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Mobile Crossing WayPoint 200 GPS
- 400Mhz IntelXscale CPU / 224Mb total memory / Long Battery Life -Over 3 hours of continuous use / Optional Bluetooth Capabilities
- System Memory SDRAM – 64 MBytes On Board Rom – 32 MBytes for OS Flash Memory – 128 MBytes On Board
- Includes Complete Car Kit – Mobile Crossing Bluetooth GPS Receiver / Audio Cord / PDA charging cord / Car accessory charger / Gooseneck mount / Powered vehicle Cat mount with amplified speaker, and a cigarette lighter cable
- Contains a complete set of Windows Mobile 2003 Premium Edition applications including Internet Explorer,Windows Media Player, and Outlook compatible organizer applications.
- One full year of traffic and weather Services
Mobile Crossing Waypoint is a new type of PDA, highly effective satellite guided vehicle navigation integrated with a powerful Windows Mobile 2003 Pocket PC. In addition to moving maps and spoken directions, our navigation device double as a fully functional Pocket PC. Now with traffic and weather information Built-in! If it’s important that your GPS system works well in your car and your pocket, the waypoint 205 is a good choice. The waypoint is light, thin and runs
Rating: 
(out of 13 reviews)
List Price: $ 649.99
Price: $ 260.00
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Review by Beatles Maniac for Mobile Crossing WayPoint 200 GPS
Rating:
The version that I got is Waypoint 205 (aka Waypoint 200 national edition). In my opinion, this PDA + GPS (or rather GPS + PDA) is probably the best in its class. However, its price range may put it on a not so competitive edge against other similar products. The reason I gave it only 3 stars is not because of the way the product was built but because I don’t think that the PDA + GPS combined technology has matured to the point that makes this product useful for every one. In fact, if you are not a techie, you might find your experience in configuring this product for your own use frustrating.
As a PDA …
It runs Windows CE and allows you to sync with Outlook via ActiveSync. Note that this unit comes with a fully featured Bluetooth adaptor but IT DOES NOT COME WITH A WIRELESS ADAPTOR (unlike most other PDAs/Pocket PCs priced half as much). So if you want to browse the internet at a cafe/airport/hotpoint, you will need to buy a wireless compactflash. Since the Bluetooth connection is indepensible (that is how this PDA communicates with the bluetooth GPS reciever), you probably would want to shop for one compactflash card that supports both Bluetooth & Wifi connections. There are very few manufacturers that make an adaptor for both of these wireless technologies. And when you do find one (see Ambicon for example), it may not work well. So chances are you will need to buy another wireless compactflash and take it with you whereever you go. This is not an actractive option, is it?
As a handheld GPS …
This is what the product is marketed for (i.e., mainly as a hand held GPS). Its navigational accuracy is quite good. In addition, it comes with a well thought out auto gadget set that you will find it indispensible when you use the unit inside a car. It does a pretty good job of finding routes and will quickly detects that you’ve missed a turn and re-computes a new route/detour without requiring any manual interaction. Since it comes with a Bluetooth GPS receiver, the receiver can be mounted remotely from the unit to allow for better sattelite reception.
You can also record your GPS positions. This feature makes unit suitable for off-road use. But with limitted battery power, I don’t exactly know how useful this feature can be.
The Waypoint 200/205 has several critical weaknesses that are common to nearly all products in its class. Basically, it is a complex computer with complex navigational software running on very limitted harware resources. These problems make this type of product better suited for techies and not for every one.
1. As mentioned above, this unit does not come with a wireless connection
2. Plan to spend many frustrating hours if you want to run ActiveSync on this unit via the Bluetooth connection. Mobile Crossing has a web page especially for this feature. But it is not of much help. There is an expert review on the web specifically mentioning his frustration in getting this feature to work. It took him 30 minutes to figure out how to use this features. Well, it took me about 1 day to get this feature to work.
3. The unit is not reliable. You will need to frequently soft resetting your unit. In some cases, soft resetting won’t solve the problems. For example, you may find the unit automatically turns off the backlight when you tap on the screen and soft resetting does not solve this problem. In these cases, you will need to take the battery out to perform a hard/cold reset. This kind of reset will erase all software you’ve downloaded and your own customed configurations. Basically, you should always back up the data on your PDA to your PC or Laptop. The unit is just not reliable enough to function standalone.
