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GPS vs. Smartphone


llosstt

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Howdy,

 

I have tech envy. Most of my family have smartphones and I want one (tech envy). I also would like to do some geocaching and hiking and would like to have a decent GPS device (more tech envy). It occurs to me that I satisfy both desires by buying a smartphone and downloading a GPS app. Do I have that right? What are the pros and cons of that approach?

 

Thanks.

 

llosstt

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Howdy,

 

I have tech envy. Most of my family have smartphones and I want one (tech envy). I also would like to do some geocaching and hiking and would like to have a decent GPS device (more tech envy). It occurs to me that I satisfy both desires by buying a smartphone and downloading a GPS app. Do I have that right? What are the pros and cons of that approach?

 

Thanks.

 

llosstt

 

Major "con" to a modern smartphone is ruggedness. Drop it on a typical hiking trail and you'll probably destroy the phone. Battery life is lower on a smartphone when the GPS is in constant use than a typical consumer GPS.

 

The major "pros" to smartphone are realtime access to geocaching data (up to the minute on last few logs for example), and the ability for the geocaching software to adapt much quicker than the consumer GPS units which have to reengineer,test and then deploy firmware (vs a simple app install on the phone)

 

Don't let people tell you that the GPS is inaccurate, some of the smartphones are but the mid to high range ones are perfectly decent.

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Northernpenguin has covered most of it. One pro for the SmartPhone is missing. In general you can put usefull geocaching supporting tools onto the SmartPhone, which can help you solve questions which pop up in the field, e.g. calculations and encrypting.

 

Regards, Moose61

Edited by moose61
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Northernpenguin has covered most of it. One con for the SmartPhone is missing. In general you can put usefull geocaching supporting tools onto the SmartPhone, which can help you solve questions which pop up in the field, e.g. calculations and encrypting.

 

Regards, Moose61

 

Actually, that's a "pro" for Smartphone :)

You can also use the smartphone to get to web resources like Purple Hell

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My wife has a smartphone yet I refuse to get one. I spend enough time staring at a screen, plowing through the web. I don't need a device that enables even more time in cyber-land. I digress

 

Since the OP mentioned hiking as one of their uses...

Questions for the smartphone users (I'm not being obtuse I simply don't know the answers):

 

1)How about track-logging and marking waypoints? Can you download tracklogs and waypoints in a widely standrd format(GPX)?

 

2)Can you view map information (topo's, aerials, vector data) even if your not in cell range?

 

3)Can you store and view recorded elevation information?

 

4)How viewable is the smartphone screen in bright sunlight?

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Major con to cellphone: doesn't work well for geocaching overseas. Either the cell doesn't work or else you get hit with enormous data fees.

 

in other parts of the world this doesn't just apply to "overseas", but a mere few km down the road could already make the difference.

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My wife has a smartphone yet I refuse to get one. I spend enough time staring at a screen, plowing through the web. I don't need a device that enables even more time in cyber-land. I digress

 

Since the OP mentioned hiking as one of their uses...

Questions for the smartphone users (I'm not being obtuse I simply don't know the answers):

 

1)How about track-logging and marking waypoints? Can you download tracklogs and waypoints in a widely standrd format(GPX)?

 

2)Can you view map information (topo's, aerials, vector data) even if your not in cell range?

 

3)Can you store and view recorded elevation information?

 

4)How viewable is the smartphone screen in bright sunlight?

 

1) Yes a smartphone can generate a track log. There are several apps for this on iPhone

2) Yes there are mapping solutions for smart phones that do not rely on cellular data. I can view Canadian Topo maps for example. Depends on the phone and the apps available.

3) The GPS on the phone has elevation data. Viewing/tracking is phone/app dependent.

4) Very much depends on the smartphone. My iPhone 4's retina display looks great. My HTC Touch Pro2, not so much.

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Major con to cellphone: doesn't work well for geocaching overseas. Either the cell doesn't work or else you get hit with enormous data fees.

 

If you can turn off the cell radio and get some wifi, it is workable, but still a major pain compared to a dedicated GPS.

 

You can preload data for caching - Pocket Queries and cached maps on most smartphones while you are overseas or roaming. This puts the device on par with a handheld GPS which also cannot use 3G data or wifi to get cache data.

 

I know there are Android and iPhone apps that will happily accept GPX files.

 

Option B - get an unlocked cell phone and grab a local SIM card for the area you're visiting. Or use Wifi hotspots.

 

Option C - treat your smartphone like a handheld GPS. Turn off the cellular radio and load caches/map data via that laptop computer you're carrying with you and the phone's sync cable.

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Major con to cellphone: doesn't work well for geocaching overseas. Either the cell doesn't work or else you get hit with enormous data fees.

 

If you can turn off the cell radio and get some wifi, it is workable, but still a major pain compared to a dedicated GPS.

 

This is very much untrue. You can cache maps prior to leaving and load pocket queries without data. You don't need wifi or data.

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You can cache maps prior to leaving and load pocket queries without data.

 

Not with the geocaching app you can't cache maps. Not with Google Maps yet, either, at least not reliably. When I went to Europe in October I found a few third-party offline mapping apps, but they were not anywhere near what is required for geocaching. And I refuse to support the page-scraping apps that violate the Groundspeak TOS.

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The Geocaching App cannot cache GOOGLE maps on the iPhone, due to the way Google maps is implemented on iOS devices. Switch over to Bing maps or Openstreetmaps and cache away to your heart's content.

 

Also for offline caching, consider Geosphere on iPhone instead, as that app is more optimized for use with Pocket Queries.

 

This illustrates a strength of smartphones over discreet GPS units. If the software doesn't work as you want it to, you can switch the software to something else. If your Garmin/Delorme/Magellan doesn't work the way you want it to, you're pretty much stuck with it unless you happen to be a majority shareholder for that manufacturer.

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