Customer Reviews

Navman GPS 4460 Wireless Bluetooth GPS Receiver with SmartST Navigation Software for PalmOS 5.0 Handhelds

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

 

 

I have a Palm Tungsten T2, and bought the Navman GPS 4460 to provide GPS capability for the occasional road trip and/or business trip. I had also considered the Delorme Earthmate, but decided against it based on some feedback on the web regarding the accuracy of the maps and lack of voice guidance. The one review I did find on the relatively new GPS 4460 convinced me that this was worth investigating.

The GPS 4460 comes with the GPS receiver unit, a couple of mounting brackets for the receiver and the Palm PDA, a memory card reader, a 12V car adapter for the receiver unit, 3 AAA size batteries, and 4 CDs of software/maps. The receiver unit fits nicely into its associated mount, which can then be easily attached to the inside of your rear window. This assembly is held in place to the window by a suction cup. The PDA can then ride up front with the driver in it's own cradle (usually plugged into a cigarette lighter socket).

The software for the PDA is excellent, as are the maps (as far as I've tested them, that is). Entering destinations is easy once the maps are loaded onto the SD/MMC card (which you must have and is not included in the kit). The voice guidance is clear, if a bit confused at times (i.e. it can ask you to bear left and make a right turn, even though the visual map indicates that you should keep going straight). The best work round for this, as always, is the judicious use of common sense. The visual cues (when you can safely look at the display while driving) are also excellent. As a PDA is used as the output/display, screen contrast, brightness and audio volume are are limited by the PDA you have on hand. So far the T2 has performed acceptably except in bright sun light (when the display becomes nearly unreadable).

Now for my MAJOR peeves with the system - the installation software and instructions are UNFORGIVABLY bad. First, you need to purchase a SD/MMC card for map storage etc - this is not provided in the kit. Second, installing the desktop software crashed my computer (because it tried to it's own drivers for an existing card reader I had in place - something I had to go back and fix). Third, when I tried to activate the software (and followed instructions on the screen and quick start guide), it was in no way clear that THE SD/MMC CARD SHOULD BE IN THE CARD READER AND NOT IN THE PALM. What activation does (I'm surmising from experience) is to install the license key onto the SD/MMC card. Once that is done, the software on the PDA will work (because it sees the key when the SD/MMC card is in the PDA) and the Map transfer software will work (because it also sees the key when the SD/MMC card is in the card reader). Fourth, I got memory errors on the PDA when I first tried to run the software (which were fixed with a soft reset, but none of this was clearly mentioned as a remote possibility).

So in closing - the unit is working great now that I have it running. Getting it up and running was a problem as noted above. Some better/clearer documentation on the installation front would have been nice. Had it not been for the lousy install, I'd have rated this as a 5 star product.

The maps and GPS receiver function well, but the software has several obvious omissions that undermine the true potential of the system:

1). Doesn't allow listing POI's by distance from your current location - instead it lists all POI's in the database in alphabetical order. When in an unfamiliar area, I'd like to be able to select restaurants or gas stations and have the software list all available sorted by distance from my current location, rather than requiring me to know the exact names and locations. I mean, for a gas station, what's more important, the name or how close it is? (Especially when you're running on fumes in an unfamiliar area).

2). Lack of integration with native Palm software applications, most notably the address book/contact database application. It really should be able to link to the address book to plot contact addresses - that is such an obvious omission. It doesn't even allow you to copy and paste addresses into the navigation software.

3). Tapping on a location or POI on the map causes a pop up menu to appear that allows you to see the name of the POI or street and to select it as a "departure" or "navigate to" point or to add it to your favorites, but a more helpful and useful feature would be to have the name, address and phone number pop up - and to offer the option of adding that information, not only to the favorites list but also to the Palm's address book for future reference and use.

4). Lack of road-type options. It allows you to avoid toll roads and urban areas and allows you to select either quickest or shortest routes, but having the option to select most or least use of freeways or side streets would really be helpful...as well as having the ability to reroute around traffic congestion.

5). The POI feature does not allow text entry searching, instead you start with "country" then "category" then "type" and finally "area". Having the ability to type in a name or partial name would be very helpful when trying to locate specific points of interest...like a restaurant. For example; a search for a restaurant in Dallas, TX requires you to go to the Points of Interest screen, select a country, select a category (Food and Drink), select a type (restaurant) and then provide an area to search. If you type in "Dallas" for the area you are provided with a list of restaurants in alphabetical order through which you may scroll down four screens - which doesn't even get through the "A"s...so, unless you only like eating at restaurants that have names beginning with either numbers or letters from "A" through "AL" then you won't be finding what you want on this software. Attempting to narrow down the search by entering a zip code for downtown Dallas just makes the software default to listing every restaurant in the state - again only four screens of scrollable selections - hope you like eating at restaurants with numbers for names. As a result of this problem, the POI feature is basically useless.

