Reading Topic: Replying to Topic 'The Hume Hwy Run'
Yeah Pocket PC is basically a cut down version of windows designed to run on a wallet-sized computer. These things are pulling 400mhz with 64mb of ram these days so they're not total pieces of crap either.
For me, it makes more sense to spend 1200 bucks on something I can use as a mini-computer (you can send/receive emails, browse the web, etc from these things if you're willing to pay the cellphone costs). They also come with meeting scheduling software, and even cut-down versions of excel, word, and access. Oh and games too... you can get a version of quake, for example.
So it's not as good as a laptop, but still very versitile... and small
With regards to pre-programming... yeah you can already buy navigation software for pocket pc's but it can be pretty expensive (up to 1000 bucks for the software alone).
I'd take a shareware approach - 30 day trial, 50 dollar registration fee to get warnings of upcoming hazards.
Then the next part of the project would be to display your position on your melways / sydways / etc... That'd be a more expensive addon since the maps cost like 140 bucks on CD in the first place. So maybe it'd be 200 bucks for the software that displays the melways.
After that comes the things like adding navigation, adding speed limits, etc... ie the hard stuff. It would depend on the kinda information I can get out of the maps on CD... if they already have that info built into them then easy, but if not that's where I'd hafta quit my day job and go full time on the project. (I can dream, right?
)
But there's a good chance if you're a salesperson that you could get your work to pay for the 700 dollar ipaq (since it lets you arrange meetings etc on the road), then all you'd need is 500 for the gps and 50 for the software.
Or I suppose if you had a cabled version then maybe 200 for the gps and 50 for the software. I'm not sure if I'd initially support cabled or not... I prefer the idea of bluetooth because then you can hide it away inside the dash and your ipaq just connects to it wirelessly as long as it's within about 5-10 metres radius of the car.
The hard part is keeping the database updated with information of cameras / hazards / etc (it's a big job for one person to maintain a database with that much info). But that's where the shareware concept is cool, you let the user's report the hazards kinda like roadwatch does.