[pct-l] smartphone as GPS

[David Ellzey]

Sorry to come into this discussion so late, I haven't been reading the list everyday like I used to.

My company does interactive development and using smartphones as handheld tour guides is all the rage for visitors centers these days. As such we've had to deal with the shortcomings of these devices.

A few people have indicated that smartphones use cellular tower triangulation and not satellites. This is not entirely accurate, every smartphone I know of uses what's called Assisted GPS, or AGPS for short. Whereas a normal GPS chip takes the signals from satellites and calculates position, an AGPS chip only records the signals and sends that data to an online server for calculation. This means that you MUST have a good wireless connection for the AGPS to work. This is the disadvantage, especially when in the backcountry.

An advantage of AGPS is that it speeds up the satellite acquisition considerably by getting a accurate time and general starting location through tower triangulation. Of course, this is dependent on having a good signal as well.

If you are determined to use a smartphone and want it to work ANYWHERE in North America take a look at the Terrastar Genus.

BigToe


-----Original Message-----
From: pct-l-bounces at backcountry.net [mailto:pct-l-bounces at backcountry.net] On Behalf Of James F. Miller
Sent: Sunday, October 24, 2010 11:49 AM
To: pct-l at backcountry.net
Subject: [pct-l] smartphone as GPS


I'm looking to get a Droid or Blackberry phone for use on the trail next year. Some of these have GPS's. 
 
I'm wondering if PCT waypoints could be loaded into one of these for use in navigating the trail..like in the high country with snow covered trail.
 
One of these phones could work as all that is needed for photos and journaling and hopefully navigation in tricky parts
 
Thanks 		 	   		  
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