On Wed, 3 Feb 2016 08:36:13 +1100, "Rod Speed"
wrote:

T i m wrote
Harry Bloomfield wrote
T i m wrote

Now, if you don't actually crawl out from under your stone very often
or aren't someone who likes doing stuff in the moment, 'planning' a
route 3 weeks in advance could be considered the fun bit of any trip
(till the first road closure of course). ;-)

Well said sir!

Cheers. There aren't many bits of kit that I would say this about
but if I lost my GPS I'd go out and buy a new one ASAP.

I wouldn't and in fact stopped using mine.

Ok.

I much prefer the phone, because I have that with me all the time,

I generally have my GPS with me when in the car but agree I well
always have my phone with me (assuming I haven't left it at home).

and it does things much better, particularly with live measured
traffic and stuff like street view that can be handy at times and
being so easy to do proper google searches when the GPS itself
doesn't show you what you want POI wise etc and being able to
just tap on an address in the google hit or an email or facebook
'inbox' and have that auto handed to the mapper which then
directs you to that place etc.

And breathe! ;-)

Yes, but, all the above assumes you have 'Data' on your phone and a
reasonable connection?

And is always completely up to date.

See above (or not even functional).

snip

And when out walking for exercise its handy to just go wherever
looks interesting at the time particularly where you haven't been
before and then just ask it for the best route back to the car etc.

Yup, routing back to a know point ('breadcrumb trail') is also a handy
function. A straight line from your current point to the destination
might be via a ravine. ;-)

Same with wandering around a city as a tourist, just wander
around what looks interesting and then ask it to show you
the best public transport to get back to where you want to
end up at the end of the day etc.

Yup, or just take you back to the car.

Leaves farting around with
timetables etc for dead.

Again, 'only' if you have 'Data' on your phone.

snip

Yes I can use a map and do so, but not for route navigation anymore. It
gets opened once I arrive at my destination, to see what is around the
area.

Absolutely. I wouldn't do any real 'off road' stuff by relying
on the GPS alone and find it reasonably interesting getting
an overview from a nice map.

I don't bother with maps at all anymore even tho I still have them.

Much prefer to use google earth etc now.

See above. Often our destination is a campsite in the back of beyond
with no voice coverage, let alone data. There will always be satellite
coverage (even if you have to find a small clearing in the woods
(though less of an issue as the technology has improved)).

snip

However, the biggest plus for the GPS by far is the amount of
rows it saved between me and her when it came to navigating.

Yeah, that's what a mate of mine says too,
by far the best way to avoid arguments.

;-)

snip

With GPS's as cheap, capable and user friendly as they are now
I really don't know why anyone (who ever drives further than Tescos
and back) doesn't have one ... unless they are Luddites that is. ;-)

I do know one who not only doesn't have a gps, doesn't even have
a mobile phone either and does do quite a bit of long distance stuff.
He doesn't use maps either, does it all in his head and by word of mouth.

Yeah, no one is saying you can't get about that way but (ironically)
no way is it as easy to be so self sufficient without. I think they
removed many of the road signs over here during the war to confuse any
invaders. Wouldn't be much point now of course. ;-)

When his car key broke he had to use mine to ring his
wife to get her to come into town with the spare car key.
And I had to dial the number too, he couldn't even do that.

And that's the thing. 'Of course' you can get away with all sorts of
stuff but just sometimes ...

Cheers, T i m