GPS Navigator for Palm and PocketPC
By William | Reporter
Date: 12/07/2006

Pharos iGPS-180 is an ultra-small, 12 channel GPS antenna that clips to the bottom of your Pocket PC and Palm, turning it into a sophisticated navigation device. With the added Map Navigator software, you can travel freely all over the roads, without fear of being lost.  Keep in mind that the iGPS-180 is designed for in-vehicle use and requires your car's cigarette lighter for power. While that limits its use somewhat, I don't think that you'd want to take the extra pieces, cable, and, of course, you're beloved PDA out on some wild excursion. Would you? That's what those handheld, waterproof GPS units are for. Where the Pharos comes in really handy is all those times that you have to take a trip, and you're relying on some poor directions from a friend, or the Internet. I personally have gotten burned one too many times banking on the accuracy of directions taken from the Internet. So, I was anxious and excited to put the Pharos to the test. I looked for every excuse to travel to new places with my Cassiopeia and Pharos at my side. Setup was simple - simply download the map you need and install as you would any application, and Pharos is up and ready to go. Now, let's plan a route, shall we? The first thing that I did was to choose my destination. The software walks you through every step, prompting for city, street, number, etc. When finished, your destination is displayed on the screen. Then, I followed basically the same steps to enter my starting point. I choose "Plan Route", and in seconds, I have my route plotted and ready to go. All of those steps can be done just about anywhere. As long as you have the map of the area you're traveling to installed, you can plot your trip inside, outside, anywhere. You don't even need to be connected to the GPS receiver itself. Once in the car, with the receiver stuck on my windshield and the adapter in my cigarette lighter, I was surprised at how quickly the Pharos triangulated my position. In order to determine where you are, a GPS receiver looks to the sky for satellites. A GPS receiver locks onto as many as twelve satellites at once, but can find your position with as few as three. My older handheld GPS takes a few minutes for this process. In comparison, the Pharos consistently locked onto my position in less than 30 seconds. Now, let's take a drive. Again, the Pharos left me in awe. As I approached the first turn, a voice warned - "Approaching Right Turn". I looked at the map on my Cassiopeia's screen, and exactly as I reached the stop sign, the Pharos gave me an alarm and the arrow on the screen turned the corner. I was amazed. Those of you who've used a handheld GPS unit know that it's not quite the same accuracy that the military have. As a matter of fact, if you're within up to 300 yards, you can consider your machine accurate. That's mostly because the government has put limitations on how accurate a publicly available GPS unit can be. I guess they don't want some bozo attaching a GPS to a rocket with some explosives attached and sent, a la the Unabomber, to someone's death. It was because of past experiences with GPS that I didn't set the bar too high for Pharos. But, I actually found myself racing for the next turn to test its accuracy. Sure enough, time after time, I was amazed at how spot on the unit really is. That about covers the use of the Pharos. It's about as simple and straightforward as it could be. You'll spend more time downloading maps and transferring them to your Pocket PC than you will figuring out how to work with the unit. Its interface is as detailed as it needs to be, with zoom in and out features and pan capabilities so you can fully investigate your destination. You can turn off the voice, or leave it on for laughs like I do. I only wish that I drove more now that I have a cool toy to play with! :) About the only thing that could possibly keep the avid traveler or road warrior away from the Pharos is the price. But, before you think that the price is outrageous, consider the price of many less accurate units on the market that do not even give you the capability of mapping and pinpoint address location. I guess it is all in how you look at it. Also, if you're on the road a lot, this will save a lot of aggravation. And you'll never get tired of the fun factor. The Verdict When it comes to features and functions, you won't find anything that comes close to this. The Ostia has everything that you want and nothing that you don't. Because I'm hesitant to say that any application is perfect, and therefore exempt from future development. Don't give usability (or should I say, lack of it) a second thought. This is an application that anyone with any experience with the handheld will get. The entire mapping process is a walk-through. Value for money is going to depend on the user. I think that it's a little overpriced, but I don't have to manufacture and support it. But, to a traveling salesman or road warrior, the $250 price tag will be worth every penny since the product is well manufactured and supported.