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Having experienced the utility of GPS navigation in a hire car in Austria some months back, I resolved to look into low cost but full-featured and transferable solutions. I placed a pre-order for the Navman 4470 in October 2004 and, after a series of slipped shipping dates, finally took delivery just 5 months later. My comments are based on initial use of this Bluetooth-savvy product with a Palm T3...

Note: Navman no longer sell GPS solutions for Palm; there will be no new maps or software versions. See Updates below.

Navman vs. TomTom

I chose a PDA solution, rather than a dedicated in-car system, as I already had a PDA and prefer the higher resolution offered by Palm over the Pocket PC competition. Besides, with crime being what it is, I had no intention of leaving any equipment in the car so it had to be portable. For use with my Palm T3 the choice came down to two wireless products: the Navman GPS 4470 Bluetooth Receiver with SmartST Navigation Software for Palm OS5, or the TomTom Navigator Bluetooth for Palm. Both products have a comparable feature set, but I decided on the Navman:

• The Navman GPS receiver operates with user-replaceable and readily available (optionally, rechargeable) AAA batteries. Notice how Li-ion batteries in your Palm/ phone/ iPod/ digicam have a habit of holding less and less juice? This is the type of battery used by the TomTom unit.
• The Navman receiver has a superior operating time on battery (claimed 30 hours).
• The Navman is cheaper; the RRP (UK and Ireland plus major roads of Western Europe) for Navman is 250 euros vs. 450 euros for TomTom.
• Navman is a New Zealand-based company. New Zealand is nice.
• Navman now have maps for New Zealand (TomTom don't).
• I already had a spare 256 MB SD card and didn't want to pay extra for a 128 MB card (as shipped by TomTom with maps pre-installed) that is too small anyway.
• I read somewhere that Navman may be superior for voice guidance, my primary intended means of interaction.

What's in the box?

First, I should explain that my unit was supplied by Navman without a retail box; the charger and PDA holder were missing and had to be posted separately (Navman were going to send a Palm charger by way of apology, but it never came). I was also sold the full pan-European maps (in a retail box with SmartST v3) rather than the UK and Ireland street level maps. For my £182 (incld. VAT and delivery) I received:

• CD containing SmartST v3 application (Windows only, version Palm_i3_1_2_20) and PDF User Guide (for SmartST and Bluetooth GPS Receiver)
• CDs x 3 containing pan-European maps
• CD containing drivers for USB 2.0 card reader (not required for Mac OS X or Windows XP)
• USB 2.0 card reader
• USB cable
• Navman 4400 Bluetooth GPS Receiver
• AAA batteries x 3
• Lanyard
• Arm band (at least that's what I think it is)
• Printed Quick Start Guide for SmartST
• Suction mount for Navman 4400 Bluetooth GPS Receiver
• Alcohol swabs x 2 (surface preparation for the mount)
• 12 volt in-car charger
• Universal PDA holder for your Palm

What's not in the (pretend) box?

• No printed User Gude
• No means to charge the Palm in-car

First impressions

The software was well packaged and presented (that was in a retail box), and the GPS unit itself seems well constructed—if a little larger than I expected. The supplied unbranded USB 2.0 multi-card reader was obviously constructed with less care, as the two plastic halves of the casing were mismatched. It was nice to see a printed Quick Start Guide.

Application and map installation

Installation and activation can only be done on a PC which is unfortunate. Installing the application and maps proved to be one of the flakiest I've ever done, and the most time-consuming. The installer said I wasn't connected to the Internet a number of times even though I have always-on ADSL. It seemed to me I had to activate the application twice. The map product activation key was printed in a typeface that didn't distinguish the number 1 from a capital letter "I". When I tried to read the User Guide from the Help menu in SmartST Desktop, Adobe Acrobat Reader Setup v5 ran, even though v7 was already installed. The PDF Quick Start Quide (again accessed via the Help menu) appears to relate to the previous 1.3 version of the software; the paper-based manual for the current version is not included in PDF form.

SmartST Desktop v3.0 for Palm is used to load maps onto the SD card and to load and manage POI (points of interest) via the included POI Editor:

I can't say why, but I repeatedly encounter the following progress dialogs when launching the application (under Windows XP + SP2):

Pairing the Navman 4400 GPS unit with a Palm T3

No passkey was required for pairing with the Palm (although if your want to make it a Trusted Device in Bluetooth Preferences, the passkey to enter, in capitals, is NAVMAN). Being a Mac user I was fully expecting to enter a passkey, as had been required when I paired my Palm and mobile phone. Getting the Palm and the 4400 to talk to each other was as simple as ticking the box "GPS On" in GPS Status menu (with Bluetooth active on both devices); that couldn't have been easier.

In use: features of note

You can read the sales pitch for a blow-by-blow list of features, like automatic re-routing, variable-zoom/ angle 3D map views, etc. The following functions I feel have particular merit:

Speed warning

Because the GPS unit is getting a fix on your position every second, if you position changes it can readily determine the distance you covered in-between fixes. You can set the software to chime when you exceed a pre-defined speed (5 to 150 kph or mph in 5 kph/ mph intervals):

Integration with Palm Contacts

There are multiple ways to choose a destination; the main screen gives the option of Quick Nav ("favourite favourites") or Destination, which in turn offers self-explanatory choices:

At the bottom is Contacts, which integrates with your Palm address book. As you work through the drop-down menus, SmartST tries to map the address in your Contacts database to its own knowledge of roads and house numbers:

