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What would be the ultimate GPS with current technology?


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I threatened, so here it is...

 

WHY OH WHY can't the GPS manufacturers take a clue from the phone industry and just throw everything in there? Why can't we have a GPS with a ~500x500+ screen, 32 GB+ memory to deal with nearly unlimited maps, WiFi/Bluetooth/3G to access caches on-line, and not only geocaching but traffic information available on-line and in real time?

 

I may be one of the few but I'd pay $1000 for that unit.

 

What about adding a camera, a music player, and ... a phone?

 

It seems my phone is getting better and better at geocaching, while my GPSr keeps backtracking...

 

What up with that?

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OK. I'll buy that. So scratch the camera, the phone, and even the traffic reports. How about a unit that is able to handle 32GB+ memory cards to load maps for the whole country, has a decent screen (300x300+), and is durable. Again I look to phone technology where I can talk on the phone, play games, use the GPS and the camera, and just plug in at the end of the day to recharge. I rarely run out of battery power during the day but have multiple places to plug in if I do.

 

Give me more memory capability, especially for geocaches! What is this crap that Garmin keeps giving us with limits for 500, 1000, or even 2000 "geocaches" or "waypoints"? Who is writing this software - kindergartners? Any programmer worth his salt can write a program to accept as many caches as will fill memory - whether that be 500, 1000, or 1 million! And why are waypoints treated differently from geocaches anyway? Memory is CHEAP these days. I wrote programs 25 years ago that could have handled the small memory requirements of a geocache description and coordinates with a fraction of the memory used today.

 

Programmers have gotten too lazy now that memory and CPU cycles are so cheap. This has led to extremely sloppy coding and inexcusably slow code. There is NO reason that a current GPS shouldn't be able to handle 10000+ waypoints/geocaches and process them faster than the eye can see.

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OK. I'll buy that. So scratch the camera, the phone, and even the traffic reports. How about a unit that is able to handle 32GB+ memory cards to load maps for the whole country, has a decent screen (300x300+), and is durable. Again I look to phone technology where I can talk on the phone, play games, use the GPS and the camera, and just plug in at the end of the day to recharge. I rarely run out of battery power during the day but have multiple places to plug in if I do.

more memory = smaller components = higher prices and you can buy a memory card for most GPSs if you wanted (and many of them go up to 32gb)(I'm assuming if you'd be willing to pay $1000 for a GPS that had this and a few other capabilities, you'd either currently have or be willing to spend $150+ for one of the GPSs that accept a memory card, then paying an extra $50-100 for a 32GB memory card). Bigger screen = no longer a handheld, big drain on battery, and most people are fine with the small screens. Most GPSs are already durable. Again with the phones... Let me tell you a little something. It's about something called supply and demand. With a phone you have a cellular network that you can get just about any data you want from, and they are owned by nearly every person. Thus they have games and music capabilities to accommodate different desires. It is a lot easier to have a GPS designed for automotive, and a GPS designed for hiking, etc. then it is to have one phone for people who like to play games, and one phone for people who E-mail on their phone because they generally overlap a lot more. It would be a bad idea to have a GPS that ran on a rechargeable battery pack, as when the battery dies, you can't just switch the battery pack... I use rechargeable AAs to overcome this problem.

Give me more memory capability, especially for geocaches! What is this crap that Garmin keeps giving us with limits for 500, 1000, or even 2000 "geocaches" or "waypoints"? Who is writing this software - kindergartners? Any programmer worth his salt can write a program to accept as many caches as will fill memory - whether that be 500, 1000, or 1 million! And why are waypoints treated differently from geocaches anyway? Memory is CHEAP these days. I wrote programs 25 years ago that could have handled the small memory requirements of a geocache description and coordinates with a fraction of the memory used today.

I don't understand the limits either. I agree with that part... Waypoints are treated differently because a gpx file needs a waypoint and a text file. a waypoint only need one file.

25 years ago memory was precious. You couldn't use more than 64KB on an entire computer, including the name, program, and variables. nowadays you can get something with 34080768KB (32GB) of memory that's about the size of your thumbnail... You can get away with wasting memory as much as you want, because there's so much of it!

Prorammers have gotten too lazy now that memory and CPU cycles are so cheap. This has led to extremely sloppy coding and inexcusably slow code. There is NO reason that a current GPS shouldn't be able to handle 10000+ waypoints/geocaches and process them faster than the eye can see.

