I received the unit and it was light, pretty well built and snapped on to the M505 very nicely. The Nav Companion software for the Palm was also pretty good. However, the Rand McNally mapping software, which is a seperate application was another story. When I first loaded the software on my computer, it looked very promising. It took a lot more space that I had anticipated, but since it had details map of the US as well as thousands of POI, it was that big of an issue.

The trouble began when I try to download a map to my Palm, it kept telling me that the current map area was too large. Then I discovered that I had to zoom in to leve 7 before it allow me to export to my Palm. Well, at level 7 of the Los Angeles area is almost 10MB. I went ahead and download the map to my memory card.

Even worst, when I actually connected my Palm to the GPS and turned it on, it took almost 5 minutes before I got a lock. During my driving trip, I came to the edge of the map that I downloaded and I got a message that I have reach the end of the map and that the GPS will turn off. I could still use the Nav Companion software to track my coordinates, but no map.

So in conclusion, I think it's a good product, but the mapping software needs some major improvements. At least my MAP 330 has a basemap.


Great hardware, horrible software   December 22, 2002
 33 out of 34 found this review helpful

First, the good part: The GPS receiver is very light and tough, and the included basic plotting software works great.
Now, the bad part: If you buy this, throw out the Rand McNally software. It's horrible. The maps will NOT scroll on the palm, and instead will draw for literally 1 second your position, then go black for 10-15 seconds, then draw again for 1 second. Plus, you can run it from a SD card, OR you can run it from RAM. If you want to install the application in RAM and the maps (which are HUGE - 6MB-8MB for most city's metropolitan areas) on the SD card, you are out of luck.
I've downloaded a demo of Mapopolis and it appears to be about 1000x (no joke) faster, GPS-compatible, and supports RAM & SD card dual usage.


My First GPS   October 29, 2002
 19 out of 21 found this review helpful

We were tired of getting lost in a strange city with a rental car map. First I bought an M515 Palm then went looking for a GPS adaptor. The Streetfinder software is huge and not very intuitive. Otherwise all went well. We took a trip over the weekend and I took along the GPS/Palm just to experiment.

It way exceeded my expectations. The only negative is the need to map out a route and then load maps of your destination. This requires a little planning.

It is awsome to see your icon travelling down a route. The downside is trying to drive while viewing. After the new wears off, I'm sure I'll just listen for the tones to tell me where to turn. I'm not convinced the altitude readout is accurate

Buy it, but also buy the lighter adaptor. On my first use, I learned I need it.

A very cool gadget that will keep me from getting lost.


Works great but   August 22, 2002
 17 out of 20 found this review helpful

Had to return the first one because it was broken. Second one works great, even in car (won't lock on when I'm flying a Gulfstream V but it's not certified for IFR Navigation anyway). Needs to include maps program for systems other than Windows (ie, Mac). This is easily remedied by using a web-based mapping program. Also would do away with need to update Streetfinder databases. Also, having trouble getting Road Atlas expansion card to recognize the GPS Companion. Don't know if it's Palm, Magellan, or Rand McNally. Have contacted Rand McNally. Just be aware that there might be an issue if your using this expansion card.


very basic   August 13, 2002
 14 out of 19 found this review helpful

It seemed like a great idea to have the GPS integrated with the Palm--I figured I'd be able to quickly edit waypoints without having to thumb through all the characters and it would be a simple hotsync operation to get them on my computer--but there are very limited options in the preferences menu. You can't select your coordinate system or datum. For those of us who want to actually work with maps or use these units in the field it's a major design flaw.

It's far easier to work with UTM when you are going back and forth with a map than trying to deal with lat/long decimal numbers. I'm disappointed in the unit and frustrated that the lack of such a basic feature was not clearly stated in the advertising. Unless I can find some alternative software (a call to customer support confirmed that Magellan doesn't support UTM for this unit) I'll have to return the unit and go back to using my stand-alone unit.