Stellus iGolf Palm Treo GPS Solutions
Stellus has announced the new StarNet SD GPS receiver which is compatible with the Palm TX, Treo 650, and LifeDrive PDAs. The GPS device plugs into the SD slot on the PDA to provide GPS navigation capability.
“There is a very large user-base for the TX, Treo650 and LifeDrive handhelds worldwide and these users have been requesting drivers to enable Stellus’ StarNet GPS receiver on their handhelds,” said Craig Conkling, CEO of Stellus Systems. “In addition, no longer is Bluetooth GPS needed to interface to your Palm handheld, just download the drivers and plug in our solution and go!” he added.
My own take on this unit is that it will have very limited appeal. The cost is $150, very similar to other Bluetooth based GPS devices. Since this GPS uses the SD slot instead of a Bluetooth connection the SD slot is no longer available for storing maps. Palm users will be severely limited in the amount of maps that can be stored in the internal memory of their PDA. In addition, a Bluetooth GPS will likely work on subsequent bluetooth devices the PDA owner will own, as well as work with other devices such as laptops they probably already own.
With that said, this device is designed with golfing in mind to provide distance to tee information for club selection. It will also work to provide driving directions with optional mapopolis software. Still, with the $150 for the GPS plus $100 for the mapopolis software you would do better to purchase the TomTom Navigator software or the Garmin GPS10 package.
