me a box to send back the unit for diagnosis. Tech support told me it will take 5-7 business days for me to have it back repaired. He also said this model has limited user access to troubleshooting and if soft-reset doesn’t work, the unit has to be sent to HP.
Though this "hassle" is something I would have liked to avoid, at least I’m glad to get a good support from HP.
Tony,
Several people have had success, I suspect the majority. I had no problem with the update, except the length of time. I went thru first time with no hitch. It may have helped that I am in Europe, close to the Servers?
However, I agree the failure rate is outrageous. HP has a financial incentive to fix this, as Cust Service costs must be killing them.
I am surprised that Engineering mode (choice 10) does not work. Whatever the update is doing to brick the machines must be equivalent to option 11, and so would need to be returned to restore the ROM.
The new update tool is promised for 3-4 weeks and will be sorely needed (see my post above). They will need it to patch the new problems of dealing with Contacts that cause a reboot.
I cant help but think that half of the problem is the relationship with NavNgo. They are the ones writing the updated firmware (you see it in the copyright info). Since they have lost Mio, HP has become a more critical partner for them, and they have a vested interest in keeping HP viable in the GPS game. HP needs to demand MORE and lean on them more heavily for improvements. As Robbo showed in the back and forth Server fiasco, NavNGo was involved in the authentication process and made it more cumbersome. Totally unacceptable.
interested in estatblishing if waypoints can be entered and retrieved for return trip e.g. when hiking or flying
Yes, there is a tracklog function.
I am having a hard time deciding between the 310 & nuvi 660. I want the multipule destinations that the 310 offers, but am worried about the issues above. Any advice? I can get a 310 for under $250 shipped. Also would any of you pro’s have any cons on a refurbished unit?
Rob,
If you need a workhorse of traffic feature, the go with the nuvi.
If you want tons more features, are not a GPS novice and willing to tinker and do modifications to maximize the potential of the HP, then go that route instead.
You have to evaluate what is important to you in a GPS. They all work well, but have different pros and cons.
I love the HP (great fun), but we all are different.
Robbo: my symptoms were exactly as you described. With the unable to load application error and default options.
Robbo & Infama: This morning I was confused when the microSD card for my phone was reported as full when I tried to add some files to it. Upon further inspection I found a folder labeled iPAQ on my microSD card. It appears that the HP content manager does not distinguish between removable drives and attempted to update the firmware on the microSD card instead.
Now I don’t know if I had the microSD card in my computer or in the unit when it killed my 310’s, but I’m almost tempted to go back and buy another one just to re-try it (with out any SD inserted).
If a few more people have some success updating I would sure like to know about it.
So with that being said I will issue this warning.
DO NOT ATTEMPT AN UPDATE WITH A SD CARD INSERTED.
…..it probably actually says that somewhere in the destructions too.
ps. Sadly the microSD update did not add GPS functionality to my smartphone.
Tony,
I successfully updated first time with an SD card inserted.
Many people on the Forum have done the update with varying degrees of difficulty.
Well a nuvi that I can afford does not allow but one waypiont at a time. For a new job I have I would need to enter 10 the night before and be done with it for the day. I don’t need the traffic reports and all. The updating problems with the HP is the only con I see so far. What is your opinion on refurbished?
Anyone considering this unit - really, its not bad. The update method and the *apparent* failure rate of updates seems to have a major level of suckage right at this time, but you’d have to be fair and take a step back and say this is really a first-gen of the next-gen unit, great screen, tons of features, works well, lots of cpu grunt (handy when you are doing lots of route recalcs and other stuff).
Am I annoyed at the software update problems - sure - but you get that, and infama seems to have an inside track on the fact that HP know that as well and are addressing it.
I’ll reserve judgment on the software update side for a little longer, its definitely something HP need to sort, but similarly I’m sure they will …
Rob - Refurbished - I would never touch it. As for the firmware download, well, it worked well for some, not so well for others. If you like the 310, that firmware update glitch wouldn’t be a showstopper for me. Eventually, HP will get its act together.
Rob,
Well, a Refurbished unit may have 1 less problem than a new one ;o)
On the other hand, it carries much shorter warranty. HP is sending back the repaired unit to me today, only 2 days after they had picked it up. They even used Same-Day shipping. Even if the problem was due to the firmware update,I doubt HP would do this if the warranty had expired.
So I would recommend buying it new. It is a fun unit, you can enjoy so many unbeatable features at a reasonable price.
Thanks for the input. Is there a site that anyone would recomend to buy from? My biggest concern is being able to return it if it does not work out for me.
