Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Kiss your dedicated GPS goodbye

at least it seems those TomToms and other consumer models are going to be soon forgotten relics

Nokia Phones Offering Free GPS for 74 Countries

dedicated hiking GPSs probably will continue, but Nokia's move may really change the game. Perhaps innovative new custom GPS/Spot solutions like the new unit from DeLorme will be their new business model, which would be good news for outdoor users. Nokie is huge in Europe and other countries, and they are pretty active in marketing to outdoors users there. We'll have to see what happens to the market, but I expect handhelds to do in the majority of street navigation units you see in stores these days.

It will certainly make for big changes in the GPS market. But, GPS's seem to be getting larger for readability. That's not the direction phones are taking.

There's no way I would stick my phone on the car's dashboard and try to use it as a map for driving.

But then when I look for new cell phone, I try to find the one with fewer features.

I've got a moderate sized phone with bluetooth which I hook up to my GPS to navigate in cities sometimes. But the above is right, the screen is too small for my aging eyes to read. I even got a higher power reading glasses especially to read the *&^*&^@@!! screen. My older Dell PDA, though, is a little bigger and readable for both GPS map service & ArcMap.

g.

Ain't that the truth.

I saw a post on another hiking website that even for free, the Nokia maps weren't worth it. It wasn't clear whether they meant for trails, roads or both.

My son uses the GPS service from his cell provider, and says it works fine. But, it costs him $10/month for it.

Bigger and brighter works for me - somewhere around 3x5 or even 4x6 works great for me.

I held out re: a vehicle GPS until several months ago, and then got one. When it helped me find a location in Calgary, and later a meeting place in southern CT, both within tight timeframes, I was a believer. Now I wonder how I managed without it. Still use an atlas periodically when planning long trips to fix major points in my memory, but rarely use paper maps after that.

You have to have cell phone service for the GPS to work on most phones. I have a Motorola Droid - the google earth on it is really nice, but as soon as the phone service is gone, so is the GPS service. So, it doesn't work real well in remote areas and certainly won't be replacing my Garmin for hiking.

You can get some of the Tom Harrison Maps on your iphone:
http://www.earthrover.org/Earthrover_Software/Earthrover_Maps.html

you don't need it for the Nokias, which is the big difference to the Android. I won't get one, because in general I think phones should be used as phones and nothing else, but I can see this becoming a standard feature you won't be able to not have on your phone in the near future.

I'm sitting in Big Pine this morning. When I go to http://maps.ovi.com/ it places me on a demo near Bishop. When I zoom in on the Big Pine area I can follow the Glacier Lodge Road from Big Pine to the north fork of Big Pine Creek miles past the turnoff for the lodge location, all labeled "Glacier Lodge Rd". There is no difference on the map between paved road, trail and washed out 4wd road. There is no topographical data. If this home page represents the quality of service Nokia intends, don't go outside the city with it. It represents a real danger elsewhere.

Dale B. Dalrymple

Great! More of these to come...

11-Year-Old Boy Dies After Mom Says GPS Left Them Stranded in Death Valley

Boy, it's hard to even blame that one on a GPS -- I mean how many mistakes do you have to make and what do you blame it on?


g.

You have to use a GPS, especially those designed for vehicles, with a little common sense. I have a Garmin, and last summer had set Bend, OR as my destination. I decided to make a quick side excusion into some lava beds located in northern CA. It was amusing nearly every time I approached an old FR it would recalculate and direct me to turn north on these "roads". Some of the old FR's were barely a track in the brush.

This happens from time-to-time with everyone, I'm sure. In this instance the mis-direction was most extreme I'd observed. Given the scale of the number of maps the typical GPS can now load, it would be a near impossible feat to expect that every road appearing on a map would be actually passable.

Apparently, the GPS map makers are including every road in their devices even dirt roads, abandoned roads, closed roads, roads last used a 100 years ago, hiking trails, and cow paths. I suspect that they use various free government maps like forest service maps and USGS topo maps as their source. We have the tragedy in Death Valley as a result. Also, wasn't there a recent case of someone following a GPS map that took them to an old logging road in Oregon in a blizzard?

A dedicated GPS has a lot of features that aren't going to be in a cell phone.

A GPS des not make up for stupid - re: woman found with dead child in Death Valley. As far as unreasonable maps and directions from a GPS, you have to use common sense. Getting off trail in a place like Death Valley is just plain stupid, even getting off trail at all in your 4wd is asking to get stuck. I have on occasion pulled just to the side of a track and nearly sunk in to the axels. Now I don't even do that. Driving off through sand in an on-road vehicle (even with 4wd) is something that doesn't even seem wrong to people who watch tv commercials and sand climbing and such. Without special tires and the ability to get your self out (like a winch and something like chicken wire to put own on the sand) and going with another vehicle, makes this safe. I had a friend with a new 4wd and he decided to just drive into a snow drift by the road, because he hd 4wd right? Its like setting your cruise control and stepping into the rear of the van.
Jim - having the gear but not a clue doesn't work.