What about; adding memory or processing speed would cause you to need smaller and smaller components, meaning that the GPS would be more expensive to make, and the processing speed would drain the battery, meaning that it would take 2 seconds less to load the page (sometimes my unit doesn't even take that long anyway) but 2-3 hours less of battery life. Now ask yourself, is it really worth it?

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A few years back, I think I started a commentary about making the ultimate Geocaching GPSr..

 

Specs:

 

3X4" LCD screen, Well protected! (having smashed a few camera backs.)

 

Garmin-style Joy-Button for data entry. (I know, I know, Touch screen would be better, but again, we're talking protecting the screen, and preventing mis-typed buttons.)

 

1GB RAM for storage of GPX data (Raw), JPeG pictures (Yes, a camera. see further down), field notes, the occasional victory MP3 (when FTF or finding.)

 

a 640 X 480 pixel digital camera (Come on, You know you want to brag. And just the right size for uploading w/o resizing!)

 

Bluetooth or Infra-red linking. (to share coordinates, GPX data, etc.)

 

A Long-Life battery. (or, options for a few different types.. Adapter to use AA's of any type, or a module for a Lithium-Ion)

 

Electronic Compass (Okay, let's really be honest.. It DOES help, especially on those mountain sides, where the GPS signal is getting bounced the WRONG way!)

 

Next to Unlimited track recording. (instead of limiting to 3000 points, go continuous.)

 

Yeah, and someone else posted a Trimble using. (one of those $5000 units!)

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A few years back, I think I started a commentary about making the ultimate Geocaching GPSr..

 

Specs:

 

3X4" LCD screen, Well protected! (having smashed a few camera backs.)

 

Garmin-style Joy-Button for data entry. (I know, I know, Touch screen would be better, but again, we're talking protecting the screen, and preventing mis-typed buttons.)

 

1GB RAM for storage of GPX data (Raw), JPeG pictures (Yes, a camera. see further down), field notes, the occasional victory MP3 (when FTF or finding.)

 

a 640 X 480 pixel digital camera (Come on, You know you want to brag. And just the right size for uploading w/o resizing!)

 

Bluetooth or Infra-red linking. (to share coordinates, GPX data, etc.)

 

A Long-Life battery. (or, options for a few different types.. Adapter to use AA's of any type, or a module for a Lithium-Ion)

 

Electronic Compass (Okay, let's really be honest.. It DOES help, especially on those mountain sides, where the GPS signal is getting bounced the WRONG way!)

 

Next to Unlimited track recording. (instead of limiting to 3000 points, go continuous.)

 

Yeah, and someone else posted a Trimble using. (one of those $5000 units!)

 

I think what you need is an iphone + some fancy app (I'm afraid they don't exist)

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Give me more memory capability, especially for geocaches! What is this crap that Garmin keeps giving us with limits for 500, 1000, or even 2000 "geocaches" or "waypoints"?

Buncha marketing wonks back in Olathe differentiating their product line. There's no need to "partition" memory for specific purposes. "malloc" "heap" and other words of that sort will ring a bell for a lot of folks here. Dynamic memory allocation is part of the normal life of a programmer. Static tables are so 1970s :laughing:

 

That said, the partitioning thing has one upside .. they can always guarantee that there will enough room for the number of tracks points, waypoints, POIs and caches they claim in the spec no matter how many of those you load to the max or how many map segments you've got loaded. It's my sense that all of that gets loaded into some internal/invisible NVRAM on boot (which is why the detection of a new and big *.gpx file or map slows the boot down so much) and there will be more stringent limits there than on an external memory card.

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It always amazes me that here we are almost two years after the release of the Oregon series (300-400t) and they are still working on getting the units to function as they should. Yet other small electronics are released such as a smart phone that work almost 100% right at product release.

 

Either 1) GPS technology is so complex and tedious that releasing a product with flawless operation is unheard of or 2) The market doesn't require a flawless product, we still buy them, and they can get away with it.

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OK. I'll buy that. So scratch the camera, the phone, and even the traffic reports. How about a unit that is able to handle 32GB+ memory cards to load maps for the whole country, has a decent screen (300x300+), and is durable.

 

Once Garmin's 24K series maps of the US are complete, I expect to see units available with those preloaded for the entire country.

