Will,

I dont work for HP…havent since 2002, but I did have contacts there and was able to get useful info that I thought people wanted to have shared.

The ipaq hardware will work well with iGo8, so the future upgrade path is not dead.

a few easy mods

http://www.ebay-pictures.com/gps/

I will be parting with my money today and no doubt join the church of Ipaq GPS!!!

Infama you seem to be on every 314 review site informing the world of HP updates, if you dont work for HP then you should at least get commission!!

I couldnt decide between this and the S90i. This won on price point some £30 cheaper even with the TMC charger thrown in.

One question. Will I get TMC in france? Im uk based but touring france this summer

HP update news here:
http://www.gpsreview.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5875

I stand by the review.

The fact that it suits you is fine. I’m happy for you that you are happy with it. For me, it was a crippled, sad device, far short of what it could have been. Maybe with the update, it got better. I can’t speak to that because I don’t have it any more.

Issues that I have never experienced as being a problem:
- the sound level of the voice is as good as I think it should be
- the screen size is larger and the screen resolution is sharper than any GPS’s I am interested in purchasing. I keep the top and bottom menu bars off.
- when driving from Vancouver, BC to Whistler recently the smart zoom in and out is exactly what I wanted to see: while driving on the freeway it automatically shows me the larger map, and upon arriving at destination I am presented with a detailed view. All GPS’s should behave this way
- maps has 2/3 looking forward and 1/3 looking backward
- excellent battery life
- a world of third party WinCE software is waiting to be installed on this device

The more I use this device the more I understand Lilly-Anne’s frustration. JakeRich had never attempted to fully explore this unit and thus provided an inaccurate and misleading critique of the HP 310.
I would not have purchased any other device.

The system is now rock stable (no more unwarranted reboots at random), the Contacts issues is now fixed, Route avoidance that was broken in the last update has been fixed again, the system runs faster, TTS has improved to the point of being quite adequate (meaning that hacks are no longer essential), the contour (relief) maps are now gargeous, and overall, only the soon to be updated painful update process and the weird on/off switch can be classed as real remaining issues.

In the end, I think we will have to live with the on switch, but everything else has or will soon be solved.

I have no sympathy.
I emailed you several days ago and never got a response! I also told you that I am frequently at gpsreview.net and that is where to find me, that is where many answers are.

The sound quality HAS improved a bit with the latest update, at least for Susan TTS (US voice). Volume wise for sure. As the FW update was not so extensive for the 314, I am not sure of the extent of improvements seen there. I know that 314 users will shortly be getting a free map upgrade to 2008.10 mapsets and other FW updates, as the last one was interim. 310 users are only due a minor upgrade as the big one just happened.

For the 314, there is no Susan or Dave TTS voice, only Simon and Kate.

However, as I made known, I ran into a complex hack for TTS that made it now on par with Garmin/TT quality and perfectly audible. Indeed, it can now be too loud.

Anyone interested can send me a PM at at GPSreview.net.

I learned to do this stuff from over at GPSpassion. (Customization thread)

There are several posts that have dumbed it down. Use the “print thread” feature there to create a single HTML page and do a search for all posts by “Preytor”. He did a good job of explaining how to change code in files and safely replace in data.zip an other procedures. Lutz Bendlin (sp?) also did the same.

CECMD (found at the Ghisler site), aka Total Commander, and TCPMP are a bt more complicated, but still very manageable. There is a link to this freeware executable in the custom thread at GPSpassion.com

There is an easy way and a hard way with cecmd. Hard way is to take the .cab file (do not expand it) and execute it by double clicking. You then get a bunch of files. Rename the 2nd largest to either CELauncher.exe or cecmd.exe. The file is called something like cecmd002.xxx. If you have a 1 or 2 gb sd card, then you can put CElauncher.exe there (of course your card mus be connected to the PC via the 310 or card reader). You can then reset the 310 with the card in and it will boot to Total commander. This wont work with a larger card, unfortunately.

Easier and more foolproof way follows:

First you simply take that executable file (cecmd.exe, that can be found in the custom thread) and place it in the Games folder of the HP (in RESIDENT flash, which is just another name for internal memory), using windows drag and drop. Next disconnect from the PC

Then in the 310, you will see it show up in Games section. Just tap CECMD and it will open Total Commander and you use it like a mini windows.

To load the player, you connect the 310 to the PC and place the entire .cab file either on the SD card or in resident flash (games folder). Disconnect (you should reboot after every major operation). Windows CE programs will NOT work in Windows XP, so you cant execute TCPMP in XP….must be done in CE. Open TC and use it to find the tcpmp.cab file. Double tap with the stylus to excecute the cab. This will cause new files to be created. Move the .exe file(s) to the Games folder of resident flash using TC drag and drop/cut and paste. TCPMP is now accessible from the games folder.

The location of the freeware for TCPMP is also given in the custom thread.