Mobile phones

[swee'pea99]

Must admit I relied totally on Google Maps when I recently went down from Bristol to Lands End, with mixed results. Overall it was great, and I did appreciate being able to 'turn left in 300 yards'. Also, it took me along some very nice routes - all little windy roads, farm tracks, and public footpaths - which was a lot more 'off piste' than I would have dared if I'd been relying on paper.

It did throw the occasional curved ball, more than once taking me down ridiculously narrow, tangled paths, strewn with loose stones. At one point I came across a team of local workmen slashing it back with chainsaws - all a bit ‘Dr Livingstone I presume’. At another point, I turned a curve of another such path to hear: ‘use the public footpath’, finding myself looking up at just that, over a railway. Two flights of stairs up, across, and two down. With a fully laden bike. Bonkers.

But like I say, overall it was excellent, and I saw a lot more nice country (and a lot less thundering traffic) than I would have managed left to my own devices.

 

[Doseone]

When you use a GPS/phone in the hills do you continuously and leave it on and tracking all day ? When I'm up in the hills I use my phone, and before a gps unit, for occasional position checks only so the battery life on either has never been an issue.
Or don't people memorise routes anymore ?

Actually I turn my phone off most of the day out walking and riding in nice places , I'm there for peace and quiet for one.

I'll just clarify and say that I'm referring to walking in the hills and not cycling. It depends. Most of the time my gps is turned off and I'll turn it on occasionally just to check my position against where I think I am on the map if I'm in any doubt. If I'm heading somewhere where I really don't know where I'm going I'll plot a route online and put the gpx file in my unit. In thick cloud it's really made the difference between carrying on or abandoning, even in places that I think I know well.

 

[Welsh wheels]

As you all know, I don't do smart phones. I think they're horrible things, as addictive as crack cocaine and almost as expensive. I hate the fact that walk outside on any given day and 1/3 to 1/4 of people will be walking around staring at a smart phone (and in London then complaining when it gets nicked out of their hand).

So I don't have one, and I'm quite happy thank you very much..

But a thought occurs.

Mobile phones are now music players, sat navs, GPS devices (although not terribly good yet), as well as phones. As a consequence sales of dedicated MP3 playrs, sat navs, etc, are plummeting.

So my questions are thus - will there come a day when these things will become impossible to buy as stand alone items, or else so hideously expensive that only the dedicated hobbyist or someone needing it for work would buy one? At that point I guess I would have to give in and buy one if I wanted those things - how far in the future do you think that would be?

I agree that society is way too dependent on the smartphone, and people can get very addicted to it. In an ideal world, I wouldn't have one. However, I find that I need one as work, friends and family would be a lot harder to manage without the communication and internet connection that a smartphone provides. I respect anyone without a smartphone though. Have 100 man points.

 

[Tim Hall]

Yes, paper maps won't be going anywhere in a hurry. OS Landranger sheets are a staple of SAR and AccyChat trig baggers.

Plus an online database that can be accessed from a popular consumer electronic device m'lud. Or an Awesome Superpower.
(Does your SAR team use SARLOC?)

(I helped a couple of lost cyclists last weekend. They thought they were somewhere other than where they were, according to their trusty Landranger, whereas they'd cycled off the edge of it. I whipped out my cheating map 1:25000 Explorer which had the missing data and sent them on their way (via a Big Hill))

 

[Drago]

We use Quo SARMAN, but may soon be switching to another mapping system. No one tells me owt.

 

[John the Monkey]

A surprising number of fellow dumbphone users. Thought I was the only one, or at least the only one of all the people i'm personally acquainted with.

Thread titles like this are catnip to you retrogrouches though.

 

[Tanis8472]

I was out walking in the Yorkshire Dales recently and I saw someone using a map. I know there is a mood for retro at the moment but you can take these things to excess.

Can't write on digital maps

 

[summerdays]

Can't write on digital maps

Err you can....

 

[Tanis8472]

Err you can....

With one of these?



I still prefer paper as they are easier to read than on a mobile.

 

[summerdays]

With one of these?

View attachment 375408

I still prefer paper as they are easier to read than on a mobile.

No but you can get pen like objects to write with.

 

[Oxo]

I was out walking in the Yorkshire Dales recently and I saw someone using a map. I know there is a mood for retro at the moment but you can take these things to excess.

Most of my friends who go walking in the countryside take a gps/smartphone of one kind or another.
All of my friends who go walking in the countryside take a paper map.

 

[Drago]

One does not write on maps, or fold them in such a way that an enemy would be able to determine which area one is interested in.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

One does not write on maps, or fold them in such a way that an enemy would be able to determine which area one is interested in.

Dunno bout you but every time I open a map I always have to say 'now Jerry's over here and Monty's here' - laugh...

 

[Tanis8472]

One is not at war (yet )

 

[Andrew_P]

Anyway regardless of how useful I find my amazing little device the world was better place before them. I would have got myself in to loads of trouble had they been around when I was 14!! It was much harder to go up to a girl and ask her out, peace of piddle on a phone via WhatsApp, Snapchat, Text. (and or be jolly rotten about someone to their "face" via text) In fact I think todays younger generation may have cut out even asking and cut straight to the dick pics! Anyway that's what my wild Victorian fathers imagination runs riot with. Who would have daughter in todays society!!