GPS : for the car and ?

[Too Tall]

Rally drivers have 170lb navigators!

Careful sport, Queen has a devastating r.hook.

[lukasz]

Alright, as promised:

I got a Nexus S for T-mobile off ebay last week (after the Post Office failed to deliver it, then told me it was lost and they were confused, and on the same day having it show up at my door at 8pm, but that's another story).

I've used Sygic on a Symbian device before and it was just peachy (as peachy as something can be on that terrible OS) but the GPS reception was mediocre. The Nexus S seems to have pretty good reception. It found me in a car in the middle of Brooklyn about as quick as I would expect it to (without any data assistance--aka the way Google Maps finds where you are when you're at home on your computer). Maybe as quick as my Garmin 305. This is completely up to the hardware, so it is something to check out before buying a phone if you plan to use it for GPS.

As far as the features TT wanted, this version of Sygic has a "Travel Book" feature that saves all of your trips and includes a ton of data that us bike geeks might appreciate, like elevation gain, min/max elevation, the accompanying graph, and all kinds of pace/distance/time stuff (6 or 7 graphs in all). I think that if you save your route (after riding/driving one) before clearing it, you can re-ride/drive it as you did the first time, though I didn't do this last night so I can't confirm that yet. You can definitely create a route on the device and save it for future use. I also think there are third party exporters available to get the data out, though I haven't tried them either.There are some crappy pics (cell phone photos of a cell phone!) of the Travel book below. No fan mail please, those street addresses aren't 100% accurate.

[Ben]

I've used the GPS on my DroidX a whole bunch over the year or so I've owned it. While it certainly works well enough to be useful, there's one very good reason why I'll never get rid of my standalone GPS device:

It never, ever, EVER fails that, just as you're coming into the most complex and challenging part of the trip; when you're in the middle of six lanes of 85mph traffic and there are five exits and just as many on-ramps in the next half-mile, one of which is yours; when you have to execute a series of right-left-right turns that would make Billy Ray Cyrus blush; and when missing your turn means going 23 miles out oid your way on a toll road...

That's when the phone invariably rings and the map goes away.

PRO-TIP: Screaming obscenities at the phone does not make the map come back.

[lukasz]

Hahahah, yeah there are definitely reasons not to get an all-in-one device. Same goes for anything that combines a bunch of functions. Like racing a crit on a cross bike, yeah (though I think GPS on a phone might have some advantages, like upgradeability and better handling of anything to do with merging traditional GPS and data from the internet)?

[Too Tall]

Hahahah, yeah there are definitely reasons not to get an all-in-one device. Same goes for anything that combines a bunch of functions. Like racing a crit on a cross bike, yeah (though I think GPS on a phone might have some advantages, like upgradeability and better handling of anything to do with merging traditional GPS and data from the internet)?

Thanks Lukasz that's very helpful.

[Human Epic Jolt]

i would pm you... but hey... telcoms need cash.

[Gummee]

I have an HTC Aria. Yeah, I bought it because they sponsored a team

Downloaded the Google Maps app for it. Even if I'm on the phone, the lady in the GPS program keeps talking in my ear. I've left my 276c at home since I started using it. Its not *quite* a GPS, but its more than just maps. Has turn-by-turn directions and voice directions.

HTH

M

[ZenNMotion]

I've used the GPS on my DroidX a whole bunch over the year or so I've owned it. While it certainly works well enough to be useful, there's one very good reason why I'll never get rid of my standalone GPS device:

It never, ever, EVER fails that, just as you're coming into the most complex and challenging part of the trip; when you're in the middle of six lanes of 85mph traffic and there are five exits and just as many on-ramps in the next half-mile, one of which is yours; when you have to execute a series of right-left-right turns that would make Billy Ray Cyrus blush; and when missing your turn means going 23 miles out oid your way on a toll road...

That's when the phone invariably rings and the map goes away.

PRO-TIP: Screaming obscenities at the phone does not make the map come back.

Um, just hit the back button At least on my Droid X it works after a call. I have no complaints about it and I use it constantly, I have serious ADD when it comes to directions. Practice while not in traffic. I carry mine in my pocket on the bike on unfamiliar roads, even with the GPS turned off to save power it usually locates me pretty consistently using the map function so I can find a way around the busy roads. But that's Northern VA, cell towers are everywhere. I decided to skip getting a Garmin for the bike, all I want is navigation and the phone will get me back to the car. BTW not all droids are equal with navigation even with the same apps and OS. My wife's newer Droid 3 sucks, it keeps locating incorrectly without reason and then wants to "correct"- like it thinks you're on some parallel road nearby.

[lukasz]

Yeah that's the GPS chip issue. I can vouch for the Nexus S, and you can get one for 200-250 used. No plans to worry about, no fuss, no muss. There's a T-Mobile and an ATT version. T-mobile version is better for Europe, I think.

[HorsCat]

i found turn-based navigation on my old android to be excellent; the problem with it was its difficulty locating a gps signal, which happened quite a bit more than i would have liked. the native turn-based navigation on my new iphone is terrible; however, the iphone almost always locates a gps signal nearly instantaneously. i can't comment on paid iphone or android navigation apps, i'm afraid. if you could invent an iphroid with both good turn based navigation and a good gps antenna, then that's the way to go; otherwise, at the present time, a dedicated gps device - esp. for europe - is the way to go. have you looked into whether they are rentable?