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I don't use it often, but I keep a real GPS around for two reasons: it runs on AA batteries and doesn't need a cell tower. I actually bought it a couple months
by ja27 16y ago
I don't use it often, but I keep a real GPS around for two reasons: it runs on AA batteries and doesn't need a cell tower. I actually bought it a couple months after being lost in a hurricane-stricken area. Even maps don't work well when all the street signs are blown down (or away). But I've been on enough back roads in the years since to know that I can't count on a phone GPS for maps.
I also carry a decent flashlight (Fenix LD01). I used to carry a weaker light (Arc AAA-P) but once I had to go from full daylight to a dark interior room with it in a hurry during a power outage and the little light was useless. A phone's screen or photo "flash" LED would have been even worse.
I still carry paper notebooks (Moleskine and others). I use Evernote and stuff for notes on my phone, but I still keep some more personal things on paper, in one place. I also can't sketch worth a darn on any of the phone sketchbook apps.
Dropbox is what eliminated USB thumb drives for me, not my phone. I still keep a couple in my bag, but mostly to boot from.
- andrewljohnson 16y agoPhones don't need cell towers for GPS, if they have a GPS chip like iPhones and Droids! Not even ones with A-GPS... this is a common misconception.
- elai 16y agoWhenever I've tried my iphone 3G's gps that had absolutely no gsm/3g reception from any carriers in the area, the phone cant get my location at all, even in a car or an open air beach.
- andrewljohnson 16y ago1) it will not acquire a signal well in a car unless the car is stationary and the phone is on the dash 2) you're just doing it wrong on the beach... if you wait long enough, you will get a signal I am in the business, and I have all of the devices. iPhone 3G can track back country hikes quite nicely.
- elai 16y agoSo putting your iphone on the dash where there is no cellular reception and using it as a standalone gps won't work like the typical car GPS?
- leviathant 16y agoWhile a phone doesn't need a cell tower for GPS, they for the most part need one for viewing their location on a map, and I think that's why people say they need a cell tower for their phone's GPS. Long story short, my wife and I were trying to find the house we were crashing at in upstate New York one evening after a piece of hers was performed at Bard. I'd punched the address into my iPhone and off we went. Only in the last few turns did we realize that Google couldn't find the address and auto-corrected us to the wrong county (UGH). We tried entering the address again, but had no signal. We were only using the iPhone because we couldn't find my Garmin. Later when we returned home, we still couldn't find our Garmin, so I bought a newer one, refurb, off Amazon for ~$150. It tells me the speed limit of the road I'm on, shows me which lane I'll need to be in when a turn's coming up, acts as a bluetooth speakerphone and interface for my iPhone, gets traffic updates and gas prices from some kind of FM broadcast service. Yes, convergent mobile devices will get there eventually, but there are still benefits to specialized devices.
- andrewljohnson 16y agoThis just is not true. The cell tower isn't needed for GPS. When you say you need a tower to see yourself on the map, that's the same thing as saying you need a tower for GPS. If you mean you need the network connection for the maps, this is only true for the Native Maps app (which even does some caching). There are many, many apps that let you store maps offline (including my own).
- gaius 16y agoA-GPS near a cell tower is great, but a WAAS antenna beats it in the backcountry.