I've just entered the wonderful world of GPS. I know everyone and his wife has a navigation system in their car, but I've considered them overpriced for the few times a year I would actually need one. I was getting by with my road atlas. A friend is looking to sell his Acer n35. This is a PDA with built-in GPS antenna. I've got in on trial with a view to buying it. First impressions are pretty good. It can't get a signal indoors, but outside it picked up enough satellites after a few minutes. It has TomTom installed, which most people I know say is the best software. I used it on the way home and it was spot on for my normal route. I tried to fool it by taking a wrong turn and it worked out an alternative to get me there.

The PDA side is behind the times, but probably equivalent to my aging Palm. I just need to get used to the Windows platform. It remains to be seen if it will talk nicely to my Linux PC. Some data can be transferred by infra-red beaming, but ultimately it would have to synchronise with my PC applications. I mainly use the Palm as a glorified organiser and occaisional audio player, so it should be able to handle those needs. I don't want to be carrying both devices all the time.

There is no wireless networking built in, but SD adaptors are available, some with built-in memory, for not too much money. There never seemed to be a cheap option for my Palm. It's about time I entered the wireless world too.

One thing I would like to play with is OpenStreetMap. This is an effort to produce free maps of everywhere by people mapping every road using their GPS units. Arlesey is partially mapped, so I could add to that once I figure out what software I need.