Bought a Pocket PC (1 Viewer)

[Chris Oates]

Courtesy of Wildsounds I bought a HP IPaq rx5935 including Collins Eguide.
The guide is excellent as expected but what surprised me was how useful the PDA is....
Sound recorder.
Stores all my Bus/Train timetables.
Stores all my notes/bird pics/maps/bird lists/tons of other stuff
When in range of WiFi I get weather forecasts/bird reports/google maps/anything else you want.
I'm in rural Cornwall but am amazed at WiFi coverage....all Pubs have it as do Texaco services, Libraries, Mcdonalds, Little Chef, various 'Phone' warehouses, Guests houses, tiny Bakery chains...it's everywhere and often at much longer range than you'd expect - that's just the free (or unlocked) ones.
It has TomTom navigator which is great in a car but no use for walking (I use a Garmin GPSmap 60Csx for that.
The built in GPS does however work with Google maps & Google Navigator when in WiFi range.
Note taking was originally done using the virtual QWERTY keyboard until I discovered it has Transcriber handwriting recognizer which is really excellent.
Also plays (very well) my MP3's and videos, Golf game & Scrabble...another gadget I should have bought ages ago but didn't....was carrying bird books/maps/notebooks...frustrated at no live updates...
Marvelous gadget.

 

[Alan G]

My mobile phone contract's due up next month and I've been looking at something similar offered by O2 - their XDA range which double up as PDAs.

Like a lot of blokes, I guess, I'm a sucker for a good gadget.

 

[John Fleet]

More money - but you can always add Memory Map mapping and get real OS 1:25,000 or 1:50,000 to navigate on foot - it's really cool to see your track unfolding on real map when you're out walking and I guess your PDA will also have fairly reasonable camera built in?

For not much outlay (£39) the RSPB software can be added. Although the Wildsounds site doesn't mention this the software includes full database facilities allowing field sighting to be entered on the PDA and then uploaded to the PC version. I find it a little user-unfriendly, but then I'm a Mac user so often find this with PC software, but it's a lot of program for not much money...

 

[Chris Oates]

No camera in the Ipaq but I do have Topo maps in my Garmin for walking.
Thanks for pointing out the RSPB software.
I've now got a metal case, spare battery & self healing screen protector.
I subscribe to Google Earth so I can copy sattellite views from it to the PDA, I also have a ton of 'Old Maps' from the days before it became a premium service.
Also bought the British Wildlife Eguide which is nice as it contains real photographs.
A feature I hadn't been expecting was the drag around screen - the PDA's screen is (generally) a viewport on a larger image, in most applications this can be turned off to make reading documents easier, also look for websites that offer 'mobile' content.
The most useful software I've added so far has been....
PIEplus for Internet explorer
Adobe reader mobile V2
Google mobile Maps

Timetables are easy if like Rail they are in PDF format, for Web based like buses I view the page, select 'file, save as, save as type, webpage HTML only', that gives you a file you can copy to the PDA, open it with 'file explorer' that will make Internet explorer open it, add it to your favourites - in future Internet explorer will open the site from the saved file rather than try to connect online to do it.

 

[Geoff Brown]

I like waiting until there is a good crowd in the hide and then surrepticiously switch on an unfamiliar bird sound on mine!

 

[Chris Oates]

Found something else useful, the Ipaq has TomTom navigator which is no use for walking, you can run Google maps but need an Internet connection (not many hotspots in the hills).
I use Fugawi digital maps for route planning on my Garmin Gpsr, while browsing the help file I noticed 'PocketPC' - you download an App from Fugawi to the Ipaq, cut any bit of map you want and download that to the Ipaq too - then the Ipaq's built in Gpsr is available to Fugawi and it centres your map to where you are automagically.
Quite handy as I get coverage of South Wales & Southern England for £50 with none of this nonsense about 'unlocking'.

