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Laptop vs. Tablet PC
My own investigation into alternatives to my handheld GPS has led me to a Motion Computing Tablet PC, a RAM mount and a bluetooth GPS. When loaded with the proper marine software this would give a navigation computer, practically impervious to weather and shock, in a large enough (8x11 inch) screen that mounts horizontally or vertically, all with the added advantage of being removable. Taken home this would magically turn into a small home computer with wi-fi capabilities that you could enter routes into, etc., while sitting in your easy chair. At present a rig like this tops out at about $2,500.
It's the $2,500 that stops me since there's no doubt in my mind that the price of these things will start to go sharply down in the near future. At present I'm using a Dell Axim running Memory Map Navigator to do all of the above and except for the small size screen, it does everything I want it to.
In either case the RAM mount is what made the Dell usable when coming home from the Keys flats in rough water. Small is bad enough but small and bouncing all over...
MM
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