smart phones

[al_yrpal]

Google maps are available offline which is useful. Other than that I keep it in my pocket

Offline? How?

you download the sections of map you want when online, then turn mobile connection off and the program uses the data stored on the sd card or phone memory.

Open google maps on your phone, choose 'make available off line' from the menu. Zoom out and grab huge areas.

Al

[Mark1978]

Open google maps on your phone, choose 'make available off line' from the menu. Zoom out and grab huge areas.

Al

I don't have that option. I guess it might not be available on iPhone.

[al_yrpal]

Open google maps on your phone, choose 'make available off line' from the menu. Zoom out and grab huge areas.

Al

I don't have that option. I guess it might not be available on iPhone.

Mines Android

Al

[oneride]

I have an iPhone, I find it easier to photograph my OS map. Bit low tech but hassle free at 6am before setting off! Did have a Nokia, good GPS mapping but short 5 hour battery life.

[al_yrpal]

I have memory map 1:50 of the whole UK, and a map of France too. I prefer that to Google maps because it works offline extending battery life and shows all local features like pubs! There is no guidance but who needs that. You cam print out maps and use them to navigate just checking your actual position if you are unsure. I heard Apple are dumping Google maps.

Al

[stewartpratt]

Plenty of other map types are available offline. Clearly you can pay for commercial mapping such as OS, but you can also build offline repositories of OSM maps using tools like Mobac, which can be styled and customised in all sorts of ways. I've not checked the file sizes but I would imagine that a 32GB memory card would let you build a map suite wide and deep enough to pretty much be all you'd ever need. And there are dozens of mapping apps which will work with these.

[al_yrpal]

O tried OSM but found it seriously incomplete in the area I know well which pit me off. I got all of UK for
£69.

Al

[Mark1978]

I have memory map 1:50 of the whole UK, and a map of France too. I prefer that to Google maps because it works offline extending battery life and shows all local features like pubs! There is no guidance but who needs that. You cam print out maps and use them to navigate just checking your actual position if you are unsure. I heard Apple are dumping Google maps.

Al

Same here, but Viewranger which is pretty much the same. Only problem is that it takes > 1 minute to find my location whereas Google maps finds it instantly, but doesn't update the map as there's never a mobile signal!!

[alpgirl]

I use runkeeper. My husband has started using Strava, which ranks you against other users according to your time over certain hills etc. Not sure it does pulse rates. We both have android phones.

[timmyhiggy]

I have found my android phone is pretty useless for using as a cycle computer. I use it to log GPS position via an app (softrace) if I am trying out a new route I might want to repeat, so I can map it and consider changes for next time. the downside of that is sitting outside my house for a few minutes whilst I wait for GPS to find me. Once it has registered, I put it logging and stuff it in a safe place out of sight and rely on my cycle computer. Distances are a bit crap, it cuts corners between coordinate fixes and racks up extra distance when stopped due to the measurement uncertainties giving you a slowly changing position.

[Mark1978]

Interesting, Endomondo on the iPhone doesn't have that issue. Hit start as I walk outside and it knows my location instantly.

[alpgirl]

Interesting, Endomondo on the iPhone doesn't have that issue. Hit start as I walk outside and it knows my location instantly.

Depends whether the GPS is left on all the time. Trouble with that is it uses loads of battery.
Runkeeper is great and doesn't cut corners.

[stewartpratt]

Depends whether the GPS is left on all the time. Trouble with that is it uses loads of battery.
Runkeeper is great and doesn't cut corners.

The GPS is only "on" as such when an application is using it. When it's enabled in the settings, it just means it's available to apps. So unless you've got a tracking app actually running, it's using no power at all.

[Mark1978]

Interesting, Endomondo on the iPhone doesn't have that issue. Hit start as I walk outside and it knows my location instantly.

Depends whether the GPS is left on all the time. Trouble with that is it uses loads of battery.
Runkeeper is great and doesn't cut corners.

No the GPS isn't on all the time. However the iPhone has a series of tricks, including last known position, cell positioning, download ephemeris data etc which can give you a pretty good location fix within about a second, while the real GPS sorts itself out.

[alpgirl]

Interesting, Endomondo on the iPhone doesn't have that issue. Hit start as I walk outside and it knows my location instantly.

Depends whether the GPS is left on all the time. Trouble with that is it uses loads of battery.
Runkeeper is great and doesn't cut corners.

No the GPS isn't on all the time. However the iPhone has a series of tricks, including last known position, cell positioning, download ephemeris data etc which can give you a pretty good location fix within about a second, while the real GPS sorts itself out.

I find with mine that the battery goes down much quicker when the GPS is enabled. There are a lot of apps that will use the GPS to ascertain location. You probably just don't realise it!