GPS Why not a smart phone?

p220sigman wrote:

...
I do have a question for those of you using a tablet, are you mounting it somewhere? I guess I'm trying to picture my wife's Samsung 10" tablet standing up on the dash of my Honda Fit.

Prolly depends upon your truck (or Fit?). My 2011 F150 4x2 has a silly round coin holder (where the 4x4's have a rotating switch for diff modes).

Just so happens the coin holder is in the right place visibility-wise, so I attached a piece of Al channel that holds the tablet. Works fine, though the coin holder is sort-of destroyed by the screws holding the Al channel.

Have also seen commercial tablet holders that attach to the louvres of your vents.

fj12ryder wrote:

aguablanco wrote:

fj12ryder wrote:
Well, that sextant, Jupiter's moons, and a compass will never run out of battery power and leave you relying on something that no longer functions. :)

We could also go back to wagon trains. I'll take my chances with technology.
RichH

I was being facetious, notice the smiley.

While I figured you were being facetious there are people with that viewpoint. I was also trying to be funny but I dislike using emojis.
RichH

04fxsts wrote:
I had to make a 40 mile or so trip last nite so took it with me to see how it worked. I loaded the directions at home where we have wifi and everything worked fine for the trip. for the trip home found out I would need wifi to load the new directions, hoped it would reverse the trip but no. Oh well that is why I tried it out somewhere I didn't need directions.

Why are you loading directions? Isn't it Gps?

04fxsts wrote:
I can live with this arrangement since we can normally find some wifi without too much trouble.

Your wife's phone can likely be a hotspot also so you could use that to update/download new maps/directions. Of course will use some of your data where a publicly accessible hotspot won't.

I do have a question for those of you using a tablet, are you mounting it somewhere? I guess I'm trying to picture my wife's Samsung 10" tablet standing up on the dash of my Honda Fit.

I prefer to use Google maps on my iphone. Always updated. We have 30GB of data a month that rolss over. So we are always good with data. But I've never seen a significant amount of data being used. Plus, I don't need it running every second. I generally research my route ahead of time and have a general idea of where I am going and how I am getting there. Following road signs are simple. And then I just use the phone when truly needed.

DW has a smart phone that she loves and I dislike much. The screen being too small for me to watch while driving is one big factor. I found her old I-pad that she has not touched since getting the smart phone a couple years ago. It is an Apple and has apparently pre-loaded "map" function that also has directions. We no longer have an internet connection for it but it works fine where there is wifi. I had to make a 40 mile or so trip last nite so took it with me to see how it worked. I loaded the directions at home where we have wifi and everything worked fine for the trip. for the trip home found out I would need wifi to load the new directions, hoped it would reverse the trip but no. Oh well that is why I tried it out somewhere I didn't need directions.
I can live with this arrangement since we can normally find some wifi without too much trouble. I have found several very cheap or best of all free apps I would like to try on the I-pad but everything I have found has been for Android systems. Anyone know how or where to find something compatable with the apple? Thanks much, Jim.

rockhillmanor wrote:

wa8yxm wrote:
Stand alone GPS uses on-board map data so it works no matter if you are in range of a cell tower or not.

Phone.. will download local map data and store in RAM but if you exit the app for any reason you may not be able to get it back if there is no tower in range.. ...

X2

Just like many cell tower reliant electronics such as Onstar. Crash and burn and be pinned in your car and if no cell tower you are out of luck! I don't want to have to rely on cell tower available for directions.

GPS here. I also think it has more useful functions. Bigger screen, better graphics to see at a glance of road, lanes and turn offs etc. Alerts me of CG's in the area, eta, detects speed limits, set your own speed limit alarm, etc. Permanently sits on dash and I don't have to take it down to answer or make a phone call. :W

Wow, SOOOOO much misinformation and lack of reading previous information in this thread.


I still don't get the concept of 'having' to spend $250 - $400 for a standalone GPS when an <$100 tablet with a free or <$10 app on it will do FAR more, with a bigger screen.

I wouldn't use our smartphone for navigation when driving as the screen is too small. And our portable Garmin that we sometime use when kayaking or hiking is also too small and old (it's more for topo maps).

Instead when driving we use Google Maps on our tablets (Verizon in the states, Rogers in Canada). The tablets also act as wifi hotspots for our computers and smartphones, and have cheaper cellular data plans than the phones (they also allow us to read ebooks from the Toronto Public Library :)). We haven't really noticed any increase in data usage when travelling, prolly 'cause we use a lot of data normally, but I'm sure it's there.

Google apparently does have a newly implemented feature that allows you to download all the maps for a destination beforehand, in case you get out of cell tower range. But we haven't used that yet.

SaltiDawg wrote:

SCVJeff wrote:
Two notes:
1- WAZE DOES use data! That is a streaming mapset and when you lose cell signal, you lose WAZE.

2...

waze uses very little data - also if you lose streaming you do not loose the Google Map used by waze unless you drive beyond the display range of the map being viewed at the time of the loss. I've driven from MD to Indianapolis and back thru the mountains of WV and western MD and never lost the map display.

You may want to read some of the posts in this thread to get a better understanding of waze.

Today is the 9th of this billing cycle for my phone. waze has used 4.1 MB - less than my Weather app.

YMMV

i don't need to read threads, I talked to the developers several years ago before they were bought, trying to get our TV station group to sponsor them. You said WAZE takes no data. As I said it streams data for maps, period, and that data MUST be loaded at some point. I suggest you take a drive, let WAZE load data then turn the Airplane Mode On and see how far you get; It won't be more than a few miles unless you have pre-planned the trip and cached it on a Wifi connection (has that feature even been included yet?). Also if you look around I suspect you will see medium to heavy users reporting 100-300+mb/mo. of increased data use. That's what the WAZE developers told me was the avg. when I asked that question.

There are very few GPS services with resident maps (and files exceeding 1GB) and WAZE isn't one of them.

I use a iPhone 6s and a H2O gps fishing and hunting. I have the Navonics app on the iPhone. The iPhone's GPS always seems to find me even in poor cell reception area but will not always load maps or will be incredibly slow. H2O GPS has the maps in it but needs more time to acquire satellites on start up. Accuracy is about equal and is usually with in 5-15 yds depending on the lake and accuracy of the lake map. The Navonics app is much better for searching out new lakes and updates often with no additional charge. The H2O is much better for setting way points and tracking. When hunting,if I have good service, I prefer the iPhone because of the satellite images I can see clearings, roads,water etc ahead of me when cutting cross country. Also the compass is very accurate on the iPhone and lighted. With poor cell service the H2O is the choice. To me it's a question of which is the best for where I am now and what I am doing.