Google app hammers tom tom and garmin

[jimboalee]

*runs off to Google*

Hmmm... over £100 and you need a Garmin GPS. Doesn't look like it maps for the flattest route, either, it just shows you the contours of the route you are taking and the reviewers on Amazon don't seem to be very flattering!

How does it Do the business?

I've got a Garmin Edge 605. I've got TOPO GB.

I use Mapsource to plot a route between two points.

I use my eyes to look at the contours and then use my brain to assess alternative routes.

Then I pick and drag the route to an alternative route and ask for 'profile'.

I use my eyes again and then my brain again to assess the advantage, if any.

Time, intelligence and above all, patience is what is required.

 

[Norm]

So, what's the advantage of that over a paper map?

You are using a small screen and, if I can understand your condescension correctly, you have spent £350 on hardware and software but have ended up plotting your own route anyway.

 

[jethro10]

This is all just a beginning.
Data has got soooo cheap on phones and will only continue to get cheaper in years to come.
Today may not be the day, but the writing is on the wall for a different sat nav market in a few years.

In most markets, the original innovator failed to move on and become the market leader, and it's likely that Garmin TomTom et al will cease to exist in their current form in years to come.

Jeff

 

[2Loose]

I pay 10quid with Virgin for 200mins200texts with a full days uinternet costing a paltry 30pence, so this would be fairly cheap.

I notice that the one thing that GarminTomTom do that a non-gps phone can't, is get you an accurate current location. I notice that sometimes my phone can tell me where I am to within 100 metres, other times within 2500 metres...which is hardly helpful.
But then if you already know where you are and just want a route found, then it is all good!

 

[jimboalee]

So, what's the advantage of that over a paper map?

You are using a small screen and, if I can understand your condescension correctly, you have spent £350 on hardware and software but have ended up plotting your own route anyway.

Ah, but think of the weigh and volume of the OS maps for the whole of England AND I haven't seen a paper map that signals you when to turn and a paper map that datalogs the route you have followed.

Which is a missing feature of RAC, Nuvi and TomTom et al. They don't record where you've been, show you the elevation above sea level and calculate the energy you've used during your pedalling.

There was a great debate about Garmin Edge GPS enabled Bike computers.
In the end IIRC, they are 'as above' but also a minature data recorder for those who wish to analyse or keep record of their cycling.

I don't know, because I haven't see the Google app, but can it do all this?

 

[Norm]

Which is a missing feature of RAC, Nuvi and TomTom et al. They don't record where you've been, show you the elevation above sea level and calculate the energy you've used during your pedalling.

I use GPSed for the tracking, very good it is too. I have that on the work phone which doesn't get used for anything else when riding.

GPSed also allows live feeds of your location, if you allow it, which is handy if your SO is the paranoid type.

The signalling isn't such a big issue, nor is the weight of the maps, as I seldom travel far enough to need more than a few sheets and I'm mostly looking for a more efficient way to take a route I already know.

Home to work, for instance, as it goes through the Chilterns, I could vary between climbs of 800 and 1200 feet with very little difference in the total distance travelled but I'm spending hours on www.bikehike.co.uk trying the alternatives, I'd love to get something which takes the climbs into account when routing.

 

[arallsopp]

Been using GPS 'sat nav' on my blackberry for a while (its a free bundle with vodafone) and much prefer the Garmin. Phone needs a good 3G data signal to keep the map updated (only really works in cities) and a clear view of the sky to keep your place on it (only really happens in open country).

As a result, I have a phone that either knows my exact co-ordinates (but no idea which streets that might be near), or knows all the streets within a few miles, but has no idea which of them I'm on.

 

[jimboalee]

GPSed.

Can you export the route point data to a MS Excell spreadsheet?

 

[Norm]

GPSed.

Can you export the route point data to a MS Excell spreadsheet?

