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OpenStreetMap for Android works OK. It can store maps and view online. However, phone screen is too small for map anyway. I use Linux Viking for serious map lookup on the laptop.

I know a contractor who uses a tablet to present plans and quotes. He does the design on the PC, then uses a tablet to show the results in the customer's home.

I have my wife's hand-me-down, which I never use. I find that a tablet that's big enough to use is too big to carry with me (she has a suitcase-sized purse ;). There isn't enough size difference between the smaller tablets and my smart phone to bother with the tablet. The cell phone has a pretty good display, too (1280p).

Not true. As long as you don't have to change the destination, they work fine outside of digital service areas. There also integrated mapping apps you can purchase that work just like a dedicated GPS unit, without any cell service. Smart phones have much better displays and I always have mine with me, too. I was slow to adopt smart phones but wouldn't be without it, now.

That doesn't say much about your friends. If they want GPS service outside their digital coverage area, get an app that will do it. The one the phone company gives away needs their system. Go figure!

Oh, good grief, Joerg! It's the same software!

Forgot to mention that stand-alone GPS units don't show you traffic problems, real time, either. It's a rather nice feature in Atlanta. :-(

Cart-horse, backwards

st

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you ain't seen nothing yet. Even the drama queen criminals and lunatics ar e making facebook posts in the very commission of their crimes and misdeeds . Then there is no shortage of sub-intelligent humanoids who document their visit to a fast food restaurant, comment on the long lines, crowds, traffi c, you name it...some kind of obsession with thinking out loud.

Here's a moron chasing a bear in the wild:

The Garmin "T" units have lifetime free (adware) real-time traffic updates, and atttempt to re-route you around the problem.

There are two seasons here- winter and construction, and winter is over. 8-(

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Let me repeat myself: "Then you have those wankers with gopros on their head as they destroy the trails with mountain bikes. Who the hell watches gopro mountain biking video on youtube is beyond me."

I was referring to those stupid gopro videos.

...and exactly how does that information get to the GPS unit without a data connection?

Stand-alones are a waste of money.

The traffic data gets transmitted as a subcarrier on a local commercial FM station. The GPS unit has an FM receiver that automatically tunes through the band, looking for this data. You don't have to sign up or pay for this on a continuing basis; you just buy the "T" model GPS and then it works.

At least a few years ago, the FM receiver was in a lump on the DC power cable for the GPS. A section of the power cable had the FM antenna wire siamesed to it. Current models may have the FM receiver built in to the main GPS unit; I haven't looked.

I don't know if there is any availability for traffic data outside of the US. I think everybody but Japan has FM broadcast in the same band, so at least the receiver would work, but I don't know about subcarriers in other countries.

Matt Roberds

Oh, I see the use for architects, sales people and the like. But not really for engineers. I know a lot of engineers who have tablets and none uses them for serious work-related tasks.

Probably you could also somehow connect it to a TV set which nearly every household has. Most flat screen TVs have one set of input jacks on the side for that purpose.

That's what I do a lot on my mountain bike. I find an interesting area that needs to be explored but is in a diiferent dirction. Or I hit a private property line that wasn't on the map. Shows a road that in reality is not a road the whole time, happens a lot.

I've looked at some on the web and the reviews were usually less than enthusing. What I mean is a performance that can truly replace a Garmin. While not running out of battery juice a few hours into the ride.

I'll have to talk to my mountain biking buddy, he just bought a Samsung Galaxy on a cheapo pay-as-you-go plan (like what I'd do). So far he's tried out a few things but said he is much better off with the Garmin mounted to the cockpit of his motorcycle when heading for desert trails.

Huh?

I know people who seemed perfectly contained. Then came [insert favorite social media site here] and they had to post pics of just about everything they thought the world absolutely had to see, how cool they are, what cool stuff they do, and so on. Others strived to amass the maximum number of "friends". The kind of people you'd expect to be blowhards are parties or in a saloon, but they weren't. Yet.

Sales engineers often use them, too. OTOH, there's nothing wrong with toys.

Then I'll just use my phone. It's even 1080p.

So buy a standalone package. Good grief, you have to buy the GPS unit.

Oh, bullshit. They're the same damned software from the same publisher.

So buy the Garmin app.

Not all FM stations broadcast the data and not all locations where Joerg is talking about has good enough FM reception for a lousy receiver dongle. Hell, I live very near a rather large (as in, 5M) city and have little reception with cheap receivers.

People became self-absorbed well before social media became the in thing. IMO, it started with trophies for participation and the "self esteem" programs in public schools. The big splash of social media is a symptom not the disease.

In my school we didn't have any of that. Heck, even when I got my masters degree the "procedure" consisted of a postcard (on post-consumer recycling paper), "Please pick up your degree in building xx room xxx". That was it. No ceremony, no tassel hats, not even congratulations, nada.

Yet many of those folks are now socila media addicts.

It fosters the effect. Not a good thing. Mankind doesn't need that.

Are you a self-absorbed Facebook junkie?

So? There are graduations ceremonies for kindergarten, now.

"Are on" == "Addicted to"? I'll be a lot of them drink alcohol, too.

Mankind doesn't need communication?

I have pointed out the difference between Facebook/Twitter/IPhones and Ali Baba. The latter creates jobs, puts a dollar in an engineer's pocket, and improves peoples' lives. The former is, well, a big pile of diarrhea.