Droid Apps

This may have been discussed but I couldn't find it in a search.

Does anyone have experience using a droid topo app? Free would be best.

Thanks LR

Nat'l Geo has a wonderful one for IPads. I saw it on a hike and in a restaurant a couple of weeks ago and believe it works on IPhones as well.
Countrywide topo maps with a cursor showing exactly where you're located.
Very cool.

National geo charges.

I can't find a web site for country wide topo? Got one?

My favorite for GPS tracking thus far is My Tracks from Google. But I'm going to be branching out on my next hike and trying SportsTracker to try and get live tracking out to my family/friends while I'm hiking.

hikingnclimbing said:

My favorite for GPS tracking thus far is My Tracks from Google.

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I have that for biking and walking but don't see how I can get a topo from it? I only get satellite view and have not gone deep woods with it yet?

Is the GPS function on my droid really a GPS or is it just cell phone tower locations?

Am I missing something?

I'm trying to find one of my uploaded maps to show you what it look like. I don't use it for the map, but more for elevation approximation and distance traveled (which I can then match to a physical map to figure out how far I am from my destination). The GPS has been surprisingly accurate, at least where I've been in the Whites.

How is the battery drain? Does it last for a day? A weekend?

My Tracks will export a .gpx file which you then can import into just about any mapping software. I think if you're a Google user, you can also export your track into the Google Maps "My Map" feature, although I've not tried that.

The Nat'l Geo topo app is like $5. Shows a cursor on a topo map wherever you are in the USA. I've seen it in action on an IPAD and guessing it's available for smartphones.

I have a droid and use mytracks.. its awesome. yeah, you can upload it to google maps. I've used it up landslide and shoestring gullies on mt webster and it picked up the gps signal and tracked me.. pretty accurate. If the map doesn't show up on your phone, but it still says "recording new track", its working.

Little Rickie said:

Is the GPS function on my droid really a GPS or is it just cell phone tower locations?

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It's an "assisted" GPS: it uses cell tower locations (or possibly wifi information) to get an initial approximate location, thus allowing for a very fast location lock to the correct satellites compared to a regular handheld GPS.

MichaelJ said:

It's an "assisted" GPS: it uses cell tower locations (or possibly wifi information) to get an initial approximate location, thus allowing for a very fast location lock to the correct satellites compared to a regular handheld GPS.

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Some phone GPSes are multi-mode. They will use AGPS when available and the standard satellite searching techniques when it is not.

AGPS alone would be useless in the woods.

Doug

In English, please.

Peakbagr said:

In English, please.

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Some phones need cell service in order for the GPS to function. Some phones do not.

Peakbagr said:

In English, please.

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AGPS=assisted GPS. (info from the cellular telephone system is used to initialize the GPS so it can find and use the satellites very quickly)

standard satellite searching=the procedure by which a GPS finds the available satellites to lock on. It can then take an additional ~45 sec to download information required to produce a fix.

My original statement should now (hopefully) make sense...

A little more complex than DSettahr's executive summary.

Doug

Battery life is not so great with GPS on, and it is not very predictable due to droid app data transmissions. The phones are hardly ruggedized-- you'll need a plastic bag if not an otter box. Might be better to save the battery for an emergency or bring a spare.

Remember that all those "free" droid apps are sending data back to data aggregators and caching advertisements to display--this provides the software developers with revenue. All the data transmissions wear down the battery. And this does not include checking for updates and downloading them.

The part of me that enjoys Carl Hiassen books imagines a hiker unable to call for help because his phone was downloading weight loss advertisements.

Hopefully someone will market a GPS with specified battery life and ruggedization with the convenience of 802.11 wireless map/route/waypoint/track syncing. One less way for water to get in....