Rating: 
Summary: Good, but could be much better
Review: Before I got this GPS, thought the Magellan Companion was a great idea. The unit itself can run for 12 hours on 2 AAA batteries, the software is loaded on my Palm, I can use it to charge my Palm using the power adapter and I can store the maps on SD memory card on my Palm.I received the unit and it was light, pretty well built and snapped on to the M505 very nicely. The Nav Companion software for the Palm was also pretty good. However, the Rand McNally mapping software, which is a seperate application was another story. When I first loaded the software on my computer, it looked very promising. It took a lot more space that I had anticipated, but since it had details map of the US as well as thousands of POI, it was that big of an issue. The trouble began when I try to download a map to my Palm, it kept telling me that the current map area was too large. Then I discovered that I had to zoom in to leve 7 before it allow me to export to my Palm. Well, at level 7 of the Los Angeles area is almost 10MB. I went ahead and download the map to my memory card. Even worst, when I actually connected my Palm to the GPS and turned it on, it took almost 5 minutes before I got a lock. During my driving trip, I came to the edge of the map that I downloaded and I got a message that I have reach the end of the map and that the GPS will turn off. I could still use the Nav Companion software to track my coordinates, but no map. So in conclusion, I think it's a good product, but the mapping software needs some major improvements. At least my MAP 330 has a basemap.
Rating: 
Summary: Great hardware, horrible software
Review: First, the good part: The GPS receiver is very light and tough, and the included basic plotting software works great.
Now, the bad part: If you buy this, throw out the Rand McNally software. It's horrible. The maps will NOT scroll on the palm, and instead will draw for literally 1 second your position, then go black for 10-15 seconds, then draw again for 1 second. Plus, you can run it from a SD card, OR you can run it from RAM. If you want to install the application in RAM and the maps (which are HUGE - 6MB-8MB for most city's metropolitan areas) on the SD card, you are out of luck.
I've downloaded a demo of Mapopolis and it appears to be about 1000x (no joke) faster, GPS-compatible, and supports RAM & SD card dual usage.
Rating:
Summary: Works great but
Review: Had to return the first one because it was broken. Second one works great, even in car (won't lock on when I'm flying a Gulfstream V but it's not certified for IFR Navigation anyway). Needs to include maps program for systems other than Windows (ie, Mac). This is easily remedied by using a web-based mapping program. Also would do away with need to update Streetfinder databases. Also, having trouble getting Road Atlas expansion card to recognize the GPS Companion. Don't know if it's Palm, Magellan, or Rand McNally. Have contacted Rand McNally. Just be aware that there might be an issue if your using this expansion card.
Rating:
Summary: It all depends on what you expect.
Review: I bought m505($...), then I bought GPS from palm for $..., with $... rebate. I think $... is not a lot for a GPS. Little hard to figure out at first use, but read manual(RTFM) carefully. Yes, the software from McNally suck. I can get more accurate map from MapQuest without GPS support ;) Anyway, if you spent over $... for this GPS, then I might think twice, but for $.... I would say it's worth what I paid it for. Software gives you two kinds of map. First one is for direction. Basically get addresses and follow direction. Second one is general area map. It covers pretty good amount of area. Not whole nation nor whole california, but a county or two. If you turn on GPS on the map, it will give your current location. Like those navigation system. I bought this instead of those over $... auto navigation system. I just bought 256MB SD for $.... Gotta try putting the software on RAM and map on SD.
Rating:
Summary: first impressions
Review: I compare my experience with the one of my co-worker with a Pharos PK012 Pocket GPS Navigator Kit for iPAQ. The Pharos seems to be faster with the position update. The Pharos cannot work with batteries and comes with a cigarette lighter adapter. If you want to use your GPS outdoors or on a motorcycle the Magellan for Palm will have a little advantage. Otherwise the Pharos has an advantage. I agree with many about the software from Rand McNally. I just don't like it. Even comparing it with the "no brand name" Ostia software, included with the Pharos, the Rand McNally immediately looks slower, harder to use and with way less features.
With Ostia you can invert the route, select origin and destination from your contacts, recalculate a route on the fly!
With the Rand McNally you have to prepare the route from your PC. The Ostia had a better way to display map and directions at the same time too (different ways to split the screen). Maps looks more readable on the Ostia. I noticed that using the Rand McNally software and relative maps from the internal memory produced better results than software and maps on SD card. I will pretty soon try to have software on internal memory and maps on SD card.
My SD card is a Lexar 256Mb: does anybody know if maps will perform better on an original Palm SD card? I also did the mistake of syncing and opening on the Palm a bigger map of metro Philly and got stuck 10 minutes to wait the high level map to load... and I did not sync any POI (point of interest)!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Palm gps companion
Review: I wish someone had mentioned this is a PC-only device before I purchased it. Not only does the mapping software shipped with this require a Windows operating system, but Magellan does not support Macs. I've managed to get the thing loaded onto my palm, but now I can't even get a satellite read: and there's no way to consult the help file, since it's provided on the Magellan site for download in a format not recognized by my Macintosh. (It involves a DLL, which is PC-only.) Not to mention that the software updates are downloaded in a ZIP format that's not Mac-friendly. Since the Palm m500 works with both PC and Mac, why doesn't the m500 companion work with both? And why is this a fact you've got to take pains to discover?
Rating: 
Summary: Product does not work with Macs
Review: I wish someone had mentioned this is a PC-only device before I purchased it. Not only does the mapping software shipped with this require a Windows operating system, but Magellan does not support Macs. I've managed to get the thing loaded onto my palm, but now I can't even get a satellite read: and there's no way to consult the help file, since it's provided on the Magellan site for download in a format not recognized by my Macintosh. (It involves a DLL, which is PC-only.) Not to mention that the software updates are downloaded in a ZIP format that's not Mac-friendly. Since the Palm m500 works with both PC and Mac, why doesn't the m500 companion work with both? And why is this a fact you've got to take pains to discover?
Rating:
Summary: very basic
Review: It seemed like a great idea to have the GPS integrated with the Palm--I figured I'd be able to quickly edit waypoints without having to thumb through all the characters and it would be a simple hotsync operation to get them on my computer--but there are very limited options in the preferences menu. You can't select your coordinate system or datum. For those of us who want to actually work with maps or use these units in the field it's a major design flaw. It's far easier to work with UTM when you are going back and forth with a map than trying to deal with lat/long decimal numbers. I'm disappointed in the unit and frustrated that the lack of such a basic feature was not clearly stated in the advertising. Unless I can find some alternative software (a call to customer support confirmed that Magellan doesn't support UTM for this unit) I'll have to return the unit and go back to using my stand-alone unit.
Rating: 
Summary: Really just a toy
Review: The GPS device is cool, but the Rand McNally Streetfinder software is junk, really worthless. In the Northeast corridor where you would expect the data to be a little more precise, the software often says you are "off course" even when the position icon shows you exactly on course. And the plotted course route is often not the best route, sometimes it is dowright wacky. Should I mention that I am still waiting (six months later) for my mail-in rebate?
Rating:
Summary: Really just a toy
Review: The GPS device is cool, but the Rand McNally Streetfinder software is junk, really worthless. In the Northeast corridor where you would expect the data to be a little more precise, the software often says you are "off course" even when the position icon shows you exactly on course. And the plotted course route is often not the best route, sometimes it is dowright wacky. Should I mention that I am still waiting (six months later) for my mail-in rebate?
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