Re: GPS iphone app?
Posted: Fri Sep 03, 2010 3:34 am
Yeah, I've been wondering about that; could also be a weakness in the James Associates app, since they also use regular 7.5-minute quads. Anybody tried some of the apps that have their own maps, like the Tom Harrison app for instance (not sure whether that one's available for Android)? Can they do better, or is it a problem inherent in the device size? I know Consumer Reports says that for hiking-size GPSs, map displays aren't worth the extra money because of exactly this problem. Never played with one myself...dave54 wrote:Last night I loaded about 8 gigs of USGS topo maps in my droid. But they are not really all that useful. You have to zoom in pretty far to get the map large enough to read, and then only a small area is visible on the screen.
It seems to me that for a true geek, that's where a device like an iPad could really come into its own, if the battery life is long enough. Imagine taking the weight of your paperback book, all your maps, the cell phone, and the GPS and trading the whole smash for an iPad... it just might be a good tradeoff. But of course you'd want the paper maps anyway; as the Coast Guard says, never rely on any single navigation system, especially if it's electronic. Now, let's see, if we could make the iPad out of Kevlar and wrap it around the food...