Have the unit for about a week now. The GPS function works well. AS for the media playback, does anyone know how to set it to play video full screen?
BChau - no setting. When you play your video and you’re looking at it on the small screen to the right, just tap on the screen.
I wouldn’t touch refurbished - 12 months warranty is worth the extra (probably, I guess it depends how much extra, but …). It might also be worth considering what they call a carepaq, for extended warranty or accidental damage, might also make the service come to you but I haven’t checked that.
Re where to buy from - can be a big problem these days. Faceless websites operating from warehouses or garages with less overhead often provide a better price, and *sometimes* provide excellent service. Of course, being able to walk in to a store and up to a counter and discuss your anguish with a sympathetic and helpful store employee who’s only concern is customer service isnt always how things happen either! That said, I still think the safest and probably cheapest (after the sale) option is to by from a big chain store - they typically do returns and the person you deal with is less likely to feel its their money that is being handed back. They probably aren’t the cheapest, but its that difference in price that you are potentially trading off against your sanity, or in my case, whats left of it.
Also check what the HP warranty offers you - in some countries it is your responsibility to get the unit back to HP even if that is 3000km away (which it could be for some in this country, only one service centre) and you are responsible for the packing and insurance. Others here have given the impression HP has sent them a box to collect it in, and of course either way you might live close to the service centre so it might be no issue. Just pays to find out where it is and what the terms of service are.
“…Others here have given the impression HP has sent them a box to collect it…” That was no impression but based on facts. I assumed that if HP was doing this for me and others that the same policy applied to all. But you may have a point … in some cases/countries, that policy may not apply and the owner would find out soon enough when contacting HP support.
In Australia, the customer is responsible for the packing, shipping and insurance to return the unit to the (only) service centre, located in Sydney. If you live in Sydney you can drop it off. If you live on the north west cape, it’s probably 50$ in registered shipping and a fortnight wait …
I think the warranty probably varies in each country.
In Australia, the customer is responsible for the packing, shipping and insurance to return the unit to the (only) service centre, located in Sydney. If you live in Sydney you can drop it off. If you live on the north west cape, it’s probably 50 bucks in registered shipping and a fortnight wait …
I think the warranty probably varies in each country.
The content manager fix is being pushed out to servers later today, so should be tomorrow for real live. It will upgrade CM and provide re-install to customers that installed prior. That fixes the contacts issue.
SD card maps have apparently been released from the factory so it is up to the individual countries to make them available. Unsure when they will make it on the stores, but shouldn’t be much longer, is my guess.
The other bugs and issues are being checked out with a view to working on them.
That is what I was able to find out. Hope this helps.
Will my mobile phone work with HP iPAQ 314/310 ? It is: windows mobile 5 ( Orange spv m3100).
Sam,
I am not sure, as I dont have one.
The iPaq is based on Windows CE, not Windows Mobile, but that should make no difference for phone connectivity.
I’ve read the comments posted but see nothing with regards to the Bluetooth-enabled phone function. When use it, I hear so-so (not loud enough) but I’m told that folks can bearly hear me. Has anyone experienced a similar problem?
John: yes - works with my nokia fine, people hear ,e but I cant get the volume high enough. I’ve got an external GPS antenna so I can mount the unit near the rear view mirror closer to me ears
makes it better, but still not super loud …
Having used the unit for about 1 week now, I noticed that battery charging using the USB cable connected to my laptop takes forever. Nothing wrong with the cable as I can charge reasonably fast with the wall adapter or the car charger. Somehow, not enough power is coming from the USB port of my laptop. A bit strange as I can charge my windows mobile phone using the same cable and the USB port from my laptop.
Another observation is that I cannot group the songs based on artist, artist/album, etc.. Indeed the Group by… function isn’t working.
Apart from that everything is working pretty well. The TTS (Katie) is quite good.
@BChau: The GPS device draws a lot more power than your mobile phone … any way, there is nothing wrong with you 310 or the cable, that’s the way it is. It will charge via your laptop, but it’s very slow. As for your other points, when you download your MP3 to SD card or 310 Memory, it’s up to you to categorize them by artist, or album, by filing songs in separate folders as you see fit. Then, on the 310, using Media Directories, you can select which folders you want to include in your media session - which can be one album, or all albums from the one artists, or all albums … you have full control over what you can include in your session. That MultiMedia Directories functionality is the most user friendly interface, so it takes a little while to get used to it, but it works, and it works well. HTH! Cheers!
Uncle Ben, thanks for your replies. Really apprecriate your help in this community. It helps newbies like me a lot.
