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Using a Smartphone as GPS on the Trail ?
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May 30, 2014 at 12:46 pm #2107251
Here are some related posts – or you can search with appropriate terms for your setup…
following referred to by Amy Lauterbach posts above:
http://adventurealan.com/iphone4gps.htm
http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15393086/BPL/iPhoneGPSapps.htm
I have AT&T iPhone 5 w/Gaia GPS – had iOS 6 and was happy. Went to iOS 7 recently and am very displeased with battery drain in spite of doing everything to limit it. Per Amy posts, Verizon version is much easier on battery.
May 30, 2014 at 12:54 pm #2107253Gaia works well on my Samsung Galaxy S4. The maps are really pretty good, the screen is easy to see, and the battery drain is not bad at all as long as you aren't using it all the time and you shut down the phone service.
May 30, 2014 at 1:11 pm #2107259Ben – what exactly do you mean by "shut down" the phone service? I assume you're talking about something other than removing the sim card. I have an S3 and do set it so that Mobile Data is disabled, but am wondering what more I could do short of removing the sim card. Setting it in Airplane Mode doesn't seem to allow the GPS to work, as far as I can tell.
May 30, 2014 at 6:01 pm #2107334Right…but is everyone using Gaia from just the $20 app purchase or to get any real good use out of it do you have to get the yearly subscription?
May 30, 2014 at 7:08 pm #2107351I purchased the app for my Android phone (for less than $20, BTW) but I know not of this "subscription" you speak of – perhaps it's an iPhone thang?
May 30, 2014 at 8:01 pm #2107361https://www.gaiagps.com/gaiapro/
And, did you simply get it on sale sometime for less than $20?
May 30, 2014 at 8:22 pm #2107367I think it just used to be cheaper. But perhaps it was on sale…I think I paid more like ten for it.
May 30, 2014 at 10:12 pm #2107394Airplane Mode on the S3 should still allow GPS to work. It does on mine.
May 31, 2014 at 8:28 am #2107462Same on my S4….I can turn on airplane mode, then turn on wifi (if wanted) and gps.
I downloaded the trial version of backcountry navigator, and bought gaia….initially, while backcountry does have access to accuterra, since I'm not planning on buying those maps b/c it would be overkill for me, Gaia certainly does have a nicer interface….
May 31, 2014 at 8:34 am #2107465"Airplane Mode on the S3 should still allow GPS to work. It does on mine."
Thanks for confirming that. I had thought that was what I'd done in the past, but when I tried it last night it didn't seem to work; perhaps I just didn't wait long enough for the GPS to connect inside my house.
May 31, 2014 at 12:57 pm #2107513Ok,….maybe someone else has experienced this problem…
So, I have a Galaxy s4…with KitKat 4.4.2.
One thing that I have now researched…is that now with KitKat 4.4.2 apps can't write directly to the SD card…at least not how they could before.
So, with both backcountry navigator and gaia gps, I can't download maps to the external SD card (which is 64 gigs…)..I can only download to my 1.6 gig of available space on my internal memory. It really limits my ability to download maps.
Anyone else have the same experience?
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