[ale] Cereal Box Advertising

[H. A. Story]

So True.
They get you on the maps and some even require a subscription for map 
updates.

In my defense I will have to say, I have to use M$ on the job.
M$ street and maps.   Usually about $29.00 at costco's with a $10.00 
rebate. 
Big thing here if to look what hardware you already have. In my case a 
Laptop.


Thomas Stromberg wrote:

>On 15 dec 2005, at 22.32, Christopher Fowler wrote:
>
>  
>
>>Its amazing how the price of good keeps coming down.  But why are GPS
>>devices still so expensive?  I was in SAMs and that TomTom device is
>>$800.00
>>    
>>
>
>(OT) It beats me. I always find GPS's extremely frustrating because  
>the hardware is generally very weak, what you're paying for are the  
>maps. The maps however, are all  in proprietary formats, so you have  
>to buy a software package for each GPS. So, at the moment, I've got 3  
>different GPS software packages because I've got three different GPS  
>solutions. If you think about it, implementing a nice portable GPS on  
>your own doesn't take much:
>
>* Nokia 770 ($350), runs Debian Linux already.
>* Bluetooth GPS ($150 for a really nice one, like a BT-338)
>* RoadNav (http://roadnav.sourceforge.net) or similar software  
>package (Free!)
>
>So, that's still $500, but as the open source mapping software gets  
>better, it's a plausible solution, especially if you want to browse  
>the web while driving. <grin>. What TomTom doesn't advertise as well  
>in the USA is that you can actually buy their software package for  
>PDA's and cellphones, so long as you have a Bluetooth GPS to link it  
>to. For whatever reason, they refuse to sell their smartphone  
>software in the USA, but if you have a PocketPC it's available. When  
>my Magellan GPS broke, I decided to take the cheap route and just buy  
>a software package called Wayfinder for my Sony Ericsson P910  
>cellphone and get a nice bluetooth GPS so that I could find my way  
>around Atlanta. While it has it's bugs, for $250 (software+Bluetooth  
>GPS), it gives me everything that I would get out of a $800 GPS,  
>including voice synthesized instructions and downloading maps from  
>the cellular network as required.
>
>Just my $0.02
>
>// Thomas Str?mberg
>// http://toadstool.se/
>// +1 678 773 9475
>
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Ale mailing list
>Ale at ale.org
>http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>
>  
>