 

I also expect that we'll see a ruggedized phone (hopefully Android) from Garmin within the next couple of years.

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I should clarify that I am currently using a Colorado that has a 8GB memory card. I can load pretty much most of the maps that I want, and the screen is not too bad. Of course, since the unit is pretty nice, Garmin has discontinued it....

 

The main thing is the limitation on geocaches. With current memory prices, why shouldn't I be able to to a massive PQ and download all the geocaches in the country, or even the world? It is not a memory problem, it is an imagination problem at Garmin!

 

And yes, malloc and heap are well known to me... and not to start another rant but the fact that current programmers don't need to take this stuff into account due to improved tools has added to the amazingly bad code that is out there right now!

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WHY OH WHY can't the GPS manufacturers take a clue from the phone industry and just throw everything in there? ...
Because phone makers already beat them to it.
... a GPS with a ~500x500+ screen, 32 GB+ memory to deal with nearly unlimited maps, WiFi/Bluetooth/3G to access caches on-line, and not only geocaching but traffic information available on-line and in real time?
By the time you put that much into one package, you end up with a device that's useful for more tasks than "just" being a GPS. Look at an iPhone or iPad 3G, or any high-end Android device. Most everything you asked for (big screen, lotsa of functionality, etc ). But because GPS was not primary design goal, the GPS component itself might not be the strongest point. And because outdoor use wasn't foremost, you'll wanna wrap it in an Otterbox before you head out to the field.

 

And as others have said -- bring lots of batteries!

 

---

PS: Lately I've gone back to two devices for my "all-in-one" solution. iPhone 3G in my pocket; Foretrex 301 on my wrist or handlebars.

Edited by lee_rimar
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A few years back, I think I started a commentary about making the ultimate Geocaching GPSr..

 

Specs:

 

3X4" LCD screen, Well protected! (having smashed a few camera backs.)

 

Garmin-style Joy-Button for data entry. (I know, I know, Touch screen would be better, but again, we're talking protecting the screen, and preventing mis-typed buttons.)

 

1GB RAM for storage of GPX data (Raw), JPeG pictures (Yes, a camera. see further down), field notes, the occasional victory MP3 (when FTF or finding.)

 

a 640 X 480 pixel digital camera (Come on, You know you want to brag. And just the right size for uploading w/o resizing!)

 

Bluetooth or Infra-red linking. (to share coordinates, GPX data, etc.)

 

A Long-Life battery. (or, options for a few different types.. Adapter to use AA's of any type, or a module for a Lithium-Ion)

 

Electronic Compass (Okay, let's really be honest.. It DOES help, especially on those mountain sides, where the GPS signal is getting bounced the WRONG way!)

 

Next to Unlimited track recording. (instead of limiting to 3000 points, go continuous.)

 

Yeah, and someone else posted a Trimble using. (one of those $5000 units!)

 

I think what you need is an iphone + some fancy app (I'm afraid they don't exist)

I've crossed out what the iPhone doesn't give from this list

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ADTCacheur, the iPhone 3GS does have available most of the items you crossed out. It can play MP3s and other sound formats; you can plug in external battery packs that take AA batteries; it does have a magentic compas; and numerous applications allow continuous tracking (hit www.appshopper.com and search for "tracklog" or "track log").

 

Can't help you on Garmin style buttons, and you'd still need an Otterbox to ruggedize it.

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The iPad 3G has a different GPS chipset and iPad users are reporting better GPS results. I'm really interested to see how/if that works out in the next iPhone hardware release (expected within weeks).

 

In any case, this type of device -- the many-faceted, location-aware smartphone, with or without fruit label -- is as close as you're gonna get to the "ultimate" device described at the top of the thread.

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Yes we saw the next generation iPhone in its not-so-glorious debut after being supposedly found at a bar. I'll leave the details of that encounter up to the prosecutors in CA.

 

Anyway, a great chipset is key to the ultimate GPSr. Anyone have insight into the best chipsets and why they are not in all modern units?

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I threatened, so here it is...

 

WHY OH WHY can't the GPS manufacturers take a clue from the phone industry and just throw everything in there? Why can't we have a GPS with a ~500x500+ screen, 32 GB+ memory to deal with nearly unlimited maps, WiFi/Bluetooth/3G to access caches on-line, and not only geocaching but traffic information available on-line and in real time?

