Magellan GPS Companion for Palm V/Vx Review

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(More customer reviews)I got the Magellan GPSCompanion from my wife for Christmas. Wow! It fits so easily over my Palm V, the software loads easily, what a great idea! I travel a lot on business, and looked forward to using it to navigate in a way similar to the GPS Units in rental cars. Match made in heaven, right?
Well almost. Two software packages come with the unit; NavCompanion and MapCompanion. One allows plotting, waypoints etc. like a first generation GPS unit. The second has maps, but the two don't speak. Kind of a cruel joke... Also, the documentation for both programs is practically non-existent, so you learn by doing.
MapCompanion doesn't provide directions, only markers for where you are and where you need to go. Combine this with a small monochrome display on the Palm, and things get unworkable pretty quickly. Also, the software calculates distances to destination in a straight line; great if you're orienteering straight over mountains and can walk across lakes, slightly less useful for those of us who travel by car.
I also tried the unit in on a flight to see if I could track our speed, direction, and position, but couldn't get a signal fix from my window seat, even at 30,000 feet. OK, no big deal on this one, but wouldn't it be fun?
Travelling several hundred miles results in the unit taking several minutes to acquire a fix, and actually it isn't that much faster even at home. In terms of accuracy, standing in one spot and setting the waypoint function several times over the course of about 30 minutes gave readings up to 200 feet different; pretty neat but well outside the 13 or so feet advertised.
However, when all is said and done, I'm sure that better software will come, or may already be available in the aftermarket. This will greatly improve the unit's practical utility, but it sure is a neat toy, even if only to tell you within a couple of hundred feet how far you are from your desk from your gate at the airport in Chicago!

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MAGELLAN COMPANION FOR V/VX ADD ON GPS FOR PALM V/VX

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