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Cruiser
Posts: 69
| Does anyone use their cell phone as a GPS? I don't even text or access the 'net on my phone so it would be a learning curve but then I've never had a vehicle GPS before either. A GPS is a luxury for me, not a necessity. I've had Alltel for years and been very happy w/them but of course now they're Verizon and I don't have a good feel for their coverage yet.
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Cruiser
Posts: 297
VA | Verizon has better coverage, at least in most areas. As far as using your cell phone as a GPS, it may work, but it usually isn't GPS, it uses cell phone towers to triangulate where you are. It is OK, but not as accurate as GPS, and if you are not in range of towers, it won't work.
If you're asking about using it on the Vision, I doubt it will be very useful since it will be too small to see when riding, and I don't know of a way to get voice directions over the radio. Hope that helps.
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Visionary
Posts: 3006
San Antonio, TX | My wife is a worries about me when I ride. Especially when I ride with my brother. I have Google Maps on the Blackberry and hooked it up to Latitude. The Blackberry I have has a real GPS receiver in it.
Now she can go to the computer and find out where my phone is.
I do not use it as a GPS for directions because I do not care if I get lost. |
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Iron Butt
Posts: 725
Reno County, KS | My Sprint Blackberry has Telenav GPS (same company used by most, developed by Vodafone, a subsidiary of Verizon) and it is quite effective. My phone has a true GPS radio (as opposed to AGPS, which is the tower triangulation mentioned by Diveshark). My Blackberry is just as accurate as both my dedicated GPS receivers. I'm probably going to start using my phone for things like this as the technology has gotten to the point that it's worth having. Also, it is approximately $80 and up for map updates for these dedicated Garmin/Magellan/Tom Tom etc. GPS receivers. With Sprint, my everything plan includes free unlimited use of the GPS, so I don't really worry about the price of the GPS plan (usually $10 to $15/Mo. for other companies) There is only 1 big problem with it. If you are stuck in an area that has NO or poor signal, your phone wont be able to download the route. Verizon/Alltel has a pretty good network in the US. The only down side to this is that you will not be able to integrate the phone into your radio like the Garmin/"OEM Victory" GPS without making a custom connector. That's not too hard a task as there is a pinout for the connector in this forum for the taking. All in all, I have not been using my GPS in my truck or when I'm stuck in a rental anymore as my phone is already on me. I am looking at the possbility of building a connector that integrates the phone into the radio and keeps the phone charged at the same time. It's a simple pinout and I happen to have 2 cables from when I built one for a Magellan. I need to weatherize the phone and still keep the screen viewable. Anyway, maybe there's something useful in all that crap I just spouted about phones... I'm a gadget slut, sorry I took off on a tangent. You got me too excited with the thought of GADGETS and MOTORCYCLES in the same subject. Good luck.
PS, hey radioteacher: Your wife better not tell my G/F about that little GPS computer trick! I don't want the "GPS police" watching my every move... But then again, I guess there is still the O-F-F option on the phone so it wouldn't matter much. LOL |
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Cruiser
Posts: 162
Extreme Southern, AZ United States | I've used my Blackberry as a GPS. Works great! Mine has an earplug jack that I can use with the AUX. Hear it through the sound system fine. |
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Tourer
Posts: 548
Mount Vernon, WA United States | I use an AT&T Tilt and Lisa uses a Blackjack II. My GPS is built in, she has an external gps antenna that teathers via bluetooth.
While there are many software options, I use the Garmin Mobile solution. It's great for finding places. I also use Google Maps on it, as sometimes a picture really is worth 1000 words.
I especially like it when travelling alone. It's not really that I haven't looked at a map and know where I'm going already, but more of a "is it this turn or the next" type thing, especially at night. Also at night knowing what's up ahead when I'm going down unfamiliar roads is handy.
When walking, as it's just my phone, it's very handy for finding restaurants and stores and such.
Then... of course... GEOCACHING!!!!!! |
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Visionary
Posts: 3006
San Antonio, TX | bigwill5150,
I understand. FYI, You can turn off Latitude at the phone anytime you want and get lost!
