IPAq's most certainly are cheap, I have at least 10 that are available
for $50 aust, and there are plenty on ebay for even less than that. I
have not encountered ANY of the poblems you mention very often, and have
trained many ordinary pilots to use them. I have yet to have any failiures
inflight.
Any equipment that is not well maintatined will present the issues you
describe, and the same problems could easily occour with these new
devices.
In Australia it is illegal to use mobile devices in the air, so there is no
advantage for us in that feature.
Personally i will not buy any devie or use a service that gives my info to
Google, thanks. They already have far too much info on people now, but none
about ME.
As to O/S I smell open source fanatic in the air on that subject.
Dave L
> Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2011 03:55:58 +0200
> From: fol...@kabelsalat.ch
> To: xcsoar-user@lists.sourceforge.net
> Subject: Re: [Xcsoar-user] Xcsoar-user Digest, Vol 63, Issue 5
>
> On Tue, Aug 23, 2011 at 11:01:56PM +0000, David Lawley wrote:
> > I could not agree more, I have yet to see any reason to replace my Ipaq'a
> > for any of the current offerings.
> > > On Mon, Aug 22, 2011 at 12:33:56AM +0200, Tobias Bieniek wrote:
> > > > I have a Streak now since a few days ago and yesterday I was in the
> > > > bright sunlight with it for the first time. I was very impressed. Never
> > > > seen any device/display like it, not even the old iPAQs... Even though
> > > > it's discontinued now it's still available on ebay and other sites.
> > >
> > > I went flying with my HTC Desire Z in full sunlight. It works quite well,
> > > while its worse than the streak and i wouldn't give it a general
> > > recomendation, its useable and better than all the ipaqs. (The ipaq Era
> > > is really over now.)
> > >
> > > Samsung Galaxy SII btw. is also very readable in direct sunlight.
> > >
> > > - Folken
> > >
> >
> > And yet I find my HTC Desire totally unusable in any kind of sunlight, even
> > for making calls let alone using in the glider !
>
> The HTC Desire Z has been released in 2010 September and is a different
> device compared to the HTC Desire. (Release
> date February 2010)
>
> > I use an HP 3970 still running ppc2000 and it works faultlessly with xcsoar
> > 6.1.2, the ipaq era is far from over.... there must be hundreds still out
> > there working in gliders, running older versions of xcsoar, winpilot and
> > seeyou.
>
> > We should be targetting these users and converting them to xcsoar 6 rather
> > then telling people they need 'new' hardware.. Glider pilots are afterall
> > notoriously 'carefull' with their money ;)
>
> See and this is a no-brainer with the android version. It just updates
> itself, if so desired.
>
> > IPAQs are.. cheap, reliable, low power, have good cradles, all in all an
> > excellent solution.
>
> Cheap:
> IPAQs go for more than 120 Euros on segelflug.de->kleinanzeigen. For that
> you can get several cheapo android devices. And you probably need a phone
> anyway. A dell streak 5 costs currently 230 USD on Ebay.
>
> Reliable:
> I see this in my club: constant issues with stuff blocking com ports,
> batteries that are dead, screen calibration that does not work, constant
> reconfiguration/reinstallation once the power has gone, baud rate
> issues, different versions work on different devices.
>
> And nevermind trying to sync one of these IPaqs with a windows 7.
>
> Sure these things can be managed. But that requires knowledge/discipline
> which seems
> not to be given with the average glider pilot, and is also uncessary as
> there are technological solutions for such issues.
>
> Power:
> Since any android phone can be charged from USB, its minimum charging
> current is 5V/500mA. Ipaqs use the same.
>
> Technology:
> Just having some sort of internet connection, makes it way easier to get
> tasks,airspace,metar,maps for your device. Also uploading to olc is
> simple, no swapping sd cards.
>
> Future additons could include an online pilot logbook, in which the
> entries include the gps track, pictures and video.
>
> With the IOIO-Board you can hook up to 4 serial devices. E.g.
> Electric Vario, Flarm and the VHF Radio.
>
> In additon there are ports and
> pins which could be connected to gear, flap and ballast switches.
>
> Additional buttons and even gauges could easely be controlled. (E.g.
> external Vario indicator)
>
> It also supports the one-wire-protocol, with which additional sensors
> such as temperature and humidity could be hooked up to it.
>
> One could use the TAS and the g sensors built into the phone to create a
> stall warner.
>
> The integrated compass could assist in wind calculation. (remember the
> 600 EUR compass addons for the LX-Series of Flightcomputers?)
>
> The IPaqs where good in their day. Overengineered and broadley
> available. But availabilty has been scarce as of this year. Its
> hardware resources are limited. Its operatingsystem should have died a
> thousand deaths years ago.
>
> Besides, with android, the project gets a lot more exposure. This means
> more users, more developers. More Bugfixes, more features, better tested
> and therefore more reliable software. Max recently reported that there
> where more than 5000 XCSoar installations on Android.
>
> So with all this in mind, i would not go for an ipaq.
>
> - Folken
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> EMC VNX: the world's simplest storage, starting under $10K
> The only unified storage solution that offers unified management
> Up to 160% more powerful than alternatives and 25% more efficient.
> Guaranteed. http://p.sf.net/sfu/emc-vnx-dev2dev
> _______________________________________________
> Xcsoar-user mailing list
> Xcsoar-user@lists.sourceforge.net
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/xcsoar-user
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EMC VNX: the world's simplest storage, starting under $10K
The only unified storage solution that offers unified management
Up to 160% more powerful than alternatives and 25% more efficient.
Guaranteed. http://p.sf.net/sfu/emc-vnx-dev2dev
_______________________________________________
Xcsoar-user mailing list
Xcsoar-user@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/xcsoar-user
