Smart phone GPS's

[Shotgun]

My friend and I were talking about geocacheing, something he's really into, and the conversation turned to GPS's. I said it would be cool to have a cell phone that could do it and he said that people were using the iPhone to geocache. Anyone use a smart phone for a GPS or have heard anything about there functionality and quality of reception?

 

[Darteres]

I use my iphone to do a bit of GPS use when I hike/hunt. Interesting to track where I go. If I don't have cell service, I don't have GPS since I turn off my data roaming option. My AT&T Tilt had a much better GPS on it, but same deal with no signal with no cell service. In an emergency, I would turn the roaming back on.

 

[siguy]

I just got a cell phone for the first time last week, and I am pleased with the quality of the GPS in it. I haven't uncovered all the features in it yet, and I'm sure it's not of the same caliber as a dedicated GPS, but it seems to work really well for what it is so far. At the very least, I can use it to tell me my exact Lat and Long as long as I have signal.

 

[Shotgun]

I didn't realize you have to have a signal to use them. So they aren't like a dedicated GPS that you can take out to the middle of nowhere and navigate?

 

[powernoodle]

Shotgun, mine uses "real" GPS with satellites.

The Google Maps free download (for Blackberry, in my case) is pretty darn good. Unless I am indoors with no satellite coverage, it will locate me within 3 meters or so. Where there is no sat coverage (indoors), it will still show you which cell tower you are near. With Google Maps, you also choose between an aerial photo background or street map, or both. Good stuff.

 

[siguy]

To be honest, I haven't tested the limits of mine. It may very well receive satellite signal when there is no cell phone signal. Most of my outdoors outings are in small pockets of wilderness tucked in between rural areas, so I am rarely without cell phone signal anyways.

 

[Mountainman38]

My friend and I were talking about geocacheing, something he's really into, and the conversation turned to GPS's. I said it would be cool to have a cell phone that could do it and he said that people were using the iPhone to geocache. Anyone use a smart phone for a GPS or have heard anything about there functionality and quality of reception?

I have a Samsung Behold with GPS, and I've been amazed at how accurate it is.

Google Maps doesn't support my GPS, so I use a free program called Mobile Gmaps that is very robust, and works very well. It will show a street map, terrain map (nice for out in the mountains), or a satellite map.

With MGMaps, I can pinpoint my location to within feet. The maps themselves don't zoom in any closer than Google Maps, so you can't make out really fine detail, but I can tell I'm within a few feet of my actual location.

There's a program called Amaze GPS (also free) that will give you maps and do turn-by-turn navigation with voice. It's pretty slick, but crashes every time I use it for more than a half hour.

With MGMaps, you can download maps to your phone for use when you're out of cell range. They take up a lot of memory, and are darn slow to download, but it's a cool option to have.

 

[kgd]

Sound paranoid but I avoid cell phones. The convenience of making phone calls is not worth the invasion of privacy and expectations by society that you are 'on-call' 24-7. Having a cell phone that relays a trackable signal of my location? BIG NO THANKS.

But I'm funny that way

 

[siguy]

KGD-Being my age, in this time period, it's almost impossible to stay in touch with my peers without a cell phone. I also appreciate that with a cell phone, I can multi task if I choose to. For example, my runs have been getting longer and longer (on purpose), and sometimes I will be out on the road for a couple of hours at a time. It's really nice to be able to still communicate with people if I need to during those long times away from home.

I figure if I need to avoid the privacy invasion and the societal expectations, I can just turn my phone off and let them leave a message.

 

[Mountainman38]

Sound paranoid but I avoid cell phones. The convenience of making phone calls is not worth the invasion of privacy and expectations by society that you are 'on-call' 24-7. Having a cell phone that relays a trackable signal of my location? BIG NO THANKS.

But I'm funny that way

Just can't relate to that level of paranoia. Who, exactly, are you worried about monitoring you?

If I don't want to answer my cell phone....guess what -- I don't! I love the convenience of having communications with me, and I use it all the time. No way do I want to step back in time and not be able to use my phone.

 

[Bushman5]

Just can't relate to that level of paranoia. Who, exactly, are you worried about monitoring you?

If I don't want to answer my cell phone....guess what -- I don't! I love the convenience of having communications with me, and I use it all the time. No way do I want to step back in time and not be able to use my phone.

I wouldn't call it paranoia. My woods time is MY woods time for ME to enjoy. I don't feel like like having others know where i am. What is this fascination with being reachable 24/7? can people not leave a message anymore? do we really need to hear "what are you doing? "nothing", "yea me too" "ok bye" 50 million times a day?

 

[Shotgun]

The draw for me is to have a communications device that also has GPS capability. If I'm going hiking I carry a cell phone for emergencies wether it's my car breaking down or to call rescuers. I don't like carrying a bunch of crap so having to carry my cell AND a gps when I can just carry my cell is crazy. YM-and tinfoil hats-MV.

Cell phones DO have off buttons.

 

[Kismet]

Sound paranoid but I avoid cell phones. The convenience of making phone calls is not worth the invasion of privacy and expectations by society that you are 'on-call' 24-7. Having a cell phone that relays a trackable signal of my location? BIG NO THANKS.

But I'm funny that way

understand perfectly.

May be a generational thing, but the fewer lists, contact techniques, and account #s I'm connected to, the more comfortable I am.

When I worked in corporations, the phone was the enemy.

 

[Mountainman38]

I wouldn't call it paranoia. My woods time is MY woods time for ME to enjoy. I don't feel like like having others know where i am. What is this fascination with being reachable 24/7? can people not leave a message anymore? do we really need to hear "what are you doing? "nothing", "yea me too" "ok bye" 50 million times a day?

I agree completely about wanting time for myself, but that's different than worrying about someone tracking me.

When I'm out hiking, biking, or whatever, I have my phone with me so I can use it to reach someone if I need to. I may turn the ringer off or to low, but it's there for my convenience. Whether it's to call my wife to let her know I'll be late and not to worry, or order takeout food to be ready when I get there, or to call emergency services if I need to, I find a cell phone very useful.

I'm not the chatty type, so I don't engage in the annoying mindless chit chat calls. No sir -- every call I'm involved with is full of witty banter and clever repartee!

Calling my folks (who got me started loving the outdoors, but have kind of slowed down) from the top of Half Dome in Yosemite 10 years ago (when cell phones were pretty new) was pretty fun, too.