The notion is very attractive:  You’ve got a PDA.  Wouldn’t it be great to have a way to use it as a GPS in your car?  There are a number of devices out there that clip on, transmit by Bluetooth, plug in by USB or card slot - surely something works. 

If you could find something that could hold your PDA, charge it up and add GPS functionality as well, wouldn’t that be just cool?

I thought it would, and so when I got an opportunity to try out an Arkon Powered GPS Docking cradle and their MobiNavigator software for my Axim V50x, I jumped at the chance. 

The hardware:

In between the time I found out the cradle was on its way and the time I received it, I told several of my friends and some of them were less than enthusiastic.  Car cradles, they told me, were unaesthetic, unreliable, have suction cups that didn’t work, don’t really have enough power to charge my PDA, and would rattle around and smack against and damage my dashboard.  Wow, I thought, maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all.

Well, if you’ve heard any of those things, after several weeks of using Arkon’s cradle, I can’t agree with any of the fears my friends expressed.  Let’s take the issues one at a time…

Aesthetics - I’ll admit that a cradle in your car isn’t as attractive as a dash-mounted GPS/car computer.  If you’re a purist that can’t bear to spoil the classic lines of your ride, maybe you won’t like it.  However, the Arkon cradle is very attractively styled and the design of the gooseneck that holds the cradle is very minimalist and I don’t feel it detracts from the look of the car.  The only thing that does detract a bit is the cord that runs from the unit to your car’s cigarette lighter.  You can hide that away when you aren’t using the cradle, but it does dangle down in front of your console when the unit is powered up.  I don’t really see that as a big negative, given the utility of the unit, but if you’re the sort that bothers, maybe it would be an issue.  Also, the cradle is visible from outside the car, so you might want to keep that in mind if you’re the sort of person that would find that unattractive.  Personally, on the whole I feel the look of the cradle has a certain geeky charm.

Reliability - As far as I can tell Arkon’s cradle is reliability itself.  In the time I’ve been using it, it’s never failed, my PDA has never come loose, and it’s stayed where I’ve put it. I’ve never had to jiggle my Axim around to get a good contact, which I’ve had to do with desktop cradles on some PDAs.  This is pretty impressive considering that it’s mounted in my Miata and it’s probably seen more bumps and g-forces than it will ever see in most cars.

Suction cup mount - People told me it wouldn’t hold?  Ha, I say.  Ha, and ha ha!  This sucker (no pun intended) is industrial-strength.  There’s a toggle to pull it in and once you flip that there’s no way you’re going to get it off short of using a ball peen hammer.  In fact, even once you flip the toggle to the position to remove you have to pull on a little tab to break the seal and make it come off.  The cradle itself connects onto the gooseneck easily, so you can pull it off and put the whole thing it your glovebox or computer case for security without removing the gooseneck.  No sir, no complaints here.

Power - I’ve been told that Axim’s are power hogs and that it’s hard to get a car charger that will actually do the job.  This may be, but the Arkon cradle charges it fully even when the PDA is on and as far as I can tell it charges just as quickly as the desktop charger.  It also includes a powered speaker with a volume dial.  The speaker connects to the audio-out of your PDA with a short curly cord.

Stability - Okay, it does vibrate a bit.  That seems unavoidable when you have the cradle and PDA on the end of a flexible rod, but I have it mounted less than a half-inch from my dash and it has never touched the dash.  Since Miata’s aren’t known for their smooth ride, I doubt anyone will have any trouble with stability, at least without going off-road.

As this is a well-designed, solidly-engineered piece of hardware that does just what it should.  As a cradle it gets a solid recommendation.

Of course, one of the attractions to this unit is the GPS capability. The GPS is just what you’d expect of a modern GPS unit.  It acquired satellites quickly and reacquired them just as quickly when you emerged from a dead zone. The antenna is adjustable and has a red status light to indicate it’s working.  It also has a slot for an optional battery so that you can use the unit as a portable GPS.  It’s a bit bulky for that purpose, so you’d probably never use it for backpacking or bicycling, but it’s a nice option that could prove useful.  As a car GPS solution for someone who already has a PDA, it’s far more economical than a dedicated GPS unit and it performs as well as dedicated units costing far more, especially when used in conjunction with Arkon’s MobiNavigator software.

The software:

The Arkon MobiNavigator software is made to compliment their GPS docking cradles.  The packaging looks a bit like budget software you see at the computer stores, so I wondered how well it could compare with a dedicated GPS.  I shouldn’t have worried.  The software is on the same level of quality as the mount.

The first step is to install the software on your PC and your PDA.  Installation is very familiar, with a quick desktop install and an Active Sync you’re ready to go.  Before you can actually use the GPS you have to transfer the maps you want to your PDA.  This uses a separate application that lets you select the areas and write them to your PDA or directly to a memory card. I’d recommend using a memory card for this.  By selecting your maps carefully you can keep the size down, but you can expect to need 50 megabytes or more for a state, which means you could chew up your PDA’s memory pretty quickly if you have a reasonably long driving range.  MobiNavigator includes the US and Canada, and you can install any areas you need if you have the space, and you can go back and add or remove areas at any time.