@BChau - Thanks! And you’re welcome, that’s what uncles are for! LOL
Is there anyone who owns an iPaq 310 that can answer this question?
Is there any sort of large MPH/Trip data display like the Garmin Nuvi has, other than the small one that is at the bottom right hand corner of the screen?
A larger digital speedometer would be nice to have, if I am just driving around not needing the GPS routing function.
Thanks!
Dr. Drew - Nope, not on the 310! But I agree, that would be a nice feature to have if the speedometer on your car is no longer functioning properly.
But honestly, I’d rather have some other, more useful data in that LARGE field. For example, the 310 will give you a big arrow in the left hand corner of your screen, indicative of the direction of your next turn. Now that, to me, is a very helpful feature to have, and one that you won’t find on the Garmin 7xx series. If you read Tim’s review here, he too liked it a lot, and for just cause! Hope this helps!
Uncle Ben: one feature that would really be nice is an update program that works. My content manager downloaded another update of itself Thursday night, and 42 hours later when all the other updates finally finished, with multiple copy failures - more problems that I wont go into here. I just cant imagine how anyone could consider the update speed to be even close to acceptable.
One of the failures though which might help someone - disk full. The culprit - c:\documents and settings\\Application Data\hp.com\Content Manager\Log\cm.log - a number of GB’s of logfile !!
above - after documents and settings, your xp username between the consecutive \\’s … (my post was the victim of a non-specific attempt by the comment auditing to remove alleged html markup
)
Dr Drew,
What you ask for is possible in the Enhanced Full Screen modification developed by Roeka over at the iPaq 310 customization thread at http://www.gpspassion.com.
I have done it myself and it works!
Robbo,
Apparently, HP will shortly release an improved Update tool, which will allow for updates WITHOUT the device having to be connected to the PC during the download process. I am not sure, but I think this will also include the much anticipated Device Recovery Pack, which should enable users to restore the ROM?registry files back to default settings in case of a mishap.
All this whould be within a week or 2 according to what I heard.
Customization thread is at :
http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=101001
@Robbo: “One of the failures though which might help someone - disk full. The culprit - c:\documents and settings\\Application Data\hp.com\Content Manager\Log\cm.log - a number of GB’s of logfile !!”
You know what, you may be on to something here and that might explain why my DL worked only after I uninstalled CM from my desktop, deleted the HP directory completely, DL a fresh copy of CM from ipaq.com, and proceeded from there.
Dr Drew - Many hacks and modifications have been found to work quite well, apparently … Just make sure to read the READ ME first post on the gpspassion link quoted above; and the terms of your warranty before you venture in.
I am anxious too to try out some of these modifications but I’m reluctant to do so until HP has a clear user-friendly path to recovery in the event that I inadvertently render my device inoperable.
Many users have either bricked their devices with these mods or developed problems down the road that nothing would cure, except returning the device to HP Support for repair.
Can you please explain this? Not sure I am getting what is being said.
“@Robbo: “One of the failures though which might help someone - disk full. The culprit - c:\documents and settings\\Application Data\hp.com\Content Manager\Log\cm.log - a number of GB’s of logfile !!”
You know what, you may be on to something here and that might explain why my DL worked only after I uninstalled CM from my desktop, deleted the HP directory completely, DL a fresh copy of CM from ipaq.com, and proceeded from there.”
Will the 310 be able to download maps for hiking. Off road type stuff that you would ordinarily use a heldheld for?
Not by any official means, Tony.
Tony,
Only if you install OziExplorer.
@infama: I was just pointing out that the directory I referenced had an enormous logfile therein - cm.log - tens of millions of lines of text, literally! somewhat more chatty than I would think was useful, and by grepping out two commonly repeated lines I can reduce this to a mere 3500 lines of relatively useful looking logfile - still indicating lots of errors though.
It will be interesting to see if there is any improvement in the software - its not HP software, I wonder whether there is some contractual thing limiting the distribution of the updates. One thing is for certain, if they cant fix the update speed, then the product is effectively dead in the water.
Hi Robbo,
I agree with what you are saying.
I did nt have that many lines in my log file, so maybe, that is why I had less problems.
I am located near France, where the servers are.
Yes, NavNgo is mucking up the process. It is their software…nearly identical to what is shippeed with iGo8, just look at the CM manual on their website!
HP should have a fix soon. i trying to get an update on exactly when.
Cheers
HP update news:
gpsreview.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5875
Hey, folks. If you have general pre-purchase type questions or want to post a review, feel free to do that here.
Otherwise if you want to discuss the latest updates, mods, etc I’d take Infama’s suggestion and move those conversations over to the HP forums here. Thanks!