6). The company does most of its business in Europe and that fact is evident by the software's menu layout, some menu items and the use of European spelling (i.e. petrol stations, exhibition centre). This product was clearly ported over from European versions of the software and was rushed to the US marketplace without adequate "real world" testing and as a result, the final product much more resembles a playful toy than a serious tool. In fact, you could say that a more appropriate name for the Navman SmartST software would be the Navman DumbST software ;) The software translates fairly well for the most part, but I'm hopeful that future versions are more tailored to the way Americans think and the way this country is mapped out.

Though no application is ever a panacea, there are just a few too many compromises required with this particular system to justify keeping it. I plan to return my Navman in hopes of finding a Palm GPS system that's more feature rich and better integrated with the Palm computing platform's applications.

Dylan Spears review is an excellent one. This is product is certainly not for serious use. Software needs lot of work. GPS box is pretty good. Always gets a fix and bluetooth connection is reliable. Navman is going to come up with a new software release in late summer.

Other shortcomings of this products are

1) Lack of charger adapter for Palm. They could have easily used a Y style cable and plug to charge palm.

2) Software always chooses the same route irrespective of the routing option (Fastest / Shortest) chosen. e.g. San jose to LA always picks 580 to I-5. Shorter route is 152E to I-5.

3) Suction mount for GPS is inconvenient. Power plug and the indicator is on the glass side. You have to hunt for power switch to turn it on and then in day time it's hard to figure out whether it is ON or not.

4) GPS hw always turns off even if external power is present. You always have to turn it on. Kind of annoying.

5) SW crashes often. It will start repeating a turn again and again and again then die.

6) Suction mount for PDA has wrong orientation if you want to mount it on the windsheild left to your steering (best position). Glue on Plastic base is not heat resistant. Falls off in an hour if you leave your car in sun.

7) Database errors. Out of 10 destinations 3 were wrong. They were not in a new area.

8) Limited display option. You can not see time and distance to destination at the same time.

9) Does not understand zip code. Takes lot of time to enter an address.

I was looking for a Palm pda based vehicle navigational system and researched the market for gps products. I short listed three products - delorme bluelogger, tomtom BT navigator and navman 4460. The delorme was cheaper but lost on maturity of product, quality issues listed on their forum and did not include pda and gps mounting accessories.
The tomtom was comparable to navman but did not have replaceable battery! I decided on Navman 4460.
The install is not straight forward but quite confusing. The software initially failed to download maps and gave a confusing error message that application is corrupted. I had inkling that it needed software keys installed and that did the trick.
Once the software was installed, it worked fine. But I could only use only a part of Tungsten T3 screen. It needed another software download to get full screen usage. Why it was not part of initial install? It beats me as the required files are included on CD.

The software is easy to use. The GPS fix is immediately obtained. It is very easy to set destination and navigate. The PDA mounter and gps windshield mounter are suction type but really solid. The pda mounter is not a true ball and socket joint type but it is not really a problem. The bluetooth works fine. The auto-rerouting works great. The db is pretty good.
I am very happy with software but after some usage found the following features lacking:
1. Ability to avoid certain areas or road stretch is not available. One of the big reasons I got it is to avoid traffic jams.
2. The Router Demonstrator could not be speeded up! The path could not be manually navigated on screen! It is pretty useless without these two features.
3. The Map panning does not work very well. Many times it does not move the map. The map of a large area could not be easily viewed.
4. There is no desktop routing or map software. It would have been so much convenient to view/plan routes and maps on big desktop screen.

Despite the lack of above features, it is a great product and has worked flawlessly. I am taking one star off for install and lack of some features.

I ordered this knowing that it wasn't listed as compatible with my Tungsten T5. I tried many times to get the software to work but it didn't. I ended up installing Mapopolis software and have been using it for over 6 months.

The Navman works perfectly with Mapopolis on my T5. The receiver is very small and sits on my car dashboard. It is small enough that you could put it in a coat pocket or purse if walking around. Battery life is great - I haven't timed it but I'm sure it is around the 15hrs of active use that other people have found. If you are just an occasional user like I am, this translates into months of use before the battery dies.

My only complaint is that they never bothered to update their software to make it compatible with the T5.

For me, installation wasn't as hard as the other reviewers made it out to be. The GPS unit actually works well, it pairs well with my Tungsten T3 using Bluetooth, and the map displays are all gorgeous.

But I am really beginning to hate a few things: 1) finding addresses goes through a really inefficient, awkward menus; 2) there's no way to automatically pull up addresses in your Palm address book; 3) it doesn't automatically restart the GPS connection if you turn the Palm off and back on, and are back in SmartST; 4) it crashes my Palm occasionally, requiring a *hard* restart (thank goodness I have a backup card); 5) the unit holding the Palm tends to unclip from the window suction unit when the road gets bumpy, and it falls off while I'm driving. Oh, did I also mention that my Tungsten T3 slider collapses on a whim, and it runs out of battery after less than a 2 hour trip? (But that's just a problem with a loose slider on the T3 and short battery life; it's not a fault of the NavMan product.)