 

I may be one of the few but I'd pay $1000 for that unit.

 

What about adding a camera, a music player, and ... a phone?

 

It seems my phone is getting better and better at geocaching, while my GPSr keeps backtracking...

 

What up with that?

 

Ideal for me would be improvements to the current PN-40 (some of these already exist, but i would like to keep them for future generations):

 

-Form factor/build quality of the Delorme PN-30/40

-Included 24k topo maps for the entire US

-altimeter/pressure plot

-Larger screen than the pn-40

-more durable battery springs

-ability to use AA alkalines, lithium pack, or NIMH batteries

-map screen that didn't "draw" all the time while moving around

-battery life 18+ hours

-terrain shading

-built in XM weather integration (shows radar, visible and IR satellite overlays on map and weather conditions/predictions)

-built in ELT for emergencies (im not talking about SPOT, just a basic ELT)

-voice activated auto-routing for less manual key inputs

-faster auto-routing and re-routing, detours, and ability to set faster or shorter routes

 

Thats pretty much about it for me. The PN-40 is almost perfect... just add these features and it would be golden. :P

Edited by Tahoe Skier5000
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WHY OH WHY can't the GPS manufacturers take a clue from the phone industry and just throw everything in there? Why can't we have a GPS with a ~500x500+ screen, 32 GB+ memory to deal with nearly unlimited maps, WiFi/Bluetooth/3G to access caches on-line, and not only geocaching but traffic information available on-line and in real time?

 

My Nautiz X7 (Getac PS236) is closing in on your demands. 806 mHz processor, SirfStar III, 4 GB storage internal, SD slot (8 GB in mine for a total of 12 GB), 480x640 px screen, phone (not in mine), bluetooth, wlan, compass/altimeter/g-sensor, 3 megapixel camera, IP67, MIL-STD-810G and good battery time.

 

I totally love it. It´s main use is in my work, but I also use it for caching. I use BeeLine GPS and OpenStreetMap.

 

I have a Nokia 5230 as a supplement to get navigation/traffic info and access to Google Maps and the internet, and as a phone of course.

 

But it´s a "little" more expensive than 1000 USD. My version sans phone is 1700-1800 USD and with phone it´s like 2100 USD. I guess the price is high due to the certifications and a relativly small production series.

Edited by The Kamikaze Clan
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ADTCacheur, the iPhone 3GS does have available most of the items you crossed out. It can play MP3s and other sound formats; you can plug in external battery packs that take AA batteries; it does have a magentic compas; and numerous applications allow continuous tracking (hit www.appshopper.com and search for "tracklog" or "track log").

 

Can't help you on Garmin style buttons, and you'd still need an Otterbox to ruggedize it.

It can play mp3, but is it set to when you get an FTF? as for the external battery pack, I meant without paying extra money, just the straight out iPhone (though with an app because that was what you said). I did not know it had a magnetic compass, nor had I yet seen an app that would track, I guess I might have been wrong on those ones...

 

note: there's no point in even trying to rebut, I have something personal against apple, so you'd only win if the iPhone was perfect, which it isn't

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<useless comment>

My gps 'unit' has 160GB memory, unlimited tracking, unlimited waypoints, a 10" screen and includes bluetooth/wifi/3G connectivity. It also has a movie and music player, 3MP camera and I can load all the maps I want.

 

Unfortunately, it's a netbook, so portability and ruggedness are definite issues...

</useless comment>

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<useless comment>

My gps 'unit' has 160GB memory, unlimited tracking, unlimited waypoints, a 10" screen and includes bluetooth/wifi/3G connectivity. It also has a movie and music player, 3MP camera and I can load all the maps I want.

 

Unfortunately, it's a netbook, so portability and ruggedness are definite issues...

</useless comment>

does it have a GPSr?

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<useless comment>

My gps 'unit' has 160GB memory, unlimited tracking, unlimited waypoints, a 10" screen and includes bluetooth/wifi/3G connectivity. It also has a movie and music player, 3MP camera and I can load all the maps I want.

 

Unfortunately, it's a netbook, so portability and ruggedness are definite issues...

</useless comment>

does it have a GPSr?

