$130: 5" Touchscreen GPS Nav with ebook (TXT) support

[Sonist]

Just came across this:

5 Inch Touchscreen Galaxy's Thinnest GPS Portable Navigator - GPS-C3250

5" LCD, touchscreen, GPS, FM, thin, and ebook support (only TXT, but for 5" it would be fine.) Plus, it's Win CE 5, so other stuff can presumably run on it.

The battery life is 3 hrs, but that's with the GPS running. It should be longer if the GPS is off.

I didn't notice resolution numbers, maybe they don't show them for a reason.

Anyway, I thought it may interest some because of the TXT ability, and the price is close to that magic $100 number.

[Sweetpea]

With WinCE you can install Mobipocket and ubook. So, a lot more formats would be available.

[HarryT]

My Garmin GPS support the display of text files, too, but I certainly wouldn't use it as an eBook reader . I think this is actually a very common capability. Calling it "eBook support" is a little misleading, I think.

[Andybaby]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

With WinCE you can install Mobipocket and ubook. So, a lot more formats would be available.

if this is so Harryt. I wouldn't call it misleading at all.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

With WinCE you can install Mobipocket and ubook. So, a lot more formats would be available.

The fact that it runs Windows CE does not necessarily mean that it provides the capability of running user-installed applications. Do you know if this device does?

[Sonist]

Originally Posted by HarryT

My Garmin GPS support the display of text files, too, but I certainly wouldn't use it as an eBook reader

I am curious, why not?

Many here clamor for a 5" device, and many appear happy with reflowable text (which often might as well be plain TXT.)

The reason I posted this here, is that it specifically mentions e-books. Also, the following makes me think that it would accept software packages (including Mobipocket?):

"this model is compatible with most brands of GPS software - however hardware specific software such as Garmin may not run on this unit."

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Sonist

I am curious, why not?

Because it displays HUGE text (so you can read it from the driver's seat, presumably) and you only get about 6 lines on the screen. Also, the battery only lasts for about 3 hours - it's really meant to be used permanently connected to the car's power socket.

It's really meant (on the Garmin devices, anyway) to be used for displaying supplemental information about "places of interest" on the map (eg opening times of attractions, telephone numbers, etc), rather than for reading long text files with. It could be done but, believe me, you really wouldn't want to do it .

I'll take a picture of it when I get a chance, so you can see what it looks like.

If this particular device is just a generic Pocket PC, however, then you are of course absolutely right in saying that it should run Mobipocket, Microsoft Reader, or any other book reading application that you wish. But in that case you might just as well buy a Pocket PC and install a GPS application on it .

[Andybaby]

Originally Posted by HarryT

If this particular device is just a generic Pocket PC, however, then you are of course absolutely right in saying that it should run Mobipocket, Microsoft Reader, or any other book reading application that you wish. But in that case you might just as well buy a Pocket PC and install a GPS application on it .

because I imagine today 95% of people know what a gps is

while only 10% know what a PPC is. and only really 1 in 5 of those know that they can even come with GPS.

When I got my phone (ATT Tilt), the answer was. your phone has GPS?
You can install Aplications on your phone? (this was before iphone)

so advertising it as a GPS device makes a whole lot more sense I think.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The fact that it runs Windows CE does not necessarily mean that it provides the capability of running user-installed applications. Do you know if this device does?

Actually this device is basically hardware and OS only. It requires the installation of user-installed applications even for GPS support.

Dale

[Sonist]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

Actually this device is basically hardware and OS only. It requires the installation of user-installed applications even for GPS support.
...

Dale, I believe it has some sort of GPS software installed. But (presumably because the installed software sucks :-), they tell us that we can install any other non-hardware dependent GPS application. I think at the end it's just a really badly worded disclaimer, telling us they provide no software support.

Which also means, that mobipocket may be installed. At least this is how I read it.

To address Harry's text size point, I noted above that they do not state the display's resolution (maybe for exactly this reason.)

On the other hand, 5" LCD displays are fairly common, and cheap, so maybe they are at least 480x272, if not 640x480, which would be sufficient improvement over the 24x320, which many Garmin devices employ.

Again, I thought it's so cheap, that someone might be interested (they should ask about the resolution first.) It's also thinner than most, thus more like an e-book.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Sonist

Dale, I believe it has some sort of GPS software installed. But (presumably because the installed software sucks :-), they tell us that we can install any other non-hardware dependent GPS application. I think at the end it's just a really badly worded disclaimer, telling us they provide no software support.

Which also means, that mobipocket may be installed. At least this is how I read it.

To address Harry's text size point, I noted above that they do not state the display's resolution (maybe for exactly this reason.)

On the other hand, 5" LCD displays are fairly common, and cheap, so maybe they are at least 480x272, if not 640x480, which would be sufficient improvement over the 24x320, which many Garmin devices employ.

Again, I thought it's so cheap, that someone might be interested (they should ask about the resolution first.) It's also thinner than most, thus more like an e-book.

It does not say that any GPS software is installed. It does have built-in GPS hardware and may have a test program, non-mapping built-in but I would expect you to have to add mapping programs if you want them.

To quote the web site: As the wholesaler, GadgetGreats provides the GPS- enabled hardware only, not the software.

The is WinCE not PPC so not all PPC applications will work but you must be able to install whatever you can find.

Dale