Death of the GPS

I have a Garmin 276c, but it is gathering dust. Doing everything on my Iphone with a piece of software I paid $2.99 for. It's light, small and real easy to use and if I want to get more fancy, there are a lot more navigation packages to choose from.

So, is the death of the conventional dedicated GPS just around the corner?

Obviously for some. For me the cell phone is just a phone for an emergency. If I wanted to pay for a I phone I doubt I'd want it hanging on the handlebars of my dual sport. I tend to rely on simplier solutions and something like phone/gps/browser/email/musicplayer/a dozen or more other things is just too many eggs in one basket.

You have a point.

What is real cool when I hit the trails, is if I stop for a minute, I can go to satelite image and see a hundred times more than any topo map, or road map will tell me. Also, it is a fraction of the cost of what I paid for my GPS.

This is kind of interesting regarding the accuracy of Google Maps:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-google-maps-06-dec06,0,4018426.story

Don't you need cell service to use it though?

I use my cell phone as a phone only. I hardly ever even send a text, much less use any of the internet browser stuff.

Can you easily plan custom routes for a many-day trip and load them to the iPhone?

I didn't stay in a holiday inn express last night and I'm not an electrical engineer, but one would think if they can make gadgets robust enough for the Dakar and that if a circuit is a circuit is a circuit that a bomb proof do it all handheld is doable and will drive a stake through the GPS market's heart.

Since your 276C is just gathering dust how about selling it to me? Don't you feel to have it just sitting around?

KP

I'm hoping that this will force garmin to add more of the user preferences that people have been asking for. Since they've started dumbing down the units, taking away routing preferences, track recording, customizable interfaces etc. Perhaps now they'll cater more to their niche users that want more options instead of the soccer mom's who want to get from point A to point B with little to no thought.

I think the hassle to get unlock keys transferred and re-registration is more than just changing your cell plan to an I-Phone, but sure it comes with 2009 maps and voice car kit, as well as both a street bike and dirt bike mount. Make me an offer, I can invest on a Put Option in Garmin stock.

Yes.

Eh.

Phones are for phone calls. Mobile phones have morphed into internet access devices and pagers. All of those services require a network connection to function. Assuming you always have this connectivity available, other features keep getting added.

To my knowledge, all these high-resolution topo maps and aerial photographs don't get stored on the device. They're pulled from the network and cached locally.

And when that network is unavailable, so are those services.

A GPS receiver is designed and built for the purpose of navigation, not phone calls, and only depends on the external GPS signals to be fully functional.

The best software package in the world is still limited by the hardware it's being executed on.

Some apps don't require cell phone coverage, uses Sat chip in the phone. most of the features are app driven so there could very will be an app that does allow you to load up routes, and 8 or 16 gig phone will have more then enough space. I've never really looked at the apps because I'm not interested in using my iPhone as a GPS. Mainly because it's such a shitty CELL PHONE, I plan on getting rid of it as soon as my contract is up.

That seems to be a trend - the more shite they stack on a cell phone, the less functional it becomes as a cell phone. My wife has a Samsung Omnia and 60 days into a 3 year contract she hates the thing with a passion previously reserved for members of my side of the family.

Fixed ........

And I fully agree on your take.

G.

What is it that puts you off the cell phone? I prefer mine to any other I had and have a Blackberry for work, which I hate. I know Bluetooth on Iphone is not the best, but what else?

To other questions above, the more powerful GPS software packages don't need the network to run, both Magellan and the TomTom software is available. To get satelite image you need network though.

PM send.

KP

Give me a break - most places I ride have no cell phone coverage.

And what about tracks - I depend on them way too much.

I also own a 276C.

No. There are getting to be a lot of devices that include position tracking based on GPS and other technologies. Each combination will have its own advantages and penalties. At the moment, I can't see doing without a rugged, dedicated GPS receiver with relatively long battery life. Who knows what will come along in the future?

BRF

I can recall when all-in-one elcheapo shelf-top stereos were popular, all the home music functions in one package. Folks loved them, but over time a lot of people woke up to the problem that when a function ceased to work you basically had to throw the whole unit to regain that function, and I see phone-based GPS in the same light. It is all cool and sexy at the moment, but when the mp3 or radio or bluetooth or internet or whatever function decides to go to lunch the device becomes a throwaway. And they are throwawy devices.
Whereas my GPS does only GPS, and if it ever plays up the nice folks at Garmin will send me a refurbed unit for a nominal fee.

If I was just lurking around metro areas the GPS function on a phone might suffice, but when you go to remote places and you need a serious GPS there's only one choice.

So no, I don't see the death of GPS units. I suspect that the dopey marketing people at the GPS manufacturers will first attempt to take on the phone apps by making the GPS do other stuff (as they currently do, photos, mp3, other crap) at the expense of GPS funtionality, but the smart ones will refocus on their core expertise, and hopefully we'll see a return of functions that have been progressively removed or dumbed down lately.

Are you listening Garmin?

Seems to me you probably were not using the 276c to the full extent of its power if you think that an iPhone can duplicate its functionality.

The iPhone won't display multiple tracks or navigate them, store and navigate multiple pre-loaded routes, is not waterproof, the screen is so much smaller, you can't easily change routing on the fly, and no $2.99 piece of software offers the kind of data acquisition you can get out of a fully featured GPS.

So - No.

I have an iPhone. I like it in the car for the occasional time I need routing help in town.

I like my iPhone for music, phone, calendaring, email and texts - but there is no way the iPhone comes close to what my 376c will do. But then again, I use the 376c for what it was designed to do.