Jack Erbes wrote:
Wayne.B wrote:
On Sat, 22 Mar 2008 21:25:52 -0400, Jack Erbes
wrote:

I don't have any experience with that one but it looks like it may
have something in common with the Panasonic Toughbook Wireless Displays.

Yes, I think that's it:

http://tinyurl.com/ycqf99

I already have an older Panasonic Toughbook laptop and it's a good
unit, surviving several salt water showers and one 3 ft drop. With a
remote display I could leave the laptop down below in a safer
environment or even run a more powerful desktop box.

The Toughbook Wireless Display is not really just a display, and it is
not a computer either. It is actually more like a PDA. It has 64 MB of
memory (not expandable I guess) and runs Windows Mobile. Then you're
using the wireless link and Windows Remote Desktop to see and use the
applications running on the other nearby computer.

So, unless the MapTech device is any different, you'd need to have a
nearby computer running your applications. But if it works it ought to
be pretty good what with the touchscreen and the bright display. I'd
still want to have a handheld GPS receiver or something for a backup but
that display would be good enough with something like Coastal Navigator
running down on the nav station.

The Windows Remote Desktop is a strange thing the first time you see it.
I had to call Symantec for some tech support last year and they were
running applications on my desktop from India while I sat and watched
them. Made me a little nervous.

That was under Windows 2000. As far as I know, you might need to be
running XP Pro or Vista to use the Toughbook Wireless Display.

Jack


I've actually installed and used one.

It is a very nice unit however it does have some issues.

1) Limited color depth, it drops your desktop color depth to 16bit
2) Limited resolution, IIRC 1024x768 or less
3) Odd network setup required.


Good points,

Its a great size.
Serial port on the device (the one I used had one anyways)
Very good stylus.
Decent range (WiFi)

The bottom line is that its probably too expensive.

--
Travis