Is there a "real" GPS alternative out there?

[rusty_tlc]

http://www.casiogzone.com/us/commando/

Love this phone. I have a Galaxy for everyday but switch service to my commando when I go outdoors.

 

[Enigma]

I just did trip overseas and my buddy put me on to Sygic.

Oh...I forgot we used it South AFrica as well.

I have Sygic on my phone (Nexus4) and used it for a trip into the states. Seemed to work okay except for the power demand. Holy hell it is hard on the battery. Even with the phone plugged in it was discharging faster than it would charge. The battery was dead in a little over an hour, which essentially makes it useless for a long road trip.

 

[Dragos80]

Google Maps now works off line, turn by turn.

 

[george_tlc]

Google Maps now works off line, turn by turn.

The Google I/O claim is "later this year"... So, unless it was released within a few hours, that capability isn't available yet.

cheers,
george.

 

[titanpat57]

Just tried HERE home Maine and liked it.

Here's how my NAV/GPS apps stack up in terms of "go to"

Google Tracks just rocked till they F'ed it all up about 3 updates ago. Used to be able to record the whole off road trip and play it back on Google Earth...bastards

 

[BMThiker]

Waze or Google Maps for on road point-to-point nav with adequate cell coverage.

Ulmon Pro City Maps 2 Go for downloading local road maps when exploring rural areas on road, weak/no cell service. Works well if you notice signal dropping from Google Maps but still have a signal. Pull over to nearest gas station and pull down all the map data near your location by county.

Motion X for offline topo or road maps and recording tracks in the field.

With my iPhone 5S mounted on dash using Ram mount, GPS signal acquisition is pretty stable.

 

[bloc]

For the offroad half of this discussion, is backcountry navigator Pro any good anymore? I paid for it a few years ago when it was supposedly the best and never ended up really using it.. but I have a Nexus 10 sitting around and could easily make that a dedicated offroad mapping unit. I'm perfectly happy with google maps navigation when within cel coverage.

 

[Mr Cimarron]

For the offroad half of this discussion, is backcountry navigator Pro any good anymore? I paid for it a few years ago when it was supposedly the best and never ended up really using it.. but I have a Nexus 10 sitting around and could easily make that a dedicated offroad mapping unit. I'm perfectly happy with google maps navigation when within cel coverage.

Does your Nexus 10 stay charged while using GPS?

 

[bloc]

Haven't really messed with it. Why.. is that a known problem? or just something you've dealt with?

 

[Mr Cimarron]

Haven't really messed with it. Why.. is that a known problem? or just something you've dealt with?

Yeah its a known issue with them. They drain power when being used and plugged in. Great tablet other than that.

 

[bloc]

The charger they come with is a 2 amp unit.. crazy to think it burns more energy than that. There was also talk of a Pogo charger which was supposed to have more capacity.. Not sure if they've tried that or the original. guess I have some reading to do.

 

[Mr Cimarron]

The charger they come with is a 2 amp unit.. crazy to think it burns more energy than that. There was also talk of a Pogo charger which was supposed to have more capacity.. Not sure if they've tried that or the original. guess I have some reading to do.

The pogo isn't any better. We have 150 Nexus 10's sitting in a corner at work. We used them for our festival point of sale app for awhile. We couldn't keep them charged. Our engineer thinks he has a fix for it so I am deploying one next weekend to test. They are a great tablet so I hope it works so I can start using one for GPS as well.

 

[bloc]

Does operating system matter? (sorry this is getting off-topic.. )