4. Unlike the expensive GPS unit that comes with your car, the Bluetooth GPS will take about 1 minute (or much longer in some cases) to sync with the sattelites if you only turn it on sporadically. This wait can be taxing on your patience
5. Be careful if you decide to use the business locations that come with the detailed maps. They are accurate most of the time. But a good fraction of the times, it will direct you to go to a place that is a few miles away from the actual business address. Because of this problem, a could be very useful feature is of limitted utility. If you don’t want to get lost, I recommend that you always look up the destination address on the web and use that for navigation.
6. The unit is really practical for 1 or at most 2 region maps loaded. Any more than that will make the unit extremely unresponsive. Loading the maps of 3 or more regions may even crash your Waypoint. Furthermore, you really have to be a techie and have a lot of patience to go through the map downloading instructions. The national edition allows you to have access to all US region maps. But it does not come with all of these maps installed. All US maps will fit into a 1GB compactflash card. You can buy this card from Mobile Crossing or you can build the card yourself. In either case, here is another card that you will need to carry with you whenever you travel.
7. At the time of this writing, Mobile Crossing map availability is limitted US, Canada, and UK. iQUE product has significantly more maps of other countries.
8. According to Mobile Crossing, the battery is specially made for the product. If you need an extra battery for your PDA, Mobile Crossing will direct you to their outlet. The battery alone costs about $60. I have not been able to find any other alternative.
Mobile Crossing tech support is better than most other companies. It is probably because they are still a small company whose products (though quite good in their classes) have not been widely adopted. I have contacted their tech support a few times. In most cases, they can diagnose the issues quickly. I would not be surprised if a significant portion of the cost of product goes to tech support.
The GPS/PDA combined product is a such a good concept. It fits the use profile of most of us. We only need to use the navigation feature on the average may be once a week or when we travel. For the rest of the time, we can use the unit as a full-featured PDA. But because of limitted computational power, memory, and reliability of the software, one needs to think twice before buying this product.
If your need is just for your own local area/state/region, the regional release of this product is probably what you want. You won’t need to configure your unit since it is shipped with the map for your region (i.e., it is ready for use out of the box). However, if you need to use more than one region (as most of these units are national editions), you will need to ask yourself the following two questions:
Are you a techie?
Do you derive pleasure from figuring out how things work?
If you answer no to either question, your need for a mobile hand help GPS must be extremely great before buying this product or any other product in the same class. You might want to consider buying a PDA unit and a separate navigational unit. In my assessment, tt is still at least a few years away before we see a PDA/GPS product that can overcome most of the weaknesses mentioned here.
Review by Andrew Anderson for Mobile Crossing WayPoint 200 GPS
Rating:
I’ve been hooked on navigating GPS systems since 2004: first, my girlfriend’s new TSX, with its touch screen interface and soothing [female] voice guidance; in 2005, I bought a BMW with a different sort of GPS. It wasn’t touch screen, and though I became dexterous at twisting and pushing the knob, others scoffed slightly at its apparent inefficiency. Luckily, the sexy female voice (christened ‘Claire’ by a friend) and excellent directions made up for it.
Why do I bring these classy, integrated, $2000 GPS systems as a comparison metric for a little PDA that can supposedly navigate you, and more? I’ll try to be quick at another story. I moved for work, about 4 hours from my parents. Getting home consists of 235 miles of interstate driving or 165 miles of highway, with some city areas…or a combination thereof. After a year of my GPS system always saying to go the long route (almost purely interstate) until I just drove up the other way for a bit, I developed a half/half route that maximized interstates, mimimized stoplight areas, and ultimately was much quicker than either of the other ways. The crux of what I’m getting at here, you see, is that the Waypoint 205 found the route that I spent a year figuring out, the first time I asked it to show me the best/fastest way home! Ok, so it’s an odd story, but the point is twofold: not only is this little device small and portable and usable in multiple cars (or backpacking trips, or geocaching, or checking your distange from the pin (golf!) ), but its algorithms and techniques for figuring out how to get you any point A to any point B (built in systems only get you from point (here) to point B) are superb for such a little guy!
Add a better address/landmark storing system, a logger to show you where you’ve been, and a fully functional PDA on top of that (with whatever software you want, a la a golf program for the GPS receiver), and you’ve got yourself a sweet package here.