 

Of course, otherwise it'd be useless!! Now, the GPSr isn't in-built - I use a USB GPS dongle or a bluetooth GPS puck, hence the use of apostrophes when I say 'unit'...!! :P

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<useless comment>

My gps 'unit' has 160GB memory, unlimited tracking, unlimited waypoints, a 10" screen and includes bluetooth/wifi/3G connectivity. It also has a movie and music player, 3MP camera and I can load all the maps I want.

 

Unfortunately, it's a netbook, so portability and ruggedness are definite issues...

</useless comment>

does it have a GPSr?

 

Of course, otherwise it'd be useless!! Now, the GPSr isn't in-built - I use a USB GPS dongle or a bluetooth GPS puck, hence the use of apostrophes when I say 'unit'...!! :P

keep the netbook in your backpack and use the bluetooth GPS, while having your netbook navigate you by the following method: 2 beeps means right, 1 beep means straight, 3 beeps means left, 4 beeps means go backwards, higher pitch means you're getting nearer, the less time between the multiple beeps for navigation, the less you have to rotate that way. Oh! And have it read the hint aloud. Now, go try that out in that parking lot looking for an LPC, just imagine the wierd looks!

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...there's no point in even trying to rebut, I have something personal against apple...
ADTCacheur, thank you for admitting your bias. Still, there's no reason to spread misinformation. I have something personal against rhubarb--but I wouldn't want to tell folks it has no nutritional value. It just leave a bad taste in my mouth.

 

But since you dislike Apple, I'll make it more general -- the same basic comments I made ALSO apply to many smartphones of the Android variety. Some have compasses, and there are ALWAYS ways to carry spare batteries. Don't know about tracking applications, if there's anything like Trails or Trails-Lite for Android like for the iPhone -- maybe an Android user will chime in.

 

As for playing a custom MP3 when you get a FTF? You got me there -- I don't know of any device that does that. Is that really on your must-have list?

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or 2) The market doesn't require a flawless product, we still buy them, and they can get away with it.

 

Yes...#2...

 

Why pay their engineers, R&D team, etc when they KNOW they can throw a unit out that is not ready for prime time and the fanboys will STILL eat it up? Then they sit back and watch their unknowing, unpaid EMPLOYEES (in the form of beta testers) flog the crap out of the unit for them, find/post/bitch about problems and THEN release firmware updates as they see fit to make the peons happy. All they have to do is troll the boards. Virtually no out-of-pocket expense, as compared to paying REAL employees, who are on the clock. :P

Edited by sviking
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<useless comment>

My gps 'unit' has 160GB memory, unlimited tracking, unlimited waypoints, a 10" screen and includes bluetooth/wifi/3G connectivity. It also has a movie and music player, 3MP camera and I can load all the maps I want.

 

Unfortunately, it's a netbook, so portability and ruggedness are definite issues...

</useless comment>

does it have a GPSr?

 

Of course, otherwise it'd be useless!! Now, the GPSr isn't in-built - I use a USB GPS dongle or a bluetooth GPS puck, hence the use of apostrophes when I say 'unit'...!! :P

keep the netbook in your backpack and use the bluetooth GPS, while having your netbook navigate you by the following method: 2 beeps means right, 1 beep means straight, 3 beeps means left, 4 beeps means go backwards, higher pitch means you're getting nearer, the less time between the multiple beeps for navigation, the less you have to rotate that way. Oh! And have it read the hint aloud. Now, go try that out in that parking lot looking for an LPC, just imagine the wierd looks!

 

That's exactly what I have got, and I've posted about it on these forums before (though I can't be bothered to find the posts). Instead of beeps I use speech to tell me the distance and bearing to the cache, which is fed to me through headphones (actually, an FM transmitter). I usually have a pretty good idea of my general bearing in the first place, but if I'm a bit lost I use a compass to match up with the instructions. Once I'm within 15m of the cache, the speech also tells me the hint.

 

This is all remotely controlled from my Palm PDA (if desired). It also has battery status updates built in, and GPS status updates if required. It's pretty amazing what you can do with these netbooks and a sack load of time and patience!!

 

So in terms of ruggedness it doesn't really matter, unless I'm planning on falling over on my back at some point...

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or 2) The market doesn't require a flawless product, we still buy them, and they can get away with it.

 

Yes...#2...

