Craig's Musings

I just ordered the new iMate SP5m (okay, I'm doing a little too much technology spending tonight, I'll concede the point), and holy cow, HTC has come a long way since the first one - the SPV launched by Orange back in October of 2002.

I remember how cool the SPV was when I got my first one back when I was at Action Engine. Then came the E100 in June 2003, with the slightly cooler design, followed by the E200 running the new, improved Windows Mobile 2003 in October of 2003. The SPV500 (same as my iMate SP3) was launched by Orange after I left Action Engine. And now here it is, 3 years later, and the 5th version, called the SPV 600 by Orange, is here. My iMate version should be here in 2 or 3 weeks, from Expansys in the UK.

The badass 2005 version runs Windows Mobile 5.0 and has 64MB of RAM, bluetooth, a MiniSD card slot, quad band GSM/GPRS/EDGE (oh yes, just when you thought the US had stopped being non-standard in using GSM frequencies, we added 850MHZ, too!), a 1.3 megapixel camera, and - wait for it - Wi-Fi!

For fun, I've collected all the versions here... happy 3rd birthday, SPV!

Posted by Craig at 7:50 PM | Permalink | | Leave a comment | TrackBacks (0)

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I just ordered this bad ass little gadget off of eBay - it is a bluetooth GPS receiver. But no ordinary bluetooth GPS receiver: with 9 hours of battery life, bluetooth & USB, less than 2 ounces - it fell immediately into my "must have tiny gadget" category (on, and as an added bonus, it can perform 60,000 feet high, moving 700 knots, while pulling up to 4Gs - if I wanted to use my Holux + Sony T laptop to get driving directions while renting a Soviet MIG fighter jet, say).

I discovered it while trolling the internet for how to GPS tag my digital photos. Sadly, things aren't there yet, although I could use this device (using a USB-to-RS232 cable) with my Nikon D1-X, but the Canon website doesn't even have a MATCH for GPS - so no hope of a bluetooth enabled Digital Elph in the nearterm, I guess. Which sucks - I would definitely carry the Holux with me everywhere, and then I would have a permanent geocoding of all the pictures I took.

Hello, it's 2005, what the heck is wrong with all these camera folks - bluetooth & NMEA GPS protocol support, people, let's get to it!

I stole the specs from the eBay merchant's page and reformatted them so I could read them, they are in the full body of the entry...

Holux GR 236

General Stats
- Tracks up to 20 satellites
- Snap Start: <3 sec(at < 25 minutes off period)
- Update rate: 1 HZ
- Antenna Type: Built in Patch Antenna
- Minimum signal tracked: -159dBW
- Dimension: 46.3 × 67 × 19 mm
- Weight: < 56g
- Lithium-ion battery lasts for more than 9 hours of use
- Operation Temperature: -10C to + 60C
- Store Temperature: -20C to + 85C
- Operation Humidity:5% to 95% No condensing

Position Accuracy Non DGPS (Differential GPS)
- Position: 5 - 25 m CEP without SA
- Velocity: 0.1m / sec
- Time: 1 usec sync GPS time

EGNOS/WAAS/Beacon
Position: < 2.2 m, horizontal 95 % of time
< 5 m, vertical 95 % of time

Acquisition Time
- Reacquisition: 0.1 sec. averaged
- Hot Start: 8 sec. averaged
- Warm Start: 38 sec. averaged
- Cold Start: 45 sec. averaged

Protocol & Interface
- Compatible with Bluetooth devices with Serial Port Profile (SPP)
- Bluetooth™ version 1.1 compliant
- Bluetooth™ Class 2 operation (up to 10 meter range)

Output terminal: Mini-USB (TTL Level)
- NMEA Protocol Output : V 2.2
Baud Rate: 9600 bps
Data Bit: 8
Parity: N
Stop Bit: 1
- Output Format :
Standard : GGA, GSA, GSV, RMC
Optional : GGL, VTG, SiRF Binary

Dynamic Conditions
- Altitude: 18,000 m ( 60,000 feet ) max
- Velocity: 515 m/sec ( 700 knots ) max
- Acceleration: ±4G, max
- Jerk: 20 m/sec, max

Posted by Craig at 6:00 PM | Permalink

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