Gps - Flash card or mouse?

Lyndon,

The CF Card type GPS that fits into a PCMCIA slot of a Laptop offers the best in compactness.
No Cables, powered by Laptop, builtin aerial and with the option of an external aerial connection if required.

Check out the ones available from the ExplorOz Shop CF Card GPS Receiver

With the units you are talking about I assume there is no maps or software

what does the software cost

are the units a good as the dedicated systems I am always getting prompts to buy

The 250k natmap's are available for free on their website (there was a link in the forums earlier). They will do for the most part.
Ozi Explorer is the go for sure. Then copilot or something to satisfy the people telling you to buy one of those all in one jobbies (it will tell you how to get to an address, Ozi won't do that).

If you go for PCMCIA card you will still need an aerial unless the card can see the sky (to see the satellites, and the more sky it see's the more satellites its likely to pickup. So the mouse type is going to be more suitable I think. Lets face it, the laptop is going to be the most intrusive thing, a little mouse gps and its cables won't be much compared to that.
A Bluetooth gps reciever would take care of one wire but you still need to plug it in to charge it up (power) so you're still going to need one cable to it anyway. In your case probably not worth the bother.

If you've got a heated windshield I believe they can block some of reciever's ability to see satellites (I think there's some debate about that). On the armrest the device won't see much of the sky and so won't pickup satellites as easily as it will if its on the dash. I'm not sure if the reciever's are directional at all, mine always faces up and on the dash.

Why dont you wire a bluetooth mouse in permanently? No other wires and works a treat

I am going thru the same process as we speak. I have decided on the mouse GPS antenna which has a magnetic mouse and requires one lead from the antenna mounted on your roof magnetically to the USB port on your laptop. Heaps of them on Ebay for around $80 complete with software. Looks like I will still need maps and driver software if I want anything other than a large GPS. The software is the heart of this type of system especially if you want voice navigation commands. Easier to input your destination etc with a proper keyboard as well. Several of the PCMIA card devices have an additional antenna that can be externally mounted. All up I recon I can get a vey good navigation system for around $450 which will cover all of Australia (not just main roads) which is about half what you would pay for a Navman or similar....