Righto fellas - i'm looking to buy my Dad a whole GPS thingy for his birthday next week. What should I be looking for?

He doesn't really need a good ipaq - the most he'd use it for is a GPS device and maybe contacts. It would be cool if it would autosync when he walked into the office (wireless/bluetooth?) but this is not really very necessary.

As for the GPS I'm looking for tomtom stuff. I heard that tomtom is actually just the name of the software right? I've seen lots of GPS receivers - same as mikeys, one that slots in the bottom, an ariel for the outside of the car. Any comments in this departement? Mikey's seemed cool but does it run out of battery much?

I've seen offers on ebay for a whole set (ipaq + gps + software + mount stuff) for a bit less than £400 - but I think the ipaq is pretty low end. 2200 something? Is it still good value?

Would appreciate comments!
Dan

Tomtom do the whole shebang if you're looking for a dedicated sat-nav thingy. Try tomtom.com.

My battery lasts longtime and, if needs be, can be plugged into the lighter socket in the car via the car kit. My setup does seem to have the odd communication problem; recently the navigator program claimed that it couldn't see any satelites even though the GPS said it could. This went on for a few days until it spontaneously decided that it was wrong and there were actually satellites around and now works fine.

So, if you really only want a sat-nav effort, and can find an affordable dedicated set-up I might go for that. Then again my ipaq gets used a lot more than I'd just use sat-nav, it's more versitile so...

Looking at totalpda.com and tomtom.com: My setup costs £513 with a 2210 ipaq(or £467 depending on whether or not you get the car kit with the Tomtom Navigator 3 box; the website aint completely clear on that point. I had to buy it separately the bastards). The all in one package (just take it out of the box and stick it on the dash) costs £535 (800 EUR).

King,

sorry didn't reply earlier. many thanks for info. i got him the same ipaq as you but with a different gps - the tomtom wired. Total with car kit was £400 (good deal off ebay).

Gave it to him today (wired it up in his car without him knowing) and he was chuffed with it.

Also got some speed camera software that came on a dodgy floppy. will see if it works and email it to you if you like.

the ipaq is sweet - much nicer to use than my xda!! and you can control the tv with it. "like, oh . my . gad"