The Wizxer 350 - Fusion GPS Thing

So this thing surfaced recently – the Wizxer WXP 350. It’s a fusion of about a million things mounted oaround a hard drive, including a GPS, a movie player, FM radio, eBook reader, 1.3 megapixel camera, video and audio recording through input ports, WiFi, Bluetooth and it runs on methane…. Well not the methane part, but the thing has a lot. It started me thinking about where GPS units were going, as more and more have the MP3 player, and the integrated Bluetooth for handsfree calling capability, and some even have video playback capability. So, where does it end and should anything with a hard drive and a screen have all functions under the sun?

The recent crop of MP3 playing GPS units is a good example of “almost but not really.” They are almost needed and almost good, but not really. Some did it; some put in the MP3 player and the FM modulator to get the MP3 playback to the stereo in your car – good job. Some playback through a 1” speaker on the back of the GPS as a bolt on that doesn’t play while navigating – not a good idea. Some are in between with an output jack hoping like crazy that you have an input jack into your stereo – few stereos do. So, where’s that leave MP3 players in GPS units? Moderately useful, but I’d still rather lug around my iPod than count on many of the GPS units I have seen to do music well. Might not be a bad back-up though, I could still sync with my computer in some jump through hoops way, carrying the essential 10GB of music. Ok, I can see it, as long as I can play it through my stereo in my car.

Video, and a Megapixel camera? A lot of people thought that having a camera in a mobile phone was stupid until they realized that they could snap a picture anywhere and carry it along with them or send it to a friend. I think that having decent cameras in lots of devices could be pretty useful. Again, I might not trust my Omni-device to my best snapshots, but I would treat it like the camera in my mobile phone – a nice backup that can show people where I was or who I saw walking down the street. Oh, yea, Video. Can’t watch that movie while navigating, right, but I may watch a movie, or a TV show lifted off my TiVo while I am on my business trip flight to somewhere that I need a GPS to navigate with. I’ll take it too.

Moving the data around – OK so now that I have a camera, and maybe some music, can I move that data around? Well no unless you have some kind of wireless capability (or dreaded cables – so 1990’s). Alright, sign me up for WiFi or Bluetooth. But if you are going to give me WiFi, you’d better give me a browser and some kind of stylus to write email replies when I am on the road.

So, maybe an all-in-one device would be good, but the bottom line is that it ups the design requirements significantly. Just look at the people who have tried and failed to beat the iPod. The iPod is dead simple, and does its job well. How can you expect excellence in rolling all of these features into one device? A lot of people can’t get GPS functionality right let alone a GPS with all these add-ons. You can’t hope for this design excellence for a long time. They will try, and will fail for a while, but eventually they might make it, which could be awesome. Keep the iPod handy, we’ll keep an eye out for you.

June 19, 2006

The Wizxer 350 - Fusion GPS Thing