 

Why pay their engineers, R&D team, etc when they KNOW they can throw a unit out that is not ready for prime time and the fanboys will STILL eat it up? Then they sit back and watch their unknowing, unpaid EMPLOYEES (in the form of beta testers) flog the crap out of the unit for them, find/post/bitch about problems and THEN release firmware updates as they see fit to make the peons happy. All they have to do is troll the boards. Virtually no out-of-pocket expense, as compared to paying REAL employees, who are on the clock. :P

 

Not just GPSr's - Apple, anyone? :P

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or 2) The market doesn't require a flawless product, we still buy them, and they can get away with it.

 

Yes...#2...

 

Why pay their engineers, R&D team, etc when they KNOW they can throw a unit out that is not ready for prime time and the fanboys will STILL eat it up? Then they sit back and watch their unknowing, unpaid EMPLOYEES (in the form of beta testers) flog the crap out of the unit for them, find/post/bitch about problems and THEN release firmware updates as they see fit to make the peons happy. All they have to do is troll the boards. Virtually no out-of-pocket expense, as compared to paying REAL employees, who are on the clock. :P

 

Not just GPSr's - Apple, anyone? :P

 

Yup, that's why my post was "generic" and didn't mention GPS or a specific manufacturer. :P

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Yes...#2...

 

Why pay their engineers, R&D team, etc when they KNOW they can throw a unit out that is not ready for prime time and the fanboys will STILL eat it up? Then they sit back and watch their unknowing, unpaid EMPLOYEES (in the form of beta testers) flog the crap out of the unit for them, find/post/bitch about problems and THEN release firmware updates as they see fit to make the peons happy. All they have to do is troll the boards. Virtually no out-of-pocket expense, as compared to paying REAL employees, who are on the clock. :P

This is called "consumer engineering".

I believe it was invented by GM*.

 

 

 

* My opinion, only. :P

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I think SViking has it right, I want a GPSr to be a super accurate GPS and I want my Phone to be a phone and my .45 just in case either one of them misbehaves!!

 

Booyah! :(

 

Just got back from cranking a few hundred rounds through a new 1911 out in the AZ desert. Garmin was safely on oboard with the Nuvi and 60CSx in the truck. I mark every new, good shooting spot I find. :)

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I agree that my phone should be a phone. My GPS should be a GPS. And my camera should be a camera.

 

So if I don't want my GPS to be a phone or a camera, what should it be? I think it should be capable of handling tens of thousands (if not all) geocaches at one time. It should be able to handle reasonably detailed maps from the whole country at one time, and detailed road and topo maps from a region at one time. Real-time access to GC.com would be a plus.

 

Once again, I say that memory is cheap, and I don't understand why Garmin says that the 2GB and 4GB cards will work in their products, but anything more may not.

 

_____________________________________________________

 

A little story: I used to work for Compaq when that company made top end server products and not the crappy home computers they have become known for lately. We made a high end server product in the 1980s that used a RAID with 1GB drives and these could be chained together. The unit with 16 drives filled a PC case. You could then chain together multiple instances of these units to your server. The bottom line: up to 64 GB of storage space for your server! At the time that was beyond the comprehension of most computer experts, and many people told us we were wasting our time developing disk storage that would be beyond the needs of most companies, if not governments. Now, of course, this type of storage requirement is considered minimal, at best.

 

So WHY OH WHY do Garmin and the other GPS companies not realize that the TB (thats terabyte) GPS is only waiting to happen. I think my phone will have a TB available before my GPS, and that is very sad, indeed.

 

You may claim "BATTERY" which is what I hear over and over. But with USB plug-ins becoming available almost everywhere this is less and less of a concern.

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Once again, I say that memory is cheap, and I don't understand why Garmin says that the 2GB and 4GB cards will work in their products, but anything more may not.

 

The Garmin 60CSx is an OLD design. I'm running an 8GB microSD card just fine and have been doing so for quite a while. I've read of even larger 16GB+ cards working, but I haven't needed more memory. I have about 2GB to spare on my card.

 

You may claim "BATTERY" which is what I hear over and over. But with USB plug-ins becoming available almost everywhere this is less and less of a concern.

 

Not for people who actually USE their GPS in the field (sometimes for a week+) and aren't "Starbucks" type casual users/geocachers...

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Not for people who actually USE their GPS in the field (sometimes for a week+) and aren't "Starbucks" type casual users/geocachers...

