Banks PDA update.

[TCDiesel]

Banks PDA update,Now available

I Will have Part # and cost 7 to 10 Days, Should Be shipping in 30 Days.

 

[Hercules130]

any word on there vgt turbo?

 

[RMarkey]

Anyone know if they're software would work with any other brand PDA's, Dell perhaps?



I've been talking to the guys at Banks for about a year now for various things and he said that if you had the Tungsten already it was OK, but for the other brands he didn't "think" so because they couldn't guarentee it would work. I already spent too much on a Dell one, it would be great if I could use it, instead of buying another one, and switching everything over. The Dell's have the GPS stuff so it would be nice to just switch screens and have both right there! Or should I keep them separate? aka probably not worth the money?

 

[TCDiesel]

The VGT seems to be some secret weapon to GBE, They would Not share any info on this to us ,I think and this is only my opinion from the info I have been given its 2 Months out,I have held off installing Twins on my personal vehicle waiting for the VGT. .

I do not Know the compatibility of the PDA,Only that you will need the Six-Gun Tuner to Make it work. I should get one of the first production units in about 30 Days Maybe sooner OND.

 

[AndyMan]

Anyone know if they're software would work with any other brand PDA's, Dell perhaps?

I would imagine not. Since the Palm Tungsten in the picture runs Palm OS and the Dell Axiom's run Windows CE. I would venture a guess that there will be no cross platform availability. That to me seems kind of short-sighted, I don't know why Palm is still in business. Win CE devices (Axiom, Ipaq, etc) have the market cornered. At least that's the case in the circles I run in. We own over 200 hospitals, and 1000 surgery centers. Win CE devices are all over our organization. Haven't seen a Palm in years, and why would you want one? You can get an Axiom with 802. 11, bluetooth, GPS, gobs of memory, incredible display, and more processor than some desktops. Not to mention, they are cheap!

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

As Andy said it definately wouldn't be cross platform compatible. It uses IR and the tungsten is a 320x320 display so any Palm device with a 320x320 display that has IR (pretty much any of them made in the last few years) should be able to run it. It looks like the banks kit comes with a mount for the tungsten so you may have to rig up a different mount if you use a different device.



Andy - I've had an Ipaq for a few years and was relatively happy with it. Just last week though I went back to a Palm device (had a palm before the Ipaq). Palm is shifting their focus towards the smartphone market. I looked at all the available models of pda/phones out there and the Treo650 was by far the best integration of the two and was what I went with. There's plenty of market support for PalmOS (over 20,000 applications at palmsource.com), they now have flash ram so even if the battery goes dead you don't lose everything (which is huge), they are much more compact than the equivalent CE based products right now, and the battery life on it is incredible (I talk on mine for a couple hours a day plus a lot of web surfing, etc and haven't dropped below 50% on the battery). Palm has struggled some in recent years and Windows CE definately passed them up for a little while but they do have their place. Had their been a CE device as rugged and compact as the Treo650 I would have considered it but there isn't.

 

[AndyMan]

Okay, so you got me there Steve! I didn't think about PDA/Phone integration when I was ranting. That has been a smart move on Palm's part. That Treo650 is hot little device! We don't use that technology, we put Blackberrys to work for us. They just seemed integrate better than the Treo's and such. I've got kind of a chip on my shoulder regarding Palm. Back in the day of the Palm III, they were notorious for getting corrupt data when you tried to sync them with more than one PC (home and work for example). I washed my hands of them after dealing with Chapura everyday for a month trying to salvage a high-roller client's data.



... but I digress... we're hijacking the thread man!!



Sorry guys.



Back on topic now.



The fact that Banks is creating this integration to me is VERY VERY cool. I'm not a big banks fan, don't neccessarily dislike them, I've just found what I wanted in other places so far. I also like what edge has done with the Attitude 2, but to have integration with my PDA is more attractive to me. I would like to see it ported to the CE platform so I could have my PDA, GPS, Nav, Calendar, E-Mail, TDR, and Performance Mods in my pocket at all times though!!! Sweeeeeeeet.

 

[LightmanE300]

The only thing that is NOT cool is the fact this pda program controls a six-gun. .