This process installs a desktop version of the software on your computer, which allows you to look at the areas you’re installing on your PDA in detail, search and find destination, etc.  One feature this desktop software lacks that the software for my wife’s Garmin GPS unit has is the ability to plan routes on the desktop and transfer them to the device.  This feature allows you to set up your GPS in advance of a trip with all of the places you want to visit and the routes you want to take. MobiNavigator on the PC lacks any ability to sync maps with your PDA.  In fact, the desktop version is virtually identical to the mobile version and since it doesn’t offer any additional functionality, I never found it particularly useful.

The first thing you’ll notice when you power up the MobiNavigator software (after the friendly “don’t fiddle with it while you’re driving” notice) is that the software is clean, nicely organized, and easy to read.  The display on my Axim is bigger than any of the dedicated devices I’ve seen and the cleanly designed software makes the most of the extra real-estate and resolution.  This is one of the biggest plusses to using a PDA-based solution: the combination of the big, bright display and the touch screen makes using the software much easier than most dedicated GPS devices.  The software “plays nicely” with other Pocket PC software, so I continued to get reminders and such even when using MobiNavigator.

Setup is a snap.  From a familiar Windows-style tools menu you bring up GPS Options and set the com pot and baud rate per the instructions and the GPS starts working.  The receivers always found satellites within a few seconds of turning the device on, seldom “lost” them, and reacquired them almost instantly when they did.

Setting the device to navigate is just as easy. Push the little checkered flag icon and you’re taken to a menu that lets you pick a destination by address, intersections, points of interest, saved favorites, etc.  A very nice feature is that it will actually let you pick a contact form your address book and navigate to that address.

The navigation display itself is very clear and easy-to-read and offers choices of an overhead view or 3D view.  It shows your path highlighted clearly and offers turn cues, a scale that graphically illustrates the distance to your next turn, and route information on your current location and your next turn.  Turn-by-turn instructions are also given by voice and a clear tone sounds when you’ve reached your turn.

The unit also has a number of very nice extra features, such as a mode that will alert you with a tone if you’re speeding and a mode that sounds a tone at each cross street for driving in poor visibility.  It even includes an almanac with sunrise, sunset and moon phase information and, if you have an internet connection, a current weather report.

I used the unit to navigate to a wide variety of locations and the routing was generally excellent.  When I had preferences set to “local” I got one or two routes that seemed a bit out of the way, but I never had an instance where the GPS didn’t get me where I wanted to go.  Route calculation is very fast, fast enough to allow selecting a new destination at a stop light. Recalculation is also very fast, but here is where I have my one real complaint about the software.  If there is not an obvious cross street that will get you back on your route the software will frequently advise you to make a U-turn at the next street, go back, and take the turn you missed.  Often this isn’t practical in city driving and is behavior I’ve never seen on my wife’s Garmin.  The only simple solution to this is to keep driving until the unit gives up and recalculates, usually at the next major intersection, or to cancel navigation and select your destination again.  Since canceling and re-selecting my destination gave me a valid route without the necessity of a U-turn every time I tried it, I don’t see why the software didn’t simply recalculate the route.

Selecting routes is very simple and can be accomplished in the span of a long stop light. I’d recommend taking the warning not to try doing it while driving very seriously - while the user interface is well designed and simple, it takes more focus and attention than you can spare while actually driving. 

MobiNavigator will allow you to tell it you need a detour and it will automatically select an alternate route - a neat little feature when there’s an accident or road work ahead.  It also allows you to set waypoint destinations along the main route, which comes in handy when for long trips where motel or food stops are necessary. 

I found a great deal to like and very little to dislike about MobiNavigator.  Although it has more features than I can easily detail in this review, I’ve mentioned all of the negatives I’ve come across, and they are few, indeed.

Arkon makes GPS mounts for a wide variety of PDAs, including Ipac, Imate, and Axim. They also support the Palm Tungsten and Treo, but they use Mapopolis Navigator rather than the MobiNavigator reviewed here.

So, here’s the bottom line: If you already have a supported PDA and need or want a GPS, this is the GPS bargain you’ve been looking for.  For $230 you get a setup that rivals GPS solutions that cost twice or three times as much.  The mount is robust and well designed, the software is easy to use, full-featured, and stable, the GPS is fast and reliable.  Okay, maybe it’s a bit more noticeable than most dedicated GPS units.  If that bothers you keep it in your glove box when you’re driving familiar streets.

Tucker Hatfield
Technology Editor

http://www.arkon.com
Powered GPS Docking Cradle and MobiNavigator Software (DM521 for Dell Axim)
$229.95