That being said, for its core functionality -- navigation -- it really excels. The directions and maps are visually wonderful (I say this for both the 2D, 3D , and just plain text directions it offers); the voice navigation is right-on; and if you take the time to save your addressess as "favorites" before you start off on your drive, it can be a pleasure to use. The Bluetooth GPS unit, if it has a view of open sky, also gets a satellite fix relatively quickly -- as quick as, say, the built-in GPS devices I've seen in some autos.

I bought the receiver/software unit on Amazon for about $160 back when it was on sale. The price has gone up since, and if I were in the market again, I'd take a closer look at TomTom solutions for Palm, or even Mapopolis (though Mapopolis's interface, I hear, isn't quite nearly as nice as that of TomTom or NavMan/SmartST).

amazon pricing was truly amazing. gps unit installed flawlessly if you take the time reading the instruction. the only gimmick was that navman sd card reader must be used to upload the maps. although this is a gimmick, i prefer uploading maps from a card reader anyways. i'd must rather hang myself than wait for my palm hotsync'd a large map files. regarding some buyers who complained about sd card not included with package. just as a reminder, most gps systems require that (unless you are spending close to $1000 for the magellan neverlost gps that comes with its own internal memory) you put map data on CF or SD... well, come on guys, your palm pda will most likely have anywhere from 32 meg to 64 megs on the average. how much map info do you expect to store?
the only downside i see with this unit is the map that it comes with. if you live in new developed areas, you are way out of luck. i live in south orange county in california and i can tell you the maps (although smartst v1.3 came out 2004) are beyond 3-4 years old. navman corporate is here in foothill ranch and they don't offer map update over the internet. the last i spoke to their customer service their rep said the updates will be a special price of around $100 buckaroos from me. i asked the rep whether if their us headqtr is on the smartst v1.3 map. i laughed when they said probably not.
luckily we get great price from amazon. for those who are paying more, they are screwed!

Very unreliable and unstable product. Issues I had with Palm OS5 install:
1. Installation does not occur automatically. It says it will, but nothing happens - so you have to do a manual install. Its easy to do - one just needs to know!!
2. Palm resets every time I use it.
3. Graphics are incomplete (which makes a mapping software kinda useless) half the time. Alleged solution - more memory - did not work for me.
4. Applied their patch - now it freezes if I try to start it!
5. Removed and re-installed - now I am getting GP02 GPS errors - go figure!!

All in all, I had this product for 48 hours from the time I received it in the mail to the time I put it in the return package to the store.

It is not Palm OS5 compliant - it is only (probably - I can't say for sure) compliant with a few specific Palm models. Since when did consumers need to go to the product data sheet on the manufacturer's obscure website to figure this out!!

I bought this back when I had a Palm T3 and it was my first GPS driving aid. As such, it wasn't half bad, though the software was a bit of a pain when entering addresses and sometimes it would pick some rather odd routes for me to follow. On a number of occations I would have to just ignore the damn thing as it tried to route me over some odd bridge that led me on a circuitous route back home.
Since I purchased this, I have switched from Palm to PPC, and have been able to avail myself of the TomTom Navigator 5 software, and all I can say is, WOW!
The software is much more intuitive than Navman's software and plots routes perfectly as far as I can tell. It also provides much ore information, like exit numbers and stuff like that that Navman was always bad at. I use it with the Navman bluetooth antenna, which I still think is great. It goes for a long time on 3 AAA batteries, which are easy to replace on the road.
Quite simply, I love the Navman bluetooth antenna, but I hate the software, and coupled with the fact that they're not supporting palms anymore, I think it really isn't the package to get.
But I love the antenna, and will continue to use it quite happily. Its one annoyance is its blinking blue button which can be annoying if you keep it on your front dash at night. Other than that, I love the thing.
If I could get this antenna with TomTom's software, I'd be a happy man.
(P.S. TomTom's software isn't the end-all-be-all... its TomTom Plus Traffic feature is kind of a joke, but it is better than nothing, which is what Navman provides in the way of traffic info. Garmin is supposed to be better in this respect.)

I bought this unit after witnessing the 4410 in action in Europe. I have tried that one, plus in-car navigation systems by BMW and others. Perhaps the best way to describe this product is, the in-car navigation systems seem a waste of money in comparison. The thing gets the job done smoothly and accurately. I don't understand some of the complaints I see here. Software installation was incredibly easy, and I didn't even use the provided USB memory reader (I have a built-in SD reader in my laptop). I had everything set up, including maps selected loaded, in well under an hour. The Bluetooth works flawlessly with my T2.

I have very recently used the BMW in-car navigation system and I can honestly say I like this one better. The BMW's sometimes takes you to obscure street names in towns differet from the one you're supposed to go; the 4460 doesn't seem to do that.

Perhaps the two things this unit loses against the BMW's is (1) the voice is more robotic than the BMW's, and (2) the maps will not show parking lots, etc., which the BMW's does sometimes.

Amazon.com's price is just INCREDIBLE by the way.