A belated addition to the Kalamazoo-related Tech Review

[hrj]

On my Kalamazoo trip I also had the chance to experiment with using my iPhone as a GPS device ... courtesy of having forgotten to pack one connecting component of the regular GPS, which omission rendered it useless. (I had the GPS, I had the car-power cord, I forgot to include the bit that connects the power cord to the GPS.) Since I was just using the map app I couldn't get voice directions and there was a certain amount of having to reach over to pinch-expand/contract the display to change the detail. But given that I'm fairly familiar with the route between O'Hare and Kalamazoo and with the overall geography of Kalamazoo, the app was sufficient unto my purposes. Due to the ad hoc nature of the experiment, I didn't have a power cable that could connect the phone to the car outlet, but I had sufficient juice in external power packs to tide me over (and I'd thought to bring one of those "jelly" mats that you can put on your dash to provide a "sticky" surface for phones and whatnot.

I've been looking at the Navigon phone/pad app to provide the additional functions of a GPS, although I'm a bit put off that evidently a number of the functions I'd consider standard are provided instead as in-app add-on purchases (and the most common complaint in the iTunes store has to do with difficulty downloading the map files). I've been holding off on paying for a map update for my Garmin in order to look into switching to a mobile app instead, and this one looks like the best candidate so far. If anyone has experience with it, I'd be interested to hear.

Based on my Kalamazoo experience, I wouldn't care to use the iPhone version for most driving situations, due to the small screen size. (This is exacerbated by the fact that the glasses I use for driving don't focus well at dashboard distance.) So in addition to the app, I'd need to find an iPad holder that would place it in a safe and convention position for GPS functioning. The natural location would put it smack dab in front of the radio controls/display which is suboptimal. Ideally, something on an extensible arm so that it could be variably positioned would be nice, but I haven't seen anything suitable yet. (Alternately, I could try something with the case I got with the GorillaPod arms, but that would end up being rather jury-rigged.)

Comments

[kahnegabs.livejournal.com]

thanks for the review. I hope I can get a rental car with the GPS built in when I to back to MA this fall.

[jpgsawyer.livejournal.com]

I found last time I looked that purchasing a new Garmin navigation unit was cheaper than paying for a new map update.

Mad as a bag of frogs I know but there you are.

I have had some success with the navigation on my Android phone but there are annoying moments when it freezes downloading maps at exactly the wrong moment so my Garmin is a mandatory travel item.

[johno.livejournal.com]

Depends on where you plan on going, can have an impact on using an iphone/pad as a gps.

We were driving through the mountains to Reno last year and passed through a fairly long stretch with out cell coverage. No cell coverage, no maps. Just a dot on grey screen that moved around.

Useful for the gps tracking app I had running, but useless for us figuring out how to get to the next leg of our trip.