There are some wires, there are two main pieces (the PDA, and GPS receiver), and there is an optional windshield suction mount thingy. But everything you need is in the box, and this baby great! Show me another GPS unit that tells you what road you’re approaching next when you’re not navigating. That’s not that special, but sort of useful if you want to learn a new area (I lost my sense of direction with my first GPS units… “I don’t need directions, just give me an address!” mantras).
Those that argue a map is cheaper an more effective, I respectfully disagree! Buying a map or printing directions everywhere costs money, and leaves you thumbing through pages, inevitably while you are driving! I think it is entirely safer (this is from experience going from map driving, to gps navigating, back to map driving, then back again to gps navigating) to be able to glance over at a real time map that lists the upcoming turns or where you are going, with a voice echoing the instructions, rather than taking both your eyes and your hands off the road and the steering wheel, respectively. Don’t forget to turn on your interior lamps! Oh, that takes effort too. So sure, I’m a tech gadget enthusiast. I am also an advocate for both efficiency and safety. Five stars that are well deserved!
Review by Lee G for Mobile Crossing WayPoint 200 GPS
Rating:
I had WayPoint 205 for 3 months now and love it. It has great screen graphics and shows the detailed street maps, not just the simplified maps used by some other navigation systems that I looked at before I purchased. It has very fast zoom in and zoom out that makes it easy to look at the detailed map. Mobile Crossing released the newest US maps recently and since I owned the unit less than 3 months, I could download and upgrade for free. The built-in Map Loader made this upgrade extremely easy – no CD or PC software to mess around.
I also use it for my personal address book, appointment book, MP3 player, photo album, etc. I carry it with me everywhere.
Review by J. Eddie for Mobile Crossing WayPoint 200 GPS
Rating:
I gave it four stars mainly because the software does not have an easy way to do multi-stop routing. Since I am a real estate agent that is important to me, but may not be for other users.
It does a very good job of leading you to your destination, however, it may not pick the best route. I live and work in Seattle, and nearly all of my routing is on city streets. As with most map software, it picks the most direct route, which may have you trying to cross busy streets at intersections without a traffic light. On the other hannd, if you decide to take a different route as you are driving, it continually updates and re-routes as you make changes. It says to you “re-routing”, and then tells you the next turn to make – even if you really deviated from the route and got on the freeway – it gave me the correct ramp to take within seconds.
The product ships with everything you need – it is extremely well thought out, although the gooseneck suction mount is kind of cumbersome and takes up a lot of space in your window. I decided to modify the set-up. Since the Bluetooth GPS receiver holds an 8 hour charge, I decided to forego the power hookup on the mount, and use the provided velcro to stick it on my dash which has a better view of the sky for the satelites. I then removed the receiver bracket from the gooseneck to make it cleaner. I have a Ford Explorer, and it has cup holders in the center console – the cupholders are fitted with flexible plastic inserts to make them easy to clean. I tried fitting the suction cup in the cupholder, and the location was perfect – close enought to see well, and fiddle with while stoped at a light or pulled over. The suction cup would not hold in the plastic cup liner, so I pulled it off and used Marine Goo glue to glue it in the cup holder liner. What is really nice is that I can just lift the whole thing out and either take it in the house or put it in the center console or glove compartment – that way it is out of the way when not in use, and thieves can’t see you have the system.
The unit comes with Microsoft ActiveSync for linking with your PC, and you can download maps and software from the internet and transfer them to the WayPoint. Activesync also allows you to download and synchronize your Outlook contacts and schedules. It allows you to specify a contact category to sync which is how I do a work-around for multi-stop routing. I cut and paste addresses from the MLS to Outlook contacts and name them a specific category and number them in the order I want to see them. As it turns out, the quickest way to set up a route is to choose the “Find Contact” option, and since I number them, they come up in order in the contact list. Then I just click on the number when I am leaving for the next stop. When finished, delete them from Outlook, and when syncing, they get erased from the Waypoint.
It is also a full featured PDA with a Blue Tooth transceiver, so there is no limit to the accessories you can add; such as a cell-phone with internet access, and many other things. The screen is bright, and it works well as a PDA. When you compare this package to a Nuvee, I think it blows it away, and all for $299.
Review by Anderson John for Mobile Crossing WayPoint 200 GPS
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This is a good value for the money. I bought mine about a month ago and so far I have no complaints.