trial run
For a gadget geek, packing to go on holiday can be traumatic: notebook, digital camera, GPS navigation device, GPRS phone with Bluetooth, MP3 player, five A/C adaptor-chargers, plug adaptors ... 'How are my clothes going to fit into this suitcase?'
Integration is the key. Hewlett-Packard has developed what may be the ultimate all-in-one device: the iPaq hw6515 Mobile Messenger, the first PDA phone to incorporate GPS navigation. The device melds a quad-band GSM mobile phone, a digital camera, a Windows Mobile-based PDA and a GPRS receiver into one 165gm unit that will easily tuck into a shirt pocket. Best of all there's only one battery charger to pack. The hw6515 looks like a standard PDA, having a colour screen and a small qwerty keypad at the bottom. This iPaq runs the Windows Mobile 2003 operating system (OS), which gives you access to a huge range of software but unfortunately trims a bit of the product's geek chic because it is not the latest, most efficient version of the OS.
The hw6515 sports two memory expansion slots, one SD and one Mini-SD. That may seem like overkill, but there is more to memory slots than mere memory these days. Put in a wireless network card, for example, to add a faster and cheaper way of connecting to the internet, and you still have one slot left for a memory card, giving you more storage for files, digital photos or music.
But the main attraction of this new iPaq is the GPS receiver, which uses an array of satellites, and in some cases ground stations, to pinpoint your location almost anywhere on the planet. I say almost anywhere because small units such as the hw6515 often have trouble receiving a signal if they are indoors, in tunnels or surrounded by tall buildings. Those niggles aside, combine this technology with a good electronic map and you have every traveller's best friend. It will show you where
you are and how to get where you want to go - and you will never have to fold a map again.
The iPaq hw6515 Mobile Messenger costs about $6,000 and is available from Fortress and Broadway.
