Treo GPS | My Favourite Accessory of the Year

It’s funny how quickly one can get used to something new and equally quickly forget what things were like before the new thing arrived.  Naturally, the ‘thing’ I’m talking about is my Treo and after nearly two years as a Treonaut it continues to regularly amaze me.

I’ve been thinking about this throughout my holidays in Switzerland as I repeatedly had the opportunity to marvel with fresh eyes at some of the things that I was able to do with my Treo such as using my TomTom Navigator 5 GPS – now an indispensable tool that I take on all my trips but which I only discovered a few months ago.

I have to admit that I find that there is something truly eerie about arriving in a city I don’t know, renting a car, powering my small handheld TomTom Bluetooth GPS unit, starting the Navigator application on my Treo and then after a minute or so waiting for the GPS to acquire a satellite signal to instantly see my exact location overlaid on a map in the palm of my hand.  No matter how often I use it I am still completely and utterly AMAZED by this and as I’ve stated before if I had to pick a single ‘Accessory of the Year’ my vote would undoubtedly go to a Bluetooth GPS unit.

However, I’ve also discovered that my TomTom Navigator software is not only useful once I’ve arrived at my destination but also for planning a car journey in advance.  In this particular case, I will be travelling to San Francisco and then need to drive about three hours north to meet some friends for the New Year but I have absolutely no idea how to get there…

No problem.  Without even needing to have my GPS unit turned on, I start the Navigator software (see images below): 1) select “Advanced Planning” in the main menu; 2) input my “Depart from:“ address followed by 3) my “Pick a destination:“ address then 4) “Please select a route type” (I always choose “Fastest Route”).

After a few seconds I have my route summary fully mapped out with estimated trip duration and distance!  But this is not all, I can then view my route as 1) text direction; 2) still images; 3) a detailed map of the route; 4) a full interactive and animated route demo and 5) return to the route summary again.

Having now saved both my departure and destination addresses as “Favorites” all that I’ll need to do when I get into my car rental at San Francisco Airport is select “Navigate To” then select the favorite from the list and I’ll be all set and ready to drive assisted by the rather nice British woman’s voice which will guide me turn by turn to my ultimate destination…

For additional information about GPS navigation with your Treo you can read about my first experience “Traveling with a Treo 650 GPS In My Pocket” and also my comparative review of “Five Treo 650 GPS Solutions Under the Microscope”.  My two favourite Bluetooth GPS units are the TomTom Navigator 5 Bundle and the Palm GPS Navigator.

Treonauts are always amazed by their Treo…