More off topic - steve - I tend to agree with andy. I demoed the treo for a few weeks before settling on my 'harrier/blue angel' variant - which is rebranded by several companies, but probably best known as the i-mate pda2. Anyway it gives up a little in phone functionality for twice the processor and memory as well as a few other bonuses compared to the treo. I guess whatever people are comfy with is best - but I agree with andy - I am not interested in palm os. They should realize microsoft is bigger than the world ... lol if you can't beat em... lol

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

But when you are on your phone for 2,500+ minutes a month phone functionality is of prime importance! The size of the Treo is about perfect. I looked at the blackberries too and the size of them was what led me away from them. I carry my phone 24/7 and anything larger than the Treo just wouldn't be practical to carry. The Treo seemed more like a phone with PDA functionality versus the windows based machines being a pda with phone capability. Since the phone was the more important piece of the pie for me that's what sent me the way of the Treo. It's going to be interesting to see where this market goes - the capabilities of these things have come a long way in a short time.

 

[LightmanE300]

I agree on your assessment of phone vs pda. I'd say the treo leans definitely toward the phone side of things, and the i-mate I have is about neutral. The phone functionality is easy and everything can be done with buttons and no stylus and without using the touch-screen. The speakerphone and bluetooth work well also. If I were to talk that many minutes I would order a 'slave' phone which works on the same number and use it for phone only and the pda for other media needs. It doesn't cost much according to my provider to have a slave phone on the same account, maybe $5/more a month outside of the cost of the phone. Thats a lot of minutes - got a brain tumor yet??

 

[TCDiesel]

You Guys are way over My Head, Comment as you wish, I know Colin, Peter , and other read these post every Day. . I can see I will have to do more research and get up to speed . .

 

[RMarkey]

ohh well, it would have been cool. I don't feel like buying another PDA just for that sort of thing. I just found out tonight about the OBDII software stuff for the PDA's. If that stuff works well, maybe I'll play with that a little bit.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

got a brain tumor yet??

Not that I'm aware of . . . . bzzzzzt . . . . . asd asdf f ds sfsd f a sdc Everythings fine here



I've been carrying a pda (Ipaq) & cellphone for a couple years now. Most of the time I'd leave the PDA behind because it was too much of a pain to carry both. I carry my cell phone 24/7 (going on 12 years now) and the goal here was to have the pda with me 24/7 as well - any bigger than the treo and that wouldn't happen. One of my primary needs/wants for it was to be able to log into the TDR servers to get the site back up and running if it goes down. I've only been using the Treo for a couple weeks now but so far I'm VERY impressed with it. Picked it up on July 7th and since then I've used 82. 6mb of data and 699 minutes of talk time. My Ipaq has sat here since I picked it up and I haven't missed it.



Check this one out http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000577048252/ . If that was already available my decision probably would have been different.

 

[TCDiesel]

We Now Have Part Numbers.



SCENARIO 1:Customer wants PDA with Six-Gun tuner (vehicle is stock)



SCENARIO 2: Customer wants to upgrade his existing Six-Gun tuner with Power PDA.



SCENARIO 3:Customer wants to upgrade his existing Six-Gun tuner with power PDA features using his own Tungsten E2 PDA.



www.tcdieselperformance.com

 

[Matt400]

ohh well, it would have been cool. I don't feel like buying another PDA just for that sort of thing. I just found out tonight about the OBDII software stuff for the PDA's. If that stuff works well, maybe I'll play with that a little bit.

There is some real good stuff out now however you will find that they are much better on the Windows CE system so loading that onto a Palm with Banks is another compromise.

 

[Giachino]

I pretty much use what I want as the head of IT I get the new stuff when it comes out... . I'm not a fan of the PALM OS... . but I currently use a Treo 650... and love it. It supports complete remote integration into our corporate exchange server as well as ms office attatchements... . and I use outlook as the interface, not palm desktop... . thing's awsome... ...



That being said, when they come out with a smaller ce pda/phone (with keyboard), I'll give it a whirl..... either way, thank god they came out with a variety of solid integrated all in one pda/phone... . couldnt stand carrying around an ipaq and a phone... . sorry for the hijack, couldnt resist giving opinion