I find that most people have no idea that the GPS used by phones for positioning has nothing to do with normal mobile signal, and will still work in the most remote areas of the world.
Mapping apps have a rough map of the world always locally available, and you can download specific areas to use offline. There is no functional difference between this and a dedicated GPS device, as implied by the article (and the verdict?)
Am I wrong?
For /any/ truly off-grid GPS usage, it's well worth the money to just go and buy a proper GPS unit with no dependency on outside connections other than the GPS signals.
I'm not even talking about hiking on some obscure trail in WhereTheHellistan either. Even just driving down the highway out into the countrysides could leave you miserable if all you have is a phone with spotty or no data signal.
Personally, the Rand McNally GPS unit that cost me a pretty penny has more than paid for itself every time it always just worked while phones just derped worthlessly.
This is the way. I have a Garmin watch that has GPS, maps, and a compass built-in. It's also got a several day battery life when all the features are on, and well-over 30 days in a battery saver mode. While the maps aren't the best, a compass + GPS + paper map would let you know where you were.
Thats because the forest blocks many of the GPS satellites, and the remaining small number of signals take an awfully long time to collect information about the satellite orbits (which is normally downloaded from the internet with AGPS).
If you didn't know this, you would probably not wait 10 minutes for it to work - you'd just assume it wasn't working.
That fact is made worse by the fact that on android, if you switch away from the map app and then then go back again, this 10 minute process entirely restarts because the GPS gets switched off and forgets any fragments of information it had already collected!
- data transmitted at 50 bits/s
- data frames are 1500 bits long, divided into 5 subframes
- Subframes 1-3 are satellite-specific and subframe 3 contains the high-precision orbit information for the sat you're receiving from. Subframes 4 and 5 contain the almanac that gives you a list of coarse orbit info for the entire constellation.
- The almanac consists of 25 pages of data. Each sequential frame has one page of the almanac.
30 second frames * 25 pages = 12.5 minutes to download the entire almanac once you have a lock on a given satellite. All of the satellites broadcast the almanac at the same time, but they're time synchronized so all of them are broadcasting page 1 at the same time.
It's maintained by the same people who created MapsWithMe in 2011, has zero telemetry, zero ads, and is thus one of my favourite maps on Android (though it supports iOS too).
There used to be MotionX GPS but they shut it down
I'd feel confident crossing Africa using Guru, it's rock solid.
Here in Ireland, I find mountain-views.ie a great site to get an idea of what other hikers actually experienced on a trail before I go. I do this and have never got into trouble. On the subject of Garmin GPSMap60 CSX and I found it great. But after one trip, I forgot to take out the AA batteries and bricked it. THAT was stupid. You live and learn (a bit; sometimes).
A smartphone can partially emulate what a “proper” hiking GPS does, but its general nature makes it less suitable when you’re really out in the wild.
Paper maps make for a great backup, if you know how to navigate in terrain, but many people lack that skill.
Apple Maps does not. One of my regular drives has an area of no cell service (around 5 miles away from the state capital, so of course that makes sense), and Apple Maps will routinely just display a dot on an empty screen.
A Garmin GPSMap60 CSX for example is an excellent device, basically bulletproof. Just make sure you learn to use it in advance, have the proper maps (OSM) and don't get caught with coordinates in the wrong formats.
OSM is so detailed it's accurately displays mud tracks in remote areas of Vietnam. I thought "this can't possibly be right" but it certainly was.
Dedicated device is best, smartphone is a good backup.
GPS would have been fine. He wasn't even minimally prepared to use it.