louiskathy wrote:
I'm still listening to all input. Who else has chucked their GPS and gone to only using their Smart Phones for navigation?
When driving the car (as distinct from the MH) I exclusively use Google Maps. As others have noted there has been a lot of misinformation in this thread about the use of smartphone GPS.
First of all, anyone who says that it is difficult to get destination information into the phone clearly doesn't know how to use it properly. One of the great benefits of doing GPS with a phone is that all you have to do is do a Google search for your destination--a store, a museum, etc and then touch the resulting listing to begin the navigation process. No typing of address information required. The same is true when using TripAdvisor or Yelp, just touch the listing and begin navigating.
Furthermore, if you use Chrome as your browser on your computer and on your phone, the searches you make using your computer will show up on your phone so all you have to do is go to recent search history and select one of them.
As for real-time traffic updating, all smartphones with Google Maps installed and their location function working are uploading position information into Google all the time (whether you know it or not). Google ends up with far more up-to-the-minute traffic info than is available with the Navtec system that supplies most standalone GPS's. The things it can do for you when traffic is really messed up can be amazing (we've experienced it).
As for the comment that the phone is a slow GPS, all I can think is that you are running on 3G or have a very old underpowered phone. My Galaxy S4 is amazingly fast if I miss a turn and never even has to say "recalculating", it's just ready to keep navigating. Notification of upcoming turns is usually given at least twice in advance and once while at the intersection.
Getting a phone call while navigating can be an issue, but all that's necessary is to reject the call and continue the trip. With our phone being integrated with our car via Bluetooth, all that is necessary is to tap the "call end" switch and it will return to the map display.
IMO the only thing that keeps me from ditching my GPS for the MH is Google Maps' inability to input vehicle size and weight information. So I continue to use my Garmin 465T to ensure that our route is appropriate for a large vehicle.