Trip Planner

Sounds ideal feature; in my day job as a GP I may have to undertake several home visits on a given day. The Trip Planner will calculate a route between multiple destinations—but only in the user-specified destination order. What would turn this from a good feature into a great one would be the calculation of the shortest possible route between an origin and final destination, passing through all interim destinations. Of course you could alternatively prioritize according to clinical need ;-)

Avoid areas

Great if you want to bypass the motorway, or know that the suggested route has road works. Simply tap the map and in the pop-up menu select Add Avoid Area; resize as desired; tap the tick icon to set (the hashed area in the screenshot is set; white boxes resize a unset area):

Route demonstrator

This facility lets you preview a route without having to have an active GPS connection. The turn-by-turn voice guidance is given as a torrent of (often repeated) instructions that help familiarise you with the route, including nearby points of interest:

Happy to go on foot

Now this sounds ideal for people like me who get easily disorientated walking around city centres! To my surprise it maintained a fix even in the hand pocket of my windbreaker, as I walked into town and back. When my position on the map was shown as No. 3 Marsden Street, I was walking past No. 3 Marsden Street—impressive. However, I deliberately walked against the flow of traffic down a one-way street, and the unit reported "General Error: IT04. Please contact product support if this problem persists."

Hearing voices

Voice guidance is pretty clear, even more so with the sound routed through my car's radio system. There is a choice of two voices for English users, female:

Download audio clip here. (Need QuickTime?)

... and male:

Download audio clip here. (Need QuickTime?)

Instructions were delivered with sufficient warning, although at one local roundabout "Take the third exit" was repeated often enough to be come irritating.

Custom points of interest (POIs)

Instructions for downloading and installing the PocketGPS World safety camera database are here (NB: use Notepad rather than Excel to edit the .CSV file, or you'll see a "No POI's found in input file" error when you try and import to the SD card). Such custom POIs can be associated with a proximity alarm (visual and/or audio). For example, I used Rhetorical TTS to replace the default "Active POI" WAV tone with "Camera ahead!":

What if you find something interesting and want to make this a POI? There doesn't seem to be an easy way to obtain the latitude and longitude information you'll need to enter into the POI Editor. However, if you tap and hold anywhere on the map, at the top of the pop-up menu is the name of the road or POI you have selected; selecting the name will display information such as post code, telephone number, and position. Using this knowledge we can thus click anywhere on the map and Add to favourites... Once in our Favourites list we can give the POI a memorable name so we can find it again on the map. Back on the map, using the pop-up menu on our new POI we can now view the position data. Unfortunately there seems to be no way to copy-and-paste these data elsewhere (into a Palm Memo, for example), so you'll have to transcribe them by hand.

Niggles

• The blue pulsing light is a little annoying when driving at night; it is quite bright and distracting when the GPS unit is in a prominent position on the dash.
• You can't charge the Palm at the same time as the 4400 unit using the supplied car charger (buy a cigarette lighter adapter doubler?).
• You can't use a full UK postcode as a destination (only the first 5 characters); when I type in my partial postcode SmartST says "Unable to find location. Please be more specific". This seems contradictory, but I guess the partial postcode does narrow down the list of roads you can choose from.
• Only some house numbers, or a range, are "valid" destinations. My house, which has been here since 1895, is obviously too modern.
• The on-screen only PDF manual was clearly not designed for on-screen viewing. Unless you enlarge the view to a point where you have to use horizontal scrolling, the graphics corresponding to SmartST screen icons are just too small to make out.
• Having the manual for the Bluetooth GPS Receiver at the back of the manual for the SmartST software doesn't make a lot of sense. It was only by chance that I discovered it all all.
• The manual makes no reference to enabling or disabling the "GPS Logging" option in the GPS Setup preference pane. Nor is there anything on Navman's (generally poor) Support pages. Anyone know what this does?
• I have experienced a few lock-ups, typically when turning on BlueTooth and attempting to activate the serial connection to the 4400. In my experience Palm OS 5.2.1 is pretty unstable using a range of applications (including the pre-installed apps). It's possible that this behaviour relates more to palmOne's bad code than Navmans.

Conclusion

Spending my own money I'm content with the 4470 as it delivers bang-for-buck, although it is certainly not perfect. If you prefer a low cost (we're talking relative here) "plug and go" option or you are likely to need support, consider TomTom's Palm offering by all means. If Mac compatibility is vital look into the TomTom GO with TamTam.

Update: V3 SmartST SP1 (Mar 9 2005) includes support for the Tungsten T5 and Treo 650.

Update June 2005: Very disappointing performance using the unit in Sicily; frequent crashes, frequent inappropriate initiation of "Back-on-track" (even on straight motorway), inability to fix location on tight bends.

Update 15.09.05: Navman is ceasing development of their Palm products in order to concentrate on the Pocket PC market, according to a contact in Australia. This would appear to be substantiated by a special offer on the Palm Australia website for a Tungsten E2 + 4470 "Get Away Pack", which in relation to the 4470 states "This product contains 2004 maps for Australia or New Zealand. Upgrades to the 2004 maps will not be available". Navman have been asked for comment (which will be published here in due course).

Update 16.09.05: It's confirmed: If you need a mainstream GPS product and have a Mac and/or a Palm, look at TomTom (for now, and maybe move to a country for which they have maps...), or consider moving to a Windows Mobile device. Ryan Hook from the Technical Support Team at Navman Europe Ltd. confirms:

Yes I can confirm that Navman will cease development of Palm products, I know the Palm market is struggling due to sales and many manufactures are pulling out.

Sad news indeed.

Update 14.11.05: I now use TomTom; here is why.

Update 03.01.06: Don't switch to TomTom so you can use your Go with a Mac via TamTam; TomTom had a TanTrum so TamTam said ByeBye.