Belkin Bluetooth GPS Receiver
Global positioning via PDA—with no strings attached
J
oan of Arc said she was guided by voices, and they executed her.
We were guided by voices, too, but fared much better than she
did. That’s because our directions came from a Bluetooth-
enabled iPaq 5455 connected to Belkin’s Bluetooth GPS Receiver. The
GPS device took note of our location and sent the coordinates wirelessly
to our handheld. The software loaded onto our handheld showed us
where we were, and voice prompts from the handheld’s speaker
directed us from our modest Bay Area hamlet to a remote address about
an hour east of South Lake Tahoe. As far as GPS systems go, none of
this is particularly astonishing. What’s remarkable is how well the whole
package works.
The kit is simple. The GPS receiver was recognized immediately by our
Bluetooth-enabled laptop and Pocket PC, and configuration took just a few
seconds. We next loaded up the Belkin Navigation software onto our PC,
and were greeted by an application that allowed us to select by region
which maps we wanted to download to our handheld (the software
contains maps for the United States and Canada), as well as any other
additional information such as points of interest, airport locations, and
even scenic views.
The maps that appeared on our handheld were legible, and intelligently
highlighted major streets for reference in addition to those streets relevant
to our route. Directions are automatically updated if you veer off course
or make a “pit stop.” The built-in rechargeable battery within the GPS
unit lasted a generous nine hours, but Belkin includes a cigarette-lighteradapter, an AC adapter, and a USB charger for longer hauls. All the data
collected during a trip, including route, turnoffs, speed, and elevation, can
be recorded to a file and played back later; in court, for example.
We think Joan would have
enjoyed this gadget as much
as we did, and the medieval
price doesn’t hurt either. So
in a personal tribute to the
woman who dared oppose
the King of England, halfway
through our trip we used
Belkin Navigation to take us
to... Burger King.
—LOGAN DECKERIf Hansel and Gretel could have had Belkin’s GPS Receiver,
the world would have had one less fairy tale. Or would it?Kyocera FineCam SL300R
Can a camera’s looks compensate for a few flaws?
S
leek, and precious-looking, the Kyocera FineCam SL300R possess-
es a Lord of the Rings kind of appeal: Everyone who sees
this shiny bauble of a digital camera becomes Gollum, unable
to refrain from touching it.
Unfortunately, serious photographers who use the 3.2-megapixel
FineCam in a day-to-day fashion will quickly get over the camera’s
impressive swiveling body and sharp looks and become frustrated with a
flashbulb that’s way too powerful, along with a few other flaws.
Casual photographers, however, should enjoy the FineCam’s light-
ning-fast shutter speed. With just a 0.07 second lag, it overcomes the
annoying delay that typically prevents mid- and low-end digital cameras
from capturing spontaneous moments and events. The time between
pressing the shutter button and the resulting shutter action is so brief,
we were able to shoot spur-of-the-moment photographs with the
FineCam as if we were using a non-digital camera.
What’s more, by keeping the shutter button depressed, you can enter
a continuous capture mode, where the camera will shoot and capture
images nonstop at the rate of 3.5 frames per second.
Unfortunately, the camera’s brutally powerful flash washes out any-
thing and everything within a two to five foot range in a sea of unnatural,
fluorescent-looking light.
With most cameras, you can simply turn off the flash if you’re indoors
and get nice, natural-looking images. Not so with the FineCam. When you
turn off the flash, the camera’s shutter speed doesn’t open and close fast
enough to compensate; flash-less indoor images suffer from motion blur
at the default settings. You can adjust the shutter speed slightly by fid-
dling with the setup options—a “night” and “sports” mode are among the
camera’s six different settings—but this only barely corrects the problem.Daytime usage is another story. With lots of light, the FineCam takes
photos that look sharp and
crisp. A 2x optical zoom
allows you to get up close
to your subject, and a digital
zoom extends the zoom to
6x. Equally impressive is the
movie mode; we haven’t seen
too many cameras this small
shoot live action with such
high quality.
—GEORGE JONESThis snazzy-looking camera will impress your friends...
until they use it indoors and wash out all their photos with
the overly potent flash.Slim, attractive, and takes great daylight images.SMEAGOLGOLLUM
Flash is too powerful, and the swivel design
makes it too easy to get fingerprints on the lens.$400, http://www.kyoceraimaging.comMAXIMUMPC VERDICT 7
64 MAXIMUMPC MARCH 2004
Reviews
Inexpensive, voice-prompting wireless GPS without
monthly fees.STEAKSTAKE
Despite a “high-sensitivity” mode, we still lost
the GPS signal in some covered areas.
$300, http://www.belkin.comMAXIMUMPC VERDICT 9
3.9”2.5”.6”2.75”
1.5”