Customer Reviews

Magellan GPS Companion for the Palm m500

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Before I got this GPS, thought the Magellan Companion was a great idea. The unit itself can run for 12 hours on 2 AAA batteries, the software is loaded on my Palm, I can use it to charge my Palm using the power adapter and I can store the maps on SD memory card on my Palm.

I received the unit and it was light, pretty well built and snapped on to the M505 very nicely. The Nav Companion software for the Palm was also pretty good. However, the Rand McNally mapping software, which is a seperate application was another story. When I first loaded the software on my computer, it looked very promising. It took a lot more space that I had anticipated, but since it had details map of the US as well as thousands of POI, it was that big of an issue.

The trouble began when I try to download a map to my Palm, it kept telling me that the current map area was too large. Then I discovered that I had to zoom in to leve 7 before it allow me to export to my Palm. Well, at level 7 of the Los Angeles area is almost 10MB. I went ahead and download the map to my memory card.

Even worst, when I actually connected my Palm to the GPS and turned it on, it took almost 5 minutes before I got a lock. During my driving trip, I came to the edge of the map that I downloaded and I got a message that I have reach the end of the map and that the GPS will turn off. I could still use the Nav Companion software to track my coordinates, but no map.

So in conclusion, I think it's a good product, but the mapping software needs some major improvements. At least my MAP 330 has a basemap.

First, the good part: The GPS receiver is very light and tough, and the included basic plotting software works great.
Now, the bad part: If you buy this, throw out the Rand McNally software. It's horrible. The maps will NOT scroll on the palm, and instead will draw for literally 1 second your position, then go black for 10-15 seconds, then draw again for 1 second. Plus, you can run it from a SD card, OR you can run it from RAM. If you want to install the application in RAM and the maps (which are HUGE - 6MB-8MB for most city's metropolitan areas) on the SD card, you are out of luck.
I've downloaded a demo of Mapopolis and it appears to be about 1000x (no joke) faster, GPS-compatible, and supports RAM & SD card dual usage.

The GPS unit is very slick. I have tried two software packages with it: the Rand McNally Streetfinder software that comes with the unit, and the Mapopolis software. Unlike another reviewer, I had no problem with the Streetfinder software scrolling slowly. However, there is a known bug that won't let you use the software with an SD card--the program hangs trying to find maps. I talked with their support about this, but the fix they gave me did not solve the problem. However, once you get it running with the GPS, the maps are great! They are much more readable to someone with aging eyes than the Mapopolis maps, and they scroll just as fast (on a Palm M515). They also have a lot of point of interest data (Hotels, parking lots, etc.)--more than Mapopolis has. Plus, it's free! Mapopolis isn't free anymore, and you have to buy Map Packs or individual maps and download them.

We were tired of getting lost in a strange city with a rental car map. First I bought an M515 Palm then went looking for a GPS adaptor. The Streetfinder software is huge and not very intuitive. Otherwise all went well. We took a trip over the weekend and I took along the GPS/Palm just to experiment.

It way exceeded my expectations. The only negative is the need to map out a route and then load maps of your destination. This requires a little planning.

It is awsome to see your icon travelling down a route. The downside is trying to drive while viewing. After the new wears off, I'm sure I'll just listen for the tones to tell me where to turn. I'm not convinced the altitude readout is accurate

Buy it, but also buy the lighter adaptor. On my first use, I learned I need it.

A very cool gadget that will keep me from getting lost.

Had to return the first one because it was broken. Second one works great, even in car (won't lock on when I'm flying a Gulfstream V but it's not certified for IFR Navigation anyway). Needs to include maps program for systems other than Windows (ie, Mac). This is easily remedied by using a web-based mapping program. Also would do away with need to update Streetfinder databases. Also, having trouble getting Road Atlas expansion card to recognize the GPS Companion. Don't know if it's Palm, Magellan, or Rand McNally. Have contacted Rand McNally. Just be aware that there might be an issue if your using this expansion card.

I compare my experience with the one of my co-worker with a Pharos PK012 Pocket GPS Navigator Kit for iPAQ.

The Pharos seems to be faster with the position update. The Pharos cannot work with batteries and comes with a cigarette lighter adapter. If you want to use your GPS outdoors or on a motorcycle the Magellan for Palm will have a little advantage. Otherwise the Pharos has an advantage.

I agree with many about the software from Rand McNally. I just don't like it. Even comparing it with the "no brand name" Ostia software, included with the Pharos, the Rand McNally immediately looks slower, harder to use and with way less features.
With Ostia you can invert the route, select origin and destination from your contacts, recalculate a route on the fly!
With the Rand McNally you have to prepare the route from your PC. The Ostia had a better way to display map and directions at the same time too (different ways to split the screen). Maps looks more readable on the Ostia.

I noticed that using the Rand McNally software and relative maps from the internal memory produced better results than software and maps on SD card. I will pretty soon try to have software on internal memory and maps on SD card.
My SD card is a Lexar 256Mb: does anybody know if maps will perform better on an original Palm SD card?

I also did the mistake of syncing and opening on the Palm a bigger map of metro Philly and got stuck 10 minutes to wait the high level map to load... and I did not sync any POI (point of interest)!!!!

This thing rules! It took me an hour to get all the stuff installed and working, but it iz awesome. I don't know wut the other people were talking about when they say that the Mapping Software is bad, i think it rules! After some minor shaving, i got it so that my m130 works with it, how crazy is that? Espacially with the rebate, this thing rules!

The GPS device is cool, but the Rand McNally Streetfinder software is junk, really worthless. In the Northeast corridor where you would expect the data to be a little more precise, the software often says you are "off course" even when the position icon shows you exactly on course. And the plotted course route is often not the best route, sometimes it is dowright wacky. Should I mention that I am still waiting (six months later) for my mail-in rebate?

It seemed like a great idea to have the GPS integrated with the Palm--I figured I'd be able to quickly edit waypoints without having to thumb through all the characters and it would be a simple hotsync operation to get them on my computer--but there are very limited options in the preferences menu. You can't select your coordinate system or datum. For those of us who want to actually work with maps or use these units in the field it's a major design flaw.

It's far easier to work with UTM when you are going back and forth with a map than trying to deal with lat/long decimal numbers. I'm disappointed in the unit and frustrated that the lack of such a basic feature was not clearly stated in the advertising. Unless I can find some alternative software (a call to customer support confirmed that Magellan doesn't support UTM for this unit) I'll have to return the unit and go back to using my stand-alone unit.

The StreetFinder software tends to have a problem when you have a large SD card attached (512MB - Even without map on it!) When you select the changing map option, the StreetFinder goes into la, la land (I only waited 5 min & soft reset). But if you pop out the SD card it will function normal again.

I'll try a 128MB card with 60x write speed. Probably not going to make much difference. Anyone knows a work around on this?