X going to replace portable GPS?

[procrastination]

...Also comes with a cable that lets you connect the phone to an auxiliary port to play your music in the car...

I actually checked in a Best Buy to see what it would cost to hardwire this into my Aux and 12V ports. I am still deciding if the $100 is worth not having the wires hang down over my dash. My buddy said he run the wires in about an hour for me.

Should be fun.

 

[HiTekConstructionDude]

I need mobility to jump from one car to another. From what I researched the reason the droids and Iphones will not work on GPS navigation out of cell coverage is b/c the maps are not downloaded to the phone. There seems to be a few aftermarket apps you pay for which download the maps to your SD card. Co-Pilot seems to be top dog in that class for $30. I am probly going to purchase this app and carry my Tomtom as backup for a while until I feel comfortable that the Co-Pilot app will work out in BFE.


Does anyone know if Co-Pilot is the best/most like Garmin or Tomtom app for our phones?

 

[procrastination]

Buying the app will give you what you are after.



--------------------------------------
So tell me Future Boy, who's President of The United States in 1985?

 

[crow57]

From what I've read, as of Google Maps 5.0 for Android release in December, it now has offline mode where it will cache map data several layers deep for your most visited places. And at the same time they announced offline rerouting for Google Nav - I'm not sure if that has been rolled out yet. You'll still need a connection to begin navigating, but it will then download your entire route ahead of time, along with adjacent areas so if you lose signal you can still get turn-by-turn navigation (up to some certain distance away from your original route, I suppose). 5.0 also introduced 3d buildings. My X picked up Maps 5.1.0 today... something about some enhancements for Latitude...

The satellite view & street view navigation is way cool, but my Garmin 755 is really more useful for my purposes. It will automatically reroute to avoid traffic, which kind of sorta actually works out well sometimes, and it allows multi-point navigation which Google doesn't. This is really useful when I want to make sure I get the twisty route on the bike, not the one that's either shortest or fastest.

But then I found an app that pushed the Garmin back into the glove box and the X up on the windshield... DailyRoads Voyager, which basically turns your Droid into a dash-cam. This hit home with me, because just 3 weeks ago a lady turned left in front of me, broke my ankle and totaled my car. She did the right thing and accepted responsibility, but it occurred to me the hassle I could have been in if she had claimed to have the left turn arrow or something... A video showing my green light and her actions would have been very valuable... So anyway, of course that opens up more complications on the whole body glove vs windshield mount thing, when the phone now has to be oriented to look directly ahead through the windshield with nothing blocking the camera.

 

[crow57]

From what I researched the reason the droids and Iphones will not work on GPS navigation out of cell coverage is b/c the maps are not downloaded to the phone.

Looks like recent updates are or will be taking care of the offline use issue... Check this out: Google Maps Rolls Out Offline Reliability and Rerouting: TripTech on Truth.Travel from Conde Nast Traveler