In April, some lady had their purse stolen and she used Latitude to tell the police where the bastard was that stole her stuff. It was an easy bust for the cops. |
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Visionary
Posts: 3773
Pittsburgh, PA | i use a Samsung Omina with built in gps. i use google maps at this time. i want to look into something more. but here is a few downfalls i know about from using a cellphone gps. 1) cant look at the screen if you get a call.. lol 2) battery life! 3) smaller screen harder to read. |
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Cruiser
Posts: 297
VA | There are many phones that do have true GPS, Blackberry being one of them. However, and this is directed for Shyster since he started this thread, I am sensing that if you don't text, then you don't have one of these types of phones. Most of the GPS that is offered on the lower model types, being the ones that aren't all fancy dancy, are usually triangulation, or AGPS. If you don't use the other features, such as texting, or surfing the web, you'd spend as much, if not more when you consider the monthly fee they charge automatically for internet enabled phones, on using your phone as a GPS.
The GPS units that you buy are really pretty straightforward. Most are easy to use, and best of all, you pay probably $100-$200 for a good GPS. In a few years, you might want to to a map update to get the latest roads, but I wouldn't do it for the first two years as most of the roads that are added may not even be ones that you need or care to find. People that use it for work, such as appliance repair people that make house calls, may need that, but most of us don't.
So, you go to a local store such as Best Buy (Costco has some really good deals) and buy a stand-alone unit. You can spend more on the latest greatest, but if you plan to use it only occassionaly, I would say get a less expensive one. You can get caught up in all the features, but the things that I would recommend are a bigger screen (the smaller ones are harder to see/read, and text-to-speech. The text reads the names of the street aloud, so instead of it just saying turn right in 1/4 mile, it says turn right 1/4 mile on "Main Street." Helpful in cities and more urban areas where the streets are closer together and it's easy to miss route numbers.
A lot of places have them on display, so play with them and see which ones seem easy to use. I will say though, whatever you buy will be what you get used to. If you've never owned one, than you'll be used to whatever you get. It's usually when you own a Garmin, adn swtich to another brand, like TomTom or Magellan, that people say it should have this or that. It's usually preference rather than necessity. They all do basically the same things. Some do it better, some have more POI's (points of interest such as restaurants, etc), but if you want to go to a specific address, they will all get you in the ball park. However, some do it better, or at least easier than others. I know my TomTom will get me near it, but as far as getting me at the exact address, it is off sometimes, maybe within a couple hundred feet. It calculates where it thinks that numeric is based upon the software.
The biggest thing for me is how easy it is to enter the information. My buddy has one where you enter the city, and it starts to list all of the cities in the US that have that same name, such as Madison, it will pop up with Wisconsin first. Mine, you enter the state first, then anrrow down to city, then to street, then to numeric. I like that, but some others might not.
Long post, but hope that helps since it seems that you were wondering about GPS in general. |
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New user
Posts: 3
| Hey all, I'm new to the board (I'm actually trying to sell my Kingpin to buy a Vision). I'm a little bit of a 'geek' so I couldn't help but chime in. My iPhone has a built in GPS and has proven useful more than once, both in the car and on the bike. I actually have a RAM mount for it on the handlebars (I also use it to stream music to my helmet). At a glance it can show you where you are and help get you oriented.
To what Divesharc said, I couldn't agree more. In my wife's car we're on our third Tom Tom and she swears by the brand. Our test when we bought our first one was to try to find my parent's address in Madison, VA (since you used that example, that's where I grew up) and at the time Tom Tom was the only brand that would find it. |
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Iron Butt
Posts: 725
Reno County, KS | I couldn't be more of a fan for Google Maps for doing local searches, although it's hard to navigate with which is why I use Telenav for turn by turn or my dedicated units. #1 Google Maps mobile is free to download and use. #2 It is current. #3 It's incredibly easy to use. If you want to call the place before you show, just scroll to the phone # it shows under the address and select it. #5 It's incredibly hard to stump the search engine for the place your looking for. It will offer spelling suggestions if you mis spell the name of the place. It's a great way to find restaraunts, stores, dealerships, etc. My favorite feature is #1 (free). I'd definitely give it a try. Just do a search for Google Maps Mobile. You can download it directly to your phone (OTA Over the air) if you have a data package on your phone (I'd think you have to). Once you get used to that, then you will start to get the hang of a lot of other things as they become more intuitive to you. The turn by turn GPS software is somewhat more difficult to get used to but it works very well once you get the hang of it.
SHYSTER- Just FYI here about the Alltel/Verizon merger. If you have a data plan with Alltel, unless you're looking to upgrade, don't let them change you're plan if they try. The new Verizon data packages are a lot more expensive. You may already know this but I just wanted to mention it. I just did some phone shopping myself so one of the Alltel rep's was quick to point this out and show me the difference on paper.
Edited by bigwill5150 2009-08-05 3:17 PM
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Cell phone GPS