Not sure, as I don't know enough about the Excel mapping. The export options are
Save as GPX(To upload to GPS receiver)
Save as KML(To view in 3D in Google Earth)

​

 

[fossyant]

The Google nav. is an extension to it's My Tracks and My Maps - My Track's does whats in the title - GPS tracker, speed elevation etc.

The new Nav is beta stage and looks like it's targeted for the Android 2.0 os - it's just moved to 1.6 in the last couple of weeks, so not here yet.

 

[jimboalee]

For the leisure and fun rider who simply wants to keep a record of where they've been, time and speed, the Moby GPS system with GPSed sounds like a lower cost alternative to a Garmin.

Those who are serious about their performance and wish to statistically manipulate the hundreds of data points in the history file, Garmin is a usable device.
With some post-processing of the Garmin history file, such things as 'Velocity vs Gradient' can be plotted.
Successive trips of 25 miles or so up and down hilly terrain SHOULD display an improvement in the 'Velocity vs Gradient' numbers.

This is for raceboys, and there is an old saying "The faster up hills you are, the more often you will win races".

 

[rh100]

I use an old Windows Mobile PDA on the handlebars, connected via bluetooth to a gps receiver in the pannier.

On the PDA - I use GPS cycle computer for data logging and tomtom for road maps if I get lost. They can both read the GPS data stream via a program (GPS Gate) that connects to the bluetooth serial port - and then relays the data to several internal virtual com ports, one for each app that needs the data. This means I can view tomtom whilst still logging the gps data. Not fully tested yet - but looks promising.

I used to use a windows mobile phone with built in GPS - but it was unreliable and battery life was poor.

GPSed.

Can you export the route point data to a MS Excell spreadsheet?

You could try http://www.gpsbabel.org/index.html , it converts different GPS data file types, and outputs to csv format, which excel should be able to read I think. It's free aswell.

 

[rh100]

I use GPSed for the tracking, very good it is too. I have that on the work phone which doesn't get used for anything else when riding.

GPSed also allows live feeds of your location, if you allow it, which is handy if your SO is the paranoid type.

The signalling isn't such a big issue, nor is the weight of the maps, as I seldom travel far enough to need more than a few sheets and I'm mostly looking for a more efficient way to take a route I already know.

Home to work, for instance, as it goes through the Chilterns, I could vary between climbs of 800 and 1200 feet with very little difference in the total distance travelled but I'm spending hours on www.bikehike.co.uk trying the alternatives, I'd love to get something which takes the climbs into account when routing.

If you find one - please let me know

 

[rh100]

As far as the google app is concerned, it's got a limited audience at the moment. Only for Android phones, so probably a carrot to dangle to get takeup on Android on the move. No use for Windows Mobile users as yet.

If they go into the GPS in a box market, a la Tomtom and Garmin and all the rest, then it's just another competitor, as you won't get the hardware for free.

IMO, the enourmous popularity of GPS in cars only happened when GPS came as it's own device, was too complicated for the average user to mess about loading it onto a phone or PDA.

 

[Norm]

If you find one - please let me know

Darned right I will. (Sitting here with my local OS Explorer open on the desk next to me at the moment, though, so not holding my breath. )

IMO, the enourmous popularity of GPS in cars only happened when GPS came as it's own device, was too complicated for the average user to mess about loading it onto a phone or PDA.

Hmmm... I kinda see and agree but didn't it come the other way round? In other words, weren't stand-alone GPS devices out before it appeared on a phone?

I've gone the other way, though. I bought the TomTom and got so frustrated with it's inability to connect to anything else (just connecting it to a computer would meant that the SD card wiped itself, three times, TomTom support is shite) that I have now moved to GPS on the phone. I now know that the GPS unit and phone will connect, as will any bluetooth headset or bluetooth car kit.

The TomTom unit I have won't connect to anything other than a limited list of 5-year old phones and TomTom's own headset, because they have strangled the bluetooth they use.

I would never recommend, let alone buy, another TomTom product, even if it did come with an ability to map the flattest route.