GPS Recomendations??....

[XfireZ51]

Originally Posted by scottfab

I have a Garmin. As good as it is and easy to use I have dumped it. (well giving it to my son) in favor of my Android built in GPS. It comes with two actually. One costs to use the other is free. I use the free one. It's fine. It's voice navigation is buggy but I don't use that part so......

The idea is to have one less thing in the car to hook up etc. The phone is with me all the time so I never have to worry about moving it from one car to the other like the Garmin.

I use my iPhone4. The user interface and tracking just is much more intuitive. Many times I think I know where I am going and then run into a snag. The iPhone works well for me in an ad-hoc situation. What I like to do is pre-load the address hours or even days ahead and then pull it out when I need to. BTW, I have a Pioneer Avic D2 installed, which I like having in the Z.

[scottfab]

Originally Posted by XfireZ51

I use my iPhone4. The user interface and tracking just is much more intuitive. Many times I think I know where I am going and then run into a snag. The iPhone works well for me in an ad-hoc situation. What I like to do is pre-load the address hours or even days ahead and then pull it out when I need to. BTW, I have a Pioneer Avic D2 installed, which I like having in the Z.

I imagine the Iphone is much like this Galaxy S II skyrocket but the Galaxy has a much bigger screen. The BIG screen is important for those of us with eyesight that isn't what is use to be.
Bottom line it's like a Popeil's Pocket Fisherman
it's a web browser, GPS, text by talking, more apps than I'll ever use and oh yah, a phone. The days of separate GPS boxes is numbered just like the pagers of old .

[Jagdpanzer]

Over the years I've done a lot of marine navigation working with nautical charts where north was always up so naturally I use the same approach when working with road maps or the nav systems found in cars these days. Even though my wife and kids accuse me of being "old school" I can look at a chart or map and have no problem finding where I'm at and plot a course to where I'm going which is a lot more than they can say.

[XfireZ51]

Originally Posted by scottfab

I imagine the Iphone is much like this Galaxy S II skyrocket but the Galaxy has a much bigger screen. The BIG screen is important for those of us with eyesight that isn't what is use to be.
Bottom line it's like a Popeil's Pocket Fisherman
it's a web browser, GPS, text by talking, more apps than I'll ever use and oh yah, a phone. The days of separate GPS boxes is numbered just like the pagers of old .

Not sure how much bigger the Samsung screen is but of course there's always the option of enlarging images at a fingertip. As I have read recently, the day of the smartphone/automobile integration is already here. We'll be seeing the mobile platforms take over display/command duties in a vehicle. Apple recently announced "docks" for their iPad in a number of manufacturers vehicles.

As an aside, I just read that the NYTimes has discontinued support for Blackberry apps.

[scottfab]

Originally Posted by XfireZ51

................ We'll be seeing the mobile platforms take over display/command duties in a vehicle. Apple recently announced "docks" for their iPad in a number of manufacturers vehicles.
............

Cool, I hope someone comes out with the idea to make a standard docking interface for all phones someday. Not likely.... THAT would make too much sense.

[ZONER 95]

My wife can have the GPS....but I'll always be a map guy....worked in the Land Surveying trade for 12 years ....always loved looking at maps as a kid and wondering about other places, guess its what you grow up with.....

I just see the kids today relying on their tech gadgets so much telling them what to do, and where to go, to the point where if the batteries ever die far from home they are all screwed!!....

[XfireZ51]

Originally Posted by ZONER 95

My wife can have the GPS....but I'll always be a map guy....worked in the Land Surveying trade for 12 years ....always loved looking at maps as a kid and wondering about other places, guess its what you grow up with.....

I just see the kids today relying on their tech gadgets so much telling them what to do, and where to go, to the point where if the batteries ever die far from home they are all screwed!!....

I suppose somebody said that about electricity when Edison started wiring the country. Progress marches ON!

[DaveK]

Funny thing is... my wife loves maps, she can spend hours poring over them etc. but she can't navigate worth a damn!

[scottfab]

Originally Posted by DaveK

Funny thing is... my wife loves maps, she can spend hours poring over them etc. but she can't navigate worth a damn!

Under the category "if you don't use it you lose it" I use to study a map before a trip such that I'd memorized key way points and roads along the way. Then I could navigate the trip without looking back a the map. Well now with GPS I don't even plug in the address till I'm on the road and don't keep maps in the car anymore. My plan should the GPS go out or be stolen would be to ask a fellow traveler to briefly use their GPS.
That which is lost on all this is a sense of place that is a sense for where I am relative to a mental map. That mental map is gone.
The feeling is the same as when I started using canned formulas in PC programs vs doing the math on paper. That dates me

[FU]

I have been relying on Garmin to get me home safely for years both in foul and good weather.