Me too. That's really sad. I've been looking for something like this for my wife. Her Sony Clie PDA is on its last leg and we need to replace it with a decent PDA. When I researched I found out that cell phones have taken on the job of PDAs. We are no big fans of cell phones. We use Tracfone for emergency. After looking around we've found out that Palm will not be upgrading their OS any more. They have basically thrown in the towel and joined the stamped to PocketPC. We experimented with PocketPC (NEC) years ago and were not impressed. I do not want to spend too much money on HP PDA to try PocketPC again. Based on that experience I decided to go with Palm TX for my wife for Christmas knowing fully well that we are at dead end with Palm OS. At least it is a fairly stable system. Then came this. At $30 for the PDA version I decided to give PocketPC a try again. It will be a good way to see how much has changed.

FW10001 said:FYI, the PDA's parent company is closing its doors
What a pity, I'd have expected them to be bought out by one of the larger players.

fmdeals said:But this is a very old Pocket PC PDA. A lot has been changed in PocketPC lately!

Please stop making sorry I bought this LOL

Since nobody knows what gps chip the cf gps uses, I'd say it's a better choice to get a SiRF StarIII cf gps, cheapest around $60. So $30+60<109

I ordered one with $59.

What I care about is: when I receive the package, can I use the map without paying money?

I called the company, was told a software disk will be provided, and if I use a 1G SD card, I can use nation-wide map instead of region maps. For getting nation-wide map, do we need to pay for it?

kimgkimg said:If you're seriously looking for a PPC, you should look for something that's running Windows Mobile 6 or later. This version of the OS had flash backup built into it so you don't lose all your installed apps if the batteries go dead in the unit. Biggest drawback of running WinCE 2003 and earlier releases IMHO.

You are right. But for that model I think biggest drawback is missed WIFI/Bluetooth. So I don't count it as PPC - it's more organizer, media player, eBook reader. And for $30 it's a steal. Not sure about $110 GPS version - I think it will be better to spend a little bit more and buy regular auto GPS + $30 PPC separately.

BTW, there are few applications which you can buy for $10-20 which allows you to backup full device snapshot (Sprite backup, spb backup, etc). In such case, you will be able to restore your device in minutes.

dwkor said:
You are right. But for that model I think biggest drawback is missed WIFI/Bluetooth. So I don't count it as PPC - it's more organizer, media player, eBook reader. And for $30 it's a steal. Not sure about $110 GPS version - I think it will be better to spend a little bit more and buy regular auto GPS + $30 PPC separately.

BTW, there are few applications which you can buy for $10-20 which allows you to backup full device snapshot (Sprite backup, spb backup, etc). In such case, you will be able to restore your device in minutes.

Thanks for the backup tip, that's good to know. Yeah, but you can add WIFI by using a CF WIFI card (I have a bunch of Sandisk 802.11B CF WIFI cards.)

blackberry 8310 pretty much smokes all if you can get work to pay for it its the best.

does everyting.

Anyone know what the map activation option is on the model without the GPS?

LucidSpectre said:As far as I can tell, the SD card slot will work with memory cards only and not SDIO cards. So you need to use the CF slot if you want bluetooth/wifi/gps.

What do you think, folks?

Holy Crapola!

Nice Review... picking up more of the PDA only for gifts!

osuuma said:I bought this GPS the last time it was $107. In comparison to the recent Navigon 2100T and Mio 220 deals, there is no comparison. An all-in-one unit like those will blow this away. The WayPoint is older technology, clunky, almost slipshod in its construction.

HOWEVER, if you wanted to hack a GPS to run whatever software, this is the unit to buy. It is a Windows CE 2003 PDA first and foremost. It has the WayPoint GPS software in rom. There is 32MB of free EROM/RAM to play with. There is another 128MB of EROM that holds the maps. This PDA is made by FIC, a Taiwan company. The construction of the PDA is "okay". It could be better, but it isn't too bad. I say this because the bezel at the CF slot kept on popping off. The last time I pressed it down harder, and now it is behaving. The PDA is like any inexpensive HP/compaq PDA, no bluetooth, no wifi, but a backlit color screen. There is a CF slot and SD slot. However, the SD slot does NOT appear to be SDIO. I say this because I attempted to use a SD GPS in that slot, hoping for a smaller external package. I could not get the GlobalSat SD receiver to work, even though I used the latest drivers.

I tried to use the CF GPS included with my package on my laptop, with a CF adapter. Seems either there wasn't a good driver available from GlobalSat (yes the cf gps included with the waypoint package is a globalsat) or it didn't like vista. Who does?

The GPS software is very outdated, but pretty cool, as it auto zooms at turns. The text-to-speech file, available from WayPoint, works, but the voice is bad, (think Speak-and-Spell) and changes according to what is said. The word "recalculating" is female, "Left", "Right", etc is one male voice and the street names is another voice. Last night, the voice said "Turn onto unamed street" several times, which was odd because the software displayed the street name. So I guess there is a disconnect between the GPS software and the TTS.

Activation requires connecting the GPS to a computer, which uses the internet to exchange activation information with the WayPoint servers. The process was amazingly painless. Unfortunately, the limited size of the internal memory allowed me to load only a California map. I did not try with a SD card in the SD slot.

The car mount is a heavy, elaborate contraption. The design could have been better. I can't remember if the mount had an audio amplifier. Its at the office right now.

For $107, it is debatable as if to purchase this. For $34 for just a hackable PDA,its a no-brainer. I am picking up a couple for gifts

Between the WayPoint 100/105 PDA and the WayPoint 200 PDA, the only difference is the color. As GPSes, the 100/105 has the CF receiver, the 200 has a bluetooth CF adapter, and a bluetooth GPS receiver.

You are welcome.