Pocket PC Thoughts: A Road Warrior's Best Friend - the Holux GR-230 Bluetooth GPS Receiver Reviewed

What's Included
The GR-230 comes with everything you'll need to get up and running with a Bluetooth-enabled Pocket PC or laptop:

• GR-230 GPS unit;
  
• Resource CD ROM;
  
• Universal voltage AC charger;
  
• Car charger;
  
• Charging cable.

Of particular interest is the charging cable. To charge the GR-230's battery, simply connect one end of the cable to the GPS unit and the other end to one of three power sources - the AC charger, the car charger or any PC/laptop USB port.


Figure 1: No shortage of charging options.

Initially, I thought that this same cable served as the data cable when using the GR-230 as a GPS mouse via USB (with a non-Bluetooth-enabled laptop) - but I came to realize that this was not the case. After several unsuccessful attempts I gave up frustrated only to discover later that an additional USB data cable (optional) is required for this functionality. Chock this experience up to poor documentation on the part of Holux. The packing list didn't even mention the cable that came with the unit - let alone describe its function(s). An optional data cable was mentioned - but it wasn't clear whether they were referring to the included cable or another cable altogether.