What maps and positioning software are you using. How do you like it-user friendly etc?
Any comments are welcome.
What's an iphone?
Well, not an i-Phone, but I do use my Blackberry as a GPS.
Google maps works pretty well, gives you the option of a roadmap, terrain, or satellite views. I use that and a program called Blackstar, which gives you the traditional GPS type waypoint and compass stuff.
I'd bet that Google has an iPhone friendly version, not so sure about Blackstar.
Does it work without cell coverage?
Mike
I use my palm now in place of my car unit, but on foot I plan to use my hand held. I don't need cell coverage for that, and battery life is better plus I can change out the batteries if I can't plug in.
Try the MotionX-gps app, it's awsome! It does everything a gps and a compass does plus can take photos of your waypoints as well as email your position or any waypoint along with a message to any email or phone.
The email will even include a link to maps with your position marked on it.
The iphone is not waterproof but they do make watertight cases for it.
QuoteOriginally posted by Earthdog:
What's an iphone?
Something you look out of?
"Try the MotionX-gps app, it's awsome!"
Thanks Blackhawk, that's the stuff I was looking for!
just read an article in Outdoor life about this very topic, I dont know if I could trust it?? But then again I dont really put my ability to not get lost in the hands of electronics!lol
I use mine for short trips. The battery use is way too high to trust the thing on any trip of more than a couple hours.
I've used Gaia GPS, but it's very kluzty to get around in. WIll have to take a look at Motion-X.
Backups are great, but y'all that don't trust electronics climb behind the wheel of a car or truck every time you go hunting...
I dont have a GPS in my truck yet either, kinda suprising that probably one of the youngest users on here doesnt trust electronics while I hunt, huh! Dont get me wrong if I could afford to own a GPS to take on hunts I would most definatly use it, but I cant, and I would like to think that I make out fine, I tend to not adventure as much though. I get away from roads and trails, just generally I have about 50 square miles that I hunt and know them very well!
I was pointing out that your truck, assuming it's less than 25 years old, is a mess of electronics from oen bumper to the other and you trust it to get you where you are going.
Nothing wrong with distrusting any commercial device. I just get tickeled at folks who distrust things because they have electricity runing through them.
I've only ever used my compass. The batteries never die on it. On my Canada trips I did have a guide with me. Here in the US I have not hunted in true wilderness and there is always a road, fence, river that I would hit if I did get "confused" as to where I was... On new ground(miles of public land) I will take a compass reading on my truck/camp before I start...
If I was getting dropped into a wilderness camp I would have a map, compass and maybe even a gps in my pack...
JDS III
"I use mine for short trips. The battery use is way too high to trust the thing on any trip of more than a couple hours."
Thanks for the heads up on the battery usage Jeff; I just picked up the phone last week and just getting familiar with it.
I'm more comfortable with a dedicated GPS unit, a compass and a map. Too many eggs in one basket and unproven in harsh remote locations for a phone. Where I hunt you can die - don't need that "convenience." H
QuoteOriginally posted by Jeff Strubberg:
I was pointing out that your truck, assuming it's less than 25 years old, is a mess of electronics from oen bumper to the other and you trust it to get you where you are going.
O gotchya, I really dont trust it either, got jumper cables under my seat :biglaugh: , no in all seriousness it isnt the electronic it is the signal I dont trust. I want to get a GPS, it is hard to mark exact spots on maps. But I will never walk afeild with only a GPS, not that anyone was saying they do.
Back on topic, that article I read showed a picture of the app for the iphone, it looked technologically simple, lol. Just a cordinate reading with a electronic compass!
Bjorn,
Drop me a PM if you want to talk iPhone apps...there are a couple I think everyone should have, especially for travel.
Still don't know what an iphone is,or a blackberry or most of the other things you guys are talking about.
I do have a GPS though,use it to find the direction to camp an then go back to my map an compass to get me there.
A couple of weeks ago I met two guys on a track in the area I was hunting and they told me how they had almost walked off a bluff by following their GPS in the fog.
That struck me a being very silly on a couple of points but I said nothing because I'm sure they worked that out for themselves.
I often do wonder what all the high tech guys are going to do if any of this stuff ever stops working,,,I guess I'll have the hills to myself huh.
Just to side track the conversation a little, the Iphone has an internet browser function, how good is it?
Could you be reading these trad gang posts....can you check emails on them.
I use the internet a fair bit for my business and it would be handy if I could catch up with things in camp in the evenings when on solo hunts.
Basically I'm wondering if I could do this stuff on an Iphone or if I need a small laptop.
I use my iPhone with TragGang and email more than I use my desktop.
You can use the iphone or many of the other high tech smart phones for web browsing and emails but the small screen makes it a little difficult (at least for older eyes).
I like my laptop better for sending emails and browsing but my iphone is always with me so I will check email on it.
I have to admit to using it the last day of the season last year. I was going in just to check everything out and then going to hunt a friends farm for does so I left my compass and gps in the truck. Well, as luck would have it while I was walking out I saw the big buck we had been after jump up and run into the swamp. I went in after him and lost track of him and where I was. Never had been in there before. Nice and thick and all flatland with nothing to guide myself by. After about an hour of maybe this way. Nope, let's try over here, nope. I took out my phone and called my brother to ask him to park on the road to honk the horn. I hung up the phone and said to myself "you dummy" typed in the name of a nearby store and hit directions. The first leg was from my location to the road so I followed it out and called my brother back to say I was fine. Worked pretty well I must say.