I keep reading complaints about the speaker volume being to low. Do you know if HP has done anything to address this issue?
Tim,
If I understand it correctly, European map/maps are now available.
Is it one per country or region, or is all of Europe covered. I am primarily intersted in Scandinavia, and the sum of cost of 310 + European map v.s. cost of TT 920 will be crucial to purcasing decision.
Thanks,
Roar
@tim: “if you want to discuss the latest updates…”
The lack or otherwise of *any* updates that address the significant issues raised above is probably directly relevant to people in pre-purchase phase. Significantly, when (if) the situation changes and it is actually possible to reliably and repeatably update the unit (and in a timeframe even approaching ‘reasonable’), this will certainly be of interest to people in pre-purchase phase. Whether people will pick up the point in this page that they need to go to another page to find out whether these issues have been fixed is questionable, especially with so many entries.
@Steve: volume? no. Only solution I found was to buy an external antenna and mount the GPS much closer to me at the top of the windscreen, but I *suspect* volume control is hardware limited.
I agree. They can find out here that there are issues, and then go read about them in more detail and participate in the conversation over in the forums. There is simply too much information to just include everything on this one page.
Robbo,
The update problem has been solved with the recent bandwidth increase. The whole DL process is only averaging 2 hours for all the people who reported doing it….AND there is no longer any crashes in the process requiring a start over. Didnt you click on the link to the announcement I made above??
Updating is no longer a problem…unfortunately I didnt benefit as I did it the hard way. LoL
Hi all. I am thinking of buying the 314 model (I’m in the UK) as it is only £135 with cashback promotion. I want to use it when I am out on my motorbike and I get lost. I need something small to keep in my pocket that I can use headphones with or put in a tankbag, and this sounds like the perfect device. will it access the satellites while in a shirt pocket? Also what movie formats can be played on the device as I like the idea of watching movies on it.
Thanks
@Andrew: Yes, you will get satellite connection while in a shirt pocket. As for the movie format, some folks have had success with AVI … the only format that works for me is WMV.
Well I bought one and it is very nice (even plays avi files). However I can’t work out how to get it to warn me of speed cameras. I have enabled the safety camera setting but I have driven past a couple with no warning at all. My manual says that the camera POI’s are installed but I can’t find them in with all the other POI’s. Anyone know what to do?
@Andrew: Speed cameras are only available in Europe. If you go on ipaq.com/navigate, you’ll see that the only POI/Speed Cameras file available is for Europe - Speed Cam POIs are illegal in the U.S. and Canada.
Hi Ben. I am in Europe (UK to be exact)So do I have to download them seperately
Yes Andrew, you have to download them separately on the ipaq.com/navigate web site. Once you’re signed on, click on [Maps & Updates], and then on [POI & Speed Cams.]
Thanks Ben. Found the link to where I get the European speed cams. Had to get a code to use but they sent it to me no problem.
One final problem I have though. Do you know if it is possible to reinstall missing files from the OS. While I was trying to install TCPMP (which didn’t work btw) I accidentally deleted the file that handles video playback. The file is exevideoplayer.exe and lives in the OS directory. Anyway now I can’t play back any video files at all, even standard wmv files that I could before I screwed up. I just get the red line through the player screen. I don’t know what to do to fix this.
I’m told I can get the file back by letting Content Manager just reinstall it. The problem I have is that CM seems to think that there are no files to install ie my Ipaq is up to date. How do I force CM to reinstall the application? I really hope someone can help me out as I want to be able to get my video funtion back.
ANYWHERE MAP AVIATION NOW HAS THIS UNIT OUT WITH THEIR AVIATION SOFTWARE ALSO RUNNING IN IT. SO NOW YOU CAN GO FLYING TOO! ANYWHEREMAP.COM DOES THIS UNIT ALSO HAVE HAWAII IN IT AS PART OF THE NORTH AMERICA (USA) DATA.
Hi,
I bought the 310 last week, I like it so much, I tried to do the update and my system couldnt’ reboot back, i’m so lucky a friend of mine has the same device, so I copied back all the files from his to mine and it’s working now. My question is how can you set up text to speech street names? thanks.
Moe - Yes, it’s always a good idea to do a full backup prior any new firmware update. For text-to-speech, you have to select a TTS voice in Settings - Regional.
Sometime ago, someone asked whether this unit has a backtrack feature. Unfortunately, no one responded. I’ll ask again: so if I’m out on a nameless dirt road, meandering around and I get lost, can I easily find my way back?
It was not answered probably because questions such as this one are better dealt with from within the forums; reserving this space for folks who want to comment on the review and add their