My New Toy -- Holux GPSlim236!

I got a call from the office yesterday, and was told that I have a parcel from Poslaju! Rushed down to the office, and whoalah... it's the GPS receiver Holux GPSlim236! I ordered it thru Practical Solutions on Tuesday @7am, and it arrived on Friday @11am! Pretty fast and smooth I must say! Thumbs-up for Practical Solutions! Bought it for USD99, inclusive of worldwide free delivery (a limited offer now still on)! I think that's a good bargain though! No problem with the Malaysian Custom Dept, coz the sender declared it as a gift of USD20! And so I think it went thru the custom check easily! Another thumbs-up for PS! :)

After reading thru the steps and info found at MalSingMaps, I have no problem setting up the Pocket PC, pairing it with the GPSr using bluetooth. A cold start of the Holux unit takes about 30-40 secs, and a hot start less than 10sec! That's pretty awesome! The pairing is swift and painless! I decided to use my ol' faithful iPaq 2210 for the pairing, becoz of two reasons: 1) i can install everything in the RAM, and this PDA will solely be "tested" for the GPS feature! And 2) my Dell x50v bluetooth is lately unstable... giving lots of "Bluetooth Expired" lame excuse... fed up!

I also got myself a cheap PDA holder for my car, and although it looks simple, it is rather solid and has a sturdy built (well, for a beginner like me, a cheap one will do lah!)... later maybe I will go for those branded ones like Arkon etc.

Today, I have been driving around town, and realise that many roads and POI are not updated in the maps provided by Malsingmaps. Probably there are not many (or in fact none?) people using GPS here in Sibu! Frankly no one needs a GPS here... nobody ever gets lost driving here in this town! ;) But nevertheless, it's cool to have such a gadget in-car, and drive around a non-busy town here, testing out the GPS features; so that in time to come, when I am back in KL, I will be familiar with this gadget, and the navigational system, and won't be distracted by the on-going heavy traffics there in KL while testing out the GPS!

This is a new hobby I am venturing in, and hope that in near future, after I have mastered it, I can contribute to the Malsingmaps for a more accurate Sibu map!