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Rich Hawley - 2020-09-18 10:49 PM
CE based GPS units have been a mainstay for decades and as you discovered… fun to hack. GPSPassion.com is probably the best resource for this genre as they gave many shells for many devices that gives you best of your device.
Rarely have I found a software application that won't run on a GPS, albeit you may need to include the proper .dlls to make them work.
http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=121168 is a good link to start.
My favorite CE based GPS was the iPaq 310 because of the 800 x 600 pixel screen size. Though to use wifi you had to use an wifi SD card. Which meant something else to carry and lose.
The iPaq 5935 was my other favorite as it had both Bluetooth and wifi built it… but only had a 320 x 240 pixel screen.
I've also owned several Chinese unbranded GPS units with the 5" screen, some runnjng CE.Net 4.2, some 5.0, and some 6.0. Most all could be hacked to run and load directly into CE. Most all had reserved nonvolitile RAM for persistent file storage. And most all had that crappy resistive touch screen we know and "don't" love.
Before the smartphone era, I used to have my GPS loaded with ebooks and used it as a reader while I sat in the car waiting as my wife spent all of my money shopping.
Do a search here on HPCFactor for "ipaq 310" and my name "rich hawley" for author and check out the results… some have nifty pictures of those old devices whicb I no longer have or use.
oh cool! I had checked that forum out, thanks. At glance, I found so many cool stuffs that I could utilize. Sure, there are so many cool things I could do.
also, I forgot to mention that,
yes, like old GPSes, This GPS also had resistive touch screen. Obviously, a stylus for it is provided, for better accuracy. Yeah, you know Steve Jobs? His famous quote? yeah basically it
.
I had checked the system setting as well, Perhaps, following specification might be common:
It had
- MediaTek CPU, ARM architecture, maybe v4 or v7??
- 120 MB RAM
- 4 GB internal storage
Another things I found so intresting about this GPS:
I have witnessed that on System, Memory setting, the slider always reset every reboot. it resets its storage allocation to exactly 512 KB. Well, since the Internal Storage do not use RAM but uses special NAND flash somewhere in the board, there is no need to worry. Even better, it is powered by a Backup battery, as it is a NAND flash. However, weirdly enough, since I had fixed CAB installation capability using the guide above by editing some registry, the registry indeed survive even after power off and turn on, therefore the fix wceload procedure only has to be done once and for all. I have no idea who reset the memory slider, perhaps the internal software when the GPS starts up. Who knows.
And I have inserted some games into it. Unfortunately, most or all of the save game did not survive per reboot, due to the save files were placed not in where it survive, which in this case the Internal Memory NAND flash or SD Card. Yes, many games saved the save files on the root directory of the device. And those who put the save file next to the executable
(if they also placed in Internal Memory NAND flash or SD card
) should survive.
About the internet connection, it is shame to found out that I haven't found any way to connect to Internet on this GPS, because it only had a Headphone Jack, Micro SD slot, and Mini USB port. I believe, the Mini USB port had no OTG support since no manufacturer had thought about it at that time of the era. But I haven't tried yet so, who knows
. But wait. On The Go trend was heard since around 2014 era of Android Smartphone, which basically a Micro-USB to Full size USB things. I haven't seen the Mini-USB to Full Size USB, never yet. in fact I also have seen USB-C to full size USB.
yeah, so basically it.
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Speak for yourself, Rich. Don't get me wrong; I've learned to like navigating my Android phone with my fingertip, but only because the screen is large enough. (And even still the spot I'm touching doesn't always respond. Those pesky popup ads try to take advantage of that with tiny 'x' spots to close them.) Small screens require more precision, so resistive touchscreens have their place.
Speaking about Android era. I have seen a lot of ads these days to
gain money stuff like that. I know, however we have already been used to it. as long as it is not as intrusive as it used to be, like just banner, no constant pop up things like that.
Those ads of course typically found on video games. e.g. every level up you'll see ad, and even you can watch an ad for rewards. Depending on how greedy those developers are, It is also one of the factor how each developer put an ad on their software. Worry not, Google
(and whoever host the platform store
) will moderate the ad placements so it won't be abused that would disturb users.
I haven't opened Google Map ever since. Now I did. Yeah, it's just a norm these days if you would like to know places to go. Or know but wanted to avoid
traffic jam, because Google Map can report on that! Amazing huh? Note that GPS manufacturers. Oh, there're, where. it's lonely, only Google here. anyways..
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That was the cool thing about those Via/WonderMedia ROM images. You could build your own custom ROM as well as harvest files for other CE 6 devices.
Oh yeah, I heard about Platform Builder stuff like that, which basically an embedded device designer use to build Windows CE firmware like that. I got those files but I can't install them right now due to my SSD full. I thought 1 TB is enough. Wow, Data hoarder may not be given a small size storage infrastructure, that's rude. anyways..
continuing..
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Didn't know about that old handhelds forum on Reddit. Nice to see there's still interest out there in these classic devices. (I have a few Palm OS devices as well as an HP 200LX and a Psion 5mx in addition to my ever-expanding collection of CE devices. )
Yes, I have been scrolling about Reddit these days. such as those ones I had. So yeah, you should check that out. Again, it's reddit.com/r/OldHandhelds They showcases their old devices, tips and tricks, and more. They got talks about favorite handhelds like iPAQ, Jornada, etc. yeah. Say hi and showcase cool things about old handhelds
You also would like to explore reddit.com/r/WindowsCE as well. it's small, but it's there. there are also tips and tricks as well.