 

Don't even go all "Starbucks" on me - haven't set foot in there in years. I typically carry a load of AA batteries in my pockets when out caching. I'm the guy you go ask when YOUR batteries run out. Anyway, I really LIKE the fact that I can plug my iPhone in at home, in the car, and at work and almost never run into power problems. Again - WHY OH WHY can't the GPS companies "get it"??!?!

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Don't even go all "Starbucks" on me - haven't set foot in there in years. I typically carry a load of AA batteries in my pockets when out caching. I'm the guy you go ask when YOUR batteries run out. Anyway, I really LIKE the fact that I can plug my iPhone in at home, in the car, and at work and almost never run into power problems. Again - WHY OH WHY can't the GPS companies "get it"??!?!

for that particular example; because if you had a rechargeable battery like that then you would have serious problems if you went on a 2 hour hike and the battery ran out, as you can't switch that battery. On the other hand, if they had both then the GPS would be too bulky. If you just get a good GPS and good batteries, then you won't need to carry a load of batteries with you. My GPS lasts for 10-20 hours depending on it's mood and I can just slip the batteries in my charger when they're done.

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Not for people who actually USE their GPS in the field (sometimes for a week+) and aren't "Starbucks" type casual users/geocachers...

 

Don't even go all "Starbucks" on me - haven't set foot in there in years. I typically carry a load of AA batteries in my pockets when out caching. I'm the guy you go ask when YOUR batteries run out. Anyway, I really LIKE the fact that I can plug my iPhone in at home, in the car, and at work and almost never run into power problems. Again - WHY OH WHY can't the GPS companies "get it"??!?!

 

I would much prefer the convenience and self-sufficiency of AA batteries over rechargeable packs... especially the iphone. You said yourself you carry an extra set of batteries when you go out, therefore why is this an issue? Even with just 2 extra AA batteries (which EASILY fit in any pocket) I can go out the entire day for caching and still have some power left over after.

 

Yes you could recharge the iphone while driving or whatever, but what about those long hikes where you don't have access to a charger? Also, you neglect the fact that the iphone gets far less battery life when you use it as a GPS compared to a stand alone device... less than half the day I would imagine. AND, the dadgum thing has a sealed battery which degrades over time. I hardly see any advantages to sealed rechargeables.

Edited by Tahoe Skier5000
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Don't even go all "Starbucks" on me - haven't set foot in there in years.

 

Dude, it was just a saying in general. I didn't mean it as singling you out. :(

 

I typically carry a load of AA batteries in my pockets when out caching. I'm the guy you go ask when YOUR batteries run out.

 

A "LOAD" of AA batteries? I can make a set of AA batteries last a WEEK + on my 60CSx without having the thing turned on all the time like some people do. Just get your fix, plot it/shoot a bearing, turn off and move on... And, I always carry a spare set of AAs Haven't actually needed them yet, but I always have them. :)

 

Anyway, I really LIKE the fact that I can plug my iPhone in at home, in the car, and at work and almost never run into power problems. Again - WHY OH WHY can't the GPS companies "get it"??!?!

 

Well, what happen if/WHEN you do? Not all of us live our lives (ever hear of primitive camping?) near constant "plug in" power solutions...

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Once again, I say that memory is cheap, and I don't understand why Garmin says that the 2GB and 4GB cards will work in their products, but anything more may not.
It's about marketing . . . product tiers. Totally artificial. You and I both know theirs no manufacturing cost difference between an eTrex with or w/o an flash slot, yet Garmin charges almost $100 more for the "x" models with the ability to accept a flash card.

 

So until a significant competitor to Garmin arrives, Garmin can and will use its "8oo lb Gorilla" status to create whatever artificial product tiers it wishes. Logic need not prevail.

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Don't even go all "Starbucks" on me - haven't set foot in there in years. I typically carry a load of AA batteries in my pockets when out caching. I'm the guy you go ask when YOUR batteries run out. Anyway, I really LIKE the fact that I can plug my iPhone in at home, in the car, and at work and almost never run into power problems. Again - WHY OH WHY can't the GPS companies "get it"??!?!
Simple. Your iPhone has a fixed battery with known charging characteristics. Your GPS accepts "AAs" which have at least 3 different possible battery types, each type requiring different charging OR may not even be rechargeable. Creating the universal solution is non-trivial.

 

For me, I'm happy to have replaceable AAs with these "faults."

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