 

[John Fleet]

Chris
That's interesting - does the built in GPS actually show your position and track on the map? (which is what Memory Map does). I would guess that you can probably use an external SD card to store a significant amount of mapping - that's what I do with mine - if I'm travelling to another part of the country, it's simply a case of downloading the relevant 1:25,000 maps to the card and away you go. The big problem with Memory Map - which they blame on the Ordnance Survey - is that every time they bring out a new version of their software it requires you to replace all your maps which is a blatant rip off in my view...

 

[thenorthernmonkey]

I like waiting until there is a good crowd in the hide and then surrepticiously switch on an unfamiliar bird sound on mine!

cruel but funny...

 

[Chris Oates]

Chris
That's interesting - does the built in GPS actually show your position and track on the map? (which is what Memory Map does). I would guess that you can probably use an external SD card to store a significant amount of mapping - that's what I do with mine - if I'm travelling to another part of the country, it's simply a case of downloading the relevant 1:25,000 maps to the card and away you go. The big problem with Memory Map - which they blame on the Ordnance Survey - is that every time they bring out a new version of their software it requires you to replace all your maps which is a blatant rip off in my view...

Yes it centres on where you are and offers tracks routes & waypoints like a true Gpsr, I store my maps on an 2Gig SD card.
I've loaded mine as small areas as I'm unlikely to walk more than 10 miles in a day (it's faster that way) but you can upload half of England if you want to.
Fugawi offer free updates and don't do the silly unlocking procedure BUT the maps are 1:50,000 which is OK for what I do - if I'm off somewhere scary I'd take my Garmin but just to know where I am and have footpath info the Fugawi system is good value on a Gps enabled Pocket PC.
The Garmin has various advantages, one is vector maps, Fugawi pixellates as you zoom in, Garmin has an electronic compass that doesn't require that you walk towards the edge of a cliff to get a fix, it'll point you in the correct direction while standing still.
However for a modest outlay I've got live Gps for walking as I always carry the Ipaq to listen to music and play scrabble when I'm not using the Collins Eguide.

 

[Chris Oates]

Well....after a few weeks...Collins (bird) Eguide is great...Collins Wildlife Eguide is very useful for a dumb amateur - it's full of insects/plants/trees/fish/sort of general stuff that makes a day interesting.
Fugawi digital maps is brilliant...I just cut out a section of map of where I'm going and send it to the PDA..the built in GPS works out where I am on the map and off I go.
I also download overhead pictures from Google Earth and any other research docs I might need - it's like having a Library in your pocket.

So...I bought the RSPB birding software which is good value at £43 delivered..it's got bird logging, and a huge amount of features.

As soon as you select bird you get all it's calls to listen to, the list is very good seeming to favour warblers over American vagrants, on the right are distibution maps and extensive bird info.
Similar species cross referencing is nicely done...you get a whole page of similar birds with maps sounds & pics.
You can compare birds, identify from location/appearance....add birds...find birdwatching sites....very comprehensive bit of kit.

Downside is it's listed as not being very compatible with other software or difficult/imposible to install...what happens is....

It installs to the PC just fine but the PDA install fails for two reasons....
It installs like a CD would - it puts an 'autorun' folder on your SD card..or at least it tries to...if you have installed anything like Collins Eguide you'll already have an autorun folder and this stops the install.

Connect your PDA - let active sync connect - select 'explore' & navigate to your storage card (storage card or storage card2) - find the folder called '2577' and rename it to '2577org' - then the install will complete.
You will be asked to install a media player add-on...you will be prompted to select where to install it...just accept the default as anything else will stop the RSPB software from working.

The install will then say 'activated' but that's not true - when you run the program you have to go and get an unlock code but that's all in the manual.

The manual is a bit severe about this install being a 'single once-off instillation'....it's not...I installed & it didn't work....I did all sorts of weird things to make it work...found out how to do it and started again from scratch and the program worked fine without having to re-register or unlock.

My problem came from wanting to install on my large SD card - the software says it will only install on a blank card (that's because of the 2577 folder).


Software like this is very irritating...it's only intended to run from a blank card which is a bit unfriendly...why should I have to swap cards to get Collins when my fingers are frozen.
Well you don't have to...


Vey